[thelist] http://www.webskeleton.com - site review for all browsers

martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com
Mon Jan 21 06:31:32 CST 2002


Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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To:   thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject:  RE: [thelist] http://www.webskeleton.com - site review for all
      browsers

>> Who are your target audience for the site? Is it the end
>> owner of the site? Or is it an intermediary (say a business
>> strategy agency who's looking for a partner to take to the party)?

>Would you be kind enough to tell me what kind of people I should be
>looking to target ? I am a sole developer and I simply don't know how to
>go about fishing for clients. Would I advertise, approach small
>businesses personally, ads on the web, email hr at poor sites... ??

This is possibly the hardest place to be - if you have no current client
contacts, how do you make them? It's a circular argument in another
way too: Who you target will depend on what you do, but what you do
should depend on who you target.

Here's one way out of it:
* What *can* you do really, really well (note that this is based on value
(ie
  cost and quality), not just quality of work)?
* Who's buying that?
* Can they afford to pay enough to make it worth your while?

Another way to think about it:
* Do you need to be the guy who does *everything*? Or can you be the guy
who
   does one bit?

If it's the latter, then you're looking at larger gigs (which are better
paid btw) in
partnership with someone else.

I'll give you an example - we don't do visual design. At all[1]. So we can
co-operate
with visual designers pretty easily. They make money. We make money. The
client
gets a great result.

[1] Although we've a legitimate interest in usability, taxonomy and so on.
But
with agreed rules of engagement with a design partner, it's sorted out
before the
client gets involved.

Some useful things to think through though:
* Network like hell. It costs less and is more effective than advertising
* Retaining existing clients is a hell of a lot more profitable than
acquiring new ones
* If you start by targeting small clients, it's very, very hard to break
out of it. And they will
   tend to interfere more and pay less.

>Currently on the site I ask potential clients to email me links to 3 of
>their chosen websites (stole the idea I came across some other site a
>long time back - can't recall where).

What's the advantage to you (and to the client) in this?

>Would it be a better idea to give
>the quotes or offer packages.

Depends. Are you offering a fixed package of work for which you can
estimate your time very accurately?

Example: I used to do a lot of CGI work, and I knew that a
customised (within certain parameters) install should take me a certain
number of hours, unless the client's server was just plain dumb (yes it
happened).

So I add some time for contingencies, multiply by my hourly
rate and quote that as a maximum, capped fee. If I take longer, it's my own
fault (either for under-estimating the contingencies required or for
working
slowly) and the fee doesn't go up. If I get finished quicker, the fee comes
down.
Client is very happy, because they can budget for a maximum fee, and when
the invoice comes in below this (it nearly always did), they look a hero. I
got
a *lot* of repeat business, particularly from visual design partners.

But that was for a fixed bit of work with a fixed scope
(more at http://evolt.org/project_management_glossary/)

More often, you won't know what the scope is until you're discussing it
with the
client. Ideally, you want to be in a position where the "working out what
the client's
needs are and how much work it is to fulfil them" is chargeable work.

That's a 2-step sell of course. You sell a small bit of work to work out
what the big
effort is... maybe rebating (some or all of) the first bit if you then get
the development
work.


Hope this helps

Cheers
Martin

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