Clients Will Pay You Not To Come To Their Offices

Clients pay me money to NOT come in to their offices, and it doesn’t involve a restraining order.  Working virtually is becoming more and more common for a variety of businesses.  It requires a whole new way of looking at your business, and an entirely new set of skills to manage time and people.  Here are seven secrets that you need to know if you’re going to succeed working in the cloud. #1:  Make An Initial Physical Contact Many clients are uneasy about the idea of dealing with you on a completely virtual basis.  Make a point of meeting for a planning meeting, or a kickoff of the project in person – even if it means some travel or other expense.  It demonstrates your commitment to the project and lets you connect to the people that you’ll be working with.  I usually include the cost of a physical visit every now and then on my proposals, unless I’ve worked for a group several times before. While you’re there, take some quick cell phone pictures of the team so you can connect faces with names and email addresses.  Make sure you understand the role of each person, the org chart, and exactly who you’re responsible to.  Working virtually means that you’ll have more issues with several people sending you instructions and requests for work, so you’ll want to make sure you know who’s really your “boss” on the project. #2:  Respond Quickly and Professionally There’s nothing worse than sending email or leaving a phone message for a virtual vendor and not hearing back.  (Well, OK – there is something worse.  Hearing back with a screaming toddler or the sounds of a crowded bar in the background.)  Remember that the person calling you is probably in a stuffy cube and is already a little miffed that you’re off having fun – no matter what you’re actually doing.)  Make sure that you are in an appropriate location if you’re on the phone, and if your response is via email that it’s not a quick LOL text message on your BlackBerry.  Sure, if I have a very solid relationship with a client I might break that rule.  But it’s a rare occasion – and many times I’ve come to regret it.  The fact that you’re off-site is a major source of friction at many levels, and your message may be forwarded or referenced to people you never meant to see it.  I take my laptop just about everywhere, I pay for a broadband wireless connection that means nearly 100% connectivity, and my smartphone means that email arrives almost instantly.  Too connected for you?  Then virtual may not be your cup of tea.  My customers pay for availability. #3:  Set Limits On Your Availability Wait a minute – isn’t that completely at odds with what I just said?  Not at all.  My agreements clearly set out <st1:place>SLA</st1:place> (Service Level Agreement) expectations for clients.  It might be a response within 2 hours during 9-5, it might be next day, it might be 24/7.  If I’m going to be in the air for more than a couple of hours, I usually let high-touch clients know.  But you have to explain (and agree) to these limits in advance, or you’ll find that you are expected to be available at all hours. I’m willing to be available 24/7, and have had clients that have needed that.  You wouldn’t have believed how much I charged. <g>  I’ve had clients on the East Coast that wanted me to be available to present web conferences at 4AM Pacific Time.  No problem, if they’ve got a big checkbook.  But make sure you agree to this in advance, and charge accordingly.  (Since it wasn’t video, I did the presentation in a bathrobe and bunny slippers – and then went back to bed.)</g> But since you’re not arriving at 9 and leaving at 5, there will be a perception that you’re pretty much available all the time.  Resist the urge to respond to email or voicemail during off hours.  You’re just digging yourself a hole.  Ask yourself if you were a “regular” employee if they would have called you at home over this issue, and then respond accordingly. #4:  Be Clear On Expectations I’m a contractor – and just like a landscaper or plumber, I work for multiple clients.  Sometimes in the high-tech or white-collar world, there is confusion around that.  If a client wants to book 40 hours of my time each week, that’s great – but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they get those hours every day from 9-5, unless we agree to that in advance.  And if that’s what they want, they’re going to pay a premium – because it will mean none of my other clients can have access to those most-desired hours. I won’t book a gig like this at all unless it’s a minimum of three months, and generally not less than six months.  I find that it just makes finding future contracts just too difficult, because it takes me off the radar of key clients.  (It also makes me fat and lazy about prospecting for work, which is a whole ‘nother article.) I did have a very ugly experience once where I signed a contract for one year, guaranteeing forty hours per week at a very high rate, during the 9-5 window.  In the first month, they kept delaying their kickoff meeting and other key milestones, and there wasn’t much for me to do.  I submitted (and they paid) two invoices – and then I was called on the carpet for billing for work I didn’t do.  It turned out that they assumed I’d only bill for hours worked, when they had something for me to do.  We didn’t part as friends. #5:  Keep Your Key Stakeholder In the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place> Since you’re not on site, you don’t have the same sort of “drive-by” conversations with the person who is approving your invoices and reviewing your work.  There’s no water cooler or snack bar conversation where you get a feel for how things are going.  So it’s good to schedule a weekly short phone call with them, with a few short agenda items (even if there’s really nothing critical) so that you have a chance to take the temperature of the engagement. That’s a great time to mention that someone on the team has asked you to take on a new responsibility, or provide something outside the scope of your agreement, or thrown some kind of curveball.  If they do want you to do it, you’ve got a natural opening to discuss a change order.  (Preventing “scope creep” is just as critical working off site as when you’re on site.) I also send a short weekly status email to the key person, with just a few bullets – accomplishments of the week past, challenges or blocking issues, and goals for the coming week, and other issues that may be coming up.  This creates a great reference as you go along if there are any questions about what happened when, and nips a lot of issues in the bud.  (It’s also very helpful when your key contact moves on to a new job or is downsized.) #6:  Get A Really, Really Expensive Speaker Phone If you can’t spend $300 on a speaker phone, don’t think you can work virtually.  If you’re in a phone conference with six people, there’s nothing more critical to your success than being able to hear the low-talkers and mute down the Foghorns.  You’ll also want a high quality headset with a very good microphone, to make absolutely sure that you have the best chance of being easily heard.  (I’m a Plantronics fan, but just be very very sure you’ve got good equipment.) To begin with, you can rent time by the hour in a Kinko’s or other conference center – but even then the quality may suffer.  If you’re a vice-president of the company, you can call in on your crummy cell phone from the back of the limo and we’ll all struggle to hear your dulcet tones.  If you’re a vendor who didn’t even have to come in to the office like I did, my resentment is going to get in the way.  Trust me. You should also look into setting up a conference call service for yourself – they’re everywhere, and many only charge for time used.  No, you don’t need it often, but it just makes you look more professional and prepared than always asking your clients to set up the calls for you.  And it should be a toll-free incoming number, too. Skype is great for talking to other techies – I use it a lot.  Regular people still aren’t impressed.  People who are paying you large sums of money aren’t impressed at all. #7: Charge "Virtual" Prices When I'm asked to provide a bid on a project, one of my first questions is whether some or all of it can be done off-site. Almost always, the answer (from the clueless recruiter) is "I don't know - you'd have to ask the client." But that opens the door to the discussion. When I'm talking to the client, I work in the fact that I'm assuming that the recruiter mentioned that my price is dependent on whether I'm on or off-site, and that I'll need to know that to write a bid. A great conversation usually ensues. To be honest, if they want me on site 100% of the time I usually bid very high, and rarely get the job. I'm ok with that, in fact when they do take me up on it I usually kick myself and wish it had been higher. I'm usually not very happy now, sitting in a cube looking at that cat poster on the wall all day. I wish the little sucker would just fall off the rope and hit the ground. 2008-04-10T18:38:12Z

2008-04-11T15:11:06Z

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clients-will-pay-you-not-to-come-to-their-offices

2008-04-11T15:04:29Z

Clients pay me money to NOT come in to their offices, and it doesn’t involve a restraining order.  Working virtually is becoming more and more common for a variety of businesses.

Clients Will Pay You Not To Come To Their Offices

2008-04-11T15:11:06Z