Yesterday I received a second message from a potential client wanting to speak on the phone. That was not a problem. What was a problem is that he wanted to speak at 3am. Well, to be fair that’s the middle of the afternoon his time. The problem is, though, that while I was debating whether to try to adjust the time or bite the bullet and wake up for a 3am conference, I fell asleep. And so I didn’t get back to the prospect for 12 hours. I haven’t heard from him since. Oops.
Another mistake I’ve made is with my first job. I’d read that you can often change an hourly job to a fixed price, which I would have preferred. But I didn’t ask. Not, I asked and was rejected, I just didn’t ask. I’m trying to complete the job as quickly as possible, and it now looks like I’ll actually finish in less time than bid, and will end up getting fifty dollars less for the job than originally expected. On the good side, that should surprise and please the client, and I’m hoping it will translate into a good review. So far all of our correspondence has been very positive. In challah.
I’m excited to soon be completing my first job, though still apprehensive until everything is complete and the money has been transferred and my review is in. I’m staying on my toes; this is all too new to relax now.
In other amazing news, I’ve been selected for a second job! This one will be quite a bit more complex, and involves more artistic design work for an antique-looking mirror with a modern functional twist. The client had me sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) this morning, and awarded me the job tonight when I returned back home. I feel both elated and very grateful; I’m doing the job I’ve dreamed about for years, and things are actually moving forward.
PS – I saved quite a lot of time today by using a photograph of my signature to sign the NDA. I wrote my signature on a sheet of white paper, photographed it, then saved it to my computer. The background wasn’t white enough, so I opened it in PowerPoint and edited it to be “black and white, 50%”. Only the signature stood out then. After I served it as a jpg in Paint and inserted the image into the PDF using a free online PDF editor. Voila.