Most clients don’t have days to wait for you to reply to emails or return phone calls. They don’t have the resources to follow up twice a day to find out if youactually want the job and they certainly don’t care how busy you are.

Communication with clients is important to your ‘business’ as freelancer. FACT!

On the one hand your an outsider and purely their to fill a skill gap. You turn up, get your head down, do the job you agreed to do and leave. You’re happy, the client is ‘happy’ (or as happy as they’ll let on), you get paid and you’re on to the next job. If they liked you enough they’ll call you a few months later because they know you can get the job done and you’re rate is reasonable or they won’t bother and you’ll never hear from them again.

On the other hand you’re an expert, the company came to you because your good at what you do, you’re charging a pretty penny and you’re keen to do the brief justice. More importantly you make sure the client is getting good value for money from your input and try your best to help them blow their end-client away. You spend a few extra hours here and their, you make your fair share of the teas and they even ask you to sign a card for the guy that’s leaving. A few days per week turns into a few weeks per month and before you know it you’re on a retainer and someone they can’t do without.

But before you can get into either of those positions you need to know what the client wants…

Do they even want your input? Do they want you to tell them where they’re going wrong, offer advice on how they can improve the end product or offer up suggestions on a different way to approach things? Or do they want you to sit in the corner, keep your mouth shut and get on with it? After all sometimes its good to just get the job done, not have to think too much and go home feeling you’ve achieved what you were asked.

I’ve been on both sides of the road and in my experience its best to know where you stand from the outset because at the end of your time you need to leave knowing the client is pleased with the service they received, either way.

So to avoid any clashes…

• Try and find out from the outset how much input the client actually wants. Speak to them about what they want, do they want an extension of their team or just a spare pair of hands to help out. Sometimes you’ll find giving too much can be as equally as annoying as not giving enough. You might even want to get something set in stone to avoid any problems later.
• Don’t step on any ones toes. Remember that you’re just the hired help no matter what your capacity is. If you’re hired as the UI designer, don’t go poking around in the CSS or Copywritting unless someone asks. For the most part the company will have brought you in the plug a gap, if they needed a front-end developer they would have asked for one.
• Know who your point of contacts are. Make sure that you know who you’re dealing with from the outset and sick to dealing with that person unless told otherwise. Certainly don’t go running to the MD’s office with a list of ’suggestions’ how you could improve things, especially if you wern’t asked.
• Never contact the end-client directly unless you’re asked to. No matter how valid your suggestions or comments are never go directly to the client’s client and tell them what you’re think. 9 times out of 10 this won’t be well received regardless if they think you have a good idea or not.
• If you’re not sure you’re doing it right then just ask. If you’re contracted for a large period of time and you’re not sure if you’re giving the right amount on input, then just ask. Find out if the client feels you’re digging in enough or even too much and then adjust as you go. Its better to know your doing something wrong and change than to keep just doing what you’re doing and annoy people.
• …then get feedback at the end of the job. That way you can prepare for next time.
• Make lots of tea and buy lots of biscuits. Regardless of what you’re there to do, make sure you make your fair share of the tea and bring plenty of biscuits, its guarantees win points!

If you’ve got experience of this or know of any other posts on the subject then let me know, I’d be interested to see how other freelancers deal with this. Leave a comment or hit me up on twitter.

Thanks.

Things have been super busy but I promise that I am working on it and will get it up as soon as possible. In the mean time if you want to see some examples of the projects I’ve been working on lately drop an email to lee {at} mrleesimpson.co.uk and I’ll send some over…

…and stay tuned for the feature length production.

Last week I completed and launched a new website for Media Sciences and Network Analytics company Dollywagon.

Company Director Jason Brownlee approached me to help him develop a clean simple website and blog to promote his business and act as an information portal for the services he provides.

Dollywagon is led by Jason Brownlee, a well known and respected British media research specialist. Jason has both a corporate and new start-up media background and has earned a reputation for introducing exciting innovation to the market.

Dollywagon works with several key partners who bring industry-leading skills to all of its projects – people who excel in their field, have a natural inclination to collaborate and are first class thinkers.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Jason and it was an experience working with someone in his industry. To find out more about Dollywagon check out www.dollywagon.com and make sure you follow Jason on twitter.

Any thoughts or feedback on the site let me know.

Sitting behind a desk promoting yourself on twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Flickr is all good and well, but nothing hits the spot like getting out, shaking some hands and swapping some business cards. A lot of freelance resources place emphases on developing your ’social network’ profile and using the social network tools to market what you do, but getting out into the real world and meeting potential clients is just as if not more important, especially if you want to grab those businesses who aren’t on the social media radar.

Getting Started

• Speak to your local Business Link or business support agency and find out what’s happening in your local area. If you can find networking groups that apply to your area then hit them first, then move on to the more traditional business clubs and morning groups.
• Don’t pay to network! As a general rule paying to network is a bad idea unless you know you can get the return on your investment. I joined Codeworks Connect about 7 months ago at £70 for the year and managed to return a fair amount of work and meet plenty of contacts in a short amount of time however I already knew a large chunk of the people who attended and had plenty of introductions. Without those things I doubt I would have done as well
  If there is a networking event you really think will help you out and it costs, squeeze the organisers for a couple of free passes so you can get a feel for the place before signing on the dotted line. Then if you feel like its going to be worth it, dip your hand in your pocket for the cash.
• You need business cards. If you rock up to a meeting without them, you might as well have not gone at all. Despite what you read they don’t need to be anything fancy, cards from moo.com will do the trick. Name, email address, phone number and website and you’re done.
• And last but not least. Don’t try to pitch everyone you meet. Networking is just as much about building contacts as it is about creating business. If you run up to everyone and start pitching them your service before they’ve had a chance to say hello then people are going to get board quickly and avoid you. Take it easy, at the end of the day everyone is there for the same purpose and if people are really looking for what you have to offer they’ll hunt you out. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 meetings and sometimes you might not even convert these to business until weeks (even months) later, its all about building up long term relationships, it’ll all pay off in the end.

Hope this helps. Anyone who wants to know any more about this get in touch or reach me on twitter. Holla!

About two years ago (February 2008) I launched a blog called KartelInc with the idea to publish content about ’street fashion and culture’ aimed at the UK market. The base of the blog was covering fashion and trends relating directly to fashion but the overall categories ranged from music and art to events, tech and features.

At the time I was reading a lot blogs and online magazines from across the pond such as HypeBeast, SlamxHype and FormatMag and I originally wanted to create something similar but that focused primarily on British culture that catered more to UK users by only featuring products that could be purchased in the UK. When I started I knew very little about blogging and how to develop a website based around content and most of what I planned to do and did was based around what I’d seen other people do.

Initially the the site went well. I managed to keep the content rolling and keep the users coming, and although I never achieved huge numbers I was fairly pleased with the result based on the amount of time I was spending working on it. In order to entice advertisers and make the site seem busier than it was, I gave several spots away on the website to companies and brands that I knew fit the demographic of the blog readers. Again this showed good results and again although the click rate numbers weren’t huge it did give me what I thought at the time was a good set of sample figures to work with.

The site ticked along nicely and I spent roughly 2-3 hours every other day updating articles and promoting the site, in this time I had a few offers from people wanting to advertise as well as some companies wanting to sponsor posts. I was pleased with the way things were going.

As the weeks went on due to other work commitments I began to find it harder and harder to produce the content I needed in order to main the visitor numbers, I also found it increasingly difficult to provide the UK only content that I originally thought I could. The updates on the site dwindled to the point of one or two a week and in early 2009 the updates stopped all together. At the time I was annoyed that I’d start and that I was unable to keep it going, but made the decision that client work was more important.

I left the site live and kept the analytics switched on and throughout 2009 everytime I checked the stats for my other sites, I’d check Kartel to see how the user number progressed. A few posts, in particular those related to products that we’re still relevant, still dragged visitors to the site and it was this that lead me to keep the site live. On a few occasions I tried to revive the site with a ’sorry’ post but most of the time it got no further than that.

Then before Xmas I was speaking with David Haywood Smith from Wishli.st and Jonny Philip from OW! Health about plans for 2010 and we got talking about content driven websites, they both mentioned that they were going to start new projects based on building a ‘brand’ around published content in a specific area, which got me thinking about Kartel. Flash forward to now…

Today I (soft) launched the all new KartelInc. After some thought over the holidays I decided that a stripped down design, more focus on the content, no ads and a simpler layout would make the site easier to maintain and promote what was important. I also reassessed what the blog should be and the type content it should contain (which I’m not going to go into yet) and also what the long term plan would could potentially be, which means I can treat it like a actual working project rather than just side-project.

My plan to to develop the site, the content and the concept as I go and keep a blog on the process, in the next couple of weeks I’ll go into more details on the redesign and promoting the site.

I’d appreciate if you could checkout the site at www.kartelinc.co.uk and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

I’m not one for making New Year resolutions, so I’m not going to bother. However I do want to say a massive thanks to everyone who supported me or worked with me in 2009.

Apparently we were in some kind recession and I know that alot of people, big agencies to freelancers have struggled and even shut up shop due to the lack of work. But fortunately I was blessed not only to have enough work to see the year through but also to work with some awesome clients.

Thanks guys. I’ll see you in 2010!

Email me a brief description of the project and an idea of your time scale and budget and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Unfortunately I’m unable to take on larger projects at the moment due to my contract schedule however if you have a larger project looking to start in March, April or May then get in touch.

I’m not normally into posting videos but on Sunday Mikey Parker of OrangeBus tweeted this Ustream vid of Gary Vaynerchuk at last weeks LeWeb conference in Paris. Now as a general rule I don’t read a lot of business books, I don’t read a lot of business blogs and when it comes to podcast and vodcasts they normally make me want to be sick in my mouth, but after I was introduced to Gary’s site about 12 months back by David Haywood Smith and Jonny Phillip I’ve followed it religiously and this is one of the best talks yet.

Anyone interested in building a business, building a brand, managing a community or just being good at what they do needs this in their life.

Warning the language is pretty heavy so if you’re easily offended you might want to watch this instead.

(Photo by icedsoul on Flickr)

About 12 months ago I bit the bullet and went out and bought a Blackberry to replace my normal mobile phone. At the time I was getting somewhere between 15-25 emails a day not including the spam and junk and it seemed like every time I sat down at my computer to get some actual work done I was spending the first hour answering emails. Either that or waiting until the weekend and spending a day playing catch up and on a few occasions loosing out on a potential projects or pissing of clients because I didn’t respond quick enough.

So I thought getting a Blackberry would mean I could get back to clients super quickly and spend any dead time (on the train, waiting to get my hair cut) getting though my inbox and keeping on top of the pile…

…and I was right. I can quite honestly say that for the past year having it has really helped me keep on top of the inbox and has improved my communication with clients tenfold. I’ve managed to win a few short-notice jobs here and there, as well as keeping customers happy by getting back to them quicker, its also meant that when I was at my desk I was spending lest time going through email and more time working.

Doing emails when I’m not on ‘official’ work time hasn’t tended to bother me all that much, especially when I’m killing time or dealing with something urgent and apart from a couple of occasions when it’s lead to an argument with my mum or sister because I’m dealing with business rather than doing family stuff, I hadn’t let it get in the way.

That was up until about four months ago.

I’ve never been at the point where I’m waking up in the middle of the night to deal with emails but I did start to notice that it was taking up more and more of my time. If a client emailed with an issue and I couldn’t fix it with response I was chewing at the bit to get back to my desk to sort it out regardless of what I was doing and if I was out with friends and family and I got an email with a complaint it would instantly put me in a bad mood, to the point where I’d ramble on to the people I was with for hours about it till I could sort it out. It short it slowly started to turn into another thing I had to deal with rather than a thing that was suppose to make work easier.

Then last Saturday night at 9pm, a fair few drinks in to the night, my phone buzzed and I found myself standing in the middle of a busy bar tapping away answering emails and trying to sort a technical problem with a clients website. I’d already just finished one of the busiest weeks I’d had in months and was feeling the pressure as it was, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t draw myself away. This went on for almost an hour and by the end of it all I was in a shitty mood

The next morning I thought about what had happened. I thought thats it, and turned the data-connection off. Gone. Silence.

So for the last 8 days the only time I’ve been dealing with emails is when I’ve been sitting at my desk, granted Saturday left me with a empty inbox and I’m not getting nearly as many now as I was 12 months ago but not getting every email instantly fired at me has made working in general much easier. I felt like in the past few days when I’m not at a computer I’ve been able to think more objectively about jobs and work in general rather than over thinking smaller problems to the point where I’m annoyed.

For the first time since I can remember I’m not spending every other second looking at my phone either wondering when the next email will come through. I’m not sitting with it on the table when I eat or by my bed at night, and my mum even asked today if it was broke because it hadn’t made a noise in a while, which can only mean its working.

All that said, I’ll switch it back on soon. The reason I originally got it was to keep on top of things and the very nature of the way I work means emails will start piling in thick and fast again, especially as the new year is almost here, but at least know I now that I can switch it off and disconnect when I need to and still get things done. Sometimes its good to disconnect.

(Photo by MobileBurn on Flickr)