metro devil
10-18-2005, 10:50 AM
Hi everyone,
I hope this is the appropriate place for my issue/question and I'll appreciate any advice given. Please bear with me as I give a little background.
I am not a webdeveloper by profession. I have always been interested in web design and I would always fool around making little websites. I was approached last year to help out a new non-profit organization by making a website.
They knew what I could do, and they said it was only a "small presence on the web" that they were looking for. He told me he wanted some text with their logo displayed and that was it.
The group is involved with a sports team so their most active time is during the season. The small presence has turned into a pretty elaborate website (compared to anything else that i've ever done) that includes a small flash opening page, a photo gallery, a blog, a shop that uses PayPal and a few other things. It's taken alot of my free time and I sometimes get asked for "something new" every other week.
The 1st year of the organization is coming to an end and I'll have a few months before year 2 begins. I would like to run this volunteer work of mine more as a business but don't know where to start.
I've always known that I wouldn't get paid, but I need your help in setting up a strategy. When you all take on a new client, what type of timeline do you give them? Do you tell them that they need to give you all their ideas by a certain date? Do you setup dates throughout the year where you will allow them to change things on the site?
I basically don't want to get stuck doing new things every week because the guy suddenly got a great idea while he was sleeping the night before. I'm not a businessman ... I'm a normal tech guy that doesn't want to spend all his free time on a volunteer website.
I thank you for taking the time to read this long post.
-md
I hope this is the appropriate place for my issue/question and I'll appreciate any advice given. Please bear with me as I give a little background.
I am not a webdeveloper by profession. I have always been interested in web design and I would always fool around making little websites. I was approached last year to help out a new non-profit organization by making a website.
They knew what I could do, and they said it was only a "small presence on the web" that they were looking for. He told me he wanted some text with their logo displayed and that was it.
The group is involved with a sports team so their most active time is during the season. The small presence has turned into a pretty elaborate website (compared to anything else that i've ever done) that includes a small flash opening page, a photo gallery, a blog, a shop that uses PayPal and a few other things. It's taken alot of my free time and I sometimes get asked for "something new" every other week.
The 1st year of the organization is coming to an end and I'll have a few months before year 2 begins. I would like to run this volunteer work of mine more as a business but don't know where to start.
I've always known that I wouldn't get paid, but I need your help in setting up a strategy. When you all take on a new client, what type of timeline do you give them? Do you tell them that they need to give you all their ideas by a certain date? Do you setup dates throughout the year where you will allow them to change things on the site?
I basically don't want to get stuck doing new things every week because the guy suddenly got a great idea while he was sleeping the night before. I'm not a businessman ... I'm a normal tech guy that doesn't want to spend all his free time on a volunteer website.
I thank you for taking the time to read this long post.
-md