Okay, so I'm still getting the hang of the fact that this business is going to be my main breadwinner when I quit my job in January. So I took on a project as a "help" to one of my former real estate clients and boot camp teacher. I was going to help her get her website together with an industry specific template she found. She is very well aware that I am in NO WAY a web designer, nor will I ever claim to be, but I'm a bit more web savvy than she is and was going to pretty much just cut and paste content. Well I charged her what I would consider a nominal fee and she's paid me half for it. In the meantime, she has flip flopped about the idea of where to host the website, the costs and her needs for it. She has finally settled on yahoo (small business) but can't for some reason use a separate email address for her business and personal accounts. Of course she can't get anyone on the phone to help her through this.

So now she's asked if we could GET TOGETHER to work on this. I really don't want her over my shoulder while I'm doing this.. Tell me what you want and let me handle it is how I work. In particular with graphic design/creative projects, I usually work on these during "off" hours since there is not need to make phone calls and contact other people.

So how do I express this to her. Her last email to me said "I was thinking maybe we could meet and work on this project together. I have several things I could work on (bootcamp paper work), while you're working on the Website. Right now, I want to get my fiance Birthday dinner party out of the way and then I'll be ready for the website project. Let me know if we could meet next week."

So does she mean I'll be sitting her presence while working on the site and she's working on something else. I can do that at home.

How do I put this nicely ladies (and gents)? I'm still working on tact

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

I guess what I would consider in my response would be whether you planned to continue or want to continue doing work with her in the future. I'm not advocating for burning a bridge but if you want to work with her in the future then it seems to me that now would be the time to start enlightening her to how you prefer to work, which is that you work virtually with an occasional client meeting for which they are charged (if that's your policy, that is.)

I'd probably consider letting her know that you'd meet with her to go over the specifics of what she is wanting done, but that your business policy is typically to charge for such meetings. I really sounds like she's thinking of you more like an employee who she wants to supervise. I'd let her know that as a business owner, it's not your practice to do business outside of your home office- or something to that effect.

Is there a way that you can have an online meeting with her? That way she could feel like you were "working" together in a way where she could see specific pieces of the website at the same time.

Let us know how it turns out.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

My take on her request is that she wants to hang out with you. It sounds more like she wants a social time while the two of you are working. I could be totally off base (that's not unheard of) but that's what it sounds like to me. If that's the case maybe offer to meet her for coffee so you can discuss the website but let her know you work better alone and you want to be able to focus on her site and not be distracted.

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Lanel Taylor, CVA ~ Virtual Bookkeeper
Taylored Office Solutions
Custom fit solutions for all your office needs.

I sure hope she doesn't want to hang out.. I don't have that kind of time. I think I might have to agree with Kimberly in terms of how I prefer to work.. not even how I prefer to work, but how I ACTUALLY work. There is no need for us to sit in the same room while I work on her site. I'm not sure if its the password issue -- maybe she doesn't trust me since its tied to her personal email or what. But there has got to be a work around if that is the case, but I don't think its my job to figure that work around out for her.

__________________
Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com