Just so I don’t invoke bad karma from the client gods that be, I've decided I should follow up on my previous post, '10 Absolute "No's!" for Freelancers.' I've been fortunate enough to usually fill up my freelance hours, and I think the following answers have played a big part in this success. Feel free to add what has worked for you!
1) Can you tell me your rates? Yes
Many people will demur from voicing their rates because they want to feel the client out and see what they can "get" from them. I'm not a fan of this game and feel that your best bet is to simply tell them exactly what you charge. Just be ready to defend your rate if need be as they probably know someone cheaper. Unfortunately, hourly rates do not tell the client how much you actually get done in an hour, but hopefully, you have a portfolio and client testimonials to back you up. Furthermore, I would rather work for someone who up front "buys into" my rate and my worth.
2) Can you get this done by _________? Yes.
Even if the client has a somewhat unreasonable timeframe for the project, then do all you can to get it done on time. Trust me, you will be better than 90% of other freelancers that your client has dealt with. I can't begin to tell you how much people appreciate and take note of punctuality. Sure, sometimes you get an unreasonable due date, one that will make you stay up all night to finish. But if it's for the right client, you probably just locked in a lot of future work. I personally know many freelancers whose work is not particularly stellar, but they ALWAYS finish on time, and thus, they always have work and are paid well for it.
3) Are you able to do _________? Yes.
I wouldn't advise a blanket "yes" here, but the truth is, the more you can do, the more likely you'll get the job and repeat business as well. I understand that they may ask things outside your expertise, but you have to be willing to put in the work to create a solution or find someone who can. After a while, you should know all the common requests and it will be a breeze. But until then, remember that some potential clients are used to full-service firms, and if all you can do is Photoshop comps, you may be missing out on business. Although I know that many people that thrive with just their niche skill, I prefer the route of being closer to a full service web freelancer.
4) Can I edit the site on my own?
In the early days of the internet, I would often avoid this because content management systems were clunky, had a lot of financial and time overhead, and generally, I didn't want clients messing up a design. But nowadays, a CMS is almost a given on websites, and if they are paying for it, although you might be able to give them some design warnings, they should be free to edit their site at will. I personally use a custom CMS that allows the editing of only text/events/blogs/etc. which I then wrap in the site’s CSS. It took a lot of work to build the CMS initially, but it's the perfect solution for me (I find that solutions like Joomla or Mambo are overkill and a bit clunky, but your experience may vary :-).
5) Do you offer support after the site is finished? Yes.
I found that many potential clients have this innate worry that when their site is live and the final payment is sent, the freelancer will vanish from existence. I'm guessing this worry is based in enough actual experiences to be true. So as a standard policy, I give them one month of free support after the site launch (bugs and fixes mind you, not new features :-). To be honest, I probably average less than half an hour per client project because of this support, and yet, it's a huge selling point for most clients.
6) Do you want to form, an alliance, with me?
Absolutely I do.
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