Diane Kinney and I continue our conversation on project management.

On today’s episode, Carrie interviews Karim Marucchi and Rian Kinney about contracts and what to consider when you are preparing to work with a client.

On today's episode, Carrie is interviewing Troy Dean. This is Troy's second interview on officehours.fm.  Troy and Carrie are discussing project scoping and putting your business in the best possible position with the client that will make you (and your client) more successful.

Join me as indepdent web contract Jordan Rupp and I discuss what goes into a formalized discovery process for a web project.

In this episode, Carrie talks with Erin Flynn about Client Onboarding and how this process can be simplified by using templates and communicating regularly with your client.

In this episode, Carrie and Heather talk about Contact Relationship Management (CRMs) and how that applies to a freelancer or small agency. The discussion covers when you get that customer in the door and launch the project all the way establishing a retainer agreement with them.

In this podcast, Carrie interviews Brett Cohen CEO & co-founder of emagine, a digital agency located south of Boston, MA. Brett shares his insights of sales and marketing the “hard way” where there is no substitute for calling and meeting people face to face.

What we talked about

• Managing expectations from the very first interaction with a client
• Taking ownership of every aspect of a project
• Addressing "issues" immediately (no festering)
• Adversarial relationship toward customers
• Handling hard conversations (and keeping the emotion out)
• The best (and worst) forms of communication

What we talked about

• Using a business plan to decide what services you'll offer and what you won't
• Before choosing your ideal customer, you need to have customers to choose from :)
• When it's time to grow a team (and how to find the right people)
• Managing cash flow
• Business, communication, and tech tools used at WPRiders.com
• The importance of a mentor

What we talked about

• The process of developing a customer niche
• Just because you gear marketing toward your niche doesn't mean you can't serve others
• The three-level marketing strategy
•  How to get a client ASAP
• Building confidence in yourself
• The importance of content (and tips for getting into the swing of content creation)
• Vetting potential clients

Solving all the problems.

What we talked about

• The origins of managed WordPress hosting
• Serving a niche in a crowded space
• Find your differentiators that set you apart from the competition
• Empowering others (teammates) to make decisions and take responsibility for the outcome
• Working through explosive topics (i.e. politics) with your team
• Expressing opinion as a company vs an individual
• Joshua shares what inspires him

What we talked about

• Going from solo owner/operator to a partnership
• Accountability in a partnership
• Inbound marketing
• Engaging with your site visitors
• Serving up content based on who's looking
• How to get someone into your marketing funnel

Marketing is simply building trust and empathy with a group of people by talking to them. - Paul Jarvis

What we talked about

• Email marketing as two-way communication
• We hate marketing because we don't understand it
• Alienate most people in order to get the right people on your email list
• Unless there's engagement, having a huge list is meaningless
• Email automation doesn't have to be intimidating
• Getting started with email marketing

Episode links

• Paul Jarvis on Twitter
• Paul Jarvis website (and newsletter signup)
• Sunday Dispatches podcast
• Invisible Office Hours podcast
• Chimp Essentials (course)

What We Talked About

• Freelancing "back in the day"
• Turning a passion into a revenue stream
• Opportunities to systematize repetitive tasks
• Opportunities to upsell clients (while offering great value)
• Quarterly "temperature" calls
• Defining your ideal client (and evolving that over time)
• Taking time away from work to work on your business
• Self/soul searching to figure out what it is we want to work on

What we talked about

• Setting financial stretch goals (and achieving them)
• The power of saying your goals "out loud"
• Investing in your business
• Serving a micro-niche vs a general client base (and how that can help with content strategy)
• The value and importance of live industry events

What we talked about

• Getting out from behind the computer and meeting folk
• Expressing yourself through content
• Having a professional online persona
• Getting into the habit of writing with directive journaling v 
• Brainstorming content
• Promoting your content (and others)

What we talked about

• Being different in a crowded space
• Internalizing what others are doing and then innovating on it
• Copying someone's motivation vs copying someone's results
• Be the freelancer that answers the phone!
• If your offer isn't interesting and compelling, get a job and learn new things
• Risk dynamic as a freelancer vs an employee
• Go deep, not wide

What we talked about

• How to do your own content marketing by making a brand plan
• What to do if you started blogging before you had a brand plan
• The backstory behind Pamela's new book, Master Content Marketing
• Writing (confidently) even if you don't feel like a "writer"
• Content marketing as a creative act
• Education through content