Designer Gets Help on Art of the Pitch

Peter Scherrer immigrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1991 with a background in graphic design and got his master’s degree at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, focusing on the psychology of packaging. In 1995, he started his own design studio, signing a few corporate and entertainment clients. But by 1998, Scherrer had to admit that although he was working hard, his company was still struggling to meet monthly expenses. Instead of folding up his portfolio and going to work for someone else, Scherrer hired a professional consultant, and he says his revenue has more than doubled as a result. He was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.

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I was working 20 hours a day, doing a lot of good work, but I felt like I had nothing to show for it. Everything I made always went back into the business, and every month I worried about bills. I wanted to move my business to the next level, but I didn’t think I could do it myself. I’m an expert in design, and I knew that there were people much better than I am at managing a business.

The cost of hiring a consultant worried me, but I felt that if I didn’t get some help, maybe I should give up and get into a different situation. Whatever the cost, I thought I would give it a try for six months and see if I got any results.

Through another graphics studio, I found Tony Asher, a former partner of designer Saul Bass. He met with me and felt like he could do a lot to help me. He charged me hourly and sent me an invoice every once in a while. He worked especially on helping me get more big clients by assisting me with my proposals and going to client presentations with me.

He looked over several of the bid proposals I had written and told me they were too short and didn’t explain enough about what I wanted to do on the job. He told me to educate the clients in my proposals, making them longer and more detailed, including step-by-step explanations of the process.

Tony also asked how I was coming up with my prices. I was estimating roughly how many hours a job would take me and then billing $50 or $60 an hour. He had me start keeping track of exactly how much time I was really spending on these jobs, breaking it down and keeping track of the time I spent in meetings and on phone calls and doing research. I also kept track of my assistant’s time on each job. What I realized was that I was undercharging by a lot. Not only that, but I was losing potential clients because they thought my rates were too low!

Companies saw how low my prices were and they were concerned that I couldn’t turn out a big job because everyone else was bidding much higher. I estimated too low, and it made people suspicious. But I always thought I had to come in with the lowest bid or I wouldn’t get any work. Now, my prices are still very fair, but they correspond much more closely with the actual time and effort I spend on a project. And since I get compensated more fairly, I am more comfortable bringing in expert research, or hiring an excellent writer to do the copy or paying photographers a better rate so they will really do their best work. If I got $5,000 for a brand identity before, I was happy. Now I’m doing these jobs for $30,000, and that’s still on the low end of the scale.

Next, Tony looked at how I went about making the presentation of the final product to my clients. I had the basic philosophy that my work spoke for itself. I would work on the job really hard, then put it on boards and not decide what I was going to say in the presentation until two minutes before the meeting. When I went in, I showed the work, but I really didn’t talk much.

Tony started scheduling meetings so we could prepare for these presentations ahead of time. He taught me that the presentation is not just about showing your work, or defending it, but about explaining the reasoning behind all the elements of what you did on the project. Once you take the time to teach the client about all the different elements as parts of the whole, they are more satisfied with the outcome and they don’t start asking for lots of changes. What I didn’t realize was that the clients were paying me and hiring me to be their graphic expert, and I needed to present my work from the expert point of view and not just say, “Here, what do you think?” I have learned to step back throughout the creative process and make mental notes about what I’m going to say about each design element during the presentation.

Another thing I learned was to establish design criteria first, before I even start working on a project. That way, as I go through the process, I can go back to my design criteria and check to see whether I’m following them. The criteria are based on my clients, how they see their companies and how they want to present themselves.

I probably spent $10,000 on consulting fees last year. Before I started, if I had heard that figure, I would have probably been shocked and said, “No. I can’t afford it.” But because of the consultant’s help, I got bigger projects and my revenue went from $126,000 in 1998 to $275,000 last year. I have hired a couple of employees and I have five workstations set up, so if I go out of the office for the day, it doesn’t shut down without me.

What the consultant told me was not all that new. I had heard most of his advice before or read books about it, but it was so helpful when it was put into the practical environment by someone who looked at my situation from the outside. I was in there working 20 hours a day, and I couldn’t really look at my business objectively without some help.

If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016, or at kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.

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At a Glance

* Company: Mousetrap

* Owner: Peter Scherrer

* Nature of business: Graphic design

* Location: 37 Horizon Ave., Venice 90291

* Founded: 1996

* E-mail: info@mousetrapdesign.com

* Web site: https://www.

*ousetrapdesign.com

* Employees: 2

* Annual revenue: $275,000