Posts Tagged ‘client’

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Let’s be honest: you are a freelancer to make money. This is your income. The goal of your work should be to make a living using the skills you own and love. But what are your client’s needs? Do those needs and interests match your own?

I was reading Freakonomics this past week. One chapter struck home in a business sense. The chapter talked about realtors and how, even though they may seem to be looking out for your best interests, that’s often not the case.

Realtors are just like any other hard working business man: they want to maximize profit over time. They want to sell your house as quickly as possible for as little as possible. Eventhough you hired them to sell your home, their job isn’t to get your to most bang for your buck, but rather to get your home sold fast so that they can get their commission as quickly as possible.

That’s often why when selling your home realtors will suggest that you start marking down the price on your home. The home is of no value to them unsold.

Likewise as a freelancer, a design, or project is of no value to us unsold. But even when it is sold, it’s of less and less value if more and more time has to be put into making changes. In that case, we freelancers can be very much like the realtor that was looked at previously.

How then can we align our interests with our clients?

As a freelancer, I strive to offer quality service, amazing designs, and usually at a reasonable price. Although what if I am charging too little for my services? It’s possible that I could increase my rates (which I have several times over the years) to allow a greater budget for myself, while continuing to provide the excellent service and design that I strive for.

But thinking about it like that doesn’t suit most clients. As a business, a website or design is only as useful as the value it provides them. Whether that value is in the form of increased sales or greater brand identification.

If I can create a design or user interface that effectively increases sales of a business by $50,000 annually, wouldn’t that work be worth 50%, 25%, or even 10% of that amount?

My job then is not to simply choreograph a pretty website, but to design a website that increases sales. Because if my client makes money, I make money.

And my interests, are then the same as my clients interests, which makes this whole business easier for the both of us.

There’s a reason that guy came to you (or you went and got him, but they still picked you!) It wasn’t because you blew them away with your coding knowledge or reasonable prices. It wasn’t even because of that cool logo you had designed by your sister-in-law.

Businesses will hire you because you’re human. They want that perfect combination between what they perceive to be the nerdy geek needed to complete the job and the cool mac dude that knows how to befriend everyone.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy…

My mother works for a construction lien company. Their “computer guy”, I’ll call him John Doe for argument’s sake, created and operates the company website.  I couldn’t tell you how he was hired other than assuming it went like this: the owner’s friend highly recommended his sister-in-law’s husband without really knowing how good he was or if he would be a good match for the company.

Needless to say, I have a fairly low opinion of John Doe as he’s performed well for the work, not the business. Yes, they have a functional website and it’s also fairly attractive. He could have done much better for them though. The work is average and I’d hope that they’re not paying more than an “average” pay for it.

It’s not because of the average work that I have a low opinion of this man. He’s just an example of the average good worker. Which means that he’s perfectly acceptable to the “average” business. But when we’re looking to achieve excellence, and trust me, most businesses you work with are attempting the feat, you have to perform as an excellent individual - not a good, hard worker.

Businesses are made of people. In a lot of situations the person is the business. Take a look at a lot of the professionals in any field and you’ll see names as brands rather than brands as names. It’s the difference between Louis Vuitton and CARP (China’s Average Retail Product). If you’ve ever tasted carp, trust me, it ain’t pretty. It’s grainy and full of garbage that you don’t want to eat. There are much better fish in the sea.

All this comes back to say that businesses prefer working with people. If they wanted robot with no personality, they could just as easily outsource their work to India and pay half as much for the same result. And to be honest, a lot of those Indians have better personalities than many of your “average” workers.

John Doe is that robot. He works from home, by himself, and most likely has no social life. He has odd mannerisms that tell you he is socially inept and doesn’t know how to deal with people. He definitely knows how to deal with computers. Businesses are a “tiny bit” more than just a computer.

Your client doesn’t want a John Doe, or a Chinese knock-off. They want the Louis Vuitton and Swarovski of the web world. It honestly probably makes little difference if the actual work is done by you or an Indian outfit as long as it is done well.

The client won’t see all the work that is done behind the scenes. What they see and want to know are good and kind are you. They want to be able to put a friendly name and face to the business they are working with. A face is something identifiable, a personality, a thought or idea, a kind smile.

Show them that face and personality. Become more than simply a service that they’re using. Make them your friend and associate with them. Businesses want to feel like they know you and have developed a relationship with you. That’s exactly the same thing as you want because that means trust in your brand (and continued work!)

Be friendly and compassionate and show them that you’re someone to be had as a friend rather than an acquaintance.

Nearly four years ago I swore off any and all future work for myself online because of a client. We’d figuratively played a game of chicken and I lost. For about a year after that I stuck to that decission and didn’t take any more freelance work.

I wasn’t prepared to lose. In the game, whether that be life, love, work, or taxes, you win sometimes and you lose others. To win in the long run, you have to be prepared to lose.

Quick thought: don’t play the taxes game. The banker knows when you cheat!

In October 2003, I started a short lived relationship with a client. I was developing what amounted to an AJAX powered website slightly before the AJAX revolution began. I started this project off on the wrong foot by quoting myself short on both time and cost.

These type of losses are only short term and can often be corrected through appropriate communication. If the budget that was planned turned out not to be enough, tell the client and attempt to work out a solution that is satisfactory for both sides.

That doesn’t mean you lost in the game though, you simply fell behind. I fell behind.

I continued to fall behind with missed deadlines and procrastinated work cycles.  We worked out a satisfactory solution where the project was completed on a longer timescale with the same budget.

This way I was able to focus on other work besides this project as well.

The project concluded in March. What was originally a two week project turned into a 3 and a half month long marathon.

I’d already been paid half of my budget in the beginning of the project and at the half-way point. I lost the game after handing over my work and my opponent chose not to pay me the second half of my budget.

I felt degraded, cast out, and pretty much like shit for a few months following. That was worse than not being paid what I was due.

Prepare Yourself for Failure

Playing chess, you usually don’t throw out a piece undefended. Your queen might be attacking but your bishop is right there backing her up.

Don’t leave your work defenseless. Prepare a good contract that will back you up when your opponent decides to play against the rules. Verbal or email contracts aren’t accepted as valid in all countries/states so make sure it’s in writing.

Even though you may have safeguards in place like an all-binding contract, you still have to prepare yourself to lose.

Your next project shouldn’t be an end-all be-all. What I mean is, if this project were to fall out from under your feet, you need to still be standing. Like wage earners who work from paycheck to paycheck, we freelancers often can fall into the mistake of living from project to project.

But placing ourselves in that position gives the client power over us. It’s unnecessary and only limits your potential as a freelancer. it doesn’t prepare yourself to lose but simply places hope, often false, in a win.

But hope, even if it’s not false, is not good. You can’t hope that you’ll be still working from day to day. Measures have to be taken to ensure that you still have your line of work tomorrow.

Work on multiple projects at once. Client often like to “own” you while they’ve hired you for work although if you let them then you have nothing to fall back onto if they decide to force a loss upon you.

Not Being Prepared

My brother is 13. He made a flippant bet with a friend the other day. It turned out that he lost and was forced to wear fingernail polish for the rest of the week. He wasn’t prepared to lose. He hadn’t expected to lose. His friend had only won by a slight margin which made it even worse.

At the dinner table when we noticed as he was trying to hide his fingernails by pawing the serving spoon is when he lost. He lost all scrap of manhood we had left for him. Admittedly, it was a pretty ballsy bet to make on his behalf.

What he was afraid of was losing the one piece of manhood he had attached to our other brother. He simply adores him and tries to be like him. He told me, he’s going to make sure he does not find out.

Thinking about what he said, I realized how prepared he really was. He knew what he needed to protect and where it was ok to cut his losses.

I learned how to lose from my younger brother.