This is a follow up post to my last entry about my first year of freelancing. In addition to how I actually ended up here I also wanted to cover some of the adjustments I’ve had to make and some of the skills I’ve had to pick up in this time.
The Project Manager Hat
One of the great things about being a designer in an agency setting is you don’t have to worry about things like project budgets, scheduling or answering small client queries. For the most part you show up in the morning and your task list is pre-populated from the friendly accounts department and you go on your way.
Of course when your a one man show you end up taking on that role, so in addition to actually designing & building websites I’ve found I’ve had to take on a whole slew of new task.
What this has meant for me is learning how to prepare project budgets & estimates, how to respond to an RFP and writing up a contract. In addition I’ve had to learn a lot more accounting and budgeting then I previously needed when I was just collecting a monthly pay cheque from the agencies.
Tire Kickers to the left.
One of the more important skills I’ve picked up this year has been weeding out potential clients from the tire kickers. Tire kickers are those “leads” that are more interested in gathering information & getting prices then actually proceeding on a project. Now although everyone has right to shop around and gather information, it can be very disheartening to spend 2 or so hours away from your desk on a face to face meeting that ends up going nowhere. Even more disheartening is spending further time preparing an estimate after a face to face meeting and then hear nothing back from the lead.
After 2-3 meetings such as this I’ve become much more selective on my face to face meetings, if I get a lead through my website with no real information other then “I need a website, we should meet” then I’m likely to encourage a phone call instead to find out how serious they are about proceeding.
Providing a free consultation is a great way to land business and it’s still a service I offer, but I’ve found it consumes much less of my time to schedule a 20 minute phone call then to spend 30 minutes driving to a coffee shop, 20 minutes in a meeting and another 30 minutes driving home.
So far the leads that are willing to have an initial phone call have worked out consistently higher then face to face meetings every did for me.
Learning to love the phone.
When I first started freelancing I was all about email, it works well in the agency settings and it’s less time consuming then a phone call. Plus as an added bonus you get a written record of everything.
But I’ve discovered that email centred communication doesn’t work for all clients/companies, as such I’ve had to brush up on my phone skills. Particularly being able to drop what I’m doing to take a client call.
I have discovered however that a phone call can often clear things up faster and clearing then a string of emails.
Further Reading.
One site that has been a huge resource for me during this period of change has been Freelance Switch. It’s a huge well of information and helpful advice, covering a broad range of freelancing issues and discussions. Covering everything from budgeting, client management, and new business development. It’s quickly become one of my daily reads.