I have worked as a freelancer aside my studies for the last 5 years. I have worked with small/medium businesses, independent business owners, bloggers, and influencers. I have learned a lot during this time and I wanted to share some of the things I learned with you guys and gals.
Manage your client!
Often when I work on these projects, I have to deal with many people from the same company. They ask for different things and are not always in sync, this can result in issues. It's important to understand who is in charge and is able to ask for changes.
Using a stakeholder map is a good tool to manage your client. You need to identify who is affected by your project and how much interest and power they have over you, a user, for example, can have a lot of interest in the project and lot of requests for changes, but might not have the power to make these changes.
You can use the stakeholder map to prioritize which stakeholder you pay attention to and who you have to focus on to be happy.
Don't try to invent the wheel
When I was starting out I got contacted to make a simple landing page, the requirements were simple:
- Cheap
- Static website (does not need to be updated)
- Has to be ready as soon as possible
- Had to look modern
Long story short the product owner did not care about what technologies I used or how I made the website. For some reason, I took the opportunity to create a website from scratch using only HTML and CSS. It's something I had never done before, back then I usually reached for WordPress or React /w Bootstrap.
I ended up spending way to much time on this project. Having sleepless nights and stressing over it not being done on time.
Bear in mind this project did not pay well, and the time I spent on it versus what I got paid was really... Sad.
Negotiation tactics
When starting out estimating what something is going to cost is impossible. It happens that we need to compromise and basically give our work for cheap. It can be for a number of reasons, it can be that you really need the money or you really want to do a project.
When I send out my estimates I always include.
- The date the document was sent out and I include a paragraph that says "These prices are only valid for two weeks". This prevents that I send them my prices and they come back two years later and ask for those prices.
- I always include the breakdown of the price and I include extra costs like hosting. I sometimes include what X amount of hours of work would give them and the price for that after the project is finished.
- I try to include what I need from them to finish the project and if I am waiting for it means I will be able to continue the project and the estimation will be off. It can be information, web servers, licenses, or payment gateways that are vital for me to finish the project.
- I also include the price breakdown, suggested platform/programming languages, and estimated delivery.
Never ignore them!
I always try to reply to emails as soon as I get them, I don't want them to be able to say that they are waiting for something from me.
If you ever find your self in a difficult spot where you are not able to meet the deadline, let them know as soon as you know. The longer you wait the harder it gets to tell them.
Know when you have made it
I would say that if you are able to sustain yourself by working on projects that you want to work on, you have made it!
Say No! to the boring projects!
Say No! to the client who always expects too much!
Say No! when you think a project estimate is unachievable!
Otherwise thank you for reading you can catch me on Twitter!
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