By: Dorothy Ryan (dotwebs.com)

If I could have invoiced for every wasted hour since I started out in the web design business just over eight years ago, I’d have made my fortune by now. So for those who are starting out, here’s the heads up on spotting and dealing with clients who will eat into your time. My examples are specific to web design, but I’m sure some of them apply to all types of businesses.

The client with the next big idea!

This is the client who calls you up, describes the next eBay or Facebook, asks you to think about it and see if you can come up with a few ideas.

How you should respond:

Unless you really are a start-up angel, you need to lay down the ground rules from the outset otherwise you could end up spending a large number of unpaid hours working on a project that may not come to fruition. Make sure to tell them that you charge for your time spent researching and planning, even if the job doesn’t go ahead.

The client who doesn’t want much

You know the one, yes, you’ve heard it before…

“I’m just looking for a simple website, where I can sell my products, nothing complicated. I’ll come back for the bigger site later”

Talking down requirements is something that some people are very good at. It may mean that they really don’t understand how much work is involved and truly believe that it’s easy. After all, they’ve seen all the free stuff that’s out there!

A few conversations later and you realize that they are looking for full a ecommerce site complete with complicated customization.

How you should respond:

Make sure that you know exactly what they are looking for before you mention any price or you could be lumbered with many long hours of unpaid work.

Meetings, meetings and more meetings:

Some clients love meetings and will call a meeting at every stage of the process. In my opinion taking a website from brief to launch should not include more than two face-to-face meetings, one at the initial planning stage and one later on to discuss content, and even the latter isn’t really necessary.

How you should respond:

Try to get them into the habit of contacting you by email or set up an online project management process for them to monitor progress. There are lots of project management tools that offer a free service for single users and most will allow you a free trial for a limited time.

If they still keep calling meetings, consider telling them that this is outside the original scope and that you will need to charge them.

Can you map that out for us?

Beware of the client that will ask you to provide a detailed specification of their ideas and then decide not to run with it. Your hard work then goes on to be used as the starting point for their own in-house designer.

How you should respond:

If you already know and trust the client, this is probably not the case. But if it is someone you don’t know, you need to be cautious. You might want to warn them in advance that they will have to pay for your time even if they don’t use you for the
job.

Can you mock that up for us?

When you are starting out, you may find it easier to sell your services if you provide a design idea before they have accepted your contract. But lots of time can be wasted on work that will never see the light of day.

How you should respond:

Once you have established a strong portfolio you don’t need to prove to the client that you can design their website. If they really need a design from you before they are willing to commit, then charge a fee for it.

We can talk about the content at a later stage

You think you have almost completed the project and are on target with your go-live date, all you need is the content for the pages.

Then there is silence. When you press the issue, the client either sends you the company brochure, or they send email you a few links to competitor sites and expect you to devise their content by paraphrasing the competitor’s.

How you should respond:

Make sure that you ask the client how content will be delivered at the initial meeting. If you have to scan images and copy content from printed brochures or research and write the content yourself, you need to know this so that you can factor this into your costs.

Remember, don’t waste your time – charge for it!

About the Author

Dorothy Ryan designs and builds websites of all shapes and sizes for all types of businesses. She set up Dotwebs Website Design in 2002 offering a plethera services including custom web design, evaluation and re-design, custom and open source developement, SEO content writing, email marketing and much, much more…

Visit: www.dotwebs.com