 Hello everybody. Welcome back to the auditorium once again to the greatest room at WordCamp Phoenix. The loudest one we've gotten today. I'm proud. Up next, maximizing your business impact by choosing the right clients by Michelle Thomas. Thank you. Hi everybody. I hope you're having a great day one at WordCamp Phoenix. We'll get started since we have a limited amount of time. I'm gonna do a quick poll. I'd like to see who in the room is working freelance currently and who's working freelance while also working a full-time or part-time job. Almost everyone. Okay. Got it. That's gonna help me later. So really quick. My name is Michelle. I am the content manager at Bluehost. I also am a social media and content specialist for freelance freelance and I'm a wedding portrait photographer. So about six years ago, well before we even start there, if you don't listen to anything else I say today, it is okay to fire clients. I encourage you to fire the wrong clients and we'll talk a little bit about what the right and the wrong clients are but just make sure you keep that in mind. I know that we were taught that in order to succeed you need as much business as possible and you need everyone who's willing to pay you a dollar to be your client and that's not true. We're going to completely throw that upside down today. Okay. So six years ago I decided to start working for myself and I thought this will be easy. I am already a photographer. I know what to do. All I have to do is set up meetings, take some pictures and then send them the pictures and everything's good. Right. I was very wrong. So what happened in actuality was the text messages started, the phone call started, the email started and before you actually think that I'm just terrible at my job, I want you to note that it wasn't because the pictures were bad. It was because I want you to make me look like Beyonce. Right. I want to fix this one little, this one little pimple I have on my face and oh I loved it all so much. Can you give me a discount and well, can't you just shoot me one more time and so I can fix this one picture because I didn't like my dress quite right. And I thought this is not a great idea for me, right, for my lifestyle, for my business or for my mental health. So I have decided to figure out how to make the right client, right, how to choose the right client and make sure that I'm doing things that make me happy that bring me joy and that also give peace to my life. So before you start accepting clients, there are a few things you need to do. Number one, make sure you're operating legally. Very important for a number of reasons. We won't get into them today because I hope almost everyone knows why. Number two, make sure that you are accounting for your taxes before taxes, tax season starts. I know right now you have time for this year, but for last year you're already a little too late and could potentially be paying more out of pocket immediately. So start thinking about those things before you start accepting clients. Number three, write out the confines of your business. What do you do? What do you specialize in? Who do you actually want to be your client? What do you want to work with them on? What do you not want to work with them on? I know sometimes this can take time to figure out. It can take you a few years maybe to say, I don't really like that one job, but start thinking about it ahead of time and write those things out so that you can look at them and know exactly what you want to do. Next, figure out your COPD. That's your cost of doing business. That means how do I make sure that I'm actually making more money now than I was when I was working 15 hours a day at X job? So figure out how much that is. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute, but these are just things to think about. Establish your rules and your boundaries, and these are boundaries for you and for your clients. It could be something as simple as I only work in my bedroom, I only work in my living room, or I only take calls after 9 a.m. and until 6 p.m. So establish those things, write them out early, and you'll save yourself a lot of headaches, I promise. The last one is decide how you want to accept payments. Decide how much you want to be paid, which is part of the figure out your cost of doing business, but think about these things ahead of time just to get yourself situated and prepared to start taking on clients. So this is how we're going to identify our cost of doing business. There's a lot of ways to do this. The simplest way is to say how much money do you want to make? And how much does it cost you to be in business, right? So if you are, I'm gonna give you a simple example. If I want to make $1,000 a month, and I have $300 in expenses, which could be keeping your website updated, it could be your, in my case, like a Photoshop license or something like that, you're gonna have to figure out how much you need to charge one person if you only want to work four days a week, right? So if you want to work four days a week, and you want to make $1,000 a month, you need to charge $325 a day. Now, this is a very simple example. It's obviously a little more complicated when you're working on hours versus project-based things, but it's just a simple example. If you don't want to do any math, there is an example, a calculator, actually, on nppa.org. So just, there's a link on the bottom of the screen. I'll give it to you guys later as well. But essentially, you can go in and calculate all of your different expenses and figure out how much money you actually need to charge each of your clients in order to bring home the money that you need. So let's talk a little bit about setting boundaries. I know everyone thinks working from home is this grand lifestyle, right? You'll just sit on your couch and work all day. But what I learned from working from home was I never really left work. I ended up being in my living room when I was working. I was in the bed and I was working. I was at the dining table and working, and everything felt like it was one big work lifestyle in my home. And your home really should be separated from that. So if you can go to a co-working space, do that. If you can spend a day in the park, do that. So try to figure out ways to make sure you're setting your own boundaries for your work and where you actually work. But also things like what hours and when do you want your clients to actually contact you? They could, you could, I know people who actually prefer late night emails and phone calls. I do not for a very number of reasons, but figure that stuff out and set that expectation with yourself first and then your clients. And then how do you accept payments? I get this a lot, right? I have, oh, I have no money, but I have all these grand ideas that I want you to create for me. That doesn't really work when you have bills to pay in reality. So this is when you say, when do I require payment? Do I want them to pay me before I start work? Do I want them to pay me half before I start working and then half after it's completed? And do you give them final files of whatever you're doing or whatever product you're selling them? Do you give them those files before they pay you? The answer should always be no, by the way. Always hold those things until you're paid in full. Do not give up full work without being paid. But the other thing is don't work for free, right? You devalue your industry, yourself and your time. Even if you're a newbie in whatever field you're working in, if you are charging nothing, you're essentially saying your time is meaningless, right? So even if you're not an expert, your time has a value. So identify what your value is and the opportunity cost for you to get out of bed and go into a thing or to take a phone call and identify all those things that tell you how much you should be getting paid. And then when you're deciding to take on a new client, there's a few things I'd like you to think about as well. So this is outside of before you start accepting clients the things you should do for your business and more along the lines of things you should think about when interviewing a client. How do they make you feel when they talk to you, right? Do they make you feel good? Do they make you feel nervous? Do you feel something in the pit of your stomach? If they do, trust that feeling that your gut telling you to run away and run. I'm going to tell you to run. Are they requesting work that is in within your within your abilities? Are they asking you to do something you've never done before? And if they are, either make it very clear that this is not your specialty and you're willing to try these things, but also don't be afraid to say, Hey, this is not in my scope of work, but I do know a great person who can do this for you and set those connections up with people within your community or within your field. And you can kind of share business back and forth that way. I've had people tell me, you know, I want you to put an angel in the background of my image and put somebody's face on it and do all these different things. And I'm like, it's not really my style, right? And that's not something that I specialize in. So I'm not afraid to say, I know someone else who can do that for you. But these are things that I would be able to actually accomplish. And I think people end up a lot more satisfied when you do it that way. Also, you want to ask, do they respect you? Are they talking to you in a condescending manner? Are they respecting your time and your patience? Are your work ethic, anything like that, and figure out if they make you feel respected? And then you want to know, are you able to take on any more work? A lot of people, a lot of businesses actually fail by expanding too quickly. And what that means is you're giving out more promises than you're able to actually deliver on. If you are not able to take on another project, do not take it on. It is better for you to deny the work than to take on the work and then let them down. That can lead to a bad reputation and lots of other things that we'll talk about later. And then we want to talk about, have you actually reviewed your business practices with them? Have you talked about how, what your boundaries are and what your working hours are and how you deliver work to them? Those things are really important for them to understand before you start working with them so that they're able to have the right expectation. Have you had an exploratory meeting? That basically means it's a kickoff meeting, essentially, like they're, they want you to do a project and you say, hey, what, what, what is it about? Like, what does it look like to you? Let's talk about these things and identify then if you're able to actually deliver what they're asking for. And then how do you feel about them? This is again, like, how do they make you feel? What is the feeling in your gut telling you, does this feel like a good client or does this feel like someone who may end up calling you all the time or asking a lot of questions? Are they anxious or are they highly, you know, paranoid about a lot of things and identify whether you're okay with those standards or not. So I'm going to give you five commandments for work, for working freelance or for working with clients. Number one, do not accept clients who ask for discounts. That is telling you from the beginning, they do not respect your value. And if you take them on, you will only be upset. Okay, do not accept clients who do not value your work. This is this can be something simple. In my case, I'm going to give you an example. Again, I'm a wedding photographer and I've had people who say I don't really care about photography. My mom just wants me to have pictures of this day, or I don't really care if you take these certain pictures or these certain pictures, I just need some money there. That tells me you don't really value what I've done or what the industry I'm in. And so it's not really an ideal client for me, right, because they're not going to they may be wow, there's times when, of course, they say, Oh, I wasn't expecting this to look so great or I feel more beautiful than I ever have before. But at the end of the day, they're not an ideal client. So they could work, but they're not an ideal client. Also, do not take clients without a written contract or agreement. This is telling you exactly what is expected of them and expected of you. It's it's a CYA, but also it covers them as well. And this means that you'll write exactly what work they're receiving. They'll you'll write out exactly how much you're being paid when you're being paid. And also the scope of the timeframe, right? So if I take your wedding pictures, don't ask me the next day if the pictures are ready, right? Because my contract says that the pictures will be to you within four to six weeks. So that's the expectation that you have. So again, whenever you're taking on these clients, just make sure that they understand, hey, according to our contract, this, this and this answer their questions if they have one. But always remind them, you know, hey, this is our contract for a reason. This is so we both know what to expect out of this relationship. Do not accept clients who do not respect your boundaries. If they have already called you four times while they just asked you what the prices were. And those four times were outside of your work hours that are posted on your website, on your social media, and also in the bottom of the email that you sent them responding the first time, you probably should not accept them as a client because they may start calling you at 2am. I've had it happen. Texting you at 6am. I've also had that happen. And it tells you really, really soon that they're not they're just going to bother you and it could become a harassing situation. And also do not accept accept clients who do not fit into what your business goals are. If your goal is to be a fine art photographer, don't shoot a wedding in the garage or in the backyard. Or if your goal is to be, you know, a social media expert, don't accept a business who who doesn't really care about the social media or who won't give you the tools that you need to promote their business online. If you're a developer, don't accept someone who's not who's asking for I just want a simple website with barely anything to do, barely anything on it. And I just really want something that has my name on the domain. Like that's probably not your ideal client. If you're wanting to become, you know, a specialized developer in certain in the real estate market or all these different things that you could choose. So again, just make sure that you're accepting clients who fit into what you want to do, not into what they want you to do. And do not backslide, run far, far away. I know that there are always times when we say, well, we have bills to pay and I need to eat and I have to have shelter over my head and you do have to have all those things. And if there's a case when you need to make money, then that's great. Do what you have to do. But at the same time, that shouldn't be your ideal situation. It shouldn't be the norm. So don't make it the norm to accept all these things that don't really work for your lifestyle or for your business. So what happens when you choose the wrong clients? Very easy. You get negative word of mouth reviews, right? You get negative online reviews, you get you risk unhappy clients that talk about you all over the world. They're the loudest people in the world, by the way. Angry people talk really loud. There's something to be said about word of mouth reviews, but also you just you don't want the negative feedback online, right? It lives there forever potentially. You can't delete certain things like on Yelp or all these different places. People will harass you and troll you online if they have an issue. So just if you pick the right clients, you minimize the risk of having all these things happen. You risk your emotional and mental health and stability really. It can give you anxiety. You'll end up staying up all night worrying about what could I've done better and and why did I take on this and regretting your decisions? Try to avoid regret as much as possible by just making the right decision in the beginning. And there are times obviously when someone will surprise you and you'll think they were an ideal client and then something will happen and you'll say what was I thinking? This wasn't a great idea after all. And that will happen and don't beat yourself up about it. But if you can control certain things, I think just start looking for those things at the beginning instead of waiting for it to happen. And then again, you risk being harassed or trolled online. So just remember all these things live forever potentially and you can't always erase them or make them go away. So just try to be conscious of your decisions. So what happens when you choose the right client? You get the same things, right? You are mentally healthy. It's the opposite of everything else. You get your passion for what you do get stronger, right? Every time you get a happy customer, you want to do more. You want to do better at everything that you're doing. And you want to continue working towards whatever your goals are, right? You have positive reviews that you can tap into at any time. Not just written reviews online. But if you know all of your clients are happy, you can easily say, hey, you know, I'm trying to apply for this award or I want to start featuring testimonials on my website. And all of them are most likely going to be ready and available to give that to you if you need it. And those words of mouth referrals will keep you in business every time. As the beginning of whatever business you're starting, you will obviously have that ramp-up time where you're trying to get new clients and you take on people. But once you've done that legwork, people will start speaking for you. They'll start telling their friends who have similar businesses or similar problems about how amazing you are and how great the work is that you do. So you just really give yourself a chance to succeed in your business. And then you actually get better at what you do, right? Not only does your passion grow, but you also get better. You just you start practicing it more and doing it more and it gets better every time and people will start noticing. And again, all of this stuff will cyclically happen again. It will just keep happening over and over. Okay, so that's not moving. There we go. Okay, so actually according to Nelson, which is a research company, 92% of people trust word of mouth more than just an online review. And the reason why is, of course, because reviews are bought a lot, right? And you don't really trust what you see online. Every time you see a comment on an Instagram post that says, oh, this tea really worked and my stomach is flat. You wonder if it's a referral or if it's an affiliate or and you don't really trust it. And it's true. But if your friend or your mother or your father comes and tells you, hey, I use this this long guy and he was really good and you can see the work and you can see how their life is easier because of that work. You trust it a little bit more. And it's completely fair the reason why you do. So there are some ways to promote a positive review. Undersell and overdeliver. This is something I live by all the time. If you tell me you want something done and I know it takes me two weeks, I'm going to tell you six weeks and I'm going to give it to you in two weeks and you're going to be like, oh, my gosh, I had no idea you could get this done so fast. I wasn't expecting this for another four weeks. If they say, you know, if you could just add, you know, a little flower in the corner or if you could just, you know, do one post. If you have a good client, there's nothing wrong with giving them a little extra, right? If your contract says you'll post 20 times, let them know, hey, I posted 21 times for you. And I think that this extra post really worked well, right? The engagement was higher. People were interested in it. And it's an overpromise, underpromise, overdeliver type of thing. People will always be happy with that. Have a thorough kickoff meeting with them. Talk about exactly what you're going to be doing. Walk them through every step of the process of what you're doing and set realistic expectations. If you tell them, this is not really what we do or, you know, I'm not really sure how this will work, but I'm willing to try it for you. And then you know that you're really good at it. Be really good at it and don't necessarily sell that at the beginning. Let your work sell itself later because they're more than likely, they're more than willing to promote you or talk about you or give you a positive review after that. And then communicate, like I said, communicate through the entire process and try to really give every client your best work, like the best work that you can do. And I know we're humans and sometimes we can't always deliver our best. We do have days. But if you can, hold on to something a little bit longer if you need to and get it done right the first time so that they don't have to give negative feedback or, you know, have an issue with your work when you could have just taken an extra day or two to really simmer and sit on it. So that's really all. I just want to make sure to see if you guys have any questions. I wanted to give you some time to process all of that. Any questions? I talked a little fast. I'm sorry. He's coming. How do you handle some of those situations where you don't realize it might not be the right client for you? OK, this happened to me. I'm going to give you an example. I had someone sign a contract for a wedding and we have, you know, you have a right to fire anybody anytime. Texas is an at-will state for employers, but also in a contract, you can say, you know, within so many days if you or I do not feel like this is a good fit, we can step away from our contract. So thorough contracts are also a really good idea. But in this case, I shot their engagements and I immediately knew this is not the right person. And that's a really weird situation. It's an uncomfortable situation in most cases. But what I try to do is say, you know, hey, now that I've gotten to know your needs a little bit better, I've come to learn that I can't deliver what you need or I don't know that we would be a good fit based on my abilities and your requests. Therefore, I have five other people that I think may work better for you or five or a place for you to go and find someone else that's right for you. So even if that's, you know, you know, a developer or if you're a developer or a social media manager or a content manager or anything like that, anything like that, excuse me. It's really easy to say after our scope of work or after we start this process, I just don't think we're a good fit for what you need. And don't make it a personal thing. Just, you know, you don't have to say, you didn't respect my boundaries and I don't like it. You know, you just need to tell them, you know, this is, this wasn't really a great fit and I've found other suggestions for you. Anyone else? Oh, we have two hands back there. When you refer people to other agencies, do you set up like an affiliate? I don't, I know a lot of people that do, but in certain spaces, you don't need to, right? So I have certain people that I know do, that I've made connections with who do specific things. Like I gave the example earlier, someone who wanted an angel put into a picture. I know people who specialize in that. I know people who have different styles than I do. And what I do is I choose one of those people and they do the same thing. So we've set up a friendship, a relationship to where they refer work to me all the time and I refer work to them all the time. Even if it's something like, you don't have the capacity to do the work and maybe you can do it, but you just have too many clients at the time, you could easily just say, you know, hey, talk to this person and say, hey, I love the work you're doing. You're doing an amazing job. I'd love to refer clients to you when I'm not available or when it's not really in my scope and I'd love for you to do the same thing. And most people are willing to do that because they want the work as well. And then right here, sir. So what do you do with payments? So you require probably half down, 50% down. And then you find out, you said you did the engagement and you think, whoa, this is not happening. How do you handle, do you do a refund? Do you partially figure, I mean, what's your personal kind of calculation there of how you deal with refunding part of a deposit or how does that work for you? Okay, so in my case, there's two different answers. When I'm doing social media or content strategy work or posting and things like that, there's a no refund policy, like just in general. If I've decided to step away from a contract, then I give them a 30 day notice before I do that, which is also in my contract. For photography, it's a little different because generally I charge the amount of an engagement session at the time when I do the engagement session. So that is non-refundable, but anything paid after that and before 30 days before the wedding will be refunded. So essentially 30 days before the wedding, you've paid everything and there's no refunds. Does I answer the question? Okay. Yes, ma'am. Anyone else? We can really talk about anything. We have time. I will say that after this, you are going to be available at the Bluehost table if anybody wants to come up for one-on-one questions, but we also have this room for another like 10 minutes if you guys want to talk. Yeah, I think we have exactly 10 minutes, so. I tried to time it right, so people had time to ask if they needed to. Usually my talks go over, sorry. Tried to do better this year. Well, let's give it up for Michelle Thomas. Thank you. Thank you.