Losing Money with Honesty (it’s a trick)
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On a recent client project we had booked in a bunch of work to add ‘reordering’ to WooCommerce. Some of you are thinking: Hey there is already a function for that, so why would I charge a client for that work? Well I had looked at this before and either hadn’t found the code or
Yes you can dishwash a keyboard, here’s how
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Today we’re going to deviate a bit from the regular business topics and talk about cleaning your keyboard. All prompted by a single photo on Twitter. https://twitter.com/curtismchale/status/497129093293277184 That is a Kinesis Freestyle V1 keyboard (which I reviewed) in the top rack of my empty dishwasher. Keyboards are filthy. We eat over them and use them
Clients treat you poorly because of your boundaries
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Boundaries are a fairly simple thing really. They mark out where our property begins and someone else’s property ends. We have personal space boundaries that are allowably encroached by loved ones and strongly enforced with those we don’t know. We should also be setting strong boundaries with clients. Not only in when they can communicate
Are you asking yourself these 3 questions before you write an estimate?
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To get work you need to send out estimates. Good ones should take a fair bit of time to get right. How do you structure your estimates though? How do you make them something that ‘sells’ the clients on your services? How do you make sure that you’ve covered the real needs of the clients,
No I haven’t built ‘exactly’ your solution before, sort of
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If you haven’t heard it yet you’re going to hear it: We like you and are impressed with your portfolio, but we don’t see something exactly like what we want to do so we want to talk more about it. You know that you’re right. I haven’t built exactly your system before. And it doesn’t
Why I don’t throw things in, and you shouldn’t either
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I know you’re expecting to read about how clients asking you to throw features in devalues your work. It shows you that they don’t value you and it’s a red flag about working with them, because there is always going to be one more thing that should get ‘thrown in’. You expect me to tell
You shouldn’t build ‘neat’ sites
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I’ve heard it and you’ve heard it. Actually, we’ve probably both said it. Ooooooohhhhh we should do that…it would be a ‘neat’ feature on the site. Really, I know I’ve said it and so have you. But it’s totally wrong. You shouldn’t add that ’neat’ feature because your client or you want it. NEAT is
How do you bill an unscopeable project
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Ideally you’re going to get a project and talk to the client and come up with a fixed list of things that you need to do for the project. Sure, they almost always change a bit as you go, but that initial list is what you start with and what you base all your scope/project
Make it easy for productivity to find you
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Days spent in ‘flow’ is the dream of any creative. Programmers dream of writing code that works the first time, while your fingers fly gracefully across the keyboard and unicorns dance to the beauty of your code. Designers solve the client problem first, try and get sent gift baskets as clients weep and thank them
How much do you follow up with clients?
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Client work is what really pays my bills. Not the business book I wrote or the WordPress book, though they add a bit to the bottom line. Since it’s client work that pays the bills, I need to keep in touch with possible leads and older, awesome clients. Following up on possible projects I know
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