Contract
We formally engage a client and their project with a contract. Your business website should provide a simple Terms and Conditions the client can be referred to, even though it is unlikely people read such documents.
If you are an individual, it is also unlikely you have the money to engage a solicitor to write a contract template, let alone use legal services if you have a “bad” client. It is not good practice to write complex documents yourself, as you can only advise or indicate general requirements – as you do not have a formal legal document. So keep it clear, simple, short. This could be included in a formal e-mail that verified the client has agreed for you to commence work and payment understanding between both parties.
People often write contracts that are basically shocking, let alone truly legal, thinking they can get away with it, and people sign them. (!)
Your approach is to have one-to-one meetings with a client even if by Zoom, and follow up with an email on what you discussed, how you work, what the client needs to do, and what you both agreed to.
It is important according to Australian practice, to consider both yourself and the other party without clearly favouring yourself and disadvantaging the client. Again, many people will have a tilted balance scale on such issues. It is not correct consumer practice.
Contract Content
You may think a client is friendly and will work with you the way you like. This is not reality. A client can turn on you swiftly when it comes to delivery of requirements and money that is involved. One approach is to clarify what is in scope, and avoid commenting on what is out of scope. One can specify what is a reasonable extent of work, and thereafter the need for pricing variation. Your estimates must be fair, rather than based on fear and over-stating time and money. Your total price should include some leeway. Your project should have a CAP limit anyway, with variations defined so pricing does not become nonviable.
I like to give a time-frame for works to complete, so a project does not drag on. For example, three months. I state how the client will have task lists to address during that time, and that as the project proceeds, if they add more work, even though in scope, it is to be paid for. The client will push to have more than you both agreed, or say the extra work falls under the agreed scope – however this is clearly not the agreed extent of effort. If you are generous and give more than asked, the client will assume this is okay and ask for more at no extra cost. You can only manage this politely but it is still good to give more – hence the need for some leeway in your total price.
What is a good and fair price for a website? Even a single page website can take up to two week’s worth of effort as there will be more than one meeting. You have the associated works such as SEO, DNS records, backups, admin, etc. Perhaps a simple site for friends is $1K, a simple site for clients $1.5K, more developed work $2.5K to $3.5K, and quite detailed sites with lots of products or images, $5K.
When we write a contract (or what implies a contract) we do not say we will do our best to do such and such. This is too demanding in a crisis. We can say we will take reasonable steps – but if that situation happens, you must keep a record to prove you did that. We do not use words like “I will” or “Guarantee”. We can say the work shall consist of, as “shall” is less strong a word.
A project is divided into sections. You need to understand how you work. For instance, pre-design via two meetings. Limited photography with that cost as a separate item. The pages you intend to build – home, about, contact and so on. How many blog pages, and how many products, as these things consume time. You will talk about presenting a prototype design with a colour scheme and logo as agreed, and general acceptance of the design as you can then go to town on it without any further requests to go back and modify or start again due to the dependencies you previously built and spent the time on. You should include further catch up times, and final presentation. Obviously if this is an end-to-end service, you discuss domain name, hosting, account ownership, maintenance, and transfer of the site to someone else in the future as required.
What You Offer
There is a lot we can say here, but the main thing is to make sure the client knows what you mean, and you know what they want. If the client is expecting programming, database work, or complex software interactions, you have to have the skills to do that, or say sorry, it is not part of what you provide. Larger projects need to go to professional web delivery teams, not yourself as one person.
Keep in mind as a crucial principle, you do not want to become burdened by how you developed a site for longer term use. Keep constructs as maintenance free as possible. If you intend to make websites a full time business, you will over-consume valuable time if constantly editing sites that should have remained simpler, and you don’t want to be worn out. If you have a novel feature this may be good at the start, but what is the long-term value. The client’s customers may comment how good something is, but looking back, did it really generate more revenue for the client by having that feature? There may be other features that assist the client gain more. Of course, this really determines the client can manage software features such as mail outs, webinars, payment systems and the like, as opposed to you answering their phone calls and emails every minute.
If you are keen to get work, you may overextend yourself and realise later it was far harder to provide what someone wanted. Learn to develop your own expertise over time, and as a newbie, do not undercut your pricing. It is awful to do really good work and not be paid properly for it. As an example of specialisation, I am able to do high quality photography for a website, which adds to its uniqueness. People love local photos. These days we can get away with some of our photos on high-end smartphones, but DSLR cameras provide better full width screen photos.
If a client starts to include more work, for example, you agree to ten pieces of artwork, and they change it to one hundred, you have to let them know the additional price, or they will come back at you later and accuse you for the extra cost. This is how things happen.
When presenting pricing, do not drill down into detail. If asked, you can say you do not provide further detail as this is how your business works. Clients are not, and should not be interested in things like, how much time and cost to install WordPress and plugins – this is insane detail. It is normal business practice to decline such requests. If a client wants to examine your costings so they can change it, adding hours or subtracting, say no. We are not doing that level of negotiation and high-cost pricing. If they want to move costs from one category to another because you used less time on one, the answer is no. When you invoice future work, you may want to add more specifics for your hourly billing.
Our small projects do not require a functional specification, a design document and so forth. But we do need to establish agreement on aims, design decisions, what is included or not, so we can refer back to that when the client forgets, or when one of their friends causes upset with something they do not like or a decision they were not involved in.
Communications
It helps to spend the energy to keep up communications with the client. However, a project cannot run with conflict on decisions. The client must agree to one person as central contact, but keep in mind the likes and dislikes of other people in the project.
Clients will not understand technical speak, but you may have to summarise situations or tasks as a record of what you did. Never do free work without notifying the client what they got for free. This can be done is a good way, rather than “telling” them.
I am always transparent, but I still use diplomacy on sensitive problems. Don’t try to cover yourself as right and put someone else down. I’ve never needed to do that on all of my projects. Just use common sense and speak like a real person with the client.
Always get back to a client with their questions as quickly as possible, or if there is something you do not know, let them know you are looking at it and will respond shortly. It is not good business practice to leave the client in silence after receiving a request during the rest of the day, or up until the time you decide to answer.
Business is about ownership. If you are unable to own a request or problem, you do not brush off the client, but pass the banner to another, and then release your ownership. It does not matter how trivial, or how important a client concern is, or if they are “important” or just the regular Jo on the street. All people are treated the same, regardless of your evaluation that could say otherwise. This is proper practice.
You are seen as the expert in your field. It is okay not to know something, so when that happens you say you will need to get back on that one. Then do.
You should always present yourself well – how you dress, how you speak, your attitude, and importantly your ability to enjoy listening and relating. Do not criticise the client, or behind their back laugh at how they do not know what they should have, that you know best. You want to establish a good relationship, and that may mean visiting to say hello and see if you can learn more about their business as a courtesy.
When you develop a site, ensure you keep backups of your work, and provide a small handover with details of account logins and passwords. Do not put client work into your own account, as that is problematic if you need to transfer ownership, or move a client’s work to another platform. I always insist a client owns their own accounts for domain names, and if using Amazon AWS services, they must have their own account.
Common Sense
When designing a website, it is not your site. It is the client’s. You need to be flexible, and sometimes take time to explain some aspect you feel is best, and at other times provide what they ask. You are not there in order to present your own pet ideas or trendy things that later will wear off. You want quality that lasts for the life cycle of the site.
It is not possible to support several WordPress themes, so work out the theme or themes you are happy to use, and for the client to pay for a license. Your website must be legally licensed. Do not make purchases, such as plugins, without the client knowing and agreeing to pay. It is standard practice to invoice with a 30 day payment period, so develop your ability to use at least PayPal and Stripe payment systems.
We see a number of website designs that are quite bad. You can learn to follow good practices, rather than being one of those who pretend they know what they are doing, who overcharge for bad work, who don’t care about giving someone else a bad result.[/vc_wp_text]
