How To Work With Friends as Clients, and Not Kill Each Other In The Process

As a creative, it is inevitable that at some point in our career one of our close friends will either approach us for help with their project, or we will see how our skill sets could benefit their situation.

These can be tense situations to handle as there is more than just money on the table, a friendship is at stake as well.If these situations aren’t handled properly, you could lose a client and a close friend.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

1. Never work for free

One of the biggest mistakes that can ruin friendships and your business is volunteering your work for free. While we have the best intentions and want to help our friends, we are doing them an injustice if we don’t charge for our services.

If you’re a graphic designer looking for real-life advice and long-term success, The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Clients by acclaimed designer Ellen Shapiro is the book for you. Not only does she reveal the secrets behind getting the clients you want to recognize your name and brand, but she also discusses how to land those clients and create a positive and productive working relationship with them.

When you volunteer your work for free, you are putting that project at the bottom of your priority list.

Paying your bills will always come before doing free work for a friend.

Despite your good intentions, when times get tough you will end up pushing their project aside to get money in the door.

When you don’t charge your friends, you are disrespecting them and their business. This grave mistake has personally cost me several friendships over the course of pursuit to being a freelancer.

Every time I volunteered my work with true genuine intentions of helping the other person, but as paid clients picked up I had to prioritize my time on what was going to pay the bills.

Ultimately, my friends felt disrespected. They became very upset that I pushed their project aside and our friendship has never been the same ever since.

Never work for friends for free, its not worth it.

2. Only work with a friend if you truly believe you can provide value

Approaching friends as potential clients can be an awkward thing. Sometimes you may see a friend who could desperately benefit from your services.

But how do you approach them? Instead of thinking of approaching your friends as ‘trying to make a sale,’ try to think about it this way.

If you can really provide value to your friend, then you would be doing an injustice to them by not offering to help them. Never look at friends as just a source of income, only work with them if you truly believe you can benefit their situation.

3.Keep things professional

BAHHHH!!!! This part is hard, especially when dealing with friends that you even consider family. I know. I get it. Trust me.  When working with friends, it is essential that you keep things professional. You must treat your friends with the same professional care that you use on all of your other clients.Go through the same process and handle them just like you would with any other client.

Getting loose or unprofessional about the process with your friends is a quick way to bring uncertainty and doubt which can hurt the project and the friendship.

4. How to talk money with friends

Talking about the money, honey. Talking about the details with friends can be weird at first. As a result, many freelancers totally avoid this topic and end up with a loose scope or awkwardly dance around the money subject.

Instead of avoiding the topic, you need to face this head on and make sure everything is clear up front.

An easy way to do this is through e-mail. Having the money talk with a friend over the phone can be quite awkward, but doing it via e-mail tends to make it a bit less scary.

Whenever I send over my budget and proposal via e-mail I always give my friend the option out. I will say something along the lines of “If this project is out of your budget range, then no worries. I value our friendship more than this project and I won’t be offended if you say no.”

While that may not be the best sales tactic, it is essential in preserving the friendship.

5. Separate friendly talk from client talk

Another struggle for many friends is that working together can often mean that many once great friendships begin to diverge into a constant talk of the project at hand.

Set boundaries.

If you are out one evening having a good time, make it a rule to keep your work stuff out of the conversation. Or you can schedule regular work calls and keep those focused exclusively on the project at hand so that the rest of your life can go as normal.

Setting boundaries helps keep your friendships intact as the project moves forward.

6. Trade Agreements/ Bartering

Often friends can’t always afford to work with each other, but a trade of services may be something to consider.

Personal training in exchange for marketing.

Food in exchange for web design.

Accounting in exchange for business coaching.

Trade arrangements aren’t a bad thing, but the key is to make sure that you still structure those deals just like you do with any paid project.

Set clear expectations as to what each party will receive and put it in writing.

With trade agreements it is easy for one person or the other to feel cheated or undercompensated for their time. Get clear about what is being traded so that both parties feel equally compensated.

The bottom line

Working with friends as clients can be an enjoyable and profitable process. But you must handle these relationships with care because it is more than a project on the line, your friendship is at stake as well.

Ambrashae Realty - Houston, Texas. 

30-Day Social Media Detox

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been feeling some type of way about life. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy in a sense, but I've forcibly made a few life changing decisions that not only scare me, but I know deep down in my heart, were personal decisions that I absolutely had to make. 

And so I made this post on all of my social media accounts: 

“Some time ago, I lost my style. After years of following photographers/designers whom I truly admired [ on Instagram], my own personal style got lost in the shuffle. 

While trying to regain who I was (or who people thought I was through photography), I started to dabble into design — although it’s ALOT to learn, I am genuinely enjoying it and am grateful for this [frustrating] process. 

I came to the surprising realization that I am no longer sure of what that consistent thread of “Bobby” was that was woven into every project I did. I got lost in the “I can do everything” and forgot the “this is why I’m creating”.

So, I think a 30-day detox from social media would really help me regain the focus that I desperately need and will help me come to terms with all of the changes that are currently going on in my life. 

Although I will not post on here. I will start posting new projects on to my website (hopefully). 

My hopes are that after this detox, or somewhere in the process, that I’ll learn to live vicariously through my own life and not trying to recreate the successful endeavors of Pinterest-perfect worlds.

Here’s to designing a life I love.

Peace. ”

So What Now? Well for 30 days, starting today ,I’ll be kicking off my social media break. That means: no Instagram, no Pinterest, no Facebook and no Twitter.  However, I will be utilizing my blog and the rest of my website. 

I’m doing this because I’m realizing that I need to build in a stretch of time to just pause and regroup.

I’m a 27 year old [now jobless - hah! Don’t start crying again, Jasmine] woman pursuing running a creative business on my own. On a given day, I’m hovering over my computer with food in my lap watching Skillshare videos, designing, looking at photography inspiration, writing, listening, pitching ideas to myself and running around these Houston streets trying to appease my dog, Jackson who’s never happy with being in the house. 

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a moment to just… think. To get inspired. To remain open to the space where the good ideas arise. In an effort to be more of a minimalist with my commitments and intentional when it comes to my time, I’m realizing that this tech detox may do wonders for resetting some not-so-wonderful habits that have somehow crept into my day.

I use all of the usual social-media suspects daily. So yes—deep breaths—I’ll be deleting them all from my phone during my social media break to avoid the notifications. I’m not allowing myself to be on social (posting, consuming, responding, commenting, liking, etc.) at all. 

Here’s how I’m planning to spend my time during my social media break:

• Writing and big-picture business visioning. Daily morning pages are a way to get at the unconscious stuff that blocks us from moving forward. I do believe in this practice whole-heartedly. It works like magic. The thing is… you have to do it. I’d love to get into a morning ritual of freestyle writing. Believe it or not, writing is NOT my strongest point. I’ve actually taken a break from this blog to read more. I’ve even taken a writing class or two on Skillshare to improve my writing. The hardest thing for me has always been to put my words, thoughts and ideas down on pen and paper. But I’m trying! and I’m thankful to anyone who even takes the time to read this shit. 
• Developing more visual creative content. Videos, Photography, Graphic Design - I will be working to bring all of these things into fruition. 
• Opening up a shop on the site. God willing. 
• Email. I couldn’t figure out how to let this one go for an entire month. If you guys know a way to ditch email for an extended period of time without wrecking your biz, would you let me know?
• Reading. Oh, to finally finish a book before I get that warning email from the public library.
• Craft projects. Oh, to finally finish those lingering craft projects.
• Watching TV. Preferably paired with a crafting project.
• Embracing the present. This is, well… everything. Whatever it is I’m doing during —watching movies, taking the metro rail around the city and doing photography early in the morning, editing photos, enjoying a cup of coffee, learn to cook a new meal or two—I want to be doing it entirely. Without Facebook.
• And lastly,  being OK with not getting to do everything on this list.

My plans for this social media break are certainly inspired by others’ successes with the cleanses. But until recently, I honestly never thought that I could do one. As a small business owner, I rely on social media to help generate sales.

Who will be promoting on my behalf? What if people forget about my products and services?

No one, and yes, it’s a possibility.

It’s just a risk that I’ll have to take. I’m willing to face that I may lose readers or potential customers (Hell, if I actually HAVE any). But I’m OK with that. I have a strong feeling that the benefits—the freeing up of time, the re-commitment to presence—will be an invaluable reward. 

So, what do you think? Would you try this? Have you already done a Creative Clarity Cleanse? Any tips you’d like to share or insight from what you’ve gained? I’d love to hear!