2 - Amazon Web Services
Contents
1. A Free eBook From DAA The Complete Journey From Lead to Delivery Send Your Website Worksheet To Qualify The Lead Determine How You Will Proceed Based On Needs And Budget Send Proposal Payment Terms Renegotiating Green Light Wireframe or Mockup Design Development Get Client Final Sign Off Transfer Live Client Training Follow ups Conclusion Copyright 2011 All rights reserved O O Q Q N 11 12 13 14 15 17 19 20 21 2 The Complete Journey From Lead to Delivery This document is designed to help you better manage your small business so you can spend more time building awesome websites or backpacking around Asia The following process is based on the assumption that you have an incoming enquiry or a word of mouth referral In this case our prospect is called Barney This is the exact process we follow We hope it helps you flickr com photos astanglin 3078588496 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 3 Send Your Website Worksheet To Qualify The Lead The website worksheet is designed to get everybody on the same page quickly and tell you some key factors about your potentials new client The two main things you want to identify as part of this process are e Who are the decision makers What s the budget Know it might sound a little harsh but if you can establish these two things right up front you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run If y2. but can tell you this is our basic procedure 1 Setup sub domain on staging server a Install WordPress on staging server 3 Install essential plugins via Plugin Central our standards are Yoast SEO Backup Buddy White Label CMS Video User Manual WP File Monitor and Gravity Forms 4 Install our theme which has css reset and multiple column layout options baked in to save development time 5 Add custom css for design 6 Test and get approval from client The most valuable thing you can do is document your process If you have to do something once for a client site chances are you ll have to do it again sometime so write it down in a Google document or a spreadsheet or task manager or to do list template flickr com photos orcmid 387938491 2 If you get hit by a bus half way through a project another developer can come in and take over and keep the project on track This also helps you deliver consistent and profitable results when you need to hire extra hands to help with a high workload Copyright 2011 All rights reserved Get Client Final Sign Off Once the site is ready for testing ask Barney to visit the staging server and test it Invariably at this point Barney will want to make some changes or add extra features If any feature requests are in addition to what was previously agreed and paid for after the wireframe and design process we politely let Barney know we will have to provide a quo
3. the site is finished and therefore hasn t paid you So once Barney has fully tested the site and agreed that it is the website he bought when he paid for the designs send him an invoice for the final 30 Once that invoice has been paid open up a conversation about any additional features Barney would like Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 16 But what if Barney hasn t got his content ready hear you ask Not your problem Does the website work with stock images and dummy text Yes Does it do exactly what we said it would do and look exactly as we agreed it would look Yes Then send the final invoice and expect prompt payment Barney can faff about for months in iStockPhoto if he likes and choose all sorts of lovely images to play with On his time not yours His website is built on a content management system after all so he can manage the content on his site until he his happy with it Once he has paid for it Oh yeah don t hand over any login details until the final invoice has been paid flickr com photos scragz 132750728 Wee sn ee Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 17 Transfer Live Now that Barney has agreed that the site is finished we need to get it off our server and onto his or someone else s Anyboay s Just not ours We don t host Now Barney might say we ll we don t have our content ready so you can t transfer it just 7 yet We would respond by
4. the website worksheet allows you to get a clear picture of the business needs as well as the target audience needs of the website This helps you make recommendations such as a blog FAQ s page or email newsletter sign up forms to make sure the business and it s customers get the most out of the website This will dramatically increase your client s satisfaction There is a sample website worksheet included along with this document flickr com photos kwl 3875936992 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved Determine How You Will Proceed Based On Needs And Budget Once you have an understanding of what Barney wants and what his budget is you can make an educated guess as to how realistic it is that you are going to be able to manage his expectations At this point we make a decision to do one of three things e Call Barney on the telephone to explain that we just can t achieve what he wants with the budget he has allocated and perhaps recommend him to someone who might be able to help this is not always possible if the budget is just unrealistic This saves valuable time e Submit a proposal and quote for the job based on the information we have in the website worksheet This is usually the approach if Barney has a realistic budget but sits at the lower end of the types of jobs we want e Call Barney and arrange a meeting to further qualify his needs and then submit a proposal and quote for the job You don t need t
5. Ever lf this confuses you read this article from Jason Fried at 37 Signals http 37signals com svn archives 001050 php flickr com photos kkendall 4254112459 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 13 Design Once the functionality has been agreed upon design the interface and present it back to Barney with the option for 2 rounds of revisions Not 3 Not 4 Not 2 and then a little tweak Why Because if Barney still wants to tweak the design after two rounds of revisions they re not getting it and we ll be here until Easter In our terms kindly borrowed from Andy Clarke if the Barney wants to tweak the designs after 2 rounds of revisions they can buy them from us and tweak until their hearts content On his time not ours If Barney decides he hates the designs after he has tweaked them you can start again and bill him accordingly At this point Barney has had plenty of opportunity to check out your portfolio and see your work so he either trusts you or he doesn t Once Barney decides he likes the designs send him an invoice When the invoice has been paid start developing the website ese 4 a eee oa oT LEAS A R RSA S pot a SK j Ei X 3 SSS COAN C lt i FN Se te I ea S flickr com photos pagedooley 41 60256672 DOO Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 14 Development Now I m sure you know how to develop WordPress sites so we re not here to insult your intelligence
6. nts check out this guy http vimeo com 22053820 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved
7. o be a genius to figure out that if Barney has an interesting project healthy budget and realistic needs putting the extra effort into option 3 is worthwhile gothamist com attachments garth 201101_buckstrenta jpg E a Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 6 Send Proposal Once you decide we want to work on the project send Barney a proposal with a quote for the website It will save you a lot of time if you have a rate card for all of the components you might be required to quote on For example we have a rate card for individual elements of a website flickr com photos evanblaser 5394883553 like a homepage carousel or slideshow a blog lead capture forms image gallery SEO and social media integration and email marketing integration We work out our rate card based on the value these components add to the client not the time it takes to plug them in We also have rate cards in place with external designers so we know how to quote accurately and consistently Our proposals usually include the following sections 1 Overview or Snapshot of the Project This is a paragraph or two that outlines the type of business the client is and the main reasons for requesting a new website 2 Business Needs The business needs as per the website worksheet 3 Target Audience Needs The target audience needs as per the website worksheet Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 7 4 Our Solution Our sugge
8. otos peasap 1572056367 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved Green Light Once Barney has approved the proposal and paid the 40 deposit into your bank account it s time to flick the switch on your project system The first thing to do is send Barney a congratulations email and request any visual elements he might have on file such as logos company colour palettes branding documents existing websites as well as any Google Analytics or other web stats for any existing websites Also reiterate the timeframe and important dates to Barney to make sure he is preparing content and other information you might need throughout the project flickr com photos jdhancock 3583835507 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 12 Wireframe or Mockup Once the deposit is in the bank produce wireframes or a mockup to then present to Barney to establish functionality only We use Protoshare protoshare com for interactive wireframes or Balsamiq balsamiq com for simple mockups We don t even think about design until Barney has agreed on all the functionality of the site This helps keep the designers and developers on the same page and avoids Barney getting into feature creep later on have also become very fond of using the WooThemes Canvas Theme recently for developing a prototype of the website for the client to sign off on It s fast and flexible Oh yeah we don t write functional specification documents
9. ou re not dealing with the decision maker you will end up having to explain yourself and your recommendations more than once which consumes valuable time If you don t establish the budget you will end up writing a great proposal with awesome suggestions and get really Mean flickr com photos booleansplit 3153176429 excited about the project just to find out the client was expecting top pay half what you have quoted This wastes valuable time and deflates your confidence both of which need to be avoided where possible recently approached a mobile app developer to partner with me on a project and before he was prepared to give me a quote he asked me for a brief of the project and an indicative budget After a ten minute phone call he politely said That s just not enough money to get done what you have indicated you need to get done respected his honesty and the fact that he valued his time and my time enough to establish this right up Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 4 front already know that when a project comes along and the budget permits will definitely go back to this developer and ask for a quote The other advantage of using a website worksheet to get information about the project is that it gives you a chance to identify opportunities for up selling additional services you might offer like SEO social media or email newsletters Most importantly
10. ouch that we have found helps keep us top of mind with our clients is to set up an automated email every Monday morning from their Google Analytics account that comes from our email address You need to be an administrator in their Google Analytics account to do this They love seeing the statistics every week and you get to drip feed them on autopilot flickr com photos formatbrain_ 1439718769 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 21 Conclusion Know might sound a bit grumpy throughout this report but used that tone to drive home some key points You are not actually doing your client any favours by adopting the customer is always right rule The customer is not always right because the customer has no idea how to do what you do Just like you are not always right when dealing with a mechanic or plumber or any other technician Keeping the client on a short leash will actually help you do the best job you can for them You will be paid on time which saves all sorts of stress you will be clear about what is expected of you which saves confusion and time and you will be free to create a great solution for the client and make a profit in the process sincerely hope this report has given you some food for thought and helped you think about how you can streamline your processes to make sure you can continue to grow your small business as a WordPress developer And if you think I m grumpy about clie
11. red for development of new projects The website cannot be moved to their hosting provider unless the final invoice has been paid and if the final invoice is not paid within 30 days then we are under no obligation to keep the website on our staging server know Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 9 this sounds harsh but it works We have very few if any clients that owe us money that is older that 30 days We also have very few projects that get held up because of feature creep flickr com photos arcticpuppy 4461601927 Copyright 2011 All rights reserved Renegotiating Invariably Barney will want to negotiate on price Our golden rule is to never ever ever discount the price without removing something from the website or at least slating it for a future update EG If you want to save some money then perhaps the social media integration can wait a few months Or Maybe you don t need the email marketing database integration just yet If you discount the price without removing any features just because the client says they don t have the budget there are two consequences 1 Barney subconsciously thinks your prices were inflated to begin with 2 You set a dangerous precedent that gives Barney all the power for your future relationship Don t do it Your price is your price and if Barney wants a discount they can remove some features or get someone cheaper to do it flickr com ph
12. reserved Payment Terms Incidentally the payment terms we stipulate in our proposals are 40 deposit before we begin he PAS 6 e 30 payment once the designs have been a P exe ote approved e 30 balance before we transfer the site to the client domain This single change we made to our business has had a huge impact on our cash flow flickr com photos stevendepolo 3354726208 ee Let me explain We do not begin work mean we don t even start a project in Basecamp our project management system until Barney has paid the 40 deposit This sorts out the serious clients from the difficult ones and gives you an early signal as to how difficult their expectations might be to manage throughout the project The next 30 payment is required once the designs have been approved We do not start development until this payment is made This assists in Barney buying in to the designs and gives us the confidence that we are developing a website that he has effectively bought by making the payment It minimises any feature creep later on The final invoice is sent once Barney has approved the website on our staging server regardless of whether or not he has organised his content The client is also made aware that the final invoice must be paid within 7 days After 30 days of the final invoice going out the website also needs to be moved to their hosting provider as our staging server is requi
13. saying Barney we run a pretty lean ship here so we only have limited resources The fact is we have new websites to develop and we need the space on our server to do that l m sure your hosting company will set up a temporary staging server for you SO you can tweak your flickr com photos pheanixphotos 5832235142 content until you re happy If you don t have hosting sorted out we can recommend someone but we need to move all finished websites off our server within 30 days This sends a loud and clear message to Barney that the site is now his Not still in development Not still under construction Not open to being tweaked at our end It s his He owns it Take responsibility for it Copyright 2011 All rights reserved Oh yeah just don t transfer it until they ve paid the final invoice You can t drive a car off the lot without making the final payment can you The mechanics of transferring a site form your server to the clients will depened on the actual servers but our preference is to use BackUp Buddy It rocks And we are not affilliated Copyright 2011 All rights reserved Client Training So Barney has paid his final invoice and now wants the keys to the content management system so he can get in and try and break things He s obviously going to need some help so our Client training consists of showing him how to use the WordPress Video User Manual Plugin Yes it s a premium pl
14. stion of the features required to fill the business and target audience needs EG If the business needs to reduce admin costs and the target audience needs to research product information we will recommend a FAQ s page 5 Pricing Usually broken down into project management design and development We don t itemise individual features of the website 6 Timeframe We provide a realistic timeframe for the project which includes what is required from the client by particular dates 7 Terms Our terms outline the payment schedule and any conditions around the project We like Andy Clarke s Contract Killer at http stuffandnonsense co uk blog about contract killer the next hit However you breakdown your proposals it is essential to use a template so you can prepare them quickly and accurately We started off my writing the monster of all proposals which included everything we thought we would ever be required to quote on saved it as a template in Google docs and then just duplicated it and removed the sections that were not relevant for each project There are dozens of excellent proposal tools available online that let you use templates We use Bidsketch http Awww bidsketch com Once the proposal has been sent set a reminder in your calendar to follow up with a phone call in 5 working days No sooner no later Keeping it at 5 working days for every proposal follow up helps to stay consistent Copyright 2011 All rights
15. te for these additional features after the final invoice has been generated for the website that was agreed upon This single tactic will sometimes be difficult to deploy but will save you from re jigging and tweaking a website for three months before you get paid the balance So this is how it rolls Barney checks the website and says Yeah it s great but the thing a majig that was on the designs is missing from the homepage Also can you add a search bar up the top because it would be really helpful Our response is Oh cool Barney yes we will get the thing a majig added to the homepage sorry about that Regarding the search bar can we get the rest of the site fully tested and signed off before we add any features It just helps us stay clear on what is working and what s not It also stops us accidentally breaking anything while you re still testing it Once the site is fully tested and signed off as per the designs we ll be happy to look at any additional features you d like and give you a quote for what s involved Do NOT add any features until the site has been fully tested and signed off have made this mistake before and it starts a dangerous process of just adding one more thing here and one more thing there which then breaks that thing that was working before and then all of a sudden it s Xmas and Barney goes on holidays for two months and you have no money to buy your Mum a Xmas present because John doesn t think
16. ugin that we make and yes this is a shameless plug for it It takes two minutes to show Barney how to use it and we do it over the phone or by Skype No more half day sessions sitting around the computer drinking bad coffee talking about reality TV showing them how to upload an image and watching them destroy all your hard work by pasting a heap of text in from Microsoft Word Ugh Client training over in two minutes Boom VIDIO SET MANUALS TRAINING YOUR CLIENTS TO USE WORDPRESS JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT EASIER word Spend less time training your user Manua cients how to use WordPress and more time doing the things you love 7 VIDEOUSERMANUALS Over 40 professionally produced video tutorials Integrated into your clients dashboard Fully customisable and rebrandoble Printable version of manual with your logo Unlimited installs and automatic updates WHAT YOU GET RECLAIM YOUR SOCIAL LIFE NOW A VIDEOUS MANUALS www videousermanuals com Copyright 2011 All rights reserved 20 Follow ups Set a reminder for one month after Barney receives the keys to WordPress to see how he is tracking along There are always opportunities to talk about SEO or social media or email newsletters or if John is really happy and all is going well ask for a testimonial or a referral Setting the reminder for exactly one month helps keep you consistent and more often than not leads to more work Another nice t
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