SUPER Project management for freelancers

Project Management for
Freelancers

Jarne W. Beutnagel ( jwb@eaaa.dk)
Business Academy Aarhus, IT-Days March 2013

 Freedom?
 Power?
 Fame?
 Fortune?

 Full financial obligation
 Insurance
 Retirement
 Holiday fund
 Sick days
 Taxes

 Full responsibility for
 Getting new projects
 Running projects
 Handling clients
 All of the product

 Balance between work and personal life
 Workflow of projects
 Dependency on clients (avoid being
bound by a few key clients)
 Getting started

 Work for friends or family
 Find a small project
 Non-profit projects always look good and
you feel less bad about not getting paid
much

 Finish one of the prototypes you build for
a client here at school
 Arrange a small fee for finalizing a school
project so that the client can use it

 Make use of referrals
 Ask people to refer you to their network
 Focus on problem solving, not on tools or
techniques. Say “I make small web sites that
are simple to use”, instead of “I do HTML5,
CSS3 and awesome jQuery effects”

 Go out there and make friends
 Go to conferences, talks, events
 E.g. Startup Weekend, Creative Mornings, Goto
 Have quality business cards

 Write about stuff
 Get a voice and start participating in
discussions
 Have a blog
 Use social media

You need to realize what you are and how
you are perceived

Freelancing is a business
(making you a business owner)

 Be sure to take on each role with
responsibility
 Become competent in many areas

 Hang out where the other cool kids hang
out
 Put in bids on freelance sites
 Speak to your network

For most freelancers
80% of work comes from the
network

Selling yourself
The all important portfolio

 You can’t afford not to have one
 Can’t build it? Buy it.
 Can’t design it? Buy it.
 Get inspired

Be clever about it
Understand what a project is

THE PROJECT COMPONENTS
Understanding what a project consists of

Environment

Control

Valida-
Goals Production tion

THE PROJECT STRUCTURE
The composition of a project in phases

‘SUPER’ PROJECTS
Simplified Uniform Project Environment for Results

THE 4 PHASES

1 2 3 4
Initiation Plan Production Completion

OVERVIEW
• Divided into 4 phases
1) Initiation (project setup)
2) Plan (research, ideas & concept)
3) Production (design & development)
4) Completion (hand-in & delivery)

1 INITIATION

1 2 3 4

• Communicate terms and conditions
• Know what the client wants, not what
they say they want
• What are the client’s expectations?

• No contract, no project
• Use a standard contract
• Set up payment terms

• Have a separate project description

• Define success criteria

• Identify project stakeholders

• Determine number of revisions
• Set up online project management
services (not per email)

2 PLAN

1 2 3 4

• Ensure you know what to build and
the client agrees
• Lets the client see what goes into a
project
• Control the amount of client feedback
involved
• Get sign off before production

3 PRODUCTION

1 2 3 4

• Separate overall plan from detail
focus
• Ensure early planning and assignment
of resources
• Put focus on the confirmation of each
task

1) MANAGE TASKS

Backlog Worksheet
DEFINE

PLAN

2) SPRINTS

THINK SPRINT Finish

Prepare Make Confirm

4 COMPLETION

1 2 3 4

• Prepare a high quality delivery
• Get the final approval from the client
• Give the client a chance to see it
through, find mistakes and for you to
correct them
• Ensure that success criteria achieved

Know what you did
Time Tracking

 Use time tracking software. Always
 Lets you communicate with the client
 On the invoice so the client can see what
you did and what he is paying for
 You will know how effective you are
 Improves your future estimates

Try to categorize
Types of Projects

 Group projects together, so that you get a
better overview
 Find common attributes
 Length
 Complexity
 Type

 Which ones do you value the most?
 How much of your time would you like to
spend on this?
 How profitable are these types of
projects?
 Map them out

Try to categorize
Types of Clients

 Group them together to identify
 Profitability
 Need for support
 Amount of “friction”
 Level of quality expectations
 Size
 Portfolio fitness

Organize it all
The Project Pipeline

 Put all this info together in a visual
representation
 See which type of projects you currently
have
 See what is coming down the line
 Plan accordingly
 Tip: Use some services for this (e.g.
salesforce.com)

 Use this to identify dependencies upon
companies
 E.g. if 40% of all your income is from one
client, you are too dependent on this
client

Rule nr 1:
The Client is always right

Rule nr 2:
The Client is often wrong

 Don’t look at what the client says he
wants
 Look at what goal he is trying to achieve
 Work towards that goal together

Rule nr 3:
You are a professional
(so behave like one)

 Always communicate politely
 Be proactive
 Be confirmative
 Have good email manners

Hi there,

This is what I want for the website. It should be
simple to use and very light in color, no heavy.
There are going to be many subpages which also
need to have the same look. I would like our
logo to be in the upper left corner in all pages
(except on firstpage). Don’t use moody colors
and don’t clutter the pages. Visual look is
important. Also, if I go to the page I want to
know where I am.

 What you write:

Hi Mr Client,

Thank you for your email, it was very informative. From this I suggest
to include the following in the project:
• Implementation in a CMS system that is easy to use when updating
the site
• Consistent look between all of the pages
• A design that is light in look, not too heavy and with a minimal of
elements

However I do have a few questions:
• What do you mean by “I want to know where I am”? I was thinking
about implementing a breadcrumb style navigation. Would that be
sufficient?
• Do you have any existing design guides (such as colors, fonts, etc.)
that you use for your current visual look?

Rule nr 4:
You are only as good as
your last project

 Coming from a great project is energizing
 You are more confident during
negotiations
 You know that you rock!

 You mentally feel bad when you do a bad
project
 It leaves a dark cloud after it
 Your approach to new clients and projects
is less passionate

 “It’s just a small thing, won’t take long at
all”
 “We will give a reference and more jobs
down the line. Think of this as an
investment.”
 “Normally my [random family member]
does this, but he is busy right now.”

 Meaning: Do it cheap

 “I’m not sure what exactly we are looking
for, so could you come with a few
suggestions?”
 “Submit a design and we will choose the
best one.”
 “We would like to test it for a few weeks
before we make a final decision.”

 Meaning: We don’t want to commit and
we see your product as a commodity

What to charge
1) Know your costs

 Direct costs are the amount of hours that
go into a project
 This is typically what the client is
expecting to pay for
 These could include project handling &
support

 Indirect cost are all the work you do for a
project, which is not included in the actual
bill for the project
 These costs can be a substantial part of your
costs
 Indirect costs could be:
 Negotiating with the client
 Support
 Shopping for new projects
 Learning new things
 Finding solutions

 Overhead costs are all the bill you have to
pay, regardless if you work or not
 These include
 Rent
 Utilities & bills
 Food & Beers

What to charge
2) Set your normal rate

 What is your desired profit per month?
 (remember taxes)
 How many work hours do you have
available?
 Calculate your normal rate

What to charge
3) Set your minimum
rate

 What is the minimum you need to have as
income each month?
 You must always have this income to
survive

What to charge
4) Set your discount
rates

 When can you afford to give discounts?
 Who should get it and why?
 How much discount are you comfortable
giving?

What to charge
5) Calculate your rates

 For a particular project, look into
 How much income do you have scheduled
the coming period?
 How many hours are left?
 Which benefit will a discount give you?

Are you cheap or expensive
Compare your rates to
other freelancers

 Find their rates online
 Maybe write them and ask?
 Be a mystery shopper

 Compare your rates
 If you are cheaper, is that a benefit for you
or can you raise your rate?
 If you are more expensive, is there a good
reason for this?
 Else try to decrease your costs or increase
the perceived value

What you are worth depends on your

Perceived Value

 How are you creating value for your
clients?
 What do they value in doing business with
you?

Getting your money

Handling payments

 Divide the payment into sub-payments
 Get a sub-payment at mile stones in the
project
 Could be a 25%|25%|50% split
 Or 50%|50%
 Find natural payment point in the project
(e.g. design approval)

NEVER hand over the project
before the last payment has
received

It all comes down to this

Cash flow

 How to balance out payments to reduce
reliance upon clients paying in due time
 They often do not pay on time
 Trick: Offer a discount (e.g. 5%) if they pay
within 3 days

SUPER Project management for freelancers

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