 Hi, this is Jeffrey with Lightbox and I want to ask you a question now Have you ever had a project? So you got a client they want a website built and it's supposed to be a simple website Well, at least the client tells you it's going to be simple, you know They have an example website. They say they want the website just like this one, you know They just want a few pages maybe the home page about page the services page and the contact page and just want it easy and simple and then You work on it a week goes by you're almost finished and now the changes come They start asking for more they want a new blog now added on there They start thinking about other things that they could do at the website Then they might even give you somebody else's website and say they changed your mind They want the website more like this. Well, this is how my journey started I went through this on just about every single one of my beginning projects You know, this is scope creep classic example of it and as a creative starting off and freelancing This is something that happens in our industry now when I was getting a scope creeped on I didn't even know what the term scope creep was. I never even heard of it You know, I was just so excited and happy to make websites and when I got you know referral that came to me and You know, they said yeah, so-and-so. They said you were really good We want to work with you. I was just so excited to get that job that I just wanted to work on it You know and didn't realize there's a whole process before getting that job to prevent this from happening Now I've been doing this for a few years now And I'm really happy to say that I've just about eliminated all scope creep out of my work that I've developed a Process and I learned how to professionally Communicate with clients in order to prevent this and I want to go ahead and just give you a few quick steps Later on we could go a little bit deeper into them But these this is my process and how I prevent scope creep from happening now First of all what it comes down to it's all about communication. That's what it is. It's professional communication It's making sure there's a clear understanding So the first step is going to be the discovery now the discovery That's the communications that happen with you and your client before the project That's when you're trying to figure out what the project is all about. Why does the client need this website built? What's wrong with their current website, you know, who are their competitors? What is their goal? What do they want to accomplish so by really taking time to understand the client and their goals and what they want Their website to do and what they they what they expect This will really help you get a good understanding and it opens up the communication. Just a quick simple a quick I don't know why I say that we're simple But we could probably cut that part out just a quick tip when doing discovery. This will help out a lot Make sure you have let me see this over here Make sure you have one of these a notebook and a pen and as you're talking with the client Write down everything that they're saying take as many notes as you can as possible Well, what happened is when you're writing all those notes and you're in discovery and talking to them It's gonna force you to listen So that's the most important part of discovery listening getting a clear understanding of the client So step two this is going to come in your proposal now a proper proposal is going to be drafted out in detail You want as much detail in it as you can our Proposals the way that they're structured is you know, we have an opening we briefly talk about the project We briefly talk about the client goals We show our capabilities and then we go into the SOW now what the SOW is That's a scope of work and that's what we're proposing to do for the client And I get as detailed as possible inside that scope step by step by step The next part of it is also I put the time frame for each one of the steps, you know So our research, you know our research and discovery phase will be the first week You know wire framing designing testing and feedback will be the second week So as much detail as can go into it Will help out that way when you send it to the client they go through the proposal It gives them a chance to really go through it and make the changes Maybe they'll see something need to take out or at so you fine tune it so you get an agreement now The next part and this is you know another crucial step right here is going to be the contract that SOW that was inside your proposal has to also be in the contract very detailed What are the exact deliverables, you know like If we're going to build a five page website that is only going to have these three functions It's got to be specifically put in there We're building this page this page this page and this page this But you know, we're going to have this function in there And then we add inside the contract if anything else needs to be added in there. That's totally fine We're just going to have to increase the cost maybe do this on the hourly rate or if it's above 20 hours We're going to have to stop reevaluate the cost, you know add the cost in and then you know for us part of our Policy is if they want to add or increase it then we pause the work, you know, then we ask that you know say It's like another thousand dollars, you know for they want something big done They'd have to pay that up front then we could go ahead and continue with it and adjust the time frame So but making sure that all that is clear in there detailed as possible, you know I let the client know exactly how much it is per hour, you know, if you want changes or updates say We're going to make a design. I let them know, okay for this budget right here We're going to be able to design your home page in both desktop and mobile We're going to make two different versions and you get two chances of revisions any other additional revision will be like $300 You know, and that'll be inside the contract. So that way we could always go back to it Now this is the last step and in and in the communication about the scope with the client now The proposals out the contract signed they pay the deposit. We're good to go with the project I sent a quick follow-up email that's just recapping exactly what we're going to do, you know I just tell them look we're excited to work with you. We we you know, this is a great project We're looking forward to I just want to do a quick recap. So we both have the same Expectations, you know, this is what we're going to do again the scope of work And this is a time frame that we're expecting to have everything complete on both of our sites, you know And then we just wait for that confirmation email and we're good to go So now if something comes up in a project and the client says, you know, I changed my mind We we really want to you know, go in a whole different direction. It's like that's fine. That's no problem at all We're here to make your vision. We're here to help your company, but it's going to cost You know, let's go back to our agreement. So our agreement we have this in there So we could go ahead and do this but under these terms. So that's it right there It's it's a journey, you know, learning how to communicate Professionally what a client takes practice. It takes experience some catch on to it more than others, you know For me, it took a little while it took me probably about two years So I really feel, you know, like I could ask the right questions and really communicate clearly about scope about budget About expectations, you know, but some people catch on way faster But I guarantee you this if you put a process in place like the one I just laid out You will learn a whole lot faster. You will avoid a lot more Headaches and not just for you, but it's also for the client because this helps both of you out Well, that's it. I hope you like this, you know, this is a new channel So if you can, you know, let me know if this is helpful if it is, you know, please go ahead and subscribe like drop some comments There's something you'd like us to review or go over. Just let me know. All right. Thank you. And yeah, cheers