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When it comes to organizing WordPress projects a lot of newbie developers make the mistake of trying to make things more complicated then they need to be. The whole idea is that if they make their project management system complicated it will demonstrate to the client that they know what they’re doing.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

You demonstrate your experience and professionalism to the client by talking about past projects, by giving them relevant information. Having a simplified system – and having the confidence to have a simplified system actually helps you rather than detracts from you – because the client doesn’t have to spend additional time doing things that don’t need to be done.

Here’s a couple of tips for how I approach projects – and again this may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it’s made my life a lot easier:

You Don’t Need Contracts – The Email Conversation Thread is the Contract

For me – I don’t send ‘contracts’ to clients. Here’s why – and you need to check your laws in each state – but emails actually serve as a contract. In other words, if you email me with what you need – and then I get back to you and tell you how I’m going to go forward with it – and you email me back and say that sounds good.

THAT’S THE CONTRACT.

Now I understand some people will say “But you need to put in all these additional points” but here’s my view – if you have a bad client no contract is going to save you and if you have a good client then you’re not going to have an issue in the first place. You just need good high-quality clients.

What most people do when they start out is that they’re working with sh*tty clients – clients that are cheap, that want everything for nothing and ironically – who are actually the most difficult clients to work with. And so what happens is they think that by making a contract and by stating what you can, will or won’t do – that they’ll be protecting themselves – but the truth is if you’re working with sh*tty clients they’ll just find other ways to mess you around.

Instead of a Contract – focus on Emotional Intelligence And General Boundary Setting and Overdelivery

Rather than worrying about how you can best structure the contract a better skill to focus on is emotional intelligence and setting boundaries. Every client you have is going to be slightly different – one of your biggest competitive advantages, while you’re small, is offering a customized service – instead of a boilerplate process. And yet everyone will listen to the consultants on their Facebook ads about standardizing your process.

However, if your income is low the issue is not – in many cases – because you don’t have a standardized process – it’s because you’re working with cheap clients, not charging enough and not communicating your needs correctly.

A Client Should Not Learn New Software

My belief is that no client of mine should learn new software in order to work with me. For example:

My project management software just requires them to sign up and then to simply reply to email updates – I don’t ask them to go in and create tasks or reply to tasks or anything of that nature. Basically no client is going to be impressed by your gizmos.

And if a client does have to learn a new system it’s going to be a system which is very mainstream – one of my pet peeves is when a web development company creates their own CMS software for clients. This is bad on so many levels because if the client ever leaves the company they’re trapped in that company’s CMS.

The software I require clients to use is:

• Google Docs if we’re working on a scope document or a final feedback document
• Asana for general updates (yep – I don’t even create tasks in there – and it’s free which is great)
• Excel spreadsheets – I can save and share it from my Mac desktop application and I can give the client the direct edit or view URL – they don’t even need a Microsoft account from my understanding

Again – keep it simple. I know there are so many shiny tools out there – but no one is helped by complexity – and it does NOT make you look like you know what you’re doing. Instead, it’ll just annoy the client – I’m willing to bet there’s been a lot of relationships ruined by stupid software.

The only time this will be an issue is if the client is so old they literally don’t know what Google Docs is – but if that issue comes up it’ll come up much worse if you use custom software.

Give Value and OverDeliver

This is probably the hardest thing for developers to understand and really internalize. A developer will work for 10-20 hours on perfecting the best contract – or learning a sales system – but god forbid a project requires an extra hour of development time that’s unpaid.

Start understanding that your clients are your lifeblood – and more importantly – use the energy that you would be fighting them – to overdeliver.

Try to set up a system of over-delivering – of not arguing too much – and do it from a place of abundance – not desperation.

Because the alternative is p*ssing off a client and getting into a bad relationship over an hour or two of extra development work – oh – and learn Emotional Intelligence – how to interact and ask for what you want. Be honest. And be patient.

Good luck!

About Author:

Kosta Kondratenko is a web developer working for his company Head Studios – https://www.headstudios.com.au. He is a Sydney wordpress developer and SEO guy. He has over 10 years of experience and loves to write blog posts about topics happening in his industry. He’s passionate about sharing his knowledge and helping others achieve their goals.