Joe No Brand Interview

I have typed up sections of the interview that I thought were relevant to my practice.

How important is networking within the creative industries?

Networking's really important. I get nearly all my work from word of mouth. I get a bit through the website but even that comes from knowing people. being self employed keeps you on your toes, you are only as good as your last job. Your reputation is everything, we have lots of regulars and recommendations.

Your in the middle of it all here, aren't you? (arts quarter)

Yes, I have kind of got myself in a nice little situation, I know a lot of artists, shop owners and people that I get on well with. We do a good job and the work keeps coming in. We don't really advertise.

What are the common issues when dealing with clients?

usually the customers always wrong haha. Most of the customers are alright, I don't tend to work with many corporations, I mostly work with artists or bands. Working with corporations always takes longer, you have to deal with a number of people instead of just one. They always want thing s done straight away. people leaving things to the last minute is the most common issue. We often end up working late to meet deadlines because the we do a lot of work for bands and events, and the printing seems to be the last things they think of.

How do you price your work?

When we started out we looked at what our competitors were doing, figured out the average and tried to price ourselves just below that. A long time ago we worked out our prices by adding up materials, hourly rate and costs and I have stuck to that since, I think I have increased my prices by 5% over the years. Its difficult to add up all the costs so once we figured out a price we stuck with it. We are sometimes asked to price match other companies, sometimes I will, it depends on the job. I think people tend to try and haggle more with small businesses, I have noticed this at the last 3 businesses I have worked for.

What advice would you give to people starting out?

Concentrate on the work you're producing and do it well, network, but not Instagram. Work really hard and put the time in, if you're good at what you do people will come to you. When we started dots we were doing 15 or 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you want to go home at 6 and watch telly your not really putting the work in.

How do you communicate with clients?

It's all online. I lose some work through Facebook by not checking messages. I have got rid of the company phone, because 9 times out of ten its cold calls. Emails are the best for communicating with clients because its all written down in one place and can be referenced. With phone calls it can be hard to note down all the information, especially if you are working on multiple jobs at the same time. if I am working late and can't phone the client with emails I can look back and find the information I need, its just more organised that way.