This month’s challenge takes some work. But once you’ve done it, your daily freelancing life will be much easier.
The Savvy Freelancer’s challenge this month is:
Make templates for all your communication
Why You Need Templates
Templates will simplify your life as a freelancer. Every day, you communicate with prospects, replying to inquiries about your services, fees and availability.
You also constantly pitch your services, submit proposals and quotations, acknowledge payments, or request more information from your clients and prospects.
If you look at every piece of communication you send out, you will see that they’re all very similar. And you probably only change the particulars.
Having templates for your regular communications will help you to:
- prepare your communication pieces more quickly
- remember to include all the essential elements in your communication materials
- have a consistent tone and personality in all your communication
What Templates
Make a list of all the emails, faxes and other communication materials you use every day. Your list will probably look like this:
- Response to request for sample work
- Proposal for a specific project
- Response to inquiry about my fees
- Terms of agreement
- Acknowledging client’s acceptance of my proposal
- Invoice for deposit
- Invoice for services rendered
- Receipt for payment
- Emails to keep in touch or make special offers
Feel free to add to the list above, or remove those you don’t use.
Even if you use software to create invoices and receipts, it’s still a good idea to make a template for what your invoices and receipts will contain.
Tools for Templates
The tools you use will depend on your specific circumstances. For example, I use Apple Pages, a word processing software, for my project proposal template.
For templates that will go into emails, I use a text editor so that I won’t import any formatting codes into my email program.
Create a folder in your hard drive just for your templates, so you can find them easily.
Use the tools you already have and that work best for you!
Do Share
Do you already use templates for your client communication? What advice do you have for other freelancers who are just starting out with their own templates?
Lexi,
I’m curious as to what service you use for finding freelance work. I have heard that VWorker is the best from everyone I’ve talked to because of the protections they afford to both sides of the transaction and the sheer number of projects that get posted every day. Got an opinion?
Hi, Alexander. I haven’t heard of VWorker, so I can’t give any feedback. At this point, I get work mostly through repeat clients and referrals.
Good points Lexi! After writing about 15 emails in response to postings on freelance job boards, I’ve finally come up with some boilerplate text that can be easily tweaked to fit specific situations. It makes the job hunt much more productive. I’m going to see what else I can “templatize!”
Yeah, that’s what it’s all about, Cindy!