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:

1. Response to request for sample work
2. Proposal for a specific project
3. Response to inquiry about my fees
4. Terms of agreement
5. Acknowledging client’s acceptance of my proposal
6. Invoice for deposit
7. Invoice for services rendered
8. Receipt for payment
9. 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?

photo credit: plugimi