How to Onboard Freelance Writing Clients Like an All-Star
This topic comes from a Runway student! Even if you've been a freelance writer for years, how do you onboard your freelance writing clients in scalable ways that also make you look like a pro? This week's livestream is going over the step-by-step process of onboarding, how does this process work and what tools you might need, what do you do after the proposal is approved or when you get ghosted, how much should you follow up, and when should you give up?
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How to Onboard Freelance Writing Clients Like an All-Star
Onboarding your freelance writing clients doesn't have to be complicated. We just wanna do it smoothly like a pro. So I think a lot of times when we're thinking about onboarding our freelance writing clients, people think that, uh, they need to make it this super advanced process with all these different steps and all this different stuff just to like make it seem complicated and bureaucratic, which I think is kind of crazy, right?
Like I've talked to freelance writers that are like, this is it. This is all you do to onboard. I'm like, yeah, like we don't wanna make it super complicated. We don't wanna make it super, um, like this big red taped like process, right? We wanna make it something that people feel good about. They feel like this is a defined thing that they're going through, and it completes all the steps.
So this was suggested by a runway student. So a runway student asks for this topic. So if you guys are interested in runway, Check it out here. Go to mandy ellis.com/runway. Um, right now we have runway it. You can enroll any time. I am doing a special class of runway in August, but if you're interested in runway, check it out at mandy ellis.com/runway.
Hi Vicky. I always love the wave. I'm glad you're here. So let's talk about this stuff. Let's talk about, oh, you know what? We are talking about onboarding, however, I just remembered last time I got cut off last time. My live stream was super long because we were doing dodo, but we didn't get to all the questions.
So first things first, we're gonna do questions, then we're gonna get to onboarding because I wanna make sure people's questions get answered. Hey Jennifer, question. I wrote for a magazine in February and March invoiced shortly after submitting. I only heard from them uh, once about a month ago, and they published my article under a different name.
I emailed and LinkedIn messaged for an update on payment and even snail mailed an invoice. So this, they snail mailed from the US to the uk but haven't been paid. What do I do? What if the company is based in the UK and I'm in the us? How would you handle this? So you only got part of my answer last time cuz it shut off.
So my full answer is be the squeaky wheel. This is something that I've dealt with many times. My longest one was nine months. I chased a payment for nine months. So that was like nine months overdue, not just like nine months. Like. Regular. This was like I, after a long process, it was nine months overdue.
So be the squeaky wheel, set up a, um, set up an ongoing, um, uh, message in Boomerang. This is, or you can use GMass or you can use another tool, but some kind of automated email that goes out every single week saying like, you owe me the money. It was due on this date. Here's the link to pay the invoice.
Being the squeaky wheel eventually works out. Um, I've been the squeaky wheel many times, and it, y you know, most of the time it works out. But that's the way that you have to do it. You have to follow up with them. Um, another thing is, I know people go on Twitter or they go on social media and they shame the client.
So they'll go on social media and they'll be like, Hey, this client hasn't paid me. It was due on this date. Don't work for this client. And they'll tag them. Um, on whatever platform it is and then basically shame them into paying them. I haven't done that. Uh, that's at your own discretion. Uh, the other thing to do is that, um, the article being published under a different name, it sounds like you didn't have a contract.
So one, always have a contract. Two, when you're submitting an article, uh, you need to know if that article is bylined, ghost written or under the brand name, right? So those are three different things. If you're getting it as a bylined article, that means your name's on it. If it's ghost written, it's somebody else's byline, right?
You're writing in their voice. And if it's just for the brand, it's gonna be under the brand's name. So I would make sure if you do have a contract, check what it says, uh, make sure that that's all handled. But there's a lot of times where I've written articles, um, Where they've been put under the brand name.
Um, but yeah, we need to make sure that we check on that. We need to make sure that, uh, we ask about that. So this just sounds super sketchy, so when you do get paid, don't work with them again, obviously. Hey, flower Power, glad you're here. You said Happy Friday tuning in as we're running some errands.
Amazing. I love that. I love that. Um, the Freelance man, while we can like watch stuff or listen to things while we're on the run, I love that. Okay. Be the squeaky wheel. Make sure like if they're in the UK, you're going to have a time gap too. So make sure that your automated email is reaching them at like 9:00 AM their time or a reason, not at like midnight their time.
We wanna make sure we're at the top of their inbox. Um, it's still weird, like there's a lot of magazines that have different rules. There's a lot of things that go on that um, just are weird. It sounds like you didn't know the payment terms. So next time have a contract. Know the payment terms. Know how everything works.
Is it bylined? How, you know, what's kind of going on? Um, but yeah, like most of the time we just have to be the squeaky wheel and then never work with them again. Cuz this is, it's kind of like if you have terms and you have an agreement or you have some kind of standard, um, payment stuff, I will woo's here today.
Um, you wanna make sure that you wanna get that check cleared, get your payment, and not work with them again. Okay, next question. We're gonna get to the topic after questions, cuz last time questions got cut off, so I wanna make sure that we're doing them this time. Hi, woo woo woo. Do you have any questions?
She's like, where's the snacks? We'll go back to your hubba hole. Go lay down for a little bit. We're just doing questions right now. We'll get, we'll get to that later. Good girl. Why don't you lay down? Why don't you be free and lay down. Oh my goodness. What?
There you go. Good job. Good job. Okay. Michael question sets. I specialize in agriculture and horticulture, but I, but find, but markets are hard to find. Okay. So that should say, but markets are hard to find. Hello. There we go. But markets are hard to find, um, and who to contact. I've been a journalist for many years, but outlets seem to have strong help and advice, please.
So Michael, This is something where we balance cake and icing. For me, there's a bunch of different things here. So agriculture, I would think about ag tech companies. I would think about anything that a farmer would touch. So there's a lot of SaaS products and there's a lot of equipment for farmers that is coming out or things that are changing, like vertical farming.
I would look into not like expand it a bit. So a lot of times when I end up talking to people who are in horticulture, ag, agriculture, gardening, they're making the whole really small, like they're going way too far down. So when you're thinking about agriculture and gardening and horticulture, think about all of the stuff.
I would do some research into ag tech, vertical farming, um, other types of meats that are being produced or types of systems that run a farm. It could be budgeting, it could be, um, maintaining crops. It could be like there's a lot of different platforms and computer systems and softwares that help farmers.
And here's the key. We are still writing for the same audience. It just so happens that our client is a SaaS product. And this is actually, Hey Vesna, this is actually a masterclass that I just gave to, uh, Lindy Alexander's Thrive students, the her, uh, right Earn Thrive students about adding tech to your niche.
So you wanna make sure that you're looking into all the products and services that, that touch the audience that you want to work with. So take that audience and think about all the stuff they're using. The other thing too is to think bigger. So, A lot of times when we're thinking about gardening, we're thinking about writing about the practical stuff of gardening.
Instead of saying like, oh, home Depot creates blog posts, maybe I should send them an L loi right Letter of introduction. So you also wanna go into bigger places that crossover into gardening, or you wanna make sure that you're covering all your bases with places that are in the market, so to say. So expand that, look at that.
I like a few websites to do that. So I would look at G2 is one of them. The letter G and two, look at Ag Tech, look at horticulture, look at farming. Um, look at gardening. There's a lot of different little technologies that are now going in there, and there's a lot of different types of companies that are growing from that.
So the outlets I definitely agree would, will have gone down. But the other thing is that you wanna make sure you're looking at publications that just cover the topic. So it's not that you're looking for outlets that straight up are gardening or straight up our, uh, what was that one that was, uh, um, there was a publication, uh, I forget what it's called, but basically like when you're looking at publications, they like the New York Times has like, A garden section.
I'm just making that up. I don't know if they do, but there's all these big publications that have like a, a farming, agriculture, gardening type section. I would start looking into those. My guess is that this is kind of a similar thing where you're going too small. You're either going only to trade magazines or you're only going to little tiny pockets really expand.
And even if that's not the case, Um, when you're thinking about outlets, we wanna think about all of the different possibilities. So, I like the travel magazine database. It's just travel magazine database.com. It's not just travel magazines. It tells you all of the types of articles that they publish in that, in all hundreds and hundreds of magazines.
So like, there's magazines, like airline magazines, and then there's magazines, like, uh, there's a tea magazine, like all they do is talk about tea. But there's always like a little gardening thing. Like you can always look at all these different publications to figure out where your stuff fits or where you can talk about agriculture.
Obviously a tea magazine is good because they often talk about farming and practices when it comes to, uh, making the right tea and all different types of, uh, you know, places. And yes, woo. She's like, she's like, feed the beast. Charlotte. Your lip gloss looks stellar. I love your lip gloss. It's super cute.
Good girl. Good girl. You're the cutest sh char. We, we'll do a Charlie update after I finish answering this question. She just looks super cute. Okay. So basically when you're going through this stuff, expand. So Michael, expand, make sure you're looking at all different things that touch horticulture and farming and agriculture.
Okay. It's not so far in the hole. This is something that I think a lot of freelance writers miss is like how vast the tools and platforms and, um, outlets and all the places that kind of cover these topics, they're sometimes really random, like, I know I write about food all the time and we talk about agriculture.
We, I wrote an article about, um, purchasing a vineyard and like all the different farming things you need to look for, um, and all the different types of soil stuff. And yeah, so there's a lot of different places that will write about these topics or there's a lot of different companies that cover these topics.
You just gotta dig around and kind of expand the space instead of just saying like, horticulture or company Right. Or Horticulture magazine. Expand it and look for those places. So Travel Magazine database. G2 is another one. Crunchbase is always publishing articles about, like, that's where I found a lot of Ag tech companies.
So Crunchbase Tech Crunch, um, there's a lot of different places we can find these, um, markets. And then the people you're contacting are similar content marketing manager, content manager, if they don't exist, VP of marketing, director of marketing, and then c E O. Um, and then editors, you're a journalist for many years.
I don't need to go over that. So editors contact appropriately. But companies that kind of content marketer, content marketing, lead to the CEO is who you're gonna contact. Okay, last question then we're gonna get to the topic. Yes. Hello. You're so funny looking like you just look like a bat. You look like a cute little bat.
Can you give everybody high five today? The other one? Good girl. Down. Good job. You're doing great. Charlotte's gonna have a dental procedure. I think we talked about this already, but her upper, wait a minute, her upper left fang, so her, her giant canine tooth is busted. Uh, we don't know what happened, but she likes to chew on hard toys.
So basically she could have trauma or she could have been spicy and just hit it weird on something or, anyways, so she has to have a tooth removed, but she's also gonna go in for her. Um, Dental, just to make sure her teeth are all cleaned and that she's a superstar. So if she's gonna go in for that sometime in the next couple weeks.
So Charlie, update on that last question is from Dana. Hold on, Dana. Oh my gosh. I made this question very long. Ooh. Um, okay. Dana says, I took your runway course earlier this year and I found it incredibly helpful as I'm brand new to freelancing. Amazing. Um, remember, you can go to mandy ellis.com/runway to check it out.
I've got a great potential client possibility and they require their freelancers to have an llc. This is a fantastic kick in the butt for me to get moving on the process of creating an llc. I know you have a wealth of experience and wisdom, so do you have any resources or referrals to help me do business setup things well from the beginning?
Yes. So first I'm gonna edit this so that we can actually kind of see my face. Oh, maybe it doesn't wanna edit it. There it goes. Um, hold on. We're just gonna delete all this stuff just so we make it short. Okay. So let's talk about resources. This is something that we go over a lot in the wealth lab. So runway is kind of like getting up to speed.
You're kind of launching or leveling up your business. It's a five day class. Uh, but in the Wealth Lab we go into this quite in depth. So for me, I like Northwest Registered Agent. Uh, I really struggle with paperwork like that. So Northwest registered agent is super easy to set up your L L C, you also wanna make sure you get an e i n so your employer identification number, this is what you would put on your W nine s and your W nine s are the forms you fill out in order to get a 10 99 for tax season.
So, Instead of using your social security number, you use your e i n. So when you set up your llc, make sure you get an e i n so you can use that instead of your social security number. Um, and then make sure that, um, you are, hold on, and then make sure that, um, You're setting up your L L C, um, so that you may, uh, get those little documents that say like, I'm allowed to, uh, I'm allowed to open a bank account.
Because in order to have a business bank account, most of the time you have to have an L L C set up, um, or some kind of D B A I think so Northwest Registered Agent, make sure you get an e i n and then make sure you have the paperwork to set up, um, your business bank accounts. We wanna make sure that we do, when we set up our LLC that we, we.
Separate everything. So we have personal and business. I like Novo. Actually Vena, who's here today, vena is the one who, uh, pointed me to Novo. It's great. I love it. Um, if you, so I have a code. It's Amanda Ellis. I know, that's like my official name. So, um, if you use Amanda Ellis, all one word, um, when you sign up for Novo, you get 40 bucks.
So referral code there. Um, but Novo is great for business bank accounts. I also set it up like Profit First, which I've talked about on this Live Stream Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. It's a book. You have five different accounts. It helps you manage your money a lot easier. Uh, and Novo lets you set up those accounts super easily.
So, um, whenever you're creating your L L C, we don't wanna make it overly complicated. So when I was told how to set up an L L C, it was like, go to your comptroller, then go to this other thing, then go to that. You don't have to do that. If you go to Northwest Registered Agent, it's just northwest registered agent.com.
You can set up your L L C, you can get your e i n, you can get the little paper that says you're allowed to open a business bank account and they will be your registered agent. So for your L L C, you need a registered agent, which basically like runs little things for your llc. Um, I think for me it's like 125 bucks a year.
And your filing fees for your LLC depend on your state. I wanna say in Texas, I paid three 50. But like your state will depend on the filing fee, but your ongoing fee for the registered agent is about 125 bucks. Yeah, Novo's great. Vena says, vena says, I love Novo. Yeah, me too. So, uh, make sure you're getting all that stuff set up and, uh, that you have at all.
Like those specific things, right? You make sure that you have your. Um, L L C E I n. Remember, your e i n is your employer identification number. That is to put on your W nine s and your W nine s are just the form. It's like the tax form that you submit. Since you're not on a w2, you submit a W nine, uh, and then at tax time you get a 10 99, but you're using the e i n as your number instead of your social security number.
Then you have your business bank accounts, you have your registered agent, um, and they. Save paperwork for you and do a bunch of other boring things, but, um, it's really easy and helpful. Okay, let's get to today's topic. I hope those questions were help, uh, those answers to those questions were helpful.
We've got a little dancer over here, Charlotte, you look so cute. I love your lip gloss today. What brand is it? It's probably the old, the old, the old. How The Howell brand. There you go. You're so cute. All right. Uh, topic. Hello, my brain. Just like decided not to work today. Okay. Let's talk about today's topic onboarding.
We're gonna go through this, um, in different steps of how I do it. So number one, let me take you through the step of onboarding. One. Don't make it complicated, don't reinvent the wheel. Okay? Onboarding to me includes a bunch of different things and basically think of them as hurdles too. Part to like get started with the client.
So hurdle number one is like basically, um, getting on a call with a client. So we've already sent an LOI or a pitch or whatever. Uh, your LOI is your letter of introduction. So we've already sent an loi, they've responded, we have a call. Your initial hurdle is how are they answering those call questions?
And there's a video that I have on this channel about questions to ask on ans questions to ask on that call. You can check it out. Uh, I'll link to it below. Uh, after we're done with this live stream, but ask those questions. That's the first hurdle to onboarding. We kind of know what the project is, what the budget is, what's the timeline, when's it getting published, who am I reporting to?
Is it bylined, ghost written, or under the brand name? Uh, what's, what else is in your pipeline? So we're putting a lot of, um, we're getting a lot of detail from those questions as part of the onboarding process because. Our call informs our proposal, right? So our call, we have to make sure we have notes.
You can ask them if you can record it, do that if you feel like that's more helpful. Um, but I will. But make sure that when you're onboarding them with your questions that you, that you have, um, enough information to put in your proposal. Cuz your proposal is your second, basically your second phase of onboarding.
Your proposal is gonna be like, Hey, remember me, we just talked. Um, you're gonna have like a couple of different, um, sections in your proposal. So if you want my exact proposal and my contracts and all the good stuff, you can go to mandy ellis.com/bundle to grab those. Just, I know I'm gonna get this question.
I get emailed this like, oh, you talked about this. Where is it? Go to mandy ellis.com/bundle. So my proposal is like an intro paragraph that's like, hi, here's what we're gonna do. Like, here's some stuff about content marketing. Second part is like, what did we actually talk about? What's kind of the work?
What's kind of the overview? Then I go into like testimonials and clients and reasons to work with me, which like secret between us is some of it is pulled from my website. Remember, don't reinvent the wheel. Pull some of your best things off your website. Put in the proposal, right? Just as a reminder, woo.
Then what you're gonna have is, um, after you have kind of your why me, uh, testimonials, clients you've worked with, you're gonna have like an investment, I call it your investment section. Uh, that's gonna be the cost of the project. So, Which a shouldn't be a surprise if they gave you a budget, um, and you feel like that budget is, you know, fair for the work, or C it might be, or b b, it might be kind of a surprise because they didn't give you a budget on the call, but it very much like 90% of your proposal should be not a surprise.
It should be a rehash of your call or what, what kinds of things you talked about before. Value. Absolutely. You wanna make sure you are putting in your value pieces before we get to the price, right? So the whole proposal is about building on these steps. So remember, we're not reinventing the wheel, we're basically rehashing, and this is why you can templatize this, cuz most of it, when I go in to create a proposal, now I'm changing the work and the investment.
That's it. And then I move on with my life. So you wanna make sure that you build this proposal so that each step of it is going on, building value of why to work with you and why this is gonna be great and how you can help all that good stuff. Yeah, so that's kind of your second phase. And like I said, the only surprise there should be very, there should be no surprises, but if they didn't give you a budget, you charge what you charge.
And that's that. And if that surprises them, they're not your client. Um, or you can negotiate, but your proposal is like this second step. So I love Dodo. If you have any questions about Dodo. You can always send them my way. You can always go, I just went through a bunch of questions, but you can go to mandy ellas.com/question and we can answer 'em on the live stream.
Or you can go to the video from last week where I went over Dodo for like 400 hours and I'm sure I board everybody to debt. But, um, Dodo is the way to connect your proposal, contract invoice so that we can actually drive people to finish all the steps. So onboarding is one. We have our potential client call where we're basically getting recon, right?
We're doing recon on the client, what's going on, um, what are all the things that. We're, we're gonna do in this project two proposal, value proposal. Make sure that your proposal is building on each step, each section of your proposal is building on, like why working with you is awesome. All this stuff is great.
Um, and as a side note, I used to make proposals as like documents, like word docs or Google Docs. And it was just like so sad. There's like, my proposals now have images and you know, color and they feel like they have a lot of personality. Uh, and I just feel like that's so much better at presenting yourself than like, here's this boring ass piece of black and white paper and like times new Roman font.
So, um, that's your proposal, your contract, which will be tied to your proposal if you use Dodo. Then your second, your third step is your contract. That's again, another template. So that would be something where you're changing the scope of work. The dates of the contract, payment terms, payment amount, uh, and signature name, right?
Like who's signing this. So you need to change that out for each client, obviously. But these things all go together. So you have your call, your proposal, then you have your contract. And like I said, when you have Dedo, they can click between 'em so they can accept their proposal, sign the contract, and pay the invoice in like three seconds is amazing.
Uh, and it really helps people to move forward. There's way less emails. If they really do have a question, they can email you and be like, what's this weird thing in the contract? Uh, but it really moves people along. If they sign the contract, you can countersign, but they don't have to wait for you to countersign to pay you some money, which is fantastic.
Woo, I hear you. So in order to, um, like we have all these sections in dub Sato for the proposal in the contract, and then your invoice is by project. So you would have your invoice. Set up as you make sure it's the primary invoice in Dodo, or you have your invoice set up for your initial payment, whether that initial payment is 50% upfront, 50%, 30 days later, a hundred percent upfront.
Um, or it is like a retainer where you're getting paid 50% upfront, 50% by the end of the month, and then every following month you invoice on the first of the month, um, and it's due mid-month. So all of that stuff would be organized in your contract, and then the first invoice would be whatever version you have, right?
Whatever version of payment terms you have. But this for me is, that's like your four steps. Call, gather intel, do your recon, do your proposal, which is basically like barfing back the call and also explaining why you're super awesome and the investment for the project, adding value, why you're super, uh, why you're, um, the right person for their niche or their company, whatever contract.
Make sure you update scope of work, payment terms, uh, contract dates. Uh, signature names and then invoice. So your invoice will be connected. Mine are connected to Stripe, so that's, again, through Dodo. I usually set mine up to make sure that it's on bank payments. If that doesn't work for them, like most people do it right.
Most people are like, this is the default. You take bank payments. Like, this is how you run your business. And it's true. If they have an issue with that, I can click one button and make sure that they have a credit card option. So again, why I love Dedo. So that is our initial onboarding phase. That's onboarding call proposal contract, pay me some money invoice.
So that's how we make sure we move people through pretty quickly and easily. And it's really, uh, a nice way to look pro to your client. It's like you don't have to have the thousand emails. It's super smooth and easy for them. They can share that link to the proposal, contract, invoice around the company if they need to have people review it.
Uh, it's just really nice. Now, your second phase. Now this is another part of onboarding that I think most freelance writers stress about. Your next part, which is could be a week or it could be multiple months, is actually onboarding the content part. That is learning their style guide, learning their tone, learning how to do the work, learning what types of research, like onboarding them in terms of like, what do we actually like?
So that means that we're gonna write, right? We're gonna follow all their rules, their style guides or their brand guides or, uh, examples that they've given us, or content briefs, all that good stuff. And we're just gonna take a few stabs in the dark for our first few pieces, right? This is something I think a lot of writers think like that you, when you get a new client, you just do something right.
You just ride the bike, right? It's just the same thing. And it's not, each client is a little bit, you know, persnickety about certain things. Each client cares about different little pieces. So the first few pieces that you write for a client is still onboarding. You're still taking a stab in the dark, being like, is this right?
Uh, is this right? And you learn from their feedback. So the first piece you submit, hopefully you're about 80% there, 50 percent's probably as good as you're gonna get. Um, so let's say you're 50 to 80% there and you take the feedback the next time you're 70 to 90%. The third time you're probably pretty close.
So, um, there are, um, there are, like, for me, it could be a timeframe of like a couple weeks where I do a few pieces and I'm like, oh, okay. I can ride this bike. It's pretty easy, you know, or it's like a few months, like sometimes I've done super specific work. That has to be done in a very specific way, and it'll take me three months to basically onboard that, to cut down on the time it takes me to do it, and for me to understand what they want.
So this is why I think this is another part of onboarding. People forget about this. Like they, they imagine that they just write, they're like, we're, we've done it now we're just gonna write. Right? And that's not the case. Every, like think about it this way. Like if I'm gonna write for a, if I'm gonna write for a far, that's very different than writing for pizza today, which is very different than writing for Qantas, which is very different than writing for.
Mm, a South American empanada company, right? That's kind of what we're doing with this. So your onboarding could be a few weeks or a few months, and I've gotten emails from writers that are like, it's been three weeks or three months and I still haven't gotten it. Part of that, there's a couple things. One, it can take a while to onboard, and two, that client might not just be a good fit for you.
So this is another piece of onboarding that we have to kind of sift through. Is this right for me? Am I the right writer for them? Do I like this? Am I able to kind of onboard this so it takes less time? So for example, when I start out, um, with a new client, it can take me like a whole day to do research and a whole day to kind of write a piece because I'm kind of getting used to what's going on.
Um, and like clients that I've had for like six months or a year, it takes me like two hours to do research and two hours to write it and one hour to edit it and I'm done. So it's really this onboarding process of you getting used to like riding the bike for that specific client. I do think, woo. I do think that, um, if there are writers who approach every project the same and they kind of just do the same thing and then they hope that that works for the client.
Like they don't really change their style. They don't really change their stuff. They just repeat what they've been doing for every single client. I don't think that's the right approach. I think every client has some nuance. I think every client has specific things they care about, uh, more so than others.
So I think it's better to kind of give them that nuance and, and understand why their brand is different and really pay attention to how to create content for them. I know that for some writers it works for them to be like, this is my style, and they just repeat that and they work quickly, which is fine.
Um, for me, the clients that I work with, I just like to, I really like to be, I. Um, like a value add for the brand. I like to be another pair of eyes. I like to be someone who is diligent in my work and not just like, copy paste, copy paste, copy pae. You know, I don't, I don't, that's not my thing. Go back to your hava hole.
Thank you. So that's kind of, think about that. There's, there's a lot of things that go on in the initial three weeks to three months. Or maybe even six months of your agreement with someone that's part of onboarding, like you stab in the dark and you're like, am I getting closer? What? You know, can I follow the feedback?
Is this a fit for me? Uh, and then you kind of are, are sussing that out over that period of time. So the onboarding continues because you're onboarding on your own end of like getting up to speed about what I should do for this client or publication or whatever the business is doing. Uh, and I think that's something that's really important is yes, getting them, getting the call and contract and everything signed and upfront payment is great.
But onboarding still continues. If they stop paying your invoices. Right now, we have like, should we keep writing? Should we not? Don't, don't keep writing if they're not paying your invoices. But the full onboarding can take a while because there's a lot of little hiccups that happen and there's also a fit, right?
Are we actually a fit? Um, so really think about that with your projects and reme and especially, I know there's a few people here. Don't beat yourself up. Speed is not. Speed is not the answer. Uh, in all the, in all the forms of speed, the answer is to be more diligent, right? And pay attention to your work and see if that's getting easier or better, or you're understanding it more and you don't ask yourself so many questions.
Um, and it's, you have this. Um, you have a better understanding of what the client wants and how to do that, or where their little hangups are, where their little persnickety are. Um, I think that's an important piece to pay attention to. Jennifer says, is it, oops. Jennifer says, is it a bad idea to go straight to the contract?
I've done that before. No, I do that all the time. Um, there's times where I don't need to send a proposal because people are like, our call was good. Just send the contract. And I'm like, okay. Um, so yeah, you can just send him a contract and an upfront invoice. Um, I just like the proposal for most things because, because a lot of people forget, like, I like the proposal as a reference document.
So a lot of times people like the text of a contract, they get lost, but the sections like how everything's broken out into a proposal. It's a nice reference doc for them to pull versus like scanning a contract. So I have it as like something, if they need to pass it around the company. Or if they, three months later, they're like, what were we doing?
It's easier for them to scan a proposal than a contract. But yeah, I've done that many times. Just go from contract, um, just skip the proposal. It just depends on the contract. And there's no perfect way to do this. I'm telling you, an onboarding process that I, that I've kind of developed over 10 years. Um, and I think you need to have personal discretion, right?
There's no like perfect, magical way to do it. I just think that there's. Um, there's ways that kind of propel the client forward or help you do your work better or help you understand kind of like how to build value into your presentation to the client to enhance more contracts getting signed. But yeah, it's not that it's a bad idea.
There's like every client's different. Some clients are like, just send the contract, and you're like, okay. And then you go on with your life. Okey dokey. All right, let's do two. Let's that, so that's kind of like the overview of the process. Albert, I see your comment and you said, Albert says, I think client work varies.
It definitely does. I never did a lot of individual client based work, but from what I recall, it's more of being a tailor than trying to make a one size fits all suit. I feel the same way. I feel like when you do your client work, Um, whether you're working for publications or a specific types of online magazine or whether you're working for a big business or a startup or, I, I think everybody's kind of like a little bit different.
I, I, I know there are writers that just like, they just get the same kind of repeat client and they copy paste, copy paste. Basically. I just, I haven't had that. Uh, and I also am a type of person who seeks variety in my work, so I think that's also a factor. But yeah, I think you're gonna tailor each parts of your writing process while you onboard to your clients, and that's part of the process of on like fully onboarding a client.
Okay. Let's talk about two here. So when we're kind of going through, um, this process, you're gonna need some tools, right? So Dedo, obviously I already talked about that. If you wanna learn more about Dodo, go back to last week's video. I did a very long tutorial on it. Um, so there's that. And if you wanna get 20% off your first month or year of dodo, use the code.
Mandy Ellis, all one word at checkout. Um, you can also use a tool, like if you wanna onboard with, um, harvest was what I used before I had Debs Ado. You can use FreshBooks. You can use, like, some people use HoneyBook. I didn't, I wasn't a big fan of HoneyBook personally. I really loved Dodo. Uh, you can use Asana for certain things.
You can use Doc Hub. Um, doc Hub you can use. Um, What's other Panda Doc? You can use DocuSign. You can use Dropbox Sign, which used to be Hello Sign. Basically what you wanna do is you can use Proposify. That's what I used before I moved to Dubs Ado for my proposals. So I just like dodo cuz it's all in one.
But you can do things how, however you want. The caveat is two things. Caveats are two things. One, you need an an electronically binding signature on your contract. Whatever tool you use, you need to make sure that when someone signs a contract, it's an e-signature tool. So if you're using like every, if you're just uploading a, a doc, you need to upload it to something like Dropbox Sign or um, DocuSign to make sure that.
Signature is electronically binding. Two, when you send your invoice, they need to be able to pay it with a button. Don't make it difficult by sending just like a random piece of paper to them. And then they're like, well, how do I pay this? Don't do that. I know people that still do that, so make sure that when you send an invoice, it's like a, it's on some kind of platform where someone can click a button and pay your invoice.
You don't wanna say like, here's the invoice and then here's the link to pay it. And like, we don't wanna have 900 pieces of paper. We wanna have everything really smooth. So, um, like I said, like Dodo is the way to do that. FreshBooks will do that. Harvest will do that. Um, uh, uh, what's the other one? Panda Doc, I think will do that.
Um, I'm trying to remember, but I, what, those are the main things. Those are the main things. We want someone to have an electronic, like a binding signature on a contract, and we need to have something connected to something else. I don't care if you decide you can invoice through Novo. Actually, that's another thing you can do.
If you get Novo. Uh, you can send invoices through there and people can pay through ACH and stuff, uh, by sending a Novo invoice. But the deal is they need a button. So whether that button is connected to Stripe or PayPal or Wise, or, um, it's connected to, uh, QuickBooks or it's connected to you. Okay. B. Some kind of payment tool.
Uh, it could be connected to your bank account, but we need an invoice where they're actually gonna be able to see it. You okay? Yeah. Good girl. Those are the two main things. Um, when we're kind of going through this process, you might need different tools that you decide that, like our designy tools, you could even use Google Docs, but like I said, if you use Google Docs, you still need to up upload that document to something that has electronic signatures and you need to upload that invoice into something that.
It's easy for them to click a button and pay. So I think that that also for me, I like Stripe. Anything connected to Stripe, or a lot of times I've gotten QuickBooks invoices and QuickBooks invoices let you do ach, uh, or bank accounts. But I like Stripe because the fees are super simple. Um, like as long as someone pays by bank account or ach, h those are the same thing.
Um, it's less like five bucks or less for fees. If someone pays by credit card, it's all the credit card fees. Uh, but I would pick something that's super simple and easy to use. Uh, Stripe is also international, so um, that's something that's really nice and sometimes I use wise. So like if I have an international client, um, I will use wise because the exchange rate's better and the fees are better.
It just depends. Okie dokie. Let's talk about three. Let's talk about three real quick. So three, um, when we are going through, um, our approval process and, um, we get ghosted. What should we be doing about, um, our follow-up schedule and like, when are we giving up? So there's a lot of times. This is normal where someone starts having some sort of episode when it's time to cough up some money, right?
This is something that's very common in the onboarding process. You're like, sweet. I sent the proposal. We had a call. I sent the proposal, contract invoice, and nothing, and they just go silent on you. This is normal. This happens because having a call and actually coughing up some money and agreeing to do some work are very different things.
So I often get notes like from writers that are like, what do I do? Like they haven't talked to me in a week. And like that's, you know, that happens. So the deal is that I still like the same follow-up schedule. So, oops, you got a little snack bit. Here you go. Um, I still like the same approach of two weeks.
Two weeks, two weeks. One month, one month, three month drip. So a lot of times we'll send proposals or we'll send contracts or whatever, um, and no one will sign them. And then like three months later they're like, Hey, we're ready for the work. This is why we follow up. So for me, um, I just feel like sometimes I.
It is just the, this is like a normal thing, right? We do this all the time as humans. How many times, here's a question. How many times have you put something in your cart and then not bought it? Right? How many times have you gone to a website? I don't care if it's Amazon or like old AV or your favorite store you've gone to, your favorite store that you've bought lots of stuff from, whatever.
And you put something in the cart and you don't buy it. Something that you've purchased from many, many times. There's lots of times, right? You love that story. You've gotten all your stuff from there. Um, you like their prices or their selection or whatever, and you bought many things. But there are times where you still put stuff in your cart and you don't buy it.
This is the same principle. Humans are like, yes, sounds good. And then when you're like credit card, they're like, hold on a second, wait. Wait, I need, I need to think about this, right? So this is kind of a, a normal human process. This is why we follow up. Someone can approve your proposal and not sign the contract.
And not send the invoice, and they're like, wait till three months later, six months later, to to sign the contract and be like, let's go. This is also why we have expiration dates, okay? This is why when you onboard, you have a 30 day expiration date on your proposal. Because that way if someone comes back and they want the same pricing two years later, which has happened before, uh, you say like, sorry, the proposal expired.
You know, my pricing has updated to this. If this works for you, let's, you know, move forward. So there's a lot of times where people will, uh, you're not like locking in pricing, so always make sure you have an expiration date on there. And the same day thing with the contract. Make sure the contract has an expiration date so that if they come back and they're like, we're ready to sign it, you update that expiration date on the contract.
There's a lot of little nuances I think, that are really helpful to just remember, um, with your onboarding. It's like not everybody's your client, not everybody's ready to go. Some people wanna think about it like, For us, I feel like a lot of times we're like finally like we're sending a proposal, contract invoice, like they're interested, let's do it.
Right. And that to them, it's like just a step in the process where they're like, let's mu it over some more. Like, we had a call, let's think about this. What's our budget for next year or next quarter? It's can be a slow slog. So there's a time where you'll send all of this good stuff. It looks super stellar, right?
And they're just like having trouble committing, right? This is the thing that we all do, right? No matter how small it is. Like, I know there's stuff on Amazon that's like two bucks where I'm like, uh, do I really need that? Like there's, there's plenty of times, no matter the price and no matter what it is, where you kind of hesitate, right?
So think about that in terms of like when you get ghosted, think of that as normal, right? This is a normal thing that happens when people have to like, S officially sign a document, agree to a scope of work and pay some money. Right? The other thing too is that this is why we're following up. Um, especially when someone asks for a proposal, they're interested enough to know what the next steps are of working with you.
And I think that's, you know, pretty warm lead. So we wanna make sure that we follow up that, uh, we use our two week, two week, two week, one month, one month, put 'em on the three month drip follow up schedule. And this has worked for me really well. Um, with getting people to, to sign contracts later on. Um, and I feel like it also keeps you in the loop if they're like, oh, Steve left, but you know, Jerry's here.
Or, um, you know, so and so, you know, we changed our thing, but now I'm running the project and I wanna move forward. Like it, he keeps you in the loop of what's going on at the company as well and who to, who to reach out to. Um, but. There's a lot of different things where, uh, I think writers take it personally that they're being personally rejected.
You're not, it's not about that. Like, like this is not a personal rejection. If they ghost you or if whatever, like even if you have a great call and you're like, things are wonderful. Like they're, they're ready to go. There are lots of times I've had calls where they're like, yes, we're ready to sign the contract.
We're ready to give you all the money. And then six months goes by and they're like, actually, we're ready now. Right? Like, these kinds of things happen and, and it's. It, it's a, a commitment thing. It's a timeline thing. It's a work schedule thing. It's a budget thing. There's a lot of different factors that have nothing to do with you, um, when it comes to this stuff.
Or they have changing priorities. Maybe they have a call with you and they're like, this is the perfect person. And then they're like, actually, we stumbled upon this other person who has more experience, or this person who seems like a better fit, or this person who. Actually has more experience with video and we're actually changing from this type of content to more video.
Like there's all these different things that change. So I wouldn't take it personally. And this is also why I tell my students, I tell my students, my Ralph Lab students and my runway students, they're in your orbit. They're like, if, if they, I tell 'em this all the time. They don't exist. If they haven't given you any money, that means they don't get to take up brain space, okay?
They can be in your orbit. And what that means is they only take up brain space when you're following up. Okay? We're not gonna fret over them. We're not gonna like sweat about it and like, You know, think that it's our fault or that we messed up. They just orbit around on our follow up schedule, which means we give them a tiny bit of brain space when we follow up and then we move on.
If someone didn't sign a contract and didn't give you any money, they do not get to take up space in your brain. Okay? That doesn't mean like, that doesn't mean you can't like randomly think about them and be like, Hmm, I hope. You know, I wonder what they're doing, but I feel like there's a lot of fretting and sweating over like, oh my gosh, I finally got this thing.
And like, I hope they sign. Ugh. Like, just do more stuff. Like, that's the thing is there's, I used to do this all the time where I'd get one client iis. So I'd be like, oh my gosh, this is the one thing this is gonna work out. Instead of going back to like planting seeds, following up, sending my Lois, growing my network, doing my paid work, doing all these things, I would fret over this one thing.
Cause I'm like, oh my gosh, it has to come through. And I would put a lot of pressure on it, and it just, I was way better served by being like, cool, I sent a contract, propo a proposal, contract invoice. Now I'm gonna go back to my regular business activities, and if they sign it, cool, and if not, they'll be in the orbit.
So don't let them start. Taking up a lot of mental space if they are not participating, right? Like they're not thinking about it, right? They're not thinking about that 24 7. They're just like, oh, a proposal. And then they go about, they eat their lunch, right? Um, or they're like, oh, I'll worry about that later.
Like, they have other responsibilities. Don't let that kind of. Take over your entire brain space about this one thing. There are lots and lots of clients out there who wanna work with you. Just because one client or potential client is slow doesn't mean you can't find a client who's like ready to sign with you, give you some money today.
Okay. So I think just, I love, I love to think about it that way cuz it kind of frees up my brain to get back to the things I should be doing if I'm like, they don't get to take a brain space if they haven't paid me any money and sign the contract. And I'm like, they only orbit, like they'll orbit because they're on Boomerang.
So they'll get put back in my inbox when it's time to follow up, but then I get to pay attention to like planting new seeds, sending Lois pitches, um, doing my actual work that I need to get done where I'm like avoiding my work because I'm like, let's think about this thing that's not working. Uh, but, but don't take it personally and just remember they can orbit, but they don't get to take up brain space unless they officially are really your client.
Jennifer says, I love ach. H no trips to the bank. Jennifer, why are you making trips to the bank? How many checks are you getting? Uh, but some clients, uh, like to still send paper checks. Is there an ideal way to process those? Yeah. You don't, you have like the app thing, so like, when I get a check, um, you can just deposit it with your phone, with the app, like, you know, any, like Capital One or Wells Fargo or Novo or whatever, like you can just take a picture of your check to deposit it.
What bank are you using where you still have to go there for paper checks? Because like all the, like, as long as you have the app on your phone, you can take, like, you can, there's a button in there that says deposit checks. So I don't go to the bank at all unless I physically have to be there to confirm my identity.
Um, but there's, you know, all the apps, um, have like, there's like a thing, like you go to your, uh, account, like you click into your account or you click into tools or something and there's a button that says like, Deposit checks and you can just take a picture of your check front and back. Make sure you sign it and deposit it.
But I'm interested like, um, the check thing is so weird. Vicky says she has a client who, uh, sends checks. I thought this was mostly this dinosaur thing was mostly wiped out by the pandemic cuz I've had publications that are super old school with checks moved to electronic payments because the pandemic killed it off.
So I'm surprised that people are still mailing checks because I thought that was kind of like 99% dinosaur, but if you are getting checks, which can happen, um, so. Just get the app. Just like, you know, like I said, like all the banks have an app. Like even the bank that I had, that was mostly the old bank I used to have that was really disorganized, had like a little thing to deposit your check.
And there's a limit too, like so, so your limit could be $5,000 or $50,000 or whatever. Um, so if you have a big check and it goes over the limit, that would be where you have to drive to the bank. But most of your checks should fit in whatever limit it is. And usually if you start Depo depositing at the max, so like, let's say your deposit limit for the day is five grand in a check.
If you do that, they'll raise the limit over time because they're like, oh, this person's depositing checks. And like eventually it'll, it'll, I'll check that out. No pun intended. Jennifer. Jennifer. Um, yeah. So yeah, the apps are the way to do it. Like just. Just take a picture, you know, take it's, uh, it's, uh, super easy to do.
So stop going to the bank, Jennifer, unless you need to confirm your identity or something. But yeah, like the paper check thing. Ugh. Uh, it, there were, it would be nice if you could get your clients to like, do another way, like if there was a way to ask them to change that process. Like you can say like, Hey, is there any way we can change to, even if they have to pay by credit card, that's better than going to the bank.
But yeah, apps, all the apps should have a check deposit thing on 'em, or at least most of them. Okey dokey. Um, go away. There we go. Okay. Albert says, uh, you have to keep bringing in business to be a working freelancer. I don't think I've ever had time to think about a singular client publication unless they didn't pay on time.
I feel like the planting seeds thing is just a really helpful way to remember that, like you don't really have time to mull over a client or sweat about it or get obsessed with them if you have other stuff to do. Right. So like if you're, your job is to continue the business, right? Your job isn't to sweat over client A who hasn't gotten back to you and hasn't signed your thing.
Your job is to continue bringing in business, like Albert says, right? Planting those seeds, sending the lois doing your paid work. This is like one of my big procrastination things. I don't know if we've ever talked about this, but. One of the things I like to do is like mull over the client who hasn't done something instead of actually do the work I need to do.
I'm like, let's procrastinate by sweating over this other thing and, and not do the work that we need to do that we know is hard. Right. So like, there's a lot of things too I think, um, are procrastinating e um, just because, you know, doing the actual writing and doing the other stuff can be quite time consuming and difficult.
But yeah, your job is to keep the business going and your job is to send all the stuff out. Okey dokey. Um, yeah, Jennifer, hold on. Go away. Um, yeah, Jennifer, definitely look into the apps like nobody should be going to, unless you're like, there should be no reason that you would have to go to the bank. Like most of those check limits, those check deposit limits are pretty high.
Uh, like 20 grand or something. Um, even for business accounts, like five or 10 grand and you can deposit them. What do you think? Minnie? Minnie? When's the last time you went to the bank? You look super cute though. Oh my goodness. Thank you. Thank you. Can you back up for everybody? You back up. Good job. Good job.
Minnie has been. I'll give you guys another mini update. So, um, you guys know that Beau passed away about a month ago, and, uh, min has been Minnie since the day we got Minnie. Um, she has been, she barks a lot. Like she barks a lot about food. She barks when she gets excited. She's. Like gets amped up and she, we call her Becky cuz she, like all you see are like her big bug eyes.
Like she just, you know, normally she has this very soft eye look, but when she gets amped up we call her Becky cuz her eyes just like pop out of her head. But ever since, uh, Beau passed away, she's been very quiet and, uh, we're just, you know, trying to let her grieve. You know, our vet said that dogs can grieve for about three months.
So, um, she's, she's doing pretty good. She's just kind of so. And, uh, sad, which is to be expected. You know, they, they were lived together for seven years and they were, they were good buddies. And, you know, I don't know, we don't really know a ton about Minnie's history. Uh, we don't know if she's ever even been the only dog.
So it might just be weird for her to be the only dog and not have any dog pals at all. Um, so I don't know. But she seems to be doing pretty good. What do you think? You're like more snacks. More snacks. More snacks, yeah, more snacks. Good job. So hopefully she'll be back to barking for her food sometime in the near, sorry, beam in the near future.
The other thing too is that, um, her tooth, like, you know, I told you guys about her tooth is busted. That might be another reason why she's not feeling stellar. So hopefully after she has her dental, she'll be feeling a lot better and back to her like KY self. All right, so if you felt like this was helpful, give it a thumbs up.
If you wanna learn more about running a. I don't know. Onboarding, no. Running a pro freelance writing business. Subscribe. Uh, I have all cool stuff. Oh, if you haven't picked up my free pricing guide, pick it up. Mandy ellis.com/pricing guide. That's free. I update it regularly. Um, this one was updated like either at the beginning of this year or like late last year I think.
Um, so that's been updated totally free. And if you ever have a question, so we started off this episode with questions. If you ever have a question that you want me to answer or talk about or topic, you can always go to man ellis.com/question and we'll do it on the live stream. You can be anonymous too.
So, um, I hope that this has been helpful. We're here every Friday, both of us. Both of us are here. She's like you, you're just so funny with your little interested ears. We're here every Friday at noon, central time. Sorry, Minnie, I'm not doing very well with all the snacks today. Um, and, uh, we do all different types of topics, so I hope this, this has been helpful.
I will see you next Friday. And, um, did you wanna say anything, Minnie? Do you wanna say goodbye to the people? Oh, she put the brakes on. She said Don't pick me up. She said put, she put the brakes on. He off beam. All right. I hope everybody has a good day and a good week end and I'll see you next Friday. Bye.
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