Shhhh, It’s Our Little Secret

I know I’m supposed to do it, but I just can’t. Everyone tells me to do it, and my entire industry encourages and promotes it, but it just feels wrong. Even my clients expect me to do it. But I just can’t. It makes me feel dirty and cheap.

I’m of course talking about reselling.

I get freakishly low-priced, high quality printing services because of my business. I have a wholesaler account with an exceptional print house. The prices are so competitive that I could easily tack on another 50% and it would still be lower than what my clients could get on their own. It would be so easy. Put the job on my credit card and drop ship the product to their business. Send them an invoice and pocket the difference. No one would know. Except for me.

I have a hosting provider that allows me to host an unlimited number of domains for $6.95 per month. That means it cost nothing to throw another account on there. I host several of my clients sites. I could easily have told them it would be $10 per month and they would be happy. That’s cheaper than what they were paying before, plus it makes both of our lives easier to consolidate into an hosting environment that I’m intimately familiar with. No one would know or even care. Except for me.

I’m really good at what I do but there are some things I’m never going to master. I have no interest and it would distract me from my core competency to try to develop these skills. So I collected a very tight-knit group of friends who are brilliant flash designers and animators and a secret team of database programmers. They are my ace in the hole for these skills. When I spec out the job I add their costs to the job as is. I could easily tack on a 25% surcharge to my partner’s fees and my client would never know the difference. Nor would they care. In fact they probably expect me to do it. Even my creative collaborators expect me to do it. But I just can’t. I tell them straight up not to low ball the job because they expect me to jack up the price and pocket the difference. I don’t play that game. These are talented professions that I can trust 100%. They will never leave me hanging and they always give more than promised. They are not going to work on the cheap. Not on my watch.

Now for me, this is just proper business. You treat your talent well and you don’t nickel and dime your clients just because you can. But it’s also the direct opposite of how the industry works. Now I’m not one to follow the norm just because it’s the norm, so I developed two key principles that guide my business.

The Two Key Principals of Why I Don’t Resell

1. You Don’t Add Costs Unless You Add Value

This is just the socialist in me. Buying low and selling high, without adding additional value, just seems wrong. If I go to a garage sale and see a valuable antique priced at 25 cents then buy it and flip it on EBay for $125, I didn’t “make” $124.75. I didn’t “earn” anything. I just got lucky and took advantage or an ignorant seller. Not something to brag about. I increased my wealth, yet provided no additional value in the world. You can blame the entire current global financial crisis on people who violated this principle.

2. Reselling Dilutes My Brand and Cheapens My Talent, My Credibility and My Status as a Rockstar Designer.

Could you imagine Tiger Woods selling golf clubs out of the trunk of his car (well, maybe now you can). You know he gets tens of thousands of dollars in free gear every year. He could easily flip this stiff and make a nice profit.

Or how about Michael Jordan. I’m sure he gets all the free shoes he wants. Why doesn’t he just sell them on EBay. Easy money right?

Easy, yes. Profitable, yes. But this easy profit comes with a hidden cost.

Ever see an actor that you admire suddenly start doing commercials for some dumb-ass product. What goes through your head? Do you think, “wow, they are really industrious and savvy to leverage their brand so effectively” or do you think “WTF?”

Or how about the first time you heard a Who or Rolling Stones song on a slick corporate ad? Felt weird didn’t it? Almost a violation.

When you go for the easy money, when you invest your brand into areas that make no sense, you pay a price. It may be little or a lot. It may be permanent or it may pass quickly. But you WILL take a hit.

Getting More by Giving Away

Some would argue that I AM adding value and therefore I’m entitled to add additional fees to my printing or web hosting costs. After all, without access to my connections, knowledge and relationships my clients would not be able to secure those resources themselves. However, I would argue that that is not added value but is a value position. In other words, when my clients get cheap printing and free web hosting it enhances my value and my brand. It’s a differentiator that carries weight in the marketplace. The higher my brand’s value the more desirable it becomes. So I’m forgoing short-term circumstantial profits for long-term across the board profits in the form of enhanced brand value. Simply put, I can charge more for my core services because I chose to forgo profits on peripheral ones.

Cultivating Client love

So what do my clients get out of this? My clients never question my fees or billing and for good reason. They know from experience that I don’t pad the bill or engage in reselling. If I tell them the new feature will cost an additional $1,500 in programming, they know that is the real is the cost. They won’t be able to go around me and engage the programmer directly as they will get the same exact quote. They know that if I tell them it will cost $500 to print a 1000 units of their brochure that is the real cost. They could shop around but they will not be able to find a better deal anywhere because they don’t have a wholesale account with a top printing house. Not only do they know this in theory they now this in practice. When it’s time to print up a flyer or brochure I get my client’s credit card number and shipping address and place the order. They get a receipt direct from the print house and the product is dropped shipped to their address. There’s no question on who paid whom for what. It’s completely transparent and transparency creates trust and peace of mind.

I Want to Be a Rockstar Designer

I want to be the Tiger Woods or the Michael Jordan of design. But am I, and who decides? There are many designers out there that would love to nitpick over my portfolio. There’s always some young hotshot who thinks they’re God’s gift to design and delight in trashing others work. This is just the nature of the business. They can trash me all they want because I don’t care. To my clients I AM a Rockstar, and they are the only ones that count because they are the ones paying my bills. Industry awards and peer accolades don’t pay the rent, my clients do.

I don’t want to nickel and dime my clients and dilute my brand. I want them to focus on the unique services that I provide. That’s my brand. I could do what everyone else in the industry does and resell commodities at a profit but doing so would send a contradictory message. I can’t be both a Rockstar and a reseller. In other words, if I’m so good, why do I bother reselling hosting at a $10 per month profit? If my brochure design was so brilliant, then why am I adding 25% to the design cost by reselling the printing. Wouldn’t a Superstar just charge 25% more because they’re so damn awesome?

So I made a conscious decision early on; I’m was going to behave the way that the best of the best behave. If the superstars won’t do it, then I won’t either. So far it seems to be working.

File Under: Reselling Web Hosting – Reselling Printing – Reselling Design and Programming Services – Reselling Outsourced Work – Ethics of Reselling – Enhancing Your Branding – Branding Your Business – Graphics Design Branding – Why I Don’t Resell Web Hosting- How to Be A Rockstar Graphic Designer