How to handle your first client - As a Newbie in eCommerce
I am brand new to eCommerce site building, but have been able to hopefully land my first client as of today.
I've read a number of threads on getting started and think I have narrowed my choices down to Ashop or BigCommerce based on probably needing a hosted solution and not having much in terms of coding skills.
The reason behind this thread is in discussing the right questions/procedures/etc someone should be taking with a new client so as to not only sound professional but also to prevent issues - essentially a "Do's and Don't" of eCommerce Project Management 101.
I think I did okay so far but you can judge and give any feedback if you like.
The client is a husband and wife that had been selling between 10 and 15K in revenue each month on Amazon over the last couple of years until their account was recently closed (it looks like their customer service fell off in Feb for some reason).
I saw their ad in Craiglist wanting an eCommerce store built and was able to build some rapport and enough trust over the phone to get them to meet me in the coming days at my new office space.
Now I am stuck.
Although I have dabbled in web design, I have never built an eCommerce store. I do believe, in this case, that the client is not looking for anything elaborate or complicated and that I should be able to successfully help them if I can learn quickly without losing their confidence.
They want a store front that "is easy to add items - like on Amazon" for selling new electronics items that they buy in pallets.
They mentioned liking the Shopify site and wanting to possibly use Braintree for processing, but I can tell they really just don't want to deal with any of this and have never built or hosted a website.
After getting the information above, I quoted them $45 to 50/hr and said it would probably take me 15 to 20 hours. I kinda pulled this out of the air but figured it would cover me enough for a first job.
They want to meet face to face in the next day or so. I have a nice existing office space but not even business cards yet.
If this goes well, I think I can end up managing a PPC campaign for them and become their go to source for web/IT.
Any advice on how to handle this to bring the most value and build a long term relationship? Questions I still need to ask? Advice on software? Try to handle the learning curve myself or sub it out?
Thanks in Advance.
I've read a number of threads on getting started and think I have narrowed my choices down to Ashop or BigCommerce based on probably needing a hosted solution and not having much in terms of coding skills.
The reason behind this thread is in discussing the right questions/procedures/etc someone should be taking with a new client so as to not only sound professional but also to prevent issues - essentially a "Do's and Don't" of eCommerce Project Management 101.
I think I did okay so far but you can judge and give any feedback if you like.
The client is a husband and wife that had been selling between 10 and 15K in revenue each month on Amazon over the last couple of years until their account was recently closed (it looks like their customer service fell off in Feb for some reason).
I saw their ad in Craiglist wanting an eCommerce store built and was able to build some rapport and enough trust over the phone to get them to meet me in the coming days at my new office space.
Now I am stuck.
Although I have dabbled in web design, I have never built an eCommerce store. I do believe, in this case, that the client is not looking for anything elaborate or complicated and that I should be able to successfully help them if I can learn quickly without losing their confidence.
They want a store front that "is easy to add items - like on Amazon" for selling new electronics items that they buy in pallets.
They mentioned liking the Shopify site and wanting to possibly use Braintree for processing, but I can tell they really just don't want to deal with any of this and have never built or hosted a website.
After getting the information above, I quoted them $45 to 50/hr and said it would probably take me 15 to 20 hours. I kinda pulled this out of the air but figured it would cover me enough for a first job.
They want to meet face to face in the next day or so. I have a nice existing office space but not even business cards yet.
If this goes well, I think I can end up managing a PPC campaign for them and become their go to source for web/IT.
Any advice on how to handle this to bring the most value and build a long term relationship? Questions I still need to ask? Advice on software? Try to handle the learning curve myself or sub it out?
Thanks in Advance.