Many articles have been written about client relations, but not all of the advice that is out there works all of the time. Every client is different. What works for one client may not work for another. In fact, developing good client relations is more like an art than a science. In this post, we’ll discuss the art of client relations and how you can take some steps to master it.

Client Relations as an Art

Creating an art piece is different from following a recipe. Someone who is following a recipe can usually duplicate the results as long as they use the same type of ingredients. The recipe works the same way every time. In fact, this is true of any proven method. For example, if you follow the directions carefully for changing your car’s battery and use the same quality battery each time, you should get the same results.

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As I start business planning, I usually find the problem is to work out specifically what I want to achieve. “I want to be able to make a living doing this” is a nice idea … but what’s “a living”? Whatever it is, I don’t usually expect I’ll be making it in the first month of operation — I need time to build a client base, secure contacts, sell my services, and complete some work. And that’s usually before I get paid.

All this can very quickly become overwhelming — sometimes to the point of paralysis. Rather than giving up, I’ve narrowed down three possible options that I pull out when I reach this point. These kick-start my planning and get me on the road to starting something new.

Option 1: Set a Dollar Goal

This is a fairly easy way to get started: set an income goal that you want to reach every month (or week, if you prefer). The only thing you really need in order to do this effectively is an idea of the rate you can charge, and/or a grasp of the size of the market for your offering.

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I’m sure you’re looking for all these qualities and more, but the idea that only a company can provide them is a large misconception. Freelancers often provide above and beyond the traditional business model, because they don’t have the limitations that most companies are bound by.

You should hire a freelancer for your next project, and I’ll explain why.

The first and foremost reason for hiring a freelancer is the quality of work. A freelancer is useless without a good portfolio, and to maintain clients, a high standard is a continual requirement. A freelancer is directly responsible for every piece of work produced, and every job must be treated as such. When you work with a freelancer it’s very much ‘what you see is what you get’ – you will have seen their work, and you know they will be the one working on your project. You will be getting the expertise and quality of work that you paid for directly, not that of whoever has been allocated to work on your project.

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Even other Internet marketing methods pale with an ROI of $19.94 for every dollar spent.
If an e-newsletter or or other email tool isn’t in your marketing toolbox, the above fact alone should pique your interest. Here are some other bits of information to excite your inner email marketer.
E-newsletters are dirt cheap to produce

When compared to postal mailings, email wins, hands down. Producing a postcard, self mailer or other mailing piece requires a few basic things. You’ll need to have it printed, you’ll need a list and you’ll need to buy postage. Sure, you can print it on demand with an inkjet printer, but the results will likely be somewhat less than professional. Plus, you risk poor positioning in the recipient’s mind when they think, “Hmmm … must not be doing very well if they can’t afford to print a simple mailer.”

Beyond this, you may need to rent or purchase a mailing list, usually from a list broker. Typical mailing list pricing is based on a cost per thousand (CPM) and typical B2B lists average around 16-30 cents per name. Plus, many list brokers have a minimum fee of $500, regardless of the size of the list.

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While your clients may not mind one or two typos in your emails, letters, and other communications to them (everyone makes a typo from time to time), frequent mistakes when you write to your client could give them the idea that you’ll be sloppy with their work. (It’s not just writers who need to be careful. Most clients expect you to communicate clearly and carefully regardless of the work that you will be doing for them.)

The good news is that most writing mistakes are easily fixed. In this post we’ll identify 20 mistakes to avoid. We’ll also point you to some resources where you can improve your writing.

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So in today’s article I want to discuss the many ways you can back up your freelance life – and why you should. We’ll be covering offline back ups, online back ups and back ups that are a mixture of technology and a bit of good old fashioned business sense. One of the main reasons I am writing this article is because of a recent issue I had, and a restless, sleepless night that followed, which caused me to jump into high gear and get things set up for myself and my business. The peace of mind that comes with it is priceless, I assure you.

First, lets look at some offline backups

The first thing I want to discuss is the one item that caused me so much headache and worry – offline back ups of your files. You know, those important files like Photoshop designs for your clients, contracts, stock images you’ve spent months (or years) compiling, brushes, fonts and so on.

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A solution that works every time: break the job into smaller bits, and do those bits in bursts. That may sound obvious, but not many people put this to optimal use. Too often they procrastinate because they’re stuck with a daunting task on their to-do list. If that’s you, try these 10 productive tips:

Granularize. Got a project? Just put the very next physical action on your to-do list, not everything on the list. Is that task still too intimidating? Break it down even further. For example, instead of writing a whole article, write the intro. Or do an outline. Instead of doing a whole graphic design, just do a sketch. Or start by brainstorming. Or searching the web for ideas (don’t get lost on the web).

Granularize further. If that’s still too big, just do 10 minutes of the task. You don’t need to finish it. Do 10 minutes, and at least you’ve gotten off to a good start. After 10 minutes, you can stop — or just as often, you may just keep going. Even if you stop, doing something in 10-minute bursts is a bit more likely to get it done than putting it off forever. Just a tad more likely.

Set a timer. OK, you’re going to do this in a 10-minute burst — now set a timer and do it. When the timer goes off, you can stop. Timers are great tools for working in bursts.

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Before launching into my thoughts on being a freelancer, I should tell you that I am in fact a freelance designer. I’ve made my living for the past six years solely as a freelancer and plan on continuing to do so for years to come. This by no means makes me any sort of guru on the subject, but it does mean that I’ve experienced many of the joys and disasters that come with the territory. Therefore, today I’ll be speaking not as a supreme authority, but merely as someone who is eager to share what I’ve learned along the way.

Reality Check

If you’re thinking about getting into freelancing, let me burst your bubble a bit. When I talk to people about what I do, I often get the feeling that they imagine that I have the easiest job on Earth. Surely I must sleep in, sit in my boxers all day, work whenever I want, go on three hour lunches, take 15 sick days a month and still somehow manage to rake in exorbitant amounts of money. Unfortunately, all of these things couldn’t be further from the truth.

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But that’s just the beginning.

Today I’d like to follow up on that post by sharing some valuable tips on what to do when you’ve identified a potential client as a “problem client” who is going to take up more of your time than usual or is going to add a lot more stress or frustration to your life than the typical project would. Obviously, if there are enough red flags to make you want to run away and never look back, do that. As I mentioned before, if something just feels wrong, then it probably is. However, some situations are manageable with just a few simple steps, and might actually turn out to be not so bad after all.

Assess the Situation

Once you’ve gotten a feel for the client, try to gauge just how troublesome the project might be if you proceed, and estimate how much extra time and energy will be required to make it a success. Once you’ve done this, you can apply the following steps to help you keep your sanity, and your dignity.

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The all important setup

By far the most important part of a freelancers repertoire is their setup. Studies have shown that using a single desk for working on and only working on massively improves productivity due to the mind being in the right zone at the right time. You shouldn’t eat at your work desk, play computer games, watch movies or anything that isn’t work – keep it strictly business.

Make sure you have a solid desk at a good height, a proper chair with good support and for goodness sake make sure that you are sitting comfortably. You will likely be spending the majority of your day sitting there, it is so very easy to do long term damage by sitting to high or low, with your eyes not at the right level with your monitor or having bent wrists. Take care of yourself, get your sitting position sorted.

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Increase Productivity

Perhaps the most obvious is to work harder. One of the biggest shocks for workers new to freelancing is the recognition that time is money. While it’s theoretically true that freelancers are free to take time off whenever they want, provided there’s no deadline looming (and when does that ever happen?), it’s certainly true that they’ll be counting the amount of money they didn’t earn during those hours at the beach. The more billable work you can pack into a day then, the more you’ll be able to earn.

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But with so many others striving to do that same thing, how is it you can rise above the multitudes to still be singled out? Not to mention trying rise above the agencies that are further populating the waters, and complicating the issue.

Of course, most of us are of the mind that our work should speak for itself, and while this is a sound principle to stand by, we first have to get people to see our work.

We have to find effective ways to bring these businesses to our blogs or portfolio sites that demonstrate our skills and reasons why we are so employable. But this often puts all of the pressure and focus off of your work, and puts it someplace far less comfortable (for some), right on you. Which means that you are the one, the only one, responsible for tempting traffic in your direction by establishing a draw and fostering the right atmosphere.

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The Story So Far

In the FreelanceSwitch article, the author lists the following conditions for an ‘ideal project profile’ -

* A web writing, speaking, consulting or UX design assignment at my current or higher fee
* The assignment takes less than 15 hours a week to produce and is completed within one month or less.
* The client is okay with a remote working arrangement – face-to-face meetings are not necessary.
* The client is okay with deliverables created in my choice of software.
* Almost all communication will take place via email, using my email account (no agency aliases). If conference calls are needed, they are a maximum of once a week and one hour or less in duration. No instant messenger required.
* Invoice is paid in full within 30 days.

All of these are really good, I very much enjoyed the post as a whole and there are some awesome rules of thumb to follow there, it was just the very last point that bugged me.

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Firstly, what is coworking? You may have read about it before but here’s the Wikipedia definition: Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space.

Basically, this means working in a shared or open office with a group of other freelancers. The others might be remote workers who normally work from a home office or they could be coworking aficionados. Either way, here are five advantages of coworking for freelancers.

New ideas come from breaking out of your comfort zone

The opportunity to work across a desk from someone with a different skill set can provide a source of new ideas. Equally, I often find that a new working environment causes my brain to work slightly differently (perhaps it’s just me) and in these situations I have come up with new ideas for existing problems. Either way, more ideas can only be beneficial if you are working for yourself.

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