Clients want spaghetti with their cruise

Imagine you're going on a cruise. You've sent the payment and you're ready for the itinerary to be sent to you. But instead of being sent any information about what's included, where to board or even what time you'll leave, you get... nothing.

That's how your client feels when you don't send them anything after they've agreed to work with you. Like they've been scammed.

Creative services aren't cheap. Your client has thought long and hard about hiring you for branding, design, copywriting, marketing, video editing, social media, photography or another creative skill.

So make sure you're offering elite professionalism and service alongside your creative skill.

Today's topic: What to send a client before you start their project

Estimated read time: ~3 minutes (Skim time: 60 seconds)

What kind of problem is this?

Not only for you, but for your clients, not sending anything is a clarity problem. You have no idea what's going on and neither does the client.

Then you've also lost momentum, like when the kitchen has lost an order and the table is waiting for their spaghetti for 45 minutes before politely asking "hey umm... did you forget about our table?"

Don't make your client ask for their spaghetti. The spaghetti should be in the kitchen cooking. Keep the momentum and the energy alive. Keep the client excited for what you're about to do for them.

What's in the spaghetti?

Yes, we're keeping the spaghetti theme.

So your client process should look (at least something) like this:

Social Media/Website → Services Guide/Booking Link/Portfolio → Pitch Deck/Call → Proposal → Contract → Invoice → Onboarding → Delivery → Offboarding

The first few steps vary a lot, depending on what your set up is. But from Proposal onwards, you shouldn't be missing a step:

Proposal → Contract → Invoice → Onboarding → Delivery → Offboarding

Following this process will ensure your bills are paid and you're protected from the client overstepping boundaries or asking for "just one more revision".

This process also makes you, as a business look and feel professional. Allowing you to be organised with a set-and-forget process to follow for each client.

So before any work has begun, you should have these documents ready to send:

Proposal → Contract → Invoice → Onboarding

This week you will

Step one: Proposal

A Proposal is sent straight after a call with a potential client (no longer than 20 minutes so you are fresh in their mind).

Inside a proposal, you should have:
A brief introduction about yourself
The included scope
Included deliverables
Timeline
How you work

Step two: Contract

A contract is a legally binding agreement between you and your client that defines the scope of work, payment terms, responsibilities, timelines, and ownership of deliverables. Make sure it's signed before you start any work.

Step three: Invoice

An Invoice is a formal request for payment of your services. It should be branded with your name or business name/logo and include simple methods to pay you. Make sure your first invoice is paid before any work is started. We recommend 50% deposit up front before you start any project.

Step four: Onboarding

Your onboarding document should include:
A welcome message
Your process and what they can expect
A link to a questionnaire
Access to their client portal
Project timeline and key dates
Deliverables confirmation
How you'll communicate through tools and response times (we recommend using the client portal for all communication)
What you need from them to get started (any assets, logins or brand files)

We preach processes here because they make running a studio or creative freelance business easier... a million times easier. We've done it without and spent hours on chasing payments, communication, making the same proposal 20 times.

With processes and ready-made systems, business is easy...well easier. And once your process is done, it's done so you can focus on your marketing and your creative work.

Don't make your client ask for their spaghetti. Instead make the spaghetti so delicious with extra parmesan. If the spaghetti is so good the client will bring their friends next week instead of complaining about how bad your restaurant is.

Chat in one week,
Penelope
Co-Founder of Boring Studios, process-obsessed