May your Goals Become Reality

> There's a quotation that says (basically): "Written goals have a way of transforming thinking. Turning can't into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into reality." I like the message. It emphasizes the fact that you have the ability to change your own reality, but it requires effort on your part.

> At this time of year, people start to think about the coming year, and about "resolutions" they will make on New Years Day. I've never been a big believer of making resolutions...but goals are a different thing. I found an article that does a good job of summing up how I feel.

> As you may know, each year, I design and create a promotional gift that I send out as a thank you to clients, vendors, friends and supporters of my business. This year, I designed 2 notepads because people make goals and/or resolutions around this time of year, so I'm giving them a place to jot down their ideas and notes, and another place to write down their goals and the steps they need to take to achieve them.

> I chose to not include my name or logo on them—but of course one is "maralee-green", and with typography as the main design element, they visually "say" they're a holiday wish from me.

Low-Price Leader?

> I recently put a design proposal together for a potential new client. I've got enough history that I know what a realistic time frame, and realistic costs are for certain projects. The would-be client came back saying he really wanted to work with me, but he had a proposal from another designer for a fraction of my price, under the same constrained timeline, and he wondered why mine was so much higher.

> I told him I could only account for my own price based on the information he had provided me. If someone was coming in THAT much lower, I suspect it was someone without the experience to know how much time would be required, or someone who was not very good and felt a like a low price would get him the project, or possibly a skilled person who was qualified, but very desperate for work. I suppose it could have a been the latter, but the odds are against it. 

> I've seen the other design projects this company has had done—it's good stuff! And I know with his last project, they went way past the deadline in order to make him happy. My experience tells me that by choosing to hire this other designer, he will run into a problem: he won't meet his deadline, or he will find out that the bid didn't include things that he thought were part of the job, or he won't be happy with the end result—maybe a combination of problems.

> I know I'm not the cheapest designer, nor do I want to be (check out this article that backs me up). I'm not high-priced either. I work hard to produce good work, and I don't say yes to something I'm not confident that I can deliver on. That's worth something. Maybe not to every business, but to the ones I work with, it is.