Some time after you strike out on your own as an independent web worker, you’ll finish your first contract. This is (or should be!) a happy time for all concerned: your client gets the software or services that they contracted for, and you get the balance of the contract price paid into your bank account. But as an independent, your work doesn’t stop there. Don’t mistake the end of the job for the end of the work.
Remember, as an independent, you’re the marketing and accounting department, as well as upper management and line staff. This means there’s plenty more to be done, even when you’ve made the final delivery. Here’s a quick checklist of five things to think about in your follow-up to a job well done.
1. Check for a happy customer. As a small and agile company, two of your big advantages over larger consulting firms should be friendliness and responsiveness. Don’t assume that your customer is happy just because you think you’ve delivered work that matches the original contract agreement. Check explicitly – whether by email, phone, or in person – to make sure that they’re happy with your output. If there’s any question about that, ask the next question: what can you do to make it right? In the long run, satisfied customers will be one of your best sources of future business.
2. Prepare a post-mortem. That may sound odd if you’re in some field other than software development, but for programmers it’s a recognized term: the post-mortem is a report prepared at the end of a project listing things that went right, things that went wrong, and lessons learned. I’ve found writing up post-mortems to be useful even in a one-man shop. At the end of three or six months of work, it’s a good idea to look back and reflect on your successes and failures, and to figure out what you want to do differently on the next project. You may think you’ll remember everything without writing it down, but that’s really pretty unlikely.
3. Make sure you get paid. You’re probably the bookkeeper as well as the boss in your organization. When you send the bill, add a reminder to your calendar on the date when you expect to have the check in hand. If you don’t see the money when you expect it, you need to start chasing your customer to make sure you get paid. You did the work, you deserve the money.
4. Keep your records up-to-date. As the bookkeeper, you also need to make things reasonably easy for your accountant. If you go in at the end of the year with a shoebox full of scribbled notes, your taxes will take longer to prepare and you’ll be charged more. Whenever you send an invoice or receive a payment (or have any expenses), you should be updating your records. This can be a spreadsheet or an application such as QuickBooks, but whatever it is, don’t let yourself fall behind.
5. Ask for more work. Got that happy customer? Good! Add another reminder to your calendar: in three or six months, you should check back with your contact and see whether they want to hire you again. Take them out to lunch if you can. This doesn’t have to be a high-pressure sales call, but if you remain visible, you maximize your chance of getting hired again. Don’t be shy about asking for referrals to other businesses they know who can use your services.
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