Rant! Creative Freedom

My anxiety is high right now over a small job. I have a customer who makes cornhole boards. I've cut dozens of stencils for her. She sends me a pic or a drawing and I tell her depending on the quantity if you give me
"creative freedom" there's little to no set-up charge - usually I spend 5-7 minutes. NEVER a problem!!! It's some quick cash for me with very little time and virtually no material costs. And I get to do them at my leisure. Lots of designs, never had a complaint! I love this customer!!! Creative freedom and quick money!!!

Her niece calls me and needs a stencil ASAP. Now normally, I would say no because this type of thing never ends well, but her Aunt gives me a lot of business so I made an exception. I said send me a pic and I'll charge a minimum set-up fee as long as I have creative freedom...I'll get it super close but it might not be exact. OK GREAT she says! The set-up was EXACT. 17 text messages, 2 phone calls and now she argues on the phone with me because I said if she wants proofs with 17 different fonts and size changes she's getting charged my hourly rate! I don't work for free! Well, she knows SO much better than I do because she's an "interior designer". Well honey, if you have a sign in a living room with "location coordinates" that are 1.5" high in bold font, EVERYONE IN THE LIVING ROOM WILL BE ABLE TO READ IT. And honestly - NOBODY WILL READ THESE COORDINATE BECAUSE NOBODY CARES WHAT YOUR HOUSE COORDINATES ARE. And now I've wasted another 10 minutes typing about this! LOL Back to work.

 

She just came in to pick it up. She said it was WAY too big. LMAO. She did give me a few dollar tip for being a PITA so looking at it from "the glass is half full" - another happy ending LOL