Escaping Client Hell: 6 Practical Tips To Make Freelancing Fun Again
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Jen Jeavons discusses effective strategies for freelancers in her presentation at WordCamp Sydney 2019, focusing on communication, empathy, and setting boundaries. She emphasizes understanding client concerns, setting clear project expectations, and learning to manage one's ego to foster a positive working relationship. The presentation also addresses the importance of project management, value-based pricing, and establishing rules to minimize scope creep and maintain professionalism.
Escaping Client Hell: 6 Practical Tips To Make Freelancing Fun Again
- 1. JEN JEAVONS | WORDCAMP SYDNEY 2019 ESCAPING CLIENT HELL: 6 PRACTICAL TIPS TO MAKE FREELANCING FUN AGAIN
- 2. We combine marketing, technology & design to transform businesses. Pixel Palace are a Brisbane-based digital agency transforming medium to large businesses through marketing, technology and design services that elevate brands.
- 3. WORKEXAMPLES
- 4. It wasn't always this way...
- 6. IT ALL COMES DOWN TO PEOPLE If you’re not good at communication, you either need to learn it or hire someone who is. • Tailor your communication style to each client Tips 1. • Get comfortable with uncomfortable conversations • Call (don't email!) around difficult conversations • Follow up with an email outlining what you just discussed on the phone
- 7. YOUR EGO WILL KILL YOU Managing your ego and keeping it in check is one of the most productive, rational, magnetic, attractive things you can do. If a client criticizes you or sends feedback you don’t like, learn not to take it personally, and instead ask yourself, “where’s the truth in their perspective?” You take the feedback you can work with, then leave the rest. Tip 2.
- 8. IS A SUPERPOWER YOU CAN LEARN EMPATHY Empathy is the act of putting yourself in others’ shoes and seeing a problem from their point of view. • Predict a client’s questions and proactively answer them • Predict what they will feel when they read your answer • Understand what is driving their reactions, feedback and behaviour Use an "Assumption of positive intent" (thanks Brene Brown!) and work from the assumption that people are doing the best they can. Tip 2. FURTHER TO THAT
- 9. YOU NEED TO GET PICKY 3. • Have budget (that lets you have time to give a sh*t and shows they understand your value) Good clients • Have good communication skills and are responsive and respectful • Are invested in the project AND you as an expert • Know what they want and/or are happy to be advised • Get bonus points for being fun and someone I’d like to go for a beer with
- 10. Red Flags 3. • First question is "how much will it cost?" • They don’t want to get on a phone call • They take ages to respond • They have multiple horror stories of previous service providers who have wronged them and they take no responsibility • Too excited / too emotional Ringing Vs Wringing Ringing is resonant. A small force causes sympathetic vibrations, and magic happens. Wringing requires significant effort and can even destroy the object it is applied to. FURTHER TO THAT
- 11. 4. LET'S TALK ABOUT VALUE • Value (fixed price) - moving away from hours & start selling on outcomes • Psychology of Value • Create the environment to remove client “doubt” “I don't charge by the hour. I charge by the awesome. Which makes me expensive, but also - and this is critical - awesome.”
- 12. The benefit of the doubt The patient responds to medicine when he believes in the doctor who prescribes it. The client is far more likely to applaud your work if he's already put down a big, non-refundable deposit. A huge part of making our work more effective is creating the environment where we will be given the benefit of the doubt. Often, creating this environment is at least as important as the work itself. The benefit to both sides is huge. Doubt is the project killer and investing in diminishing that doubt is time well spent. Seth Godin
- 13. 5. THE IMPORTANCE OF BOUNDARIES • Don’t answer emails, calls or texts on the weekend People will like you MORE if you set clear boundaries • Respond promptly and communicate clearly (demonstrate behaviour) • Have a conversation at the start about these rules and how to get the best out of the relationship • Payment up front - deposit, invoice paid before launch etc • Be prepared to walk away • Show them you have systems and processes in place and explain why
- 14. “If you reserve your best effort for the irritable boss, the never-pleased client and the bully of a customer, then you've bought into a system that rewards the very people who are driving you nuts. It's no wonder you have clients like that – they get your best work. On the other hand, when you make it clear (and then deliver) on the promise that your best work goes to those that are clear, respectful and patient, you become a specialist in having customers just like that.” Who get's your best work? Seth Godin Boomerang for Gmail will let you schedule emails to send later. Tip
- 15. 5. ELIMINATE SCOPE CREEP • Take time to scope in detail prior to quoting Get practiced at serving a Sh*t Sandwich. Tip • Keep asking questions • Nip it in the bud early • Quote for all out of scope work even if you’re prepared to do it for free • Communicate discounts & extras clearly as you go
- 16. 6. GOTTA HAVE RULES Run things like you're an agency even if you're not. Take the “choice” out of it for yourself and it becomes “how the business rolls” • Project management • Deadlines on both sides • Accounting systems and rules for invoicing and payment • Clearly defined operating hours Pay yourself a set wage each week on auto transfer. Tip
- 17. 1. PEOPLE & COMMUNICATIONS 2. EGO & EMPATHY 3. GET PICKY 4. VALUE 5. BOUNDARIES 6. RULES