A Missing Zero Ruined my Dream

Charlie Hood | Founder Easy Days Studio.

Last year I was approached by the European branch of a well-known denim brand to pitch to relaunch it’s footwear division. Great, I thought, a super fun job that’ll involve a nice amount of travel - and be good money. Then the budget came through - it was paltry.

I was pretty disappointed but thought hey, I’ll do what I can, and worst case it’ll be an excellent case study. I ran through it with a fine tooth comb, and did a presentation that I thought used it well, and even came in 5% under the budget. A shoe-in, I thought. At the end of the presentation they said (killing me with kindness) ‘We like the pitch, but why have you come in so far under budget?’. They’d missed off a 0 at the end of the budget. I was 1,000 (and 5)% under budget. They allowed me to fine-tune my costings, but the damage had been done…