Nail that first client : A workflow for new freelancers
A simple guide on gaining those first few deals after taking “the plunge”
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Disclaimer : I am the maker behind sievehq.com which has the below said workflow baked into it. If you are interested, I would be more than happy to give out a demo : request demo
📄 Build a solid portfolio
As a developer, the easiest way to rack up internet credits is via github. Your github profile speaks volumes about your engineering skills. The next thing would be testimonials from past clients and project details. Dropbox showcase is an amazing tool that can help you present your proposal in an organised fashion.
A solid workflow
Usually the first step before the start of any freelance engagement is the signing of an NDA. Followed by a brief email explaining the concept and then followed by a call. The suggestion here would be
📝 Digital signature
Instead of going through this flow, my suggestion is to use this alternate flow. On the first email, send the client an NDA. You can use a tool like Hellosign, for a digital signature process, ditching the usual wet ink process. The advantage here is that, instead of having to download print sign scan upload, you can finish the entire process in a few clicks.
📋 Send them a standard questionnaire.
A standard questionnaire allows you to gauge the project in terms of monetary value, technology challenges and clients knowledge of the space. This helps you to avoid or anticipate“lowball offer”, “30 years from now tech” and allows you channel the conversations in that direction and the best part, you get to do a solid research on the problem statement.
Standard questionaire : Google forms
📞 Setup a call
calendly + daily.co = ❤ . This is match made in heaven, after the client finishes your questionnaire display your calendly link and inside the calendly page display the daily.co/your favourite video call solution.
The above said process, in my experience gives the client more confidence, reduces the email exchanges and helps you make a good first impression.
Milestone everything
Once the problem space has been defined, the next step would be planning out the solution. Adopt a simple process would you to break down the project into small chunks , couple it with a brief about the outcomes and a delivery date. Focus on ensuring that you deliver something every few weeks.
- 🗃 Milestone
- 📝 Milestones description
- 💳 Cost
- 🗓 Delivery date
Ensure that you keep delivering something at the end of every few weeks, because it helps your customer to feel that there is momentum. Another great way to ensure momentum and transparency is to spend 2 minutes every day posting a standup update. Oh an important note, one side effect of delivering frequently is “change requests”. One solution to managing change requests is to keep posting them in a trello board, segregating them and allocating them to other milestones. As a thumb rule, major change requests should be pushed towards the end of the project.
🛒 Delivery
A delivery can include a video of the solution, actual working code, a brief note on what has happened and how to operate the solution.
💵 Invoicing
You can use stripe or any other popular invoicing solution here to manage your invoicing needs. Make sure that the invoice is raised in a timely fashion. Milestone based payments allows you to manage the risks of non-payment.
🏁 Final Delivery
Make sure that a detailed write up of the entire hosting/deployment process is marked down clearly. Documentations if any and video urls . Also write down the next steps and how you will be supporting the change requests, bug reports et al.
Want to make it every more cooler ? Send them a feedback form. This allows you to tweak your workflow and fix your process.
