If you are a new freelancer or are thinking of becoming one there are many things to consider when it comes to your business. How much do I charge? What type of websites do I want to create? What are my strengths & weaknesses? How many hours should I estimate on this project? Does the client have a webmaster or designated person to do updates? Should I use a CMS platform or custom site?
I do have to admit that at times I have overextended myself with projects and your time estimate is not equal to the actual time spent on a project. How does this happen? Well it’s all about knowing what you can and can’t do. Have you done a similar project? Do you think the functionality the client is asking for can be hard to figure out but can be done nonetheless? Some of these questions can only be answered with experience and at times you will inevitably spend more time on a project than you estimated.
As you venture out and take on new projects it will be more apparent what you are comfortable with promising a client. Even though you want to grow as a designer or programmer, you don’t want to overextend yourself to the point where you are working for peanuts. After all you are a freelancer now and it has to be worth your time.
When is a website project too much? When should you walk away from a project? Do you have clients who think your expertise is either not that hard to do or hard to find? As your stomach turns and your instinct tells you to run from this client because they will only be trouble, you must find out more from them. This can be a great opportunity to educate your client or answer any misconceptions they may have. If they say they can get a website for $200, ask them to show you. You will easily be able to point out flaws. I have created a list of possible situations that you might be faced with when meeting with clients that you might want to avoid.
10 Situations to watch out for when meeting with clients for the first time:
1. Customer says they need a mockup of their new site to see if they would like to use you as a designer. Don’t waste your time doing free work.
2. “We do not have money since we are a start-up. We can pay you commission on sales…..” - This could be a good option if you have a great product but now you are depending on other people doing well and there is a pretty good chance it won’t amount to anything.
3. “There is not much money in this project, but if we like your work we can pay more on the next project.” - RUN, the client is looking for cheap labor and there might not be another project in the near future. I would be very cautious of this situation. Remember you want to stick to your pricing, after all you could be working full time somewhere else and getting paid instead of freelancing… think about it.
4. “I only need a simple social networking site like Myspace or Facebook for my business. It should not be that hard, I took an html class that covered mentioned sites like this. I could do it myself but I don’t have time.” - You can already tell the customer’s expectations are high. If their budget is not as high, don’t do it.
5. “I need to be on the first page of Google, Yahoo, and all the other search engines for my 20 products” - This is more of an educational talk that you must have with your client. Be realistic with what you can provide. Even though you cannot guarantee top placement for all of their keywords, you can certainly improve his ranking.
6. Say NO when a client is asking you to do something unethical. This could be promoting a product with false claims or doing black hat SEO. It may also include using copy written content and photos. Don’t do it! Ruining your reputation and time isn’t worth it.
7. “We do not want to sign a contract” - This is a biggie! You tend to trust this new customer and don’t think you will ever get taken advantage of… think again. Don’t ever embark on a big project without a contract. Contractual agreements are meant to be beneficial for both parties.
8. Purchasing customer hosting and domain accounts on your credit card. You should always purchase customer hosting and domain accounts on their credit card. If you do end up purchasing any services on your card, make sure you switch any recurring billing on the clients card soon. The more you wait, the sooner you forget. Many times I would set them up on my credit card since it was easier for me to just bill them. Trust me, it’s not worth the headache. The less you have to worry about the better. I usually tend to separate the site design cost and the setup fees (hosting, email, domain, SSL certificates, etc.) in the proposal. Come tax season, life is a whole lot easier. If they refuse to set automatic billing for these services at the beginning, you might have problems later on.
Tools for recurring billing:
- Paypal Virtual Terminal - Visit Paypal.com
- Authorize.net Merchant Account
9. Do the financial benefits outweigh the cost, time and effort? How willing are you to negotiate price during hard economic times? This situation demands self-awareness. It is very easy to budge on price when projects are scarce. A project might take most or all of your free time and you might not be able to take on more projects as they are available. Use your time wisely.
10. Avoid quoting a customer a price until you understand completely what they are looking for in their new site. As a freelancer you might tend to get comfortable with completing a site from scratch. Estimating a project can at times seem too much work. Sometimes it’s easier to just get started and “guesstimate” the effort you will need to put in. As your average design project time is X, this is what you decide to go on and quote the customer X times your Hourly Rate. You later find out that instead of X hours it actually took Y, which was a lot more than you had anticipated. Since you feel bad, you hesitate to charge the customer more money. Now you are working for less than your Hourly Rate. What happened? I can’t stress enough how important of a role estimating plays in the early development planning of a project.
Do you create more than 5 websites a year? Why not sign up for a reseller account?
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