How to read your customer’s mind and create a perfect solution for him

In software development each project starts with one basic question: “What is it that I am trying to do for the customer?” But when you think about it, it’s not only a software development question. The same question applies to all creative work, be it writing, building houses or making a dinner at a five-star restaurant. It can even be a useful question in areas such as school assignments and filling your daily errands. The one big question can be divided into six key questions that help you find the correct answer and thus fill the right task so that your customer will come back to you for more business:

1. Who are you doing the task for? This is crucial for answering the rest of the questions. It might well be that the first person who comes to talk to you about this new project won’t be the one who approves or disapproves the end product. Or even if he is, it might be that someone else will be using the product as well, and in that case that person’s needs should therefore not be ignored either. So, first find out who your customers and end users actually are, and whose work is affected by your product.
2. What are you doing? This question seems easy to answer, and almost all of the customers have a clear list of things that they think they need to have in the product. Usually it goes along the lines of “everything we had in the old product and some more”. But what they often don’t realize is that maybe what they had in the old system isn’t what they really need. So, you need to listen carefully what the customer asks for and then move on to a deeper level, to the next question.
3. Why are you doing it? This time I don’t mean soul searching. It’s great to ask yourself that question sometimes as well, but now I want you to look the customer in the eye, put yourself in his shoes and find out what needs he’s trying to fulfill by giving you this task? I suggest that you follow your customer’s everyday work for a while, try to understand as much of it as possible, and really listen to your customer. It’s way too easy to just go with your own preferences and make the kind of product that you imagine the customer would need. But that’s not what the customer is after: He has a real need and he wants the perfect solution for it. Your job is to find the need behind his requirements and create a solution that makes him feel that you read his mind and created something better than he could have asked for.
4. When should it be done? A project is defined by a start and an end date. And they in turn are defined by how urgent the need is and when does the customer need your solution to be finished. But make sure that your customer understands that in a shorter time frame you cannot make the product as complete as with more time. If you’re making software, you have to balance between the number of features and time. By lowering your quality you could of course create more in a shorter time, but keep in mind that you’re trying to impress your customers, so I suggest not to take that road, not even if your customer asks for it. And one more thing: once you commit to a schedule, do your best to stick with it!
5. How should you do it? Sometimes customers might have something to say about the tools and methods you should use, but I’d say that it’s the one question that is up to you to answer. After all, you’re the expert in your area. If you weren’t, why would your customer ask you to do the job for him? Keeping that in mind it’s clear that it should be your job to decide the procedures, technologies and processes to use. If I buy a house, I won’t go telling the builders how to do it. I don’t care if they decide to start from the roof towards the ground as long as they deliver a high quality solution that fills my needs. So, keep your eyes open, acquire the expertise needed for your profession and keep it up to date. If your how fails, it’s a pretty clear sign for the customer that you’re not the expert you claim to be, and it’s likely that he won’t be coming back to you next time. So make sure you know what you’re doing!
6. Are you doing the right thing? Although everything has started the right way, you have found out the exact needs of your customer, decided a great time frame and the best tools and processes available, it might be that something changes along the way. The customer’s business model becomes different, he finds out that there was one more thing he needed to have, or you just got something wrong. That’s not the end of the world, but a pretty normal and expected situation, so there is also a simple solution to it: As often as possible, ask your customer if what you’re doing is what he wants to have in the end result. Once he sees the product he can comment on it and you can change your direction fast, if needed. And if everything is going the way it should, it’s nice for the customer to see that progress is being made.

The key point in all of the questions is CURIOSITY. You need to be interested in your customer and his business as well as your own area of expertise. When you learn about your customer’s needs and the reason why he wants to use your services, the work becomes more interesting to you while at the same time you’re providing better service to the customer. Keeping that in mind will get you far, no matter in what business you are.


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10 Essential Habits for Freelance Workers

One of the things about being a freelance worker is that it is so free.

This can be a tremendously liberating thing — but it can also be intimidating, and confusing, and difficult. Without someone forcing you to work, why should you? It’s much easier to find distractions instead. And if everything’s up to you, that also means you’re responsible for everything — from start to finish. And that can be tough, especially when you’re just starting out.

The key, I’ve found, is to develop certain habits that will keep you not only disciplined but successful. Simple habits, to be sure, but ones that can go a long way towards taking you from a broke freelancer to a happy and productive one.

Here they are — 10 essential habits for freelance workers:
Market yourself. When you first start out, no one knows you. You can hang your sign above your door, or on your website, but don’t expect people to knock down your door the first day. Instead, you’ll need to constantly market yourself — something that can seem distasteful to many of us, I know. But it’s the only way to survive and thrive. Email people (don’t spam), call potential clients, go to events where you might meet potential clients, advertise if you have the money, network. Make this a regular part of your day or work week. See the 10 essential marketing skills for freelancers for more.

Be persistent. It’s not enough to send out a single email or make a single call and then forget about it if you don’t get a response. Unless the person flat out says no, you need to follow up and remind them, set up a meeting, send a sample of your work. Again, don’t be spammy, and don’t be annoying, but learn to follow things up politely so that you’re not forgotten. It’s easy for a potential client to forget you in the rush of all the things they have to do. It’s your responsibility to make sure they don’t.

Be professional. No one likes a spammer, no one wants to hire a slacker, and no one is looking to give money to an amateur. In all communications with clients or potential clients, be as professional as possible. Be prompt, be responsible, be credible. Don’t come across as someone who is “just trying things out” or “would like a shot” — act confident, as if you sell this service every day, for years now, and are looking for just one more client (although don’t lie about it). If people think you are a professional, they are more likely to give you a shot.

Set and meet deadlines. If you are given work, be sure to get the scope of the work, any necessary details, and especially a deadline that you agree upon and that you can meet. If not, the client might expect it sooner than you think, or even worse, the client might not care, and you could drag the work on forever. Best to have a deadline, to give you the pressure of having to get the work done. And when you have a deadline, do your utmost best to meet it, even if it means staying up all night to do so. Constantly missing deadlines looks very unprofessional. If you start to miss deadlines, re-evaluate your workload, and your estimate for how long it takes to complete an assignment. And if you are going to miss a deadline, be sure to communicate with your client as often as possible, letting them know that you are running longer than you thought, apologizing and explaining why, and when you will have it. Then meet that new timeline.

Find focus. Being a freelancer means that you can work on whatever you want, whenever you want to. You don’t have a boss to push you. So you have to be your own boss. Concentrate on your current task or project, and eliminate distractions so that you can focus on this one task. Get everything else out of the way, and really focus. Otherwise, you’ll never get it done.

Find time. Again, you can work any time of the day. Which can mean that you don’t work at all, or as little as possible. Instead, have a set time when you work, or a couple of set periods, and stick to that schedule. If you don’t have a schedule, you’ll likely wander all over the place and get little done.

Awesome quality. This should probably go without saying, but you shouldn’t turn in shoddy work. Take pride in the quality of your work, and have the client respond with a “Wow!” There is no better way of generating future business than doing remarkable work with your current client. When you’re done with an assignment, go over it again, and look for mistakes, and ways you can improve.

Follow up. Don’t just turn in an assignment and forget about it. Make it a habit to do follow-up communication with the client, so that you are sure that they are happy with the service. Find out what they liked, what they’d like to see improved next time, if there are ways to improve the process and communication. And see if they have future assignments. Continue to build that relationship.

Billing. Many of us don’t really like to deal with billing issues, but it’s a necessity for freelancers. I’ve only recently learned the habit of tracking my work, along with dates, so that I can have an accurate invoice. It’s good to log your work as you go, or as soon as you’re done, so that you don’t forget later. And set up email or calendar reminders so that you send out invoices on time, and follow up on the invoices if they’re not paid immediately.

Building a rep. Actually, all of the above habits contribute to this one, but it’s so important that it deserves a little focus. It should be your long-term strategy to build a credible reputation as someone who is professional, gets work done on time, and does an awesome job on every assignment. If you do this, and follow up with clients, they will be highly impressed with you, and not only use you in the future, but recommend you to others. Over time, your reputation will increase, and so will your assignments, and revenues.


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Earn More Money by Demanding It

Money, Money, Money

The hardest part of negotiating a work contract is the pay. I despise having to demand a certain amount of money, even though I am well aware that I deserve a certain amount of money. That's why I love working with job recruiters - they set the rates, and they usually do their best to get you the most money, because, let's face it, they're taking quite a bit more off the top of it.

But for freelance work, or if negotiating your own salary, you're on your own. And that is one of the most terrifying things for me.

It's odd, really. When I go through the interview process, I'll get questions like, "So, you think you can learn C++ in a week?" and I can say "Sure, no sweat" without batting an eye. But when the hiring manager finally gets around to "Alright, let's talk money", my heart leaps into my throat and I feel like I am going to hyperventilate.
History - They Told Me to Aim Low

This attitude is a product of my experience. I've had many interviews where the salary was discussed only at the very end. Terrified that I will knock myself out of the running by demanding too much, I would always aim low. Sometimes, that would mean that I got paid very little to do a lot or work. Other times, I would be told that $10 an hour is a LOT of money for someone with only 6 years of working experience. And sometimes, I believe that I have knocked myself out of the running by undervaluing my work.

This is a problem for most women. Thus, this article is written from a female perspective, but it can apply to men, too.

The fact that I am so bad at expecting to make money is odd. I'm a feminist, and I was raised by feminists. I went to a women's college, where being a feminist is more or less standard, unless you are one of the "conservative" women who believes that places like Smith and Barnard are actually finishing schools and not modern colleges. My college, strangely enough for all of their talk about empowering women, didn't do much to help us learn to negotiate salaries. At all.

When I graduated with my degree and headed to New York City to find work, the first bit of job advice I got was "Don't aim to high. Pretend that you really just want a stable job with a stable salary. You get your foot in the door, then you advanced after a few years. Don't show ANY ambition."

Another method for negotiating pay that I was taught to use was to find out what the pay range is before stating your rate or desired salary. Sometimes this works, and the manager will happily tell you; other times, you can go back and forth with one of those "What do you want to be paid?" - "Well, what's the pay range?" - "It varies. What do you want to make per hour?" - "How about you tell me how much the position can pay me, and I'll tell you if it's acceptable?" - "Well, what's acceptable to you?" kind of bulls*** loops that gets you nothing in the end.

This, and a need not to appear greedy, has me in a panic when it comes time for me to explain what my time and skills are worth, in hard dollars. I know I'm not alone in this behavior, because it's a common and well-studied phenomenon among women. There are some jobs in which women are paid more than men, but mostly, we lag behind.

There are lots of theories as to why this is. Some people would like you to believe that maternity leave reduces our productivity and thus, we get paid less over all. Some people believe it's part of the inherent sexism that we still deal with in our society (more on this in another blog post).

I'm not in the mood to crunch the numbers, but I will say this: part of the reason we don't get paid as much as men is because we don't expect to get paid as much as men.

Queercents covered this a while back, but it bears repeating. According to Forbes.com:

Here's a startling fact: By not negotiating their salaries, many women sacrifice more than half a million dollars by the end of their professional lives. "That is pretty scary," says Linda Babcock, the Carnegie Mellon University economics professor who researched that figure. Babcock surveyed M.B.A. students who graduated in 2002 and 2003 and found that those who negotiated received 7% to 8% more than what they were initially offered. And of those two graduating classes, 52% of the men negotiated, compared to only 12% of women. Over time, that adds up, since percentage raises are based on a person's current salary. "Women leave a lot of money on the table," says Babcock, who also co-authored the book, Women Don't Ask.
Put Your Monetary Past Behind You

Now, I think that employers should always state the pay range for any position. I don't like reading things like "Competitive" or "Commensurate with experience" in the Pay section of a job posting. I'm sure this is done to weed out people who just look for high-paying jobs, but still, it makes it very difficult. "Competitive" is a very subjective term. But since this is the game that we all must partake in, I have to say this:
Aim high.

It doesn't matter how much money you make right now. It matters how much you are worth, and how much you want to make.

I'd probably still be making a crap salary if I didn't have a hiring manager take pity on me and double my pay in one feel swoop. During a bad point in Seattle's economy, I was working my butt off at a company in which the writers made 30K per year while the web designers made something like 75K. What can I say? I was desperate for work, so I took a salary that I knew didn't reflect half of what I was worth.

When a manager at a local tech firm interviewed me for a new job, he asked me how much I wanted to be paid. I stammered a bit, and said something like, "Well, I guess $22 an hour or maybe... yeah. Like, $22." He stared at me for a few seconds, and then said, "I'm going to put you in at $35 an hour." That's what my skill level typically brought in, and it's what I should have been making all that time. But I didn't know enough to demand that much, so frightened was I of being unemployed.
Stick to Your Guns

I have an annoying habit of being wishy washy about pay. The truth is, for freelance work, I do have a wide range of rates. If I'm doing copy writing for a web site about bunny rabbits, then I charge much less than I would for highly technical documentation. So I've found it necessary to view the work before stating my rates, but I do like to give an estimate beforehand. I've finally just typed up a Word doc that states my hourly rate in a very matter-of-fact manner.

I have noticed, however, that it can be very easy to be manipulated into taking less than you are worth. For instance, a couple of months ago, I began an assignment writing some simple documents for a software company. I had stated my lowest acceptable hourly rate via email. The employer agreed to this readily.

When speaking to the manager on the phone, however, I was asked again to state my desired rate. I reminded him that his had been discussed already via email, and I sensed some hesitation on his end of the line. My heart fluttered around in my chest and I thought to myself, I'm asking too much. I asked if this was still fine, and he suggested that I accept $5 less per hour, because the company was small. I felt my stomach falling into my feet as I agreed.

A few minutes later, I decided to grow a spine. I wrote the manager back and told him that we had agreed upon a base rate, and that was the rate, regardless of the size of his company. I explained that I understood if he needed to find someone who would work for less, but that I simply wasn't going to be able to do the work for less than I had stated.

And he accepted it. I was pretty sure he wouldn't, but he did.

I'm aware that it's only $5 an hour difference, but over the course of the contract, that was an extra $1200 in my pocket (or in this case, towards a loan that I need to pay off).
Negotiate Without Fear

We all need to be aware how much our time and skills are worth (Bob Bly writes extensively about this on his web site, and he has an argument about time versus money that I will pick apart in a few days), but this is particularly important for women. We have not yet reached the point where we feel like we can demand high wages. Part of this is a lack of information - it's hard to know what a job should pay. But this is research that should be performed beforehand, so do that work before you talk to the hiring manager about pay.

The aforementioned Forbes article has some tips on how to negotiate salary.

Here are some of my personal tips for negotiating a good wage:

1. Practice maintaining eye contact when you talk about money. Don't look away or down. If you are discussing it on the phone, be sure not to sound particularly nervous. It's OK to pause when you are speaking, but don't fill gaps with ums and ahs.
2. Practice stating your desired wage in the mirror. Don't let your face get all weird on you. Ask a friend to guide you through it, too, so you can say it to a live person.
3. State your hourly rate or desired income without shame. For example: "I expect to make $25 per hour."
4. Don't let your voice get all high and squeaky. In fact, make certain that you speak in a low but clear voice. It's probably a male thing, but a deeper voice implies authority.
5. If the manager winces at you, don't say anything. Maintain eye contact and keep silent. It's their job now to ask if you will take less.
6. If they do ask if you can take less, ask if your requested wage is above the expected range for the position. If you are feeling ballsy, ask what other people who work in the same position are being paid. They can't tell you about individual employees' pay, but they can tell you the range.
7. Is the highest end of the pay range pretty close to what you want to make? Is it way too low? Also, never never accept anything below the highest pay rate of the range. Pretend it's not a range at all. Take the highest number, and assume that that is the least amount of money that you can possibly take.
8. If they give you a range in which the highest pay is close to what you want to make, you have some choices:

* Saying that you'll go ahead and take the lower rate of pay might make you look like a chump. My favorite way to handle this is to say something like, "Well, I'd like you to consider raising the rate. My skills and experience make me worth every penny. If you can't consider a higher rate for me, perhaps we can discuss bonus schedules or expected pay raises over time."
* Let them know that you'll think about it. "I'd like to take some time to consider this. Can I get back to you in a couple of hours?". In a way, this is a face-saving move. You can then really think about if you want the job at that pay rate, and if you do, you can write an email expressing your excitement about the firm, and accepting the highest end of the pay range.



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Is Freelance Design and Publishing the Right Career for You?

Entrepreneurship requires more than design talent
So you think you want to start your own business? Friends tell you that you've got a flair for making good-looking business cards and fliers. You've got an inkjet printer and an old copy of QuarkXPress. You're ready to start getting paid for doing something you enjoy. Wait! First, find out if a freelance business is the right move for you.

Successful freelancing requires more than artistic talent or software proficiency. If a desktop publishing or graphic design business are your goal those are needed skills; but, first determine that you have the personality required to work for yourself.

Do you work well on your own, without direct supervision? Are you willing to get away from the computer and go hustle up clients? Can you sustain the level of productivity necessary to make a living doing what you enjoy (design) while also tackling the jobs you might not enjoy (bookkeeping, sales)?

Working from home is typically how most freelance designers start out. Home businesses require special talents too. Like any freelancer, you must be self-motivated, organized, and able to maintain a professional work environment in your home.

Working for yourself has many rewards. Just don't go into it blindly. Here's a short reality checklist:

* You don't get to spend all your time doing design. You have to go out and find your own clients and you have to work at keeping those clients. In addition to marketing yourself you'll also likely be doing all your own bookkeeping as well as acting as your own purchasing agent, receptionist, advertising department, and mail room clerk. These jobs all take up significant amounts of time.

* Self-employment doesn't mean you keep all the money for yourself. Checks from clients may add up to a bigger amount than the paycheck you got from your employer, but it has to cover your operating expenses and self-employment taxes too. You can't charge the hourly rate you made as an employee or even just a little bit more and expect to make money. You have to be confident enough to charge what you're worth and what you need in order to have enough money to pay your expenses and pay yourself.

* Business expenses are not money in the bank. Uncle Sam (US-IRS) doesn't give you back all your business expenses at the end of the year. Your expenses are deductions from your profits so you pay taxes on a lesser amount. That's a good thing, yes. But it's not the same as "getting back everything you spent." And, you must keep good records of business expenses.

* You can't take off whenever you want. If you want to do freelance work because it allows you to take a vacation whenever you want, sleep late, or close up shop on a whim, think again. Certainly you are able to do those things more freely than with an employer but you must remember that you don't work in a vacuum. You must keep reasonable hours in order to be available to meet with clients and prospects. You can't take off on the spur of the moment when you have a major job at the print shop requiring your supervision. Freelance work offers flexibility but it doesn't give you carte blanche to only work when you feel like it. The business depends on you. There's no one in the next cubicle to take up the slack when you decide to call in sick.

On the next two pages you'll find some exercises designed to help you put your commitment to doing freelance design in real terms.


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