Questions for New Freelance Client

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notes & reflections from a podcast episode by Kyle Prinsloo. these notes & questions are geared around frontend work.

who is your ideal client?

this one is a must, a lot of people I’ve engaged with for freelance gigs normally won’t have established this before reaching out to me.

what is the desired action?

this one may seem basic but I sometimes forget to ask it early on. establish the call to action for a site user.

what makes you unique?

this is important, as anything that makes you unique has to be communicated in one way or another on the site, “presented in a way that helps the client/business stand out”. some businesses are doing nothing unique, good to keep in mind.

what is an average client/customer worth to your business?

one I’ve never asked, but it helps when it comes time to do value based pricing - which I am yet to try. knowing what the average customer/client is worth also helps with marketing budget, so you know the maximum that can be spent to acquire a new customer.

tangent - the options for pricing can be summed up as:

  1. hourly
  2. fixed price
  3. value based pricing

how many clients do you usually get each month?

this is a continuation on the question above, really. also helps to know what products/services that most of their clients are going for. again, helps with marketing/design of the website.

how do you currently get new customers?

helps you identify what you can improve on, when it comes to the marketing.

do you have professional images & a brand guideline

  • professional images is a must for product based businesses.

when would you like the project completed?

  • the more urgent it is, the more valuable it is to the client, so, bill accordingly.

bonus

if you feel a client may not be able to afford your rates, based off of your spidey senses, ask “do you have a budget set aside for this, of minimum X” X being the minimum you’d be willing to charge in order to engage.