Be In Control of Your Process
If you create work for clients, you need to be in control of your process.
Some clients want to get in the nitty gritty with you. They ask for extra revisions, they ask to see multiple options, they ask you to show them clips in advance.
None of this is bad. Unless it isn’t part of your process.
Many freelancers I know concede control of their process to a client. Because they’re afraid of making the client mad! I did this dozens of times when I first started freelancing. A client would ask for something that wasn’t part of my process, and I would do it for them anyway. They would ask for a service that wasn’t in the scope, and I was too nervous to tell them no.
Guess what happened? It tanked my freelance business.
Here’s why it’s a big deal: the profitability of your business depends on efficient systems and processes. Let’s say you have a client who pays you $1,600 per month. If you spend eight hours each week working with that client, and they ask you to do something that’s not part of your process, but will only take one additional hour each week, many of us would say yes. But if a client asked you to give them $200 each month, you would call them crazy. Here’s the thing: from a time-to-dollar perspective, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Many clients ask for things. Few of them really care how things are done. They just want to know what the process is. If your clients repeatedly ask you for things that aren’t part of your process, it might be true that you haven’t explained your process well enough to them.
The best part about being really clear about your process is that you never have to say no. If they ask for something extra, you can quickly and confidently say “Yes! That’ll only be $100 additional per week.”
Good luck out there.
Read more posts for freelancers here.
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