Freelancer's Bible Ch7

Freelancer's Bible

Ch7 Troubleshooting

As your career grows, you'll start getting challenging projects & clients. Stuff will happen. Problems are opportunities.

Multiple Choice

A lot of the troubleshooting we'll talk about cannot simply be handled by having a good agreement in place.

• True

• False

Reorder

TRIPLE-A TROUBLESHOOTING

Reorder the following

• Acknowledge it.

• Analyze it.

• Act on it.

1

2

3

• 1
• 2
• 3

Multiple Choice

Reasonable clients appreciate honesty that comes from wanting to do right by the project and can be surprisingly flexible in working out solutions.

• True

• False

Drag and Drop

​If they need to vent...

Placeholder

trump​

Placeholder

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

emotions

logic

strategy

intuition

venting

harmony

collaboration

anger

Multiple Choice

Problems are opportunities to become indispensable. The more plug-and-play you make the solution for the client, the easier it is

• to break the contract & avoid them in the future.

• for you to enact the plan on your own schedule.

• for the client to say yes.

• to become the architect of their nightmares.

Multiple Choice

After a client crisis, do a postmortem.

• True

• False

• Is that a bear?

• That better not be a bear. I'm allergic.

Multiple Choice

For almost every heading under SITUATIONS & SOLUTIONS, the symptoms & treatments vary. But the prevention was almost always the same thing:

• an apple a day

• 14mg vitamin D, 8mg vitamin A, 10mg vitamin C, 3mL fish oil, 1mL essential oil, 4L motor oil, and a teeny little pinch of cardamom

• kale

• put it in the contact

Multiple Select

Having a payment policy isn't just great for a deadbeat client, it's great for all clients. The reading names two options to build into your policy. Which are they?

• Negotiate a time limit

• Hold the project hostage until payment

• Specify a late fee

• Market your services to the highest bidder

Situations & Solutions re-cap

Situation "We're off schedule"
- Client is slow to respond
- Client is making too many changes
- Client is indecisive/keeps changing her mind
- Doing the work is taking longer than you thought
- You have too much other work
- You have a serious personal or family issue/crisis

Poll

Situation "We're off schedule"
Which of these is the most scary/stressful/awful?

[Left out on purpose: You have a serious personal or family issue/crisis]

• Client is slow to respond

• Client is making too many changes

• Client is indecisive/keeps changing her mind

• Doing the work is taking longer than you thought

• You have too much other work

Situations & Solutions re-cap

Situation "We're over budget/We're putting the project on hold"
- Client cuts the budget
- Client puts the project on hold due to financial or organizational changes
- Your expenses/costs are coming in way over projection

Poll

Situation "We're over budget/We're putting the project on hold"
Which of these is the most scary/stressful/awful?

• Client cuts the budget

• Client puts the project on hold due to financial or organizational changes

• Your expenses/costs are coming in way over projection

Situations & Solutions re-cap

Situation "This isn't what we agreed"
- Client wants something more than what was originally agreed
Situation "That's not true"
- Client rejects the final, says they never liked it, or claims you didn't deliver what was promised
Situation "Uh-oh"
- A mistake or oversight
- Something unexpected happens that's no one's fault

Poll

Which of these is the most scary/stressful/awful?

• "This isn't what we agreed"
  Client wants something more than what was originally agreed

• "That's not true"
  Client rejects the final, says they never liked it, or claims you didn't deliver what was promised

• "Uh-oh"
  A mistake or oversight

• "Uh-oh"
  Something unexpected happens that's no one's fault

Conflict & tragedy: Inevitable. 😅