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Real offline snafus....here's mine..what's yours? and ideas

by Freebiequeen1999
7 replies
For those that actually work with small biz "offline"...what areas do you think you can improve in?

I recently have been going over this with myself...and I find that for me the hardest things are the follow up and just the hassle of getting things done with clients

Even my "good" group are always late in getting stuff to me, or dither around

and I usually have some problem kids who can't find passwords or want to change stuff at the last minute or have to "wait" for their brother, mother, wife, dog to give approval etc

I have had clients who expect too much or who are too demanding and we part ways, try to keep it nice but sometimes you have to "fire" a client cause they are just overwhelming

I also should get a better system of follow up for potential clients I meet networking or who I have spoken with, but then again I simply hate most of the freaking autoresponder stuff and always delete it so I think (assume) others feel the same way.
#ideas #minewhat #offline #real #snafushere
  • Profile picture of the author qu4rk
    Originally Posted by Freebiequeen1999 View Post

    For those that actually work with small biz "offline"...what areas do you think you can improve in?

    I recently have been going over this with myself...and I find that for me the hardest things are the follow up and just the hassle of getting things done with clients

    Even my "good" group are always late in getting stuff to me, or dither around

    and I usually have some problem kids who can't find passwords or want to change stuff at the last minute or have to "wait" for their brother, mother, wife, dog to give approval etc

    I have had clients who expect too much or who are too demanding and we part ways, try to keep it nice but sometimes you have to "fire" a client cause they are just overwhelming

    I also should get a better system of follow up for potential clients I meet networking or who I have spoken with, but then again I simply hate most of the freaking autoresponder stuff and always delete it so I think (assume) others feel the same way.
    For follow up, I use a CRM. But like you, I begin to get bogged down with stuff & then don't even check my CRM. So, I could definitely improve there too.

    For people taking too long for stuff, that is the nature of the beast. I have thought about charging a fee for clients that don't follow the project time line. I'm facing that same dilemma having people taking their time to get stuff to mee.

    For people expecting too much, I have started over managing people's expectations.

    This leads me to project scope. I was not good a project management until I took the time to study it a bit. Scope creep is an inevitable thing for my projects. So, I've started to define the scope of what they will get for their budget. I do have a project that I am currently working on that I broke that rule & it's turned out to be a nightmare.

    The best system for follow up is an automated reminder that I manually contact them. I would never use an autoresponder for networking.

    I'm in the same boat as you. It gets a little overwhelming at times.

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Commitment and investment are so related...charge too low and you get clients who shrug off the work because it doesn't hurt them to do so.

    It's a difficult line to find because even when you think it is "a lot of money" for you, the investment isn't necessarily a lot for the client.

    I've had five-figure clients who avoided doing work they agreed on and knew they had to do over and over again for ages--even when I offered to do it for them. Try hand-holding to make sure the work is done and they whine that it's babysitting.

    Client work is challenging. Selling products is much easier.

    One of the biggest things I found early on was this: the more you charge, the more you can help. Charge small and you're barely making money--or maybe not at all. Charge more and now you can hire expertise to augment what you're doing, free up your own time, and make you that much more effective.

    The head trash and shift in thinking required to move up from one level to the next can be overwhelming, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
    Thanks...yes Jason I agree upping the ante will improve the outlook LOL

    qu4rk I too need to work out "scope" and I guess set boundaries

    One thing I have found is...not only do prospective clients turn off if you get too "techy" but once they hire me they remain NON techy

    I have tried dropbox, basecamp and other "shared" methods with clients and it always ends mess..."too hard"....so now I am trying to set up a "shared" gmail account for each of them and me,
    and use google drive....

    I have (several) questionnaires I give them to fill out and prod them till I get the needed log ins and
    info , I then store their graphics there on google drive too.

    Some do not have their own graphics !!...and there are so many variables in the real world
    all the stuff about "get clients">> I sometimes think the "getting" is easier than the servicing LOL

    There are just so many variables in the real world....I have had (former) printers who refused to give up the graphics, I have had to reclaim social media pages from former employees, just recently had guy who didn't realize his url had just expired, many clients have duplicate pages, crazy stuff....
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Freebiequeen... you should check out Teamwork

    One of my biggest problems at various stages in my business was project management and finding the right platform. I need it to stay on top of things, and save time managing certain aspects of different projects. The problem, is that 99% of the project management platforms require MORE TIME than it would if you weren't using it. The same applies to a CRM

    For a CRM I really like Nutshell. For project management, I really like Teamwork.

    I've always had an issue with "almost finished" projects, getting it from 85% completion to 100%. That's always the biggest difficulty on the web design side of things, SEO not so much.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelWinicki
    Oh yeah have the same problems with getting offline clients to get things done in a reasonable time frame. BUT I charge by the month (continuity) so if they want to dick around... I let them– to a point.

    The other challenge is– how much do you try to "teach" them about direct marketing? You share too much and you can see their eyes go blank. You share too little and they don't see the value in what you're doing.

    My final challenge is on me. I tried the telemarketing cold-calling thing for 6 months. We made a lot of phone calls, well into the thousands and I found the whole experience to be painful. Businesses hate receiving them which starts everything off on the wrong foot. And then getting to the decision maker– well many here know the drill. And I know there are folks here that have done very well cold calling but the thing that I found most bothersome is how much of my time was being spent trying to convince folks to spend $500 or $1000 a month on services they truly needed but wouldn't pull the trigger on. I wasted many hours with prospects. But I did learn some things along the way. Oh and one other thing, getting burned out talking to perspective clients caused me to not spend as much time as I should with the clients I already have and that's not a good thing.

    So at the moment I've put the cold calling on the back burner.

    Now I'm going full Dan Kennedy mode. I'm focusing on creating content and putting various media centers into place including speaking gigs and working on establishing relationships with folks that can lead to clients, for example wholesalers who sell to my perspective clients. In other words I'm going to focus on getting folks to raise their hands before I talk to them.

    Anyway lots of questions, problems, challenges and not necessarily a lot of answers... or at least good answers.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      I honestly think CRM's for the most part can only get you so far. ( Like iAm stated and I will concur with.. they only work when you look at them ) I have a custom built one for web design and another for CRO that focusses more on the back end development stuff than the front end working with clients. And even with all of that... My 4'x8' glass board is my goto - look at it and know what is where.

      There came a point for me that I was taking in projects and nothing was getting done.. waiting on clients to deliver this and that... I asked "Why?". I personally prefer to work with "local" clients. They got some questionaires and I get the logo from them ( and not all had that ) as well as any and every piece of printed material they had, and I developed anything and every thing else. Needed photos we took them. needed text we wrote it. needed graphics we made them.

      This was my answer to "Why?" I took the wait out, and put the project on MY schedule.. and not waiting for theirs. There is no second guessing is it done? did we get it? I could look at the white board, and there is an "X" or there isn't. It was on me and my team to make that happen. The moment you take the client out of the equation.. projects always go smoother.

      People have the mentality that developing a website is hard and techy and all of that... it can be... but writing text isn't techy.. but clients are overwhelmed with the idea of writing text for their site. If you are selling a service you need to provide just that.. a service. if you are building a site you need to do just that build a site. You start asking a client for this and that.. and they think they are doing the building and not you.

      Charge more, and complete the job on your terms, and within your timeframe. The clients happier.. and you are as well... well I was anyways!
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      Success is an ACT not an idea
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  • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
    Thanks Iamnameless I will check those out

    I guess I have to toughen up and raise prices....I hesitate to "add on" a fee for time wasted but sometimes i think I need to....how many revisions due to them just not finding their "stuff"?

    Honestly when I see some "biz ideas" here all I can think of is ..how it would be in real life
    9x12.....omg getting 15 small biz owners to decide on their ads , find the pictures, revise revise LOL
    a directory? just getting their correct info, pictures, then they won't know how to make their own changes even if there is distinct info there

    I had a customer for printing (design) and we had some stuff for him....flyer/s, brochure, portfolio cover, invoices...then he realized his wife wanted him to use the "other url" they own. after he approved proofs.....geeze, fortunately we had not started the print job

    I do agree that local is best....I can't imagine doing this over time zones, etc


    One thing that has happened over the years is what I have come to call Internet debris...I find some of my clients have footprints all over the web they forgot about....like a group on facebook with 20 people they started and abandoned in 2010...or a blog one of their employees set up and maintained for a couple months in 2012....they have multiple logos and colors and ad formats, often because they went with a "free design" from a local coupon magazine or directory so it can get super confusing

    I had one guy call me up all happy and excited - one of his employees found a pretty nice sized email list they had gotten from trade shows they participated in - no one had ever bothered to enter them in their email program!


    I have personally used various password managers for years and keep everything in the "clouds" so I do try to show them how to use password managers (roboform, lastpass etc)
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