AFOVEA'S POSTEROUS

Ahhh, my bloody foot!

Personally invested
So recently I've been working with a new client. They're a really sweet young couple who have a great deal of love for what they do and provide a great service. After meeting with them for the first time I was determined to ensure they had the best product I could supply them with. Some would argue that this was my first mistake (becoming personally invested in the project) but I believe passion manifests itself in the end result and always makes for a better (and more personalised) design.

Now my task here is to do a complete redesign of their existing site but maintain a few of the themes. Fairly standard so far right? The project has a small budget (due to them being a startup), I'd offered them several options with different costs and they opted for what they could afford rather than what they wanted. Naturally, you then scale the work, time and effort you make in order to make the project cost effective for you... well that was the plan anyway.

So me being me sat down with the best of intentions and made a start on the design concepts. As per usual 5-6 concepts later I've reached a point where I'm happy with the design structure and can begin to move onto the remainder of the site. For anyone who is wondering why I would go through so many iterations of the site before settling and not just going with the first idea...you have a good point really. Maybe it's a designers thing or maybe it's just me but either way it's something I've come to terms with and always allow time for.

Mistake number two.
Now, I am really happy with the design; it works for the clients image, it's attractive and functional (most of the things you'd look for in a good website). Now that I'd reached that milestone, I instinctively kept pushing the bar higher and higher for myself. Custom graphics (no stock), interactivity, functional user experience practices and photographic retouching... these are all fairly common but have to be scaled towards the budget right? I mean if you're being paid twenty grand for a site then these efforts are vital (and standard practice) but when you're budget is under a grand for a fair size site then should you still be putting that same level of effort you would for a bigger budget?

This would be mistake number two... I personally can't do that. I find myself unable to give less to a client simply because they cannot afford to pay me more (stupid right?). I even find it hard to scale back efforts when I don't get on with the client (which isn't very often anyway but still). So now I'm in a situation whereby the project is no longer cost effective and I'm drastically undercharging by more half the end value! That's pretty worrying.

A prime example.
What's more difficult for me is that even if I was able to scale back the work to match the budget, should I? After all, it's my name going on this site and it's basically an advert for my abilities. Shouldn't this be a prime example every time. Am I just shooting myself in the foot by not matching the work to the budget?

So my question is... How do you control yourself when working on project with a tight budget? Should you scale back your efforts?