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No matter what industry you’re in, whether you’re self-employed or someone-else-employed, in order to thrive professionally, you’re going to develop what I call a “trade toolbox” This toolbox is likely going to be a mix of figurative (skills, knowledge, connections) and literal (hammers, product management software, measuring cups), and improves with each year you’re in the business.

Here are a few examples of items you’d find in my trade toolbox:

–Trello and Slack -Coffee -Ability to speak publicly without throwing up –WPeSignature -Internal entrepreneurial BS detector -Coffee -USB-powered hand warmers -Coffee

I’ve left out quite a few other key players in my toolbox, including “coffee” about 16 more times. There’s one specific tool I want to focus on today, though, and that’s the ability to write a kickass freelance project proposal.

The need for a project proposal can crop up in a couple different freelance situations. You could be competing against other freelancers for the same project, or you might have a potential client on the line who’s ready to work with you, but isn’t quite ready to agree to your terms. In any of these situations, however, your goal is the same: to craft a project proposal that both snags a client, and is as lucrative for you as humanly possible.

If you’re looking for an actual “how to” on building a project proposal, you’re in luck: we’ve already got a post on that in our archives. Today, however, I want to take it a few steps past the building phase and focus on refining the proposal you’ve already built.

Let’s focus on nine of the most detrimental project proposal mistakes a freelancer can make,...

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1. Second-guessing Your Expertise

Freelancing, what with all its incredible, freedom-based perks, comes with a very real (but manageable) emotional price: isolation.

One of the many ways social isolation can affect a freelancer is in the area of self-confidence. Working for yourself, without having any institutionalized feedback, can cause you to question your abilities. This is a natural reaction, but it’s important to keep it in check.

When you’re writing a project proposal, there’s no room for insecurity.

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Potential clients are looking for an expert in their field who is experienced and confident. If you’re questioning your expertise as you write your proposal, it’s going to come through to the reader. Whether it’s looking through your portfolio, digging through your email for positive client feedback, or simply putting on the Rocky soundtrack while pep-talking yourself in the mirror, you’ve got to get confident in yourself and the work you do.

2. Putting Too Much Emphasis on Cost

Now, believe me, I know that cost and payment is important. It’s important to you, it’s important to the client, and it’s tempting to want to get straight down to the money business. The problem with that is that it strips you of your uniqueness, and turns you into a simple dollar amount.

Your project proposal format needs to set you up for success. Use the bulk of your proposal to highlight the value that you’ll bring to your client, so that when it comes time to talk about cost, they’ll be ready to hand you a briefcase of cash.

(I’m exaggerating here. Briefcases of cash are hard to report when it comes time for taxes.)

Highlighting things like the quality of your work, previous positive results, and time saved for the client as you outline your services and project scope will keep your value at the forefront of your client’s mind, rather than your cost.

3. Leaving Room for Interpretation

A proposal, of course, should be pleasing to read. You want to give the reader a glimpse of what it’s like to work with you. A bare-boned, generic project proposal format can come off as cold and boring, so it’s important to focus on the reception it might receive.

In your quest for a pleasing proposal, however, you can’t forget the basics. Anything you leave out of the document is left up to interpretation. Milestones, progress reports, deadlines, revisions, communication in any form, expenses, meetings, payment, and any payment terms must be outlined in the proposal.

4. Turning the Proposal into a Pitch

The word “proposal” can be a tricky one. It suggests that you’re going to be proposing things for approval, which you are, but it’s the types of things you’re proposing that need to be examined.

When you get to the point in your client relationship in which guidelines and terms need to be set, it’s time to create a proposal. Note that I’m saying “guidelines” and not “big ideas.” If you’re using this proposal to sell your potential client on some creative plots you’ve been working on, you’re opening yourself up to the risk of misinterpretation and wasted time. If you’ve got some solid, relevant ideas, pitch them in your pre-proposal discussion.

The project proposal is the foundation on which a contract is built; it’s not a brainstorming session.

5. Leaving Out the Call to Action

You don’t want to leave any room for excuses when it comes to moving forward with a project. Be sure to include any steps the client needs to complete to get the ball rolling. You can include a link to an estimate or invoice, your official contract, and list all of the payment options available. You want to make it official with this client, and you want to make it as easy as possible.

Once you’ve sent out the proposal, be sure to follow up after a day or so of waiting; things come up and lives get hectic, so your client might have forgotten about it.

6. Making Payment Difficult

Payment is another tricky area, especially when small businesses and freelancers are involved. Not everyone can afford the monthly fees associated with credit card and online payments, but that doesn’t mean you have to live in the stone-age just to get paid.

Whether you accept checks, direct bank deposits, credit cards, or use services like Paypal, you’ve got to include those payment specifics in the proposal. If you only take checks (not ideal, but still an option), make sure your payment address is easy to find in your invoice. Send an invoice with the proposal so that it’s easy for the client to move on to the next step.

7. Forgetting About Expenses

I mentioned being as explicit as possible earlier, and I want to get a little more specific in regards to an oft-forgotten project facet: expenses.

If this project requires you to purchase materials or special equipment, or requires travel in order to complete it, you need to include those expenses in your invoices… but you need to make sure the clients are notified of this in your project proposal and contract before you send them the bill.

8. Being Generic

Even if you’ve been discussing a project with a potential client for an extended period of time, you’re not locked in until a contract is signed. A project proposal is still an audition, and should be treated as such. If you decide to use a project proposal template or program (such as nusii or Proposable) you need to infuse the document with your personality, highlight your unique talents and expertise, and make sure it doesn’t look like a boring, run-of-the-mill proposal.

9. Dragging It Out

Just like crafting an elevator pitch, you want to get to the meat of your project proposal in as little time as possible. Your proposal should:

-Cater to the clients needs and values -Highlight the unique talent and value you will provide -Explicitly outline the work scope and payment details of your agreement -Provide the client with actionable steps to put the agreement into action

If you’ve written your proposal and find that you’ve got extra details, lengthy anecdotes, or other information not entirely relevant to the project, axe ‘em. A proposal that is too long will have your client scanning down to the price tag at the end and skipping over the part where they see how awesome you are.

Don’t wait until it’s go-time.

Now is the perfect time to start working on your project proposal. While the client is ever-changing, certain portions of a proposal can be pre-crafted, such as your payment details and calls to action. Think of it as one of those wrenches that have different attachments… you use the same base each time but adjust it to fit your needs in the moment.

(Did I do okay with that wrench analogy? I sure hope so. And I also hope you’ll go out and start working on your new project proposal; you’ll be glad you did.)

Anyone who has developed a web front end, for a site or a web app, knows that handing over the code isn’t the end of the story. I’ve been involved in projects that seem to never end, and during the lifetime of the project, there seems to be endless maintenance. This is great if you’ve been savvy enough to make sure you have a robust maintenance agreement that covers all possible eventualities. If you don’t have this, you may end up at best, absorbing a lot of cost to your business, and at worst going out of business.

I happen to have been on both sides of a web developer maintenance contact, in that I’ve worked as a provider for a web app front end, and I’ve also engaged a web development company to help me create a web app UI/UX. Seeing both sides of the coin has given me an inside-out view of what can be a very complex area of running a web development company.

In this article, I’ll be looking at some of the ins and outs of maintenance contracts for web developers, and how best to approach the creation of them. I’ll also look at the sort of sections/clauses to include in a web developer maintenance contract.

Why Even Bother to Have a Maintenance Contract?

Why even have a maintenance contract is a reasonable question. You already have a contract to create the front end. Once you have completed that contract then that should be the end of it, shouldn’t it?

You could do that, but as you well know, web UI development is a fluid entity and often dependent on underlying frameworks, like WordPress. Having a maintenance contract means that the framework can be maintained, and kept efficient and secure – giving your client a better experience of your services. Maintenance contracts with regards web developers, often involve things like keeping plugins up to date, ensuring that the CMS code is up to date and patched to prevent security issues, and performing regular tests to make sure the site is working correctly.

Having a maintenance contract is positive for the web developer as it allows you to have a continued contact with your client. It is positive for the client as it means they have peace of mind that their site is being maintained.

What’s the Difference Between Support and Maintenance (and Enhancement)?

As a web developer, you need to decide if you want to continue the relationship with your client after you’ve handed over the code. This is not always an option, of course, most contracts will specify that the code is supported and maintained after it has been released. It is important in your contract to outline exactly what is included in support or maintenance. If you don’t do this, you may find that your client wants to add a few extra feature tweaks under the guise of maintenance. These tweaks will cost you money.

Support:

When you offer support it generally means that you support the use of the front end. So, for example, you may have an issue with a configuration, and support clauses will cover this. The level of support is often outlined in a ‘Service Level Agreement’ or SLA which is often an appendix to a contract. SLA’s lay out exactly what level of support is offered, how long the support lasts, and any costs associated with it. You might offer different levels of support depending on the severity of the issue.

Maintenance:

This is generally seen as offering maintenance of the site and underlying CMS. Under maintenance, you might offer to keep a WordPress site up to date with the latest plugin updates, remove malware, or make small contextual changes, like font size, for example. Again, you can set out terms of delivery on maintenance items based on severity.

Enhancement:

Any major change to the developed UI/UX is seen as an enhancement. For example, a recent project I worked on required that a large portion of a form was changed considerably so that the UI/UX was modified beyond the original remit – this was way outside any maintenance, and instead was an enhancement, and was costed as a new project.

What Clauses Are in a Maintenance Contract?

You should have as a minimum the following clauses in a maintenance contract:

What the contract covers, i.e. the type of work that could be carried out on request

Fee schedule

Delivery schedule i.e. timescales for performing the task

What is expected of the customer, i.e., timely payment, access rights to the site, etc. a. In this example of a maintenance contract by SlamDot they have an excellent section on ‘Customer Acknowledgments’ which covers a multitude of issues that could arise: https://www.slamdot.com/maintenance

Clauses to cover your indemnity and liability (see also contract example above)

You may also want to add in various non-disclosure clauses to protect both parties from Intellectual Property disputes

Termination clause so either party can close off the contract with notice

Another example of a website maintenance contract is here: https://www.docracy.com/7h6omj9c0y/website-maintenance-agreement

How Long is a Piece of String (or Maintenance Contract)?

How long you decide to maintain the site is really a negotiation point when creating the contract. You can negotiate a rolling contract or a renewable one. A rolling contract should still have a termination clause in to allow either party to pull out. A renewable one will need to have an alert setup to ensure that its renewal is negotiated as terms may change.

One thing that you do need to consider, which is especially pertinent as a freelancer, is how to handle a situation where you are unavailable to perform maintenance. Do you have the ability to hand it over to another freelancer to take over, for example?

How Much to Charge

This is again something you have to decide upon which works with your normal rate. You need to factor in the expected time to fix issues. For example, if an issue is set as a severity 1 with a turnaround time of 24 hours, then you may want to set a higher charge for this work, than an issue that is a lower priority and can be done to your own timescales.

Some freelance web developers, however, like to charge a daily rate for work performed under the maintenance contract, to keep it simple. It is a good idea to have a number of package options for delivery of maintenance, and let this become part of the negotiations.

Build Your Own Maintenance Contract

I’ve gone over some of the main areas of a maintenance contract for web developers and you can see there are lots of things to consider. Having a maintenance contract for your clients is a great way to keep client contact, and it adds real value to your relationship with your clients.

Offering a maintenance contract also shows the client that you are reliable and knowledgeable about your area. One warning is to make sure that where you do have a lack of knowledge, perhaps in web security, that you either have a contact with another freelancer who you can call upon, or you become educated in that area. In terms of web security, for example, learning platforms, like Coursera, offer a number of cyber security courses and the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) have a massive amount of information around web security and techniques to manage risks.

For new or established freelancers who are looking to scale their business and require a professionally crafted website, the task of searching for a proper solution can be surprisingly complex. There’s a large and increasingly popular demand for workers who can create and maintain a company’s website. The vast majority of these workers do so remotely and are considered remote workers, or freelancers.

Why outsource to a remote worker?

Outsourcing is an ideal solution towards finding the help needed to create a professional website. It’s not a task that necessitates an office or an in-house workspace, and having your freelancer work comfortably with their favorite hardware and programs gives them a bigger sense of confidence going forward. You also won’t have to shell out for office space, and you can find a wider range of remote workers ready to work for you without the hassle of combing your immediate area for talent.

Who do I hire?

Two critical components towards setting up a professional website (and thus, your Internet blueprint) is through having a proper web designer and a web developer. A web designer will generally design, enact and code in your websites layout, colors, and design features. Every commercial website has its own unique charm or look tailored to showcase what they represent. Most in the field of eCommerce are designed for simplicity of use and promote ongoing sales and specials. A well-maintained website that is easy to use will satisfy visitors viewing your site while a horribly optimized website can scare away potential customers.

A web developer concerns themselves less with the physical appearance of a website and more with the bare-bones underneath. Functionality and ease of navigation are high priorities for web developers. Fluency with HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, among other skills and programs – and the ability to create SPA’s (single-page applications) are notable examples of how a web developer will utilize their skills to create an easily navigable website.

Both fields are available to be worked upon remotely and for most businesses this is generally the preferred arrangement.

Will I need to hire an entire team?

There are many parts of the eCommerce industry that require a virtual army of remote workers to create growth and help manage a wide-range of different services. This can be daunting for business owners new to the concept of hiring remote workers to manage some of their companies’ services or internal tasks. For Freelancers looking for remote workers to handle website creation and maintenance, you can breathe a sigh of relief as this particular job doesn’t require a vast workforce to achieve successful results.

You won’t need a full team of remote workers to handle the task of creating a website from the ground up. In most cases, two remote workers will suffice, with one worker taking on web development duties, and the other focusing on web design. Because web design and web development share several overlapping responsibilities, but veer off into totally different areas of functionality, it’s important that they can work together and communicate on a consistent basis.

The goal is to promote a culture of regular communication between your workers. Web design and web development work together to create a fully functioning website to provide a satisfactory experience to customers. This involves building an appealing and easy-to-navigate site (web design) with the backbone of the websites code and content being created by the web developer.

Exceptional communication between your web designer and developer will greatly reduce the risk of oversight issues as well as build confidence in their ability to share ideas and solve problems.

Some workers possess the experience and skills to do both tasks. These workers can do great work developing your website, and in certain instances have bigger scope in regards to your websites overall look. Ultimately, it’s up to you as to whether you’d prefer a small team vs a lone developer / designer.

Focus on communication

One of the largest hurdles for first time employers of freelance remote workers is digging down on communication with people you may never see face to face. It can be easy to fall into a cycle of lax communication with your workers, especially if active communication between you and your worker is done through only a single platform such as email.

Go out of your way to get constant updates about the progress of your websites development. Input your ideas and expectations to your remote workers, and hear their ideas and solutions as well. Using screen sharing applications to view the live progress of your websites creation, and talk with your remote workers on how you’d like to proceed with every update or conference. If you focus enough of your efforts on communication with your remote worker(s), you’ll be able to slide right into managing them and being an active part of your websites creation.

This article was contributed by the FreeeUp content team. FreeeUp is the hands-on solution to hiring reliable remote workers. As a business owner, you join the network, request the worker that you need, and then are introduced to a pre-vetted worker within hours. FreeeUp removes the need to post jobs and interview handfuls of applicants.

Do you spend loads of time printing and sending paper documents back and forth for signatures?

Have you ever lost a sale when the document-trail went cold, just when you thought the customer was ready to sign?

Are you currently using e-signature software but are reluctant to keep paying the monthly fees, especially when the number of signers is limited?

If you answered ‘Yes!’ to all of the above questions, keep reading.

A WordPress Contract Plugin may be just what your business is looking for.

Here are five ways that it can help your business:

1. Save Time

A WP Contract Plugin creates contracts and agreements ready for individuals to simply fill in the blanks with their details and an e-signature. They are accessed on your own website rather than on a third-party site. This is a great way to impress customers: all signers receive an automated ‘signer invite’ email with the secure site URL to access their agreement, ready to finalise the deal within minutes.  With the appropriate add-ons the document can be automatically saved as a PDF, synced with Dropbox or attach to an email. The plugin is easy to set up, easy to use – and it sure beats faxing or emailing, saving time and effort along the way.

2. Save Money & Boost Cashflow

Without the need to print onto paper, fax or mail documents you are saving money. A free WordPress contract plugin is not costing you a cent, yet allows you to tie up lucrative contracts and agreements – that must be good for business! The plugin imposes no limits as to number of documents or signatories. And, of course, with contracts being agreed quicker, you get paid quicker. This can boost cashflow – especially important for new businesses that may struggle to free up cash.

3. WordPress Contract Plugin Increase Sales

So much business is lost by customers getting cold feet, or backing out when their initial burning desire to buy starts to cool off. It’s important to strike while the fire is there!  A WordPress contract plugin is a fantastic tool that allows businesses and individual freelancers to make more money by preparing the contracts and closing deals faster.

4. Make Everything Legally Binding

When you use our WordPress online contract plugin, the documents you create will be legally binding and the signatures will hold up in a court of law. The U.S. government passed e-signature legislation in Y2K that gave e-signature based agreements the same legal standing as paper contracts; the customer can sign the agreement with a UETA/ESIGN-compliant digital signature that will be recognized in court, in case of dispute.

5. Sign Contracts Anywhere at Anytime

The world is increasingly becoming mobile – and a lot of business needs to be done on the fly. With a WordPress contract plug in you can allow customers to complete contracts and agreements with a legal, UETA/ESIGN-compliant signature from all touch screen devices like iPads, iPhones and Android smartphones. Being able to offer this extra functionality can significantly boost business and puts you in an elite band of companies that are utilizing the latest e-signature technology.

WP Digital E-Signature is the leading WordPress contract plugin. It is specifically designed to handle the needs of WordPress websites and their customers.

The form generation plugins that create the beautiful forms you see on WordPress sites are NOT designed purely for signing legally-binding documents. That is the SOLE focus of WP E-Signature. We have spent years developing a platform that adheres to strict national and international document signing guidelines, and which protects you in a courtroom if a signature is challenged.

Here’s the scenario: You’ve been working for weeks to get a particular client onboard. Having sent over samples and pointing them to real-world examples of your work, you finally agree on a contract going forward. The contract has all of the agreed terms and expectations of the job. This contract is valuable to you and encapsulates the work to be performed, ensuring that you both work to a common goal. It is your virtual handshake and as such, your protection if something should go wrong. But the contract is digital and requires a legal signature, how do you square that round?

One thing that contracts can do, that a handshake can’t, is to record evidence that you actually agreed to those terms; this evidence is in the form of an electronic, legal, signature.

What is an electronic signature and are electronic signatures legal?

Digital signatures go back quite a few decades, but real acceptance, as a legal signature, has only become apparent since electronic signatures have become enshrined in law. Many countries across the world have brought in such laws and directives, to ensure that electronic signatures have a legal standing. For example, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) that came into force in 1999 and the ESIGN Act of 2000. The basic premise of each approach to the legal status of electronic signatures is that they have the same place in law, as pen and ink signatures. Electronic signatures come in a number of forms. However for an electronic signature to carry legal weight it has to be able to handle a number of things.

How are electronic signatures legally binding?

Lets think about what makes a pen and ink signature binding on a contract. So, prior to signing, the contact will be printed out, or written in ink, on paper. The signature, will typically, be signed, using a pen at the end of the contract, although sometimes, this signature will be placed on each page too. Often contracts will also be ‘notarized’ by a third party. A notary is legally able to witness signatures as they are applied. Notaries can be called to court if the contract is disputed to give evidence that the contract is the aforementioned document, that the signatory was the person who signed the contract and when it was signed. If the contract is disputed, the integrity of the contract will be checked, to make sure no material changes have been made. With a written/printed out hard copy, it’s fairly easy to spot changes. For an electronic signature to carry legal weight, so it can be held up in court as evidence of agreement to something, is has to be able to have all of the assurances of a hard copy version as described above. This means an electronic signature has to be able to perform the following:

Signatory identity – being able to authenticate the signatory and apply a ‘signer ID’ that is unique to each signer. This is like a notary checking a signatory’s identity at the time of signing.

Signature audit – have an audit trail that can be checked showing the time the signature was applied. This is actually above and beyond what a hard copy document can do and also allows detailed audit of multiple signatory information.

Document integrity – ensure that the document can’t be changed after a signature is applied. This is a digital way of having checks and measures on an electronic document, so if even a period is changed to a comma, the change will show up and the signature become invalid.

ApproveMe WP E Signature WordPress plugin and how it protects you

The ApproveMe plugin offers a number of features built to make your contract ironclad and protect you if the worst case scenario happens and you end up in court:

Integrity: If you end up in court, you will need to prove non-repudiation. That is show that the person who signed the contract really did sign it and when they signed it; to repudiate, is to deny. ApproveMe creates an electronic signature using a number of identifying factors, which are then used to create a unique ‘Signer Party ID’. ApproveMe also makes the signer go through a two-step authentication procedure to add weight to the signing process itself.

Security: The ApproveMe digital signature is based on encryption. This means that the document content is ‘encrypted’, sometimes called a ‘hash’ at the time of signing. This creates a unique document ID that can be compared to human DNA. If the gene that controls your eye color were modified, you would end up with different colored eyes. Similarly, if someone were to change anything in the encrypted contract, the document ID would change. If this happens the ApproveMe plugin causes the agreement to ‘self-destruct’ resulting in the electronic signature becoming invalid and the document contents reverting to their original form – all of this being audited.

Admissible: For an electronic signature to be admissible in court it has to be complaint with the expectations of the various e-signing directives and laws – not all electronic signing products are. However, ApproveMe is fully complaint with UETA as well as the ESIGN act, making ApproveMe contract signatures fully admissible in court (where esignature is recognized).

And one last thing, that is as important as anything said above. The application of electronic signatures needs to be as easy as putting pen to paper. We believe that we have cracked that nut with ApproveMe.

Because this is a Word Press plugin it becomes an integral part of your website, adding in trust to your contract workflow with your client. And if you have lots of contracts to sign, we can even make that process easier by setting up automated signing of contracts.

If you’re going to convince a client to hop on board with your project proposal, you’re going to have to focus on them.

Scoring a project with a potential client, or even a new project with a current client, can be an incredible bolster to your freelancing business. Working on something large-scale or long-term can bring you some much-needed financial stability… but it’s going to be harder to sell. This is why you’ve got to have your client in mind when you craft your project proposal.

We’ve touched on this before, but project proposals are such an important facet of a successful freelancing career, we think it’s worth a revisit. This time, we’d like to hammer home the necessity of a client-focused project proposal.

Rather than taking the perspective of our favorite freelancing superstar (that’s you), we’re going to get a little crazy and imagine that you’re the client.

Obviously, we’ll need some backstory, because backstory’s what we do around here.

Needs and Wants

You’re a big-time CEO who wants to throw an extravagant party (we’re allowed to dream, right?) for a traveling associate. You’ve got the food lined up, the entertainment booked, and most of the decorations taken care of. All that’s left is the icing on the cake, the “something perfect” that no one will ever forget:

You want an ice sculpture.

Not just any ice sculpture, though. You need an ice sculpture that is detailed, majestic, and looks exactly like William Shatner playing Captain Kirk in the first season of Star Trek.

(Let’s just say this traveling associate is a huge fan.)

You’ve done some shopping and found a few ice sculpting companies in the area, but none of their work seemed quite up to snuff. After more searching, you’ve finally narrowed it down to two independent sculptors, and your decision depends on the quality of their project proposals.

Value Is as Value Does

First and foremost, you (the client) want to make sure that you’re getting the best value out of a freelancer. This means you want the highest-quality product you can get, but for the best price you can find.

If a freelancer knows what they’re doing, they’ll want to do their best to steer you away from this whole “price” thing. Price represents an amount of money you will no longer have in your bank account once you start working together… and nobody wants to be reminded of that. Obviously, they can’t avoid discussing money, but they can place the focus somewhere else… somewhere like the value of their work.

If a freelancer wants to learn what a potential client values, it’s imperative to do some research.

This can go from digging up old articles all the way to checking out their Twitter presence. What kind of clues about their personality can be discovered?

For example’s sake, we’ll say you’re the kind of CEO who appreciates hard work and efficiency. Anyone who researches you will see from your company’s branding that you like all bases covered and no stone left unturned. “Hard work produces real results,” your website’s slogan confidently states.

As you flip through these product proposals, which one, do you think, will prove the most appealing? The one that focuses on artistic minutiae and flowery ice descriptions? Or the one that ensures an authentic replica while also highlighting their high-quality refrigeration and sculpting tools?

While a more creative and aesthetically pleasing angle appeals to many, it’s not as important to you. You value a job well-done that results in satisfaction, and it’s obvious that one of these freelancers knows that.

By focusing on the value that your services bring to the table, the cost will become less of an issue.

Use ease to please.

The more work a client has to do in order to understand a proposal, the less likely it is that they’ll want to reach out for clarification.

Even if you’re catering to a client who prefers a more flowery approach, you’ve still got to hammer out the details so that they don’t have to. For a no-nonsense-type (much like your CEO alter-ego), this ease-of-use will be even more appreciated.

The task of reading through and comparing proposals is made significantly easier when the writer gets straight to the point. A proposal that is over five pages long and full of unnecessary words will only pile more work onto the client… which will give them plenty of time to remember how much they’re going to have to pay for the services.

What about you? Think about what would make your life easier in this situation. What about the actual agreement accompanying the proposal? Do you want to have to print it out, sign it, scan it back in and email it, or even… put it in the mail? This would be a perfect opportunity for a freelancer to make your life easier by using a plugin like WPeSignature to get the documents signed quickly and get the project up and running.

Bottom line? The process needs to be as simple as possible for the client. If mail, for whatever reason, is the only option, a pre-stamped envelope not only removes a step (and expense), but also serves as a reminder that a response is expected.

Embrace the details. Be One with the details.

Don’t avoid including essentials like payment terms and expenses in a proposal. Part of freelancing is having to confront issues head-on, regardless of awkwardness. Avoiding discussions that have the potential to be uncomfortable only ensures uncomfortable discussions in the future. A project proposal outline should be thorough and clear, making the process as quick and painless as possible.

As the super-important CEO, you’re going to want to see these things in a proposal:

1. An exact description of what you’re paying for. (5’10”-tall 1960s-era William Shatner/Captain Kirk ice sculpture, made from crystal clear ice blocks, making the “Live long and prosper” sign with right hand) 2. Completion date. (Day of your party) 3. An exact layout of the freelancer’s rates, material costs, and transport fees. 4. Any provisions specific to this project that may take extra time or money. (Specialty ice, hiring a Shatner look-alike-model for added authenticity) 5. A timeline of expected payments. (Will you need to put down a deposit? Pay in full before project completion?) 6. Written agreement. (You can sign off right away and get this chill party rollin.’)

If the process seems daunting, a good project proposal sample is a great starting point. As long as the freelancer does a thorough job of researching your values, hammering out the details, and drafting an explicit proposal, you’re not going to care about the fact that they looked off of a generic freelance proposal outline for direction.

Be thorough, be helpful, be clear.

Let’s talk as freelancers now, just the two of us.

A dependable freelance career is made up of solid client-relationships built out of an appreciation of your work–and every relationship has to start with an introduction.

An effective project proposal serves as that first handshake—ideally instilling trust and confidence.

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By putting forth the time and effort to research, organize, and assemble a customized client proposal, you can set the stage for a partnerships that last into future projects, rather than one that melts after the party’s over.

You’ve attended holiday family gatherings, right? For me, there are always a few things guaranteed to happen:

My kids eat only bread, while other people’s children happily eat Aunt Patchouli’s kale salad.

I eat precisely three too many bites of pie, and seriously consider drinking from the gravy boat.

One of the uncles or grandpas complains about the “kids today” (probably the ones eating only bread) and talks about “pulling himself up from his bootstraps.”

Bootstraps. I don’t think I’ve ever paid enough attention to boots to know if they’ve got straps, but I’ve definitely heard about them. So, what, exactly, does “bootstrapping” mean? Where did the phrase come from? Let’s unpack it for a minute, here.

According to good ole Merriam-Webster, a bootstrap is “a looped strap sewed at the side or the rear top of a boot to help in pulling it on.” It goes further to the plural form, which then turns it into the metaphor we’re more familiar with: “unaided efforts.”

So, what crotchety Uncle Jasper is trying to tell you (while interrupting your pie enjoyment) is that he’s gotten where he is today without the help of anyone else. Whether this is actually true or not is a mystery, but there’s still something us freelancers can learn from Uncle J.

When you apply the term “bootstrapping” to entrepreneurship, you’ll most likely find yourself wading through a lot of information about “startups.” Should we unpack that term, too? Merriam-Webster defines “startup” as a “fledgeling business enterprise.”

I would like to enhance that definition by adding “founded by people who make the most out of what they’ve got.”

Starting a business is expensive, and the startup culture that has cropped up within the last ten or so years has become notorious for its resourcefulness and creative frugality.

But… you’re just flying solo, right? What does this have to do with freelancing?

Here’s the deal: freelancers can learn a gravy-boatload from startups and their bootstrapping expertise.

Bootstrapping focuses on using creativity rather than funds in order to expand business.

Think of it as punching your freelancing game up to a whole new level.

Snuggle Up to Your Niche

Here’s your dilemma: you’ve got the talent, the time, and the need to work. You just need to get the word out. You can’t afford to pay a professional marketer, and you can’t afford to buy newspaper ads, pay for a billboard, and film a TV commercial that’s shown during prime time. So what do you do?

A bootstrapper would tell you to start by getting up-close and personal with your niche.

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First, of course, you’ll need to reflect on your business, services, and/or products. What, exactly, is your target market? Who will want to pay you for your work? Once you’ve determined that, you’ll need to pack up and head toward that target market. Many freelancers know that attending conferences in their industry are great networking events, and the same goes for your target market’s networking events. Go to conferences and open-houses that interest the people you want to work for. These are great opportunities to discover things like:

Pain points in their industries; what are common problems and how can you solve them?

Social cues; what will these potential clients respond well to in terms of marketing

Marketing insight; what forms of marketing will put you in their line of sight?

Getting familiar with your niche falls in line with the “lean startup” mentality, which values marketing research and customer feedback as a key tool in startup success.

Learn How to Be a Marketer

I want to be perfectly clear before I go too much further here: I know that people go to school for years to become a marketing professional, and I don’t want to devalue the worth of those people’s educations. That being said, there’s no denying that freelancers and entrepreneurs are presented with the opportunity to use highly effective marketing tools that are either free or incredibly inexpensive (at least compared to traditional marketing forms, anyway).

Once you’ve done your niche snuggling, you should have a pretty solid idea about the forms of marketing that will best reach your desired audience. Now it’s time to get comfortable with those marketing outlets so that you’re confident enough make them work for you.

Social media, while being the obvious choice, should be handled with deliberate thought and strategy. Rather than going out and immediately creating an Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Snapchat presence because “that’s just what you do,” you need to remind yourself that your time is one of your most precious resources. If the majority of your niche doesn’t care about Snapchat, there is simply no point in wasting your valuable time by posting an update with a cute deer filter over your face.

Email marketing is another viable-but-tricky form of inexpensive marketing. Again, it’s all about your niche: how often does your target market check their email? Are they of a demographic that resents direct mail marketing? Are they going to take one look at your subject line and click “delete?”

Some forms of traditional marketing are more accessible than you might realize. Some local news stations, both radio and television, will welcome guests warmly to their morning or daytime shows, free of cost, so long as the guest can provide value to their audience.

If your target niche attends a lot of conferences, preparing a presentation or setting up a booth is a great way to get visible where it counts.

People Can Be Resources, Too

Another way to emulate the lean startup mentality is to utilize the talents of your peers to improve and expand your business. If it fits your service or product, you might consider collaborating on a service package with an admired contact in your professional network. Collaboration with another professional (whose work you respect) will benefit you in a few ways, one of which is an expansion of creativity and talent to your work. Outside influence is essential if you’re going to grow in your career, and working with another creative professional will add depth to your work.

In addition to creative enhancement, you’ll also be doubling your marketing reach in terms of both manpower and connections. Two people working to get the word out, plus the addition of your collaborator’s personal and professional network will give you a huge head start in terms of marketing.

Speaking of all the money you’re not spending on marketing… this is where you can put it to better use. If collaboration isn’t something you’re interested in, but you’d much rather focus your efforts on creating than on busy work, you can also consider outsourcing the less-fun stuff to someone else, whether it’s someone you know or a high-quality virtual assistant.

Avoid the Seat of Your Pants

Another key part of bootstrapping your business is having a plan. In order to grow and expand lucratively, you need to have points of reference and methods for analyzing your progress. One of the best ways to do this is to set up definitive goals, visit them on a regular basis, and use your progress toward those goals to analyze and adapt your strategies.

Part of this strategy (again, in line with that lean startup jazz) is to gather customer and client feedback in order to hone your packages, marketing plans, and customer interaction to be as effective as possible.

Give your business goals, work toward them, and monitor the progress in order to successfully evolve.

Don’t worry; we’ve all got bootstraps. They’re just a little hard to grab hold of sometimes.

Starting a freelance business from the ground up is intimidating, but it’s doable. If you can learn about your audience, wisely use available resources, and stick to a solid plan, you’ll be well on your way, and ahead of the game.

Plus, you’ll have plenty of ammo for that bootstrap conversation with crotchety Uncle Jasper.

You might even get to enjoy your pie.

Today we launched four big WP Digital E-Signature improvements and are pleased as pie to share these additions with you.

1. Type My Signature

Until now, the only way to add your signature to a document was by drawing it on a signature pad using your touch screen tablet, mouse, or trackpad. You won’t have to do that moving forward, thanks to the new Type My Signature option. You can now choose to sign a document by drawing your signature or by typing a signature. Our WordPress Contract Plugin how has seven beautiful fonts to choose from.

New Tablet & Smartphone Experience for WordPress Contract Plugin

We’ve learned a lot about what you want during the document signing process since it’s been in the wild.

Here’s what’s new in the tablet/smartphone arena: 2. Plain Simple User Interface

You spoke and we listened… we created a responsive signature adding process for smartphone & tablets that is so plain simple your great great mother (if she was still alive) would be able to use it! Drawn signature is set to default, if you would like to type your signature instead you can simply select “Type Signature” from the dropdown and BOOM! You’re off to the races!.

3. Preview Document

You can now preview how your document will look before saving your document! Additionally to help save you time in the off chance that your internet goes out while creating a document, we added the ability to “auto-save” your documents while you are creating them. Gone are the days of starting from scratch on a new document if the internet connection goes out.

4. Page Break Shortcode

You can now very easily add a page break to your document using the shortcode.

Anywhere in your document if you would like to split up content onto a new page (when the document has been signed) simply add this shortcode before the new section and “vallah” you’re good to go!