Lost $1,850 on a rebrand for a client who never had a business
Back in March I did a full rebrand for a guy in Portland who swore his coffee cart was opening in April, so I built the logo, menu boards, packaging, the works. He paid a $500 deposit and then vanished, and my contract was so loose I had no way to collect the rest. Turns out the cart was just a daydream and he never even had a permit, so I ate about $1,850 in unpaid design time plus $120 in font licenses I bought for the job. Now I want to know, do you all get half up front before you even open the file, or am I just being paranoid?