I’ve been reading and thinking about this topic a lot lately. The economy that was devastated in 2008 is recovering, but a lot of people have been shifted to doing service work for others. But when I say “service work” I mean a much broader scope than serving food, cutting hair or other occupations of that ilk. A service job is also what I do as a freelancer for commercial agencies and video game companies.

Creating commercial artwork is a service, and it’s best to think of it that way if you want to succeed. You need to approach problems in a way where you are thinking about your client or customer’s needs first, instead of the needs of your pocket book (although no one will deny how important that is as well).

I have the motto that “clients come first” and I approach all my interactions in the same way I would when I worked in food service. You must see your business as providing solutions when clients come to you with a need. This shift in mind set has made it much easier for me to treat clients well, and to retain the ones who matter for repeat work.

The other key points of providing a good service that I’ve found are listed below:

• Always meet deadlines, not doing this is one of the worst things you can do as a freelancer
• Be good an communicating quickly
• Always ask clarifying questions about a project at the beginning if you don’t understand all the specifics
• Be courteous and kind to people if there is a problem, but also firm if the problem is a big one

That’s all for now, see you next week,

Cheers!