Starting a Project With the End in Mind
Sometimes, a client will come to you with a fabulous project: something that you want to work on that just happens to be open-ended and will pay a nice chunk of your bills for months to come. You go in very excited about the project and the money and generally it’s a good gig. But the ending might not always be what you want. Maybe the client puts a sudden end to the project. Maybe the client has been following your every step and taking notes in the hopes of handling everything in house as soon as he’s learned all he can.
These situations are not necessarily bad, but if you plan for them from the start of the of the project, you can make the final transition for the project much easier when it does come around.
All Your Eggs in One Basket
A six-month contract where you work only for one client can wind up being a good choice, at least in terms of income. But in terms of what you’ll be doing next, it can be less ideal. No client is going to want to schedule six months out on a project with you unless you’re very good, so continuing to market can be a tough call. At the same time, though, there’s always the chance that the project won’t be completed as planned, so you want to make sure that you can line up something else fast if you have to.
So what are the alternatives? Working more than full-time on client work when you’re already bringing in enough income is hard to justify. It tends to make more sense to keep up at least some marketing activities to make sure that you’ve got regular requests for work coming in even if you can’t take on every project. It may also makes sense to explore options like building up some other income streams while you have the cushion of a big client. Something like creating some stock work that you can sell online or putting together an ebook can ensure that even when this contract ends, you still have some income coming in.
Look for Opportunity
With many clients, there are opportunities if you just look for them. These opportunities may not necessarily look like more work and can even mean ending a project early, but they’re opportunities just the same. Consider a client who is taking notes on every step of the process as you work on a project. The client probably won’t say anything, but there’s a good chance that he wants to try to figure out how to do what you do, so he can handle it in house (and cheaper) in the future. He may even be thinking about trying to get out of the contract when he has what he needs.
So offer to teach your client how you do what you do, for an hourly rate higher than what you charge for just doing the work. There’s no guarantee how long a project like that will really last, after all, so why not eliminate any hard feelings up front? With some careful negotiating, you may even be able to turn it into a longer and steadier contract — maybe you provide additional training or support as needed. And maybe your client finds that he can’t mimic your skills and comes back to you because you worked with him to accommodate what he thought he wanted.
Keep an Eye on the Contract
One of the most important aspects of a freelance contract is how it ends. One of the biggest issues with a long-term project is that you can rarely use the same payment system you use for a short-term piece of work: where you might normally not hand over final pieces of work until payment is complete, that may just not be an option. On projects where certain parts of the project will be live long before the full project is done, a monthly payment or something similar is absolutely necessary.
Furthermore, you need to be aware of how the project can be ended, at least in terms of the contract. Many clients will want to be able to end the contract immediately, just by telling you, while often expecting you to give three weeks notice or something equally ridiculous. How the contract can be ended (assuming the project is completed) needs to be a fair and equal arrangement.
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I agree. Having clear payment points for project milestones is vital. We typically charge 50% upfront and 50% on completion for smaller projects; and in 30%, 40% and 30% installments for large multi-month projects.
I currently have a long contract in place with a client that usually pays for all my bills and living cost alone. I do still take on other projects outside of this realm, but do sometimes wish I had a bit more free time to take on more. Its a bit of a double edged sword, as I really appreciate and rely on this work that i get at a steady flow but often wonder what I would do if this suddenly dried up. Have I got enough other clients to spread my time out with? Probably not. But I can not really just drop my main client in search of new clients. Its a difficult one at times. thanks for article anyway, a good read.
Great post!
At the moment I’m freelancing for a big company and I have not pay much attention on how the contract ends…. As you mention, it a vital part of the whole process.
Thanks Bram
It doesn’t always work but I try to build the ending into the contract… we’re done when we both agree the book is complete… we’re done when x number of words have been revised x times… we’re done when the proposal has been submitted to x people – that sort of thing.
Even when the stated end is squishy, I think it’s better to call it out than not.
I agree with @Ichizu.
Payment in milestones is always a safer option.
Good post,
I agree with the dangers of putting all eggs into one basket. We made this mistake few years ago and got stung really badly. Now, the business had survived but went through some tough time because of this.
A lesson learned
Actually not all of the projects need a clear end. If you are working on an endless project (or you just do agile with short phases and expectation of continuously improvement, more modules etc), then you can work even for years for a project.
After all you still don’t know when the end is coming (and inevitably it would come at some point). What I personally do is the following:
-don’t take that whole project for full time – I do work 5-6 hours a day.
-do some marketing all the time – improvement on my linkedin profile, calling potential/old clients twice a week, give some free training/conference just to ‘show off’ (with a good understanding here)
-take some really small projects with a large amount of time to develop (for instance websites that could be written in 20 hours, but I give a month to the client and it is not urgent for him).
-outsource to other colleagues – just the work, not the client. If they are reliable, you could keep the client for future times, also hold some percentage and get the work done (even for your portfolio). This is time consuming (as you have some employees), but it is really great if you have the right freelancers nearby.
Excellent post. The way you create your relationship with a client depends on what is most important to you security, freedom, etc. Unless you are willing to go for extended periods without having any income, it is would be wise to always be engaged in some marketing. Better to turn a client away because you are too busy, or to sub contract. Also, if the contract or term is coming to an end and the client hasn’t brought it up, I believe that it is always a good idea to do it. Bring clarity to the situation, you can move month to month, week to week. It demonstrates business acumen on your part, and eliminates vagueness and surprises.
For long projects, it is necessary to have milestones. Any idea how to ensure that a short term project yeilds before you deliver the whole thing? Especially if they are writing projects. There are times when the Client will agree and document & then scrap the entire thing before you knew it. I’ve learnt to sniff out the kind, so I don’t venture there & it works 90% of the time.
@Ashwin – To avoid projects that fold, I would recommend that you get a 50% deposit before any work begins. Then, if the client is new and you are unsure about receiving the remainder (say they do business entirely via mobile and don’t have a physical address) then I would recommend receiving the remainder 50% before handing over the completed work.
We sometimes have clients who give us the green light on a project, yet then “disappear” once you send them the deposit invoice. It seems like deposit requests are the best way to flush out potentially flaky clients!
Great post, very informative. I’m looking into doing some freelance work when I start travelling next year, thanks for the tips