bunltd - 3:33 pm on Jun 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

I have learned and am still learning about this subject. It's a hard part of running a business.

The Great Unprepared

A few weeks ago one of the "I don't have much money" flavor of client called me. He couldn't answer the most basic of questions, and began insisting on a meeting and a price before we even spoke for 5 minutes. You know, the "we should get together and talk about my project" which will be the next Amazon/Ebay/Monster...

I explained that I can't provide a quote without knowing more about his requirements for the site. It was to be an e-commerce site and he couldn't even tell me how many products he'd like to include initially or even if he could obtain a list of said products in some digital format like a spreadsheet or database.

I suggested that we shouldn't meet until he outlined some of the basic items about his site and provided him a list of simple questions for him to consider and return to me. He called 15 minutes after we got off the phone to see if I'd sent it. (I sent it shortly thereafter) Can you guess the result? Bingo - I've never heard back from this fellow, even after following up.

I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to answer basic questions about your business, marketing plans, give an idea of what you want your website to do, you are unprepared, I won't schedule a meeting for what will probably amount to a free brain picking session for you and a wasted afternoon and no business for me.

Masters of Scope Creep

Another thing to watch out for is scope creep. We had a client, who upon being billed for the remainder of the project plus the additional items/changes/features that were outside the scope of work (and were documented and they agreed that they were outside the scope)- promptly moved stole the site, and are now working with another company - and they haven't paid us. Funny how they did this after receiving invoices. Yes, we're considering legal action.

Unrealistic Expectations

Check out the client's expectations. If they are of the "build it they will come" variety, you will have to educate them to the reality of marketing on the web today. It isn't a magic lead/sale generating machine, you can't just throw a site up and see instant riches, it takes more work than that, and it will also take some $$ in addition to the development/design costs of the site. If they can't understand that, you have your work cut out for you, and it probably won't be pleasant.

(with 10 years in this business, I've seen a few things, but I don't want to give the impression that all clients are of the nightmare variety, they're not!)

What questions do you ask prospective clients?

LisaB