As I've been reading some of the threads, I've come up with some questions:

1. Do you do appointments with clients? If yes, at your office or some place else. If some place else, where (McDonalds, IHOP, Starbucks)????
2. If you want a contract but client doesn't want to sign it, what do you do?
3. Do you take deposits, especially from new clients? If yes, how much? If no, do you take credit cards, paypal for payment?
4. If you haven't received all the money owed from client, do you give the work to the client?
5. How do you handle non-payment?
6. When did you open your business: after your website was up, when you got your first client, when your business plan was completed?
7. Do you have a formal business plan or just one in your head?

I'm sure I'll have more because I'm working on my business plan and it seems the moment I get one question answered, it's replaced by another.

Hi,

Here's some answers to your questions:

1. Do you do appointments with clients? If yes, at your office or some place else. If some place else, where (McDonalds, IHOP, Starbucks)????

I have on occasion met with client in person, but they pay for the time and it's always some where else. I have a local Starbucks that I usually meet with clients if I need to. Now that's not very often - usually most communication with my clients is done by email first and then scheduled phone calls.

2. If you want a contract but client doesn't want to sign it, what do you do?
I won't work with the client, but sometimes my contract doesn't come in the traditional sense. I have simply confirmed details via email and asked that the client confirm back my email confirming they agree to the mentioned terms. If the client doesn't do this, then the work isn't completed. This protects both the client and myself.

3. Do you take deposits, especially from new clients? If yes, how much? If no, do you take credit cards, paypal for payment?
Yes, I now work on a project only basis and require 50% deposit before any other services are started. Before when I did work with client son a hourly basis I required a pre-paid deposit for a set number of hours, no deposit no work. Generally 99% of my clients use Paypal to pay for services, but I also have a merchant account so I can accept Visa and Mastercard. Here in Canada we can also accept money via Interact email Money Transfer.

4. If you haven't received all the money owed from client, do you give the work to the client?
No, unless I have an established relationship with the client.
5. How do you handle non-payment?
Since I ask for payment up front I haven't had this issue.

6. When did you open your business: after your website was up, when you got your first client, when your business plan was completed?
Here in Canada as soon as there is an expectation that you will be making money you can consider your business open - which also allows you to deduct various expenses. Initially I started submitting proposals for work on Elance and other bidding sites and this was before I had my site up. I'm a jump in and go for it kind of person so much of my planning and business building happened at the same time.

7. Do you have a formal business plan or just one in your head?
I don't have a formal business plan simply because I don't plan on going to seek funding from the bank and that usually when you need to have one, but I do have my key goals written down such as how many clients I wanted to have by the end of the first year, revenue expectations, product launches, marketing plans etc....but most of it is simply in a mind map and spreadsheet. I believe having the information written down is important because it helps to give you some direction and focus. When you have it just in your head it's hard for you to focus on where you want to go with your business.

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Renee Shupe, Become a Techie Virtual Assistant
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You mention eLance. Have you been successful in obtaining work from them? How many bids did you place before you got your first client from them.

I've been bidding but have yet to have any interest expressed--to the point of discouragement. I keep telling myself "it's the economy stupid," but even so the lack of success is eating at my self-confidence.

Any suggestions on eLance would be appreciated.

And much thanks for the food for thought on deposits. I almost agree that projects (because I want to charge for one-time projects) is the way to go although a desire to have consistent (?) work via retainers would be nice too.

I'm almost wondering if I'm doing too much planning and not enough actively working towards that first client.

by the way, i like "Savvy Solutions for Blogging, Websites, Newsletters & eBooks."
Did you come up with yourself or someone else?

Anne
ALC Office Services

Hi Anne,

I actually gave up on elance pretty quick because it's definitely a value priced site. Meaning people are posting they're projects there are looking for the cheapest rate. I did use iFreelance.com for a while and did have some success with that, so you might want to check them out to see if it would work for you.

In the beginning I also found I had better luck with Craigslist than eLance.

Regarding project work, yes it can be a bit scary to not necessarily know when your next flood of funds might come in, but I have found that hasn't been an issue. I do still have a few clients that are on a retainer/monthly program - clients I had prior to make the switch to project work, so I do have some revenue that comes from these clients, but since I made the switch to doing project work my revenue for the last two months has doubled and I'm working less! So for me it was the right way to go.

Another thought is to set up some Google Alerts (google "Google Alerts" if you're not sure what they are) and set them up for terms like "virtual assistant needed", "quickbooks expert" or whatever terms potential clients might write about if they were looking for someone with your skill set.

I'm someone who believes in the it's better to have 90% of something available, than to strive for 100% and never have it available. So sometimes the idea of learning as you go is good....it's what works for me. LOL!

Thanks for the comment on the tag line. It's something I came up with on my own and was a revamp of my old tag line when I was offering more general services.

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Renee Shupe, Become a Techie Virtual Assistant
eMail Marketing & Aweber Training Starts May 15! - Save 50% using VAFAweber

I agree with you about elance. As well as guru, odesk and the others. You will never be able to price as low as the overseas workers or even if a person wants to use you because you are stateside, they are looking for the best "price" not the best service.

Also on the deposit thing, I was just wondering about this as well. If you don't get a deposit or retainer fee, what happens if the next month comes and they haven't paid? Do you continue to work without the deposit until they pay? Or do a few hours with the peace of mind that something was attained up front?

Originally Posted by nfb1204

I agree with you about elance. As well as guru, odesk and the others. You will never be able to price as low as the overseas workers or even if a person wants to use you because you are stateside, they are looking for the best "price" not the best service.

Yep, agreed - tried and gave up very quickly as I'm not prepared to undertake work for peanuts...

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The professional's choice

Totally agreed. It is crazy seeing the prices posted sometimes.

This information really helped me. Its funny cause all the ?s I wrote down are being answered right here.

Hi Renee, question on your payment up front method. Do you ask for the whole payment upfront? If so do people tend to have issues with that. How do you handle them if they are sketchy about it?

Allora,

I ask for one month's payment up front plus the one month deposit upfront before work begins. If they don't want to do that, then I don't work with them. It's a policy I have had in place for some time because if you don't have a deposit of some kind to hold, you don't have a client who is committed. And no one wants to work with a client who is not committed.

For project work, which I am doing more of these days, I take a 50% up front deposit of the entire project. When I am finished with the project, I take the final payment. The work is not returned to them if the payment is not made. This has never happened to me.

For my current project, I took a 50% deposit and an upfront payment of 50%. The reason I did this is because this client does not know what she wants. When the project is finished I will apply the 50% to the final bill. If she has additional changes over and above that which I outlined in the contract, I will bill her separately for those items on an hourly charge.

Janine

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