Whats your project proceedure?

[urquanmaster]

I'm just curious how others manage the freelance job proceedure.

Are there any tips or strategies you have found usefull?
How much d'you regulate your proceedure?
Do you have certain things you watch out for to cover your butt?
How do you manage the money and banking in your business?
Do you agree that you can do well just flying by the seat of your pants?
Have you found any innovative places for meeting or ways to communicate?
Do you set up brainstorming sessions with clients?

Don't mind the 50 questions. Maybe just answer the ones that pop out at you.

Thanks a lot for any insight. I've been looking at general proceedures that firms give, and find mostly generic things that seem to obvious to state.

[Compguy Pete]

OH you have a whole lotta questions... most of these answere I have may not apply to you however I'll give a couple a shot.

I meet the client at there office - WHY? because if they have a sheet or a file that maybe useful for the site I'm right there and so are they. They wont have that type of option if they came to see me. Also they're more often relaxed in there own office, the "home field advantage"

Brainstorming - I have a good idea of where the site will go before I even meet face to face with teh client. how/why? based gennerally on the phone interview or other pre meeting interfacings I've had with them. I come with a plan loosely ready ahead of time.

Flying by the seat of your pants - OH this could mean so many things, I'm guessing your talking about finding clients and how you run the business. I try to keep my work load to no more than 3 clients at a time with sites in development. DO I tell them that... ofcourse not! I gennerally give them some busy work to do for "site prep" until I'm ready to really work on the site. Also you'll find that most clients are horrably slow. Which is another reason why to meet them at their office as you have their attention NOW and your needs wont be on the back burner.

CYA (Cover your A**) - I don't take a client I don't think i can help either based on project scope or the massive undertaking the site may be. In the past I've taken on projects I'm not proud of after the fact and it's hard to put your name on that type of work, even though you gave hte client what they wanted to the letter and they love it. You don't want that feeling that you let them down by giving them exactly what they wanted.

[KDLA]

Tips & Strategies that are useful: Always keep communicating with the client. That's how I cover my butt. It keeps the project "top of the mind" for them; and helps prevent those inevitable moments when the client looks at the design and says, "This isn't what I wanted," and they ask you to start over.
If they know what you're doing, as you do it, then you can make changes then, instead of scrapping the whole project and starting over. I send them screenshots over email, or visit them time to time with my laptop so they can interact with the site. (I don't have a testing server.)

Regulating procedure: I have a certain time every day when I work on a client's project. I "try" (not always successful) to stick to that schedule, so I don't become consumed with one project, and neglect others. I also tell the client how often I work on the site, so they have an idea as to the work involved, and that it is a steadily progressing project, rather than something whipped together the night before the deadline.

Cover My Butt (besides already mentioned): I read lots of usability books and study usage statistics. When a client comes up with a really nutty idea, I start namedropping authors, titles, and studies which prove that the idea is nutty. The trick is to never let the client think that their idea is nutty, but to subtly question whether or not it is a standard practice, according the majority of opinion out there, and whether going "non-standard" will affect their customers and/or future business. Most times, they'll give in when your supportive evidence seems concrete. It keeps me from seeming like the "tempermental" or "inflexible" designer, and the client still feels like they are "in control."

Fly By the Seat of My Pants: No. Never. Most clients are flying by the seat of their pants, not knowing what they want, only wanting a "really cool" website that garners them much more business. Someone needs to be in control. I find out their timeline, then construct my own to fit into that, then tell them this is what would work best for me. When you do build a timeline, always throw in a few days/weeks/months as a buffer. Most clients are hideously slow when it comes to contributing content and/or reviewing your work.
Always remember: web design is your business, not theirs; they've got lots of other things to worry about.

Meetings: I meet at their place. Seeing it gives me an idea as to how the business is run, and my intuition is pretty good at telling whether or not I'm going to have some issues with the client. Also, meeting there might provide design ideas. You might see a cool logo on some stationery, or notice that all the offices are light blue, or something that you can integrate into the design.

Brainstorming: I ask clients to look through other websites, and send me links to the ones they like and don't like. That gives me an idea as to what they want. Most times, they can't put into words what they want; having a visual is much easier for me than, say, trying to translate what the page would look like in MSWord (their language) into HTML (my language). Then, we get together and look at these ideas and create a customized design for them.

Hope this helps -
KDLA

[urquanmaster]

Thanks for the help. I've found a lot of others that say in freelance, you need to be in control, because the customer usually isn't and just wants a "really cool" website, like you said.

[FireCracker37]

I'm just curious how others manage the freelance job proceedure.

Are there any tips or strategies you have found usefull?
How much d'you regulate your proceedure?
Do you have certain things you watch out for to cover your butt?
How do you manage the money and banking in your business?
Do you agree that you can do well just flying by the seat of your pants?
Have you found any innovative places for meeting or ways to communicate?
Do you set up brainstorming sessions with clients?

Don't mind the 50 questions. Maybe just answer the ones that pop out at you.

Thanks a lot for any insight. I've been looking at general proceedures that firms give, and find mostly generic things that seem to obvious to state.

Alright, I will do my best to answer these for you, but these answers are how this applies to me, and my business, so they may not work in part or at all for you.

Are there any tips or strategies you have found usefull?

The biggest thing that I have found usefull is this website, and a few others on this network. Also my compotition has been a great resource, I see their work, I deal with their customers, and I have found what they expect, what they pay, and how to serve them better.

How much d'you regulate your proceedure?

I am a type A personality, organization is everything. I have my sales pitch down to a science, I research my clients as much as possible before ever approaching them. I have forms for everything, and a checklist of what needs to be done before I ever crack open a code editor. I manage my time wisely by knowing how much I bill the customer for, so that is all the time I want to spend on a project, I don't like to work for free. This makes me efficient and consistent, so that each customer knows what to expect when they contact me about getting a site built.

Do you have certain things you watch out for to cover your butt?

I watch out for tasks that are going to take longer the expected, and clients who may not pay. I cover my butt by over bidding a bit on the design to cover the cost of "acts of god in coding" that may arise with the more complicated and unpredictable areas of the site. Of course if I don't need that extra time, I don't bill for it. When it comes to possible trouble clients, I have found that making them give me a downpayment of 50% of the quoted price up front keeps them paying regularly, also my contract states that if they don't pay they don't get any money back, or a website. Also if they stop paying their hosting bill then I will turn off their site and their e-mail, just like any other service would. So far I have only had one client not pay.

How do you manage the money and banking in your business?

I pay myself an hourly rate, and leave the rest in the business. I am trying to expand so I need to save as much as possible. I try to keep my money as inaccessable to myself as possible, that eliminates the temptation of spending it on other things. Also an accountaint is a great idea, provided you can handle the cost. I can't yet, so I just try to manage it on my own.

Do you agree that you can do well just flying by the seat of your pants?

I don't think that it is a good idea to do business this way, you will get unorganized, you will miss deadlines, and might even upset some customers. I try to keep some order to as much as possible. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to finding clients. I am a very extroverted people, so if I go out to dinner, go out for drinks, etc. I will always try and talk to an owner/manager to see if the business can bennifit from my services. I have found tons of clients like this.

Have you found any innovative places for meeting or ways to communicate?

I like to meet in their place of buisness whenever possible. That way I can take a look around and evaluate the situation. When that isn't desireable/possible then I like to meet at a resturant/coffee shop. I think they provide the best atmosphere for talking business. I have also met withh clinets over MSN messenger and stuff, but they aren't my favorite ways to communicate. Actually just last week I made a very good contact via text msg. There are tons of mediums avaliable when it comes to how to communicate with your clients, use what ever you can and whatever your client is comfortable with.

Do you set up brainstorming sessions with clients?

Absolutly. I want them to love what I build for them, and I want them to have a good idea of what it will do and look like before I ever bust open my computer. I normaly do meeting one as the sales meeting, meeting two as the contract signing, and meeting three as the main brainstorming session. Of course we do a little bit of brainstorming every time I meet with the client. The key to becoming successfull is to learn how to hear what your customer wants, and then make it appear on the www. You essentially need to become an English to HTML dictionary. Most clients aren't very technical, but they still surf the web and have seen something they like, that is usually what sparks them to want a site in the first place. You are the person with the know how to make that dream a reality.

Ok, wow, I got really long winded there, but I hope I was atleast somewhat helpfull. Good luck with getting your business going.