I was scouring my new Twitter list of bloggers yesterday when I spotted one from my friend from the SOBCons I’ve attended, Chris Cree, who was saying he registered to attend the Orlando WordCamp in December. I got so excited about the potential about attending a WordPress event so close to home AND with a friend, I had to check my college final schedule. We have the option of a Friday or Sunday final exam for Spanish, so I’m opting for taking it on Friday night to get it off my mind. I also contacted Michael Pretty about serving (volunteering) at the Genius Bar for WordPress help with themes, plugins, usage, etc. I’ve got a whole box of business cards for anyone who wants the follow-up treatment after the conference. 🙂
by on November 11, 2009
Why I Do What I Do
Raise your hand if you hate your job. Go ahead, your boss won’t know why you’re raising your hand in your cube. Unless you’re some freak of the system that landed in your dream job straight out of school, college, or the insane asylum, everyone has hated their job at some point or another. A certain percentage work through it to find joy in their work while the rest either find new employment or look forward to Monday Night Football and the weekend.
Getting fired from my last job just may have been the best thing that happened to me since a certain someone said, “I do,” but getting to this point has been a long journey for me. We can finally say the business is successful and sustainable. Every month we wonder who will be on my plate the next month, but the next month has been continually booked for months now. I have some insight into why I think Petersen Media Group is successful as a new business that started with zero capital.
Know Thy Customer
The first key to getting the work and completing the work as expected is to understand the scope and your customer’s tastes. For whatever reason the vast majority of my designs (all but two or three) go unchanged from what I set out to accomplish for the draft presentation of a site. When something just isn’t right about a design, try to take the initiative to change it before presenting it if your gut tells you that it is an improvement.
The Important Question Is:
What can I do to make the customer feel important. Clients are what puts food on the table, keeps the lights on, and a roof over our heads. There’s no denying that situation, so it’s best to figure out what to do on a project in the plan, estimate, or delivery that will make them a fan for life. New customers are great, but what’s better is a new customer who is so impressed with your work that they not only use you for a second project right away but tell their friends about their new site and how great their experience was dealing with you. THAT is where the stability comes, my friends.
Protect and Serve
Sometimes I amaze myself and dismay those who are aware of how much time I spend with clients at what lengths I go to for ensuring client satisfaction. It doesn’t serve me or my client to leave them unhappy with my product. It’s far better for everyone involved to do such a superior job that it creates a fan who can’t stop talking about me. Those people are out there and keep the work coming in week after week, sometimes day after day.
I’m not saying that you should work for free or under promise and over deliver. What I am saying is that you need to pick your battles with your clients and yourself to determine what it is worth to your business to eat some time or offer a discount for work that goes above and beyond.
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by on October 29, 2009
Sniffing Out Potential Clients for Issues
Every small business owner or freelancer has been there: working on a project that is going downhill. If it hasn’t happened, you haven’t been doing it long enough. For me, it happened about 9 weeks into working for myself when we went over a week without any new clients and I’d already finished all of the work that had come in. I was weak, vulnerable. I let the client run the show, so here is how I’ve avoided making the same mistake again.
- Whenever possible, I attempt to get as much information as possible about the project in writing before discussing over voice because calls can drag on.
- I try to limit calls to 30 minutes. That’s an acceptable loss of time if it doesn’t work out and also reasonably rolled into my project pricing so I can recoup the time if the project goes on the low end of time spent.
- I don’t barter for my services. There is no working for commission that may or may not come from a site or other delayed payment option. That will not pay my mortgage or put food on my table. That is a risk.
- I don’t negotiate my prices. My prices are fair, my service is impeccable, and my character is untarnished.
- Want to meet to discuss a potential project? Sure, but you’re paying a consulting fee if it doesn’t work out. I spent 3 hours at Panera (5 hours away from home) with someone who wanted to pay for the work with commission generated from the site. I’d like those 3 hours of my life back or the money due for that time.
- I try to determine as quickly as possible whether or not the task will involve a lot of technical changes (hosting or site platform) that will entail additional correspondence or labor. Some clients need ALL of the work done for them and don’t know any of their login information – they have to start over from scratch.
- I write the terms into every estimate and invoice I send to the client so it’s clear when payment is expected, what is included, when my tasks are done, etc.
- If things start to go badly, take the initiative and make contact to let them know the situation and discuss modification of terms or refunding their money after ensuring the project ends on good terms.
- I reserve the right to break my own rules in favor of the client, but I also reserve the right to stick to my guns.
Statistically speaking, I’d venture a guess that I have an 80% enrollment rating from any sort of contact, 95% invoicing of clients by referral, and only 1 “good terms” refund from 139 invoices when the scope changed too drastically.
I hope this helps you avoid your own client nightmares and leads to many happy encounters. Are there any additional tips or suggestions that you or your company use when feeling out potential clients?
by on October 26, 2009
Busy Beyond Belief
Last week was full of papers due, studying for my second Spanish exam on Saturday, family time while my sister-in-law was back in town, and a whole slew of work projects. My backlog is a pretty long line now, but I’m working through it. Partially to explain why I may appear too busy for some of you and partially to actually create a list for me to see, here’s what is on my plate:
- E-commerce exam due Tuesday night
- Tech writing lab due Tuesday by 2pm
- Tech writing project due by next Tuesday at 2pm
- American Lit essay due next Tuesday at noon
- Equity in the Workplace discussion board posts y Wednesday at midnight
- Wrapping up a chef’s site
- Wrapping up a speaker’s site
- Getting into the Pearson book site to update for their latest book
- Wrapping up a personal blog
- Wrapping up a small packaging site
- Migrating a business site that b5 Media is dropping
- Converting a good friend’s site to Thesis and rocking it out
- Designing my parent’s blog around their newly-installed Thesis theme.
- Starting a packaging site project of epic proportions
- Starting a packaging site from another packager
- Send out our next newsletter
- Eat
- Sleep
- Be merry
The good news is that we have been blessed with income through the middle of December already, but I’ve got a lot of plates spinning that need to come down safely to not create a mess.
