A project is made up of 1000’s of decisions

There are some major decisions:

What is the core problem we are trying to solve?
Which features provide the most benefit to our users?
Which are the nice to haves?
What personality should we go for?

And there are thousands more micro decisions:

Where should this button go?
What happens when I click it?
Which fields do I need to place emphasis on?
Which screen comes next?
Does this copy feel right on this form?

It is these decisions which make or break a project. The difficulty is knowing the answers.

Open source inherently knows the answers

Open source is the most ‘natural’ way to develop. The programmer has a problem which current software doesn’t solve. So they code a solution. The projects are self selected. The developer is scratching their own itch. All the project decisions can be answered by the programmer.

When I built FormIgniter I was both the user and the developer. As a result I knew exactly what it needed to do. I could tell if design decisions weren’t working. I added the things I wanted. I left out features that I considered ‘fluff’ or just mere ‘bells and whistles’.

I took a stance and created a piece of opinionated software.

It is this ‘developer and user in one‘ combination which has lead to the wealth of high quality open source software.

But client work is different - someone else’s itch is being scratched

I’m continually amazed at how many companies miss vital flaws in their product or service, simply because they don’t use it every day. - Ryan Carson

Ryan makes a very good point. Usually when working for clients I am not the end user. I am unlikely to use the website or service at all, let alone on a daily basis.

To make informed decisions I need to either do a lot of research or be in constant consultation with my client. There usually isn’t a ‘Research’ budget on web builds and constant collaboration creates an undesirable communication overhead.

Even if constant collaboration was possible the client might not actually be the end user anyway.

For example recently a project to build a database for hospital GP’s came my way. I personally have no knowledge of this area. As a developer and not a GP I will never use this system myself. The client knows this area but they are not the end user. They commissioned the work on behalf of a hospital and will never actually use the system on a daily basis.

Between us there is a major knowledge gap.

So how do we close this gap?

Specialise. Work on projects where you are the end user.

I work closely with a web agency who solely work with independent documentary films makers; a niche within a niche. It is a decision which I have often thought would hold them back. Limiting your client base so severely seems like an obvious ‘business 101′ no no.

But working within such a small area has enabled them to develop an intimate knowledge of the industry.

They learnt the challenges and problems independent filmmakers face. They started to think like independent filmmakers themselves. In fact a few of them actually are. Over time they have created solutions. The tools they build are good because they know what film makers want. They don’t need to ask questions. They know the answers themselves. Clients come to them because this knowledge gives them an unique value within the marketplace.

So choose an area that you are passionate about. An area where you are naturally the end user. Get to know the field. Get to know the problems clients typically face. Work out the solutions.

Become a developer with market knowledge. Your work and satisfaction will improve because despite doing client work you will be scratching your own itch.

I wouldn’t advise starting something you’re not passionate about. It’ll be your life for the next 5+ years. Make sure you relish the idea of spending 12+ hours a day thinking about it.

The project is out of your hands. It is officially a limbo project.

Limbo projects cost money

Delays cost money

On a recent e-commerce build the client quite casually informed us they were going on holiday and wouldn’t be able to collate and populate the site for 3-4 weeks. The project had only been 3 weeks in the making so the wait essentially doubled the project time.

We had an invoicing schedule in place which broke the payments into 3×33% invoices which helped but we still couldn’t send the final invoice for another month. Given typical agency payment terms the payment might well not hit our account for a further half month.

A designer I work with recently related similar problems with slow site populations which were disrupting his cash flow.

Limbo projects lead to motivation and productivity losses

Aside from the invoicing problem, limbo projects lead to motivational and productivity losses which affect business efficiency and in turn the bottom line.

Productivity - When one project finishes another begins. The limbo project is however not completely finished. A limbo project looms over you, preventing you from fully immersing yourself in the new project. There are usually CMS queries and the odd bug report. After a couple of weeks the project is no longer fresh in your mind making support harder and slower. On top of this context switching to a limbo project distracts you from your latest project.

Psychological - Morale, motivation and inspiration are so important for knowledge workers. A team gets a nice buzz when a project goes live. If a project sits in limbo for a few weeks before going live this buzz disappears. The momentum has been lost and the achievement is soured.

What can be done to prevent and offset limbo projects?

1. All content is agreed and signed off before the build starts.

   The developers can then do the web build, populate the site and go live in a single push.

2. Agree to invoice when the web build is finished, rather than on project signoff.

   The client is responsible for populating the website in their own time. You tend to find that after receiving and paying an invoice the client is pretty swift to populate their site. The site launch is then charged as a separate item.

3. Set your client strict deadlines.

   Typically we are given deadlines by clients e.g. site must be build finished 2 weeks on Friday, but we seldom set deadlines for clients e.g. this content must be here by Wednesday. Building websites is a collaborative process so it only seems fair that each party holds up their end of the agreement.

4. Setup an invoicing schedule.

   A payment schedule is more like ‘Pay as you go’ and it makes the project more agile. The payment intervals and quantities are project dependent. An typical example is 35% deposit, 20% after design sign off, 40% after web build is complete, 5% on project completion. Based on these figures the content population delay will only hold up 5% of the total project cost.

What solution works best?

Each option has it’s pro’s and cons and are suitable for a specific size of project, and client. Whichever route you take it is important to explain the invoicing and client commitments before any work starts.

Number 1 (signing off all content before build) is only going to work on small builds. You really need to be able to see the site in a browser as a whole to balance the copy and imagery. It is very hard to produce content to fit a pdf design. It also will tend not to be suitable for sites with structured data, e.g. a restaurant review website, as the data fields usually evolve and changes during the build process.

Number 3 (agree deadlines with client) is good for large projects but comes with a management overhead making it unsuitable for small projects. Setting deadlines usually forces work to happen but if a client misses a deadline and there is a delay you still have a limbo project on your hands.

I really like the payment schedule outlined in 4 but again this is would be over the top for a small project.

Fo me number 2 (agreeing to invoice upon build completion, rather than launch) seems to be the best solution for a typical build. Taking the site live is considered an additional cost which is paid when the client is ready to take the site live.

If you’re not somewhat embarrassed by your 1.0 product launch, then you’ve released too late.

Personal achievements

• Have a side project. Using your non-billing hours to work on a web app, code library, blog, design work etc is both personally satisfying and a great way to self market. I found I lost a lot of the love for coding when I went into full time employment. After 40-50 hours of client work the last thing I wanted to do was log more screen time pursuing personal projects. Being able to carve out time in my working week for personal work is for me a major reason to freelance.
• Set and follow personal goals. The freedom of self employment and time savings make pursuing personal goals much easier. I have set goals to learn Spanish, improve my rock climbing grade, start running, and getting into the habit of writing. Setting monthly targets keeps me on track.

Avoid the workaholic

• Try to stick to a normal day. One of the benefits of freelancing is that you can choose your working day. But this can become a negative if you start working late into the nights.
• Disconnect from time to time. It is easy for freelancing to take over your life, and spend far too much time in front of a computer. I enforce no computer Saturdays.

Get out and about

• Try to work a day a week away from your office. The average freelancer will end up spending a lot of time in their house and in the worse case their bedroom. It is important to get a change of scenery. I work from a cafe on Friday afternoons over a relaxing lunch and find this time perfect for creative writing.
• Attend conferences. They are a great way to meet people, reinvigorate, get inspiration, and get noticed.
• Take mini-working holidays. Go visit a friend in the country and work half days. A change of scenery does wonders.

Remember why you became a freelancer

• Take advantage of your situation once in a while. Take a day off, go and read a book in a cafe, meet a friend. Don’t work to the point where you end up loosing your new found freedom and time.

Stay organised

• 

  My weekly todo list. Sometimes low tech works best.

  Be super organised. I use Basecamp, which is great for project todos and teamwork and an old fashioned week to view paper diary for my personal day to day todo planning. Absolutely everything I need to do, however small the task, goes into the diary. This prevents tasks slipping through the cracks, helps to identify and batch similar tasks together e.g. buying domain names or invoicing, and allows me to accurately plan how much I can get done in a given day or week.
• Put time limits on tasks. Using a timer creates a highly productive exam like condition. It also makes you aware of how long things are taking. Sometimes you need to cut your loses and move on.
• Apply and hit deadlines. It is easy to procrastinate with tasks which are not particularly time sensitive such as sending an email, or writing a blog post. Appending a deadline, arbitrary or otherwise, creates urgency and forces you to get things done. It also prevents you being too precious with side project work and forces you into a release early, release often mindset.

Avoid distractions

• Email is not an instant medium. Turn off your automatic inbox. Schedule times to check your email and stick to them. If there is a major problem your client can phone you.
• Skype calls can be a pain. Schedule in Video calls like you would meetings.
• Use IM sparingly.

Avoid time drains and restrictive work

• I don’t offer clients hosting as I don’t want them to be calling me if things go wrong. When you work out everything you need to do as a freelancer in a 40 hour week you start to realise your time is very limited.
• I was asked to take on a client’s IT training. The rate was good but the work required me to arrange and take regular phone training sessions. These sessions would of really restricted my freedom and broken up the productive chunks of time in my day. As a result I decided it was not worth while.

Structure and track your time

• Batch similar jobs together to improve productivity and reduce context switching.
• Schedule time to read the blogs, twitter etc (batching).
• Keep timesheets for everything you do. Not only will you know how many hours you are putting in, you will know where you time is going and be able to spot what is and isn’t profitable, and identify time leaks. Web apps such as such as tick or FreshBooks can help you out here.

Work with others

• 

  My home office setup.

  Find a helping hand or partner. If you a designer find a developer. If you are a back-end developer find a front-end guy. Working with others has large productive and quality gains.

Get the best kit going

• The total cost of the equipment a web professional needs is actually very small. Buy the best computer around. Get that second monitor. Buy a brilliant ergonomic chair. It will make your life that much easier.

Quoting

• Experiment with pricing schemes. Time based, value based, retainers, time based with a cap. There are lots of ways of charging and if you experiment you get a feel for what is appropriate for a given project.
• Don’t be afraid to charge different rates for different clients. Clients require different levels of support and come with different expectations. Understand this and quote accordingly.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for a client’s budget for jobs which are open ended. With knowledge of the budget you can produce a realistic proposal rather than guessing at a feature list and price point.
• Give your client options at different price points e.g. basic, top-end.
• If you don’t want to do a job quote high. Doing something you are not interested in is far easier when it is paying well.
• Factor in all the costs e.g. communication, accounting, expenses etc when quoting. I have been caught out on small jobs because I didn’t factor in the time spent communicating with the client.

Invoicing

• Invoice on 10, or less, day terms. 30 day terms are far too long for a one person freelancer.
• Collect 30% upfront for multi-day projects to help your cash flow and protect yourself.
• On larger projects create a payment schedule.
• Relax payment terms for loyal clients.
• Shorten payment terms for new clients.
• Invoice as soon as the work is complete to improve cash flow.

Accounts and finances

• Work out your tax and put money into a saving account each month. Trying to find the money at the end of the tax year is an awful situation to be in.
• Use one of the great accounting web applications such as FreshBooks.
• Put money aside for holiday pay each month. I had a holiday planned but suddenly had a rush of work. After working out the cost of the trip + the loss income my one week holiday looked staggeringly expensive. I ended up cancelling the holiday which was painful. Had I of set money aside to cover my pay as well as the trip itself I would of had no problem turning down the work and going.
• Put money aside for sick pay. There is nothing worse than feeling you have to work when you should be in bed resting.
• Accounts are actually really easy for a one man band.

Which clients?

• Clients are not born equal. Find the great ones and hold onto them as if your life depended on it.
• Projects are not born equal. Clients come with different expectations, based on what they do and the nature of the project. For example a 1k hobby website for a musician is not the same as a 1k job on an e-commerce store. The e-commerce client will expect a faster turnaround and will be on the end of the phone within minutes if anything goes wrong. An e-commerce store also comes with liability considerations. Factor this in when quoting and taking on clients and projects.
• Work for companies over individuals. Individuals have less money and the project is less urgent to them. This means low budget, slow builds which is bad for your cash flow. Companies have higher budgets and usually have a lot of ongoing work which is better for you long term.
• Work for people in your industry. Technical communication is easy and it is a great way to work within a team, a welcome change for a freelancer. It also places you one step removed from the end client which can be liberating. I do web development for a web agency who handle the end client, and it has lead to a steady stream of stress free work.

Client relationships

• Finding and building a good working relationship with a client takes time.
• Aim to cultivate clients relationships that last. One offs jobs are inefficient.
• It takes a lot more effort to pick up a new client than maintain an existing one.
• Keeping clients happy is pretty simple. Under promise, over deliver. Never break a promise. Never promise anything you can’t meet. Basic business advice takes you a long way.
• Communication is key. Explain potential issues to the client before starting project. Tell them when you are planning to start. Give them updates. Tell them if something goes wrong. Never leave them in the lurch. When something goes wrong not communicating is the worse thing you can do.
• Be honest. Clients will respect you.
• A client base of 5 good/great clients can easily sustain a single freelancer nicely. Once you get going you can afford to be picky.

Marketing and social networks

• Running a blog is time consuming but can lead to work. I have picked up a good regular client and a few projects from the modest traffic this blog receives. However I have sunk a lot of hours writing it. Had this blog solely been about marketing myself I would be disappointed with the results. My readers would also be disappointed because blogs which are primarily a marketing tool are obvious and seldom compelling. I write a blog because I enjoy writing and producing content. Any business that comes off the back of it is a bonus.
• Social marketing and self branding are not free. It takes considerable time to build up a personal brand and time is money. Don’t underestimate this.
• Use social networks as a way to connect with others in your field to improve your knowledge but don’t expect you clients to be following your clever code hacks.
• The best advertising for a freelancer is good old word of mouth. Be undeniably good.

Clients and money

• Start with a few months worth of burn money in the bank. I started with just one months pay and it made things very stressful.
• Get in touch with people you have worked with before and let them know you are now available as a freelancer. It is amazing how effective this is at producing work. I instantly got a handful of projects.
• Never poach clients from your previous employer’s company.
• Only take on jobs when you know you can produce a great result. Starting with money in the bank saves you from taking on unsuitable projects.
• Don’t be afraid to turn down work. Early on I turned down a large job with a great day rate. I was in desperate need of the money but the work was very specialised and involved technologies I hadn’t used before. After much thought I told client I wasn’t the right person for the work. They appreciated my honesty and I have since worked on numerous other projects with them.
• Don’t under price yourself. You never bill 5 days a week, you have costs which you don’t pay as an employee, and you have to do a lot of extra unpaid work such as accounts and quoting. It is very tough to increase your rates with an existing client, so get them right at the start.

Quoting and scheduling

• As few as 1 in 4 quotes comes in. Learn to quote quickly and accurately.
• Details quotes are not required for small jobs.
• Plan ahead. The average project seems to take 2 weeks to 1 month to get going. This includes initial quotes, emails, approval and asset transfer. As a result it is important to be looking for new projects all the time, even when your’re busy.

Projects

• Be realistic. Can you really support an e-commerce store 24/7 as a one man freelancer? Get to know companies in your field, and setup a referral schema so you can make money on work you don’t have the resources to take on.
• Aim for jobs which take 5-15 days. Small jobs come with many of the same overheads (quotes, emails, support) as big jobs. This makes a 1 or 2 day job not particularly profitable.
• Don’t take on projects with a legacy code-base. Clients tends to want small features added but it always seems to turn into a lot of painful work. Quote accordingly, ideally on a hourly rate.

If you took a nap in your office in a big company, it would seem unprofessional. But if you’re starting a startup and you fall asleep in the middle of the day, your cofounders will just assume you were tired.