Freelance Heroes

I like the idea of keeping the two separate.  I also try to track all my time spent on pre-contract "stuff" - it helps me see where my time is going, and it gives me a more accurate idea of the "profitability" of a given project if/when it does turn into a contracted project.

Sheila: That of course is a great idea. I've kinda done that, but have struggled a bit with where to put it in the contract. Do you have a category you use in contracts for all the time you spent on the client pre-contract? Kinda hard to bury say 24 hours some where.--Daniel

Daniel,

I don't really track that time to charge it to the client, more for my own info and so I can tweak my processes accordingly. And at some point, if I see that I've spent too many hours on a potential project that doesn't seem to be getting close to a contract, I might try to gracefully extricate myself - at some point, you gotta walk away, and tracking that time helps me see when I might be reaching that point.

Since a lot of my projects are fixed-fee, I might take that pre-contract time into consideration when pricing the project.  For projects that are hourly, I consider that time "business development" and I don't charge for it; I don't start running the "billable time" clock until after the contract is in place, and I don't ever charge a client for hours spent before that. 

Luckily freeagent allows you to track paid and unpaid time and calculates profitability for you

Phil, thanks for mentioning freeagent. I hadn't heard of it but just took a quick look at their site and it seems like it could work really well for me.  I'm using Harvest for time tracking and it's great, but I hate my current method of tracking expenses, payables, etc.  Looks like freeagent can do both. 

Change of subject here....but something that has been mentioned before.

I have just bid for, and won the largest contract I have ever gone for. Last night - I asked the client something I always ask:

"What helped me win the bid, so that I ensure I can keep standards as expected, and what (if anything worries you), so that we can get it sorted quickly?".

Their main worry was something technical - but we have at least 2 solutions so all OK. 2 of the main things that helped me win the bid were:

1. That they would receive and own all course collateral, images etc., whether we continued to work together or not. 

Most companies wanted to hold onto it. I do not get this one - THEY pay ME. Why would I keep hold of their stuff?

2. My use of a rapid-prototyping model rather than standard "storyboarding". They do not care what it's called, but they could envisage the "spiral model", where we produce SOMETHING, then get closer and closer to the centre, in conjunction with their users over a few iterations. Produce a "vision" for your customers. I asked them to think of a spiral, and that we would get faster and faster, needing more and more of their time as we got towards the middle. Were they up for that in terms of committing resource?

Nothing to do with the software. All "business" - where software is the tool to get there.

I do not want this to seem "gloating", but seeing what is important for THEM, and setting the vision has nothing to do with HOW you will execute. Just make sure you can.

Bruce

Are there any guides or FAQS for starting this process? I guess I'm also after a 'How To', starting seems to be the most daunting, I've tried several checklist style guides but found nothing too great.

And a big hello from here. 1st Post Looking forward to being a part of things.

I tried Harvest but find Freeagent suits me better, luckily I did not have to transfer much over.

Hi Joshua, and welcome.

If you mean a process for starting being a freelancer - no, there's a million ways.

Mine was simple - bye bye, you have 3 months salary - survive. So I did, and it all grew from there.

It is all here in this thread. I know it's a lot - but pretend it's an online book and that makes it less arduous!

If I have misunderstood your question - apologies.

Welcome aboard whatever.

Bruce

Welcome to the thread, Joshua: As Bruce mentioned, going through the thread is a good idea. Might take a few hours, but afterwards you'll know of the essential questions we freelancers grapple with.

What helped me get started:

• Sharing some of resources and work samples with members of this thread (who have given me much constructive criticism)
• (As much as time allows) helping out people out on this thread, as well as the two other Elearning Heroes threads
• Figuring out what aspects of elearning I enjoy most, and going after those contracts

Again, welcome, and looking forward to your questions. --Daniel

@Bruce - I've been rapid prototyping with a current client and it has been a good experience. I started with a very simple prototype during the proposal phase, with their content, as it seemed appropriate for this situation, and I think it really helped both of us get on the same page fairly quickly. We've then done versions with publish to word documents and hosted on scormcloud. Considering reviewmyelearning.com, just balking at cost.

@Sheila - I track all that good stuff too - both the pure Business Development and the project specific proposal/contracting stuff. The challenging part for me is that I want to start building the solution before we've agreed (the ongoing tension btwn being an instructional designer and a business owner!). You really have to size up the value of the project and relationship with the upfront effort. Not sure I've found the ideal ratio, but good to know someone else is in the same boat!

@Daniel - Having a system to manage leads and track them as they move through the pipeline is important - I find I'm doing it manually, although I have tried an online pipeline management tool. I have a spreadsheet called: leads/prospects, where I capture information about the size and probability of the project. Helps me look at why I win/lose, how long it takes from prospect to sale and how good my estimating is. When we get to proposal stage, I have a proposals folder and each prospective client then gets a folder. If I win the work, the whole proposal folder goes to "current projects". If I don't, then it stays in the proposals folder for analysis. Would love a more automated approach, but for now it works. 

Love to hear how others are managing similar things

Holly

I haven't been on here in a while, so here are my thoughts on a few of the discussions:

As to pre-contract time spent with a client, I make it clear to the client that it's part of the needs analysis for the project, and I factor that into the billing.  Especially as it may involve some prototyping.

I, too, have found that supplying a potential client with a mini-prototype can help seal the deal.  And even when it doesn't, it does tend to impress the client (perhaps leading to a project or recommendation in the future), and it gives me something new for my modest online portfolio:  http://www.sellonsolutions.com/elearning-samples/

And I do find that having some samples available online is appealing to potential customers; they can explore at their leisure, and share with other decision-makers.  My first sample gives an overview of the process of turning content into eLearning, in case they are first-timers.  I also make my samples downloadable so potential clients can play with them on an iPad to get a feel for what their own content experience might be like on a tablet.  I'm working on a more ambitious sample now that should be a lot of fun when done--I'm certainly having fun creating it!  I'm determined to show clients (both existing and potential) that compliance training can in fact be engaging--maybe even entertaining--and be more compelling as a result.  A few touches of gamification are definitely in the mix for my next sample!

And speaking of gamification, I cannot recommend this course highly enough to you all:  https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification  

It's great content, well presented--and it's free!  The workload is very manageable, and it only lasts six weeks.  I have done a number of blog posts about it on my consulting site, including sharing my three homework assignments, which were fascinating challenges.

I do wish that we had an easy way to break out this freelancers thread (really a sub-group at this point) by topic.  I find I don't check it as often as I should, partly because it's become rather unwieldy.

I'm glad to see this info about freeagent; I need to check that out.  I always learn something from this thread!  

Andrew

Hello freelancers!

We design courses but are currently quite busy and need some help.  I thought it was a good idea to ask here.

Our client is looking for an amazing result, so we need someone with great skills in Storyline + UI & Course Design + Graphic Design, and competitive prices.

If you think this sounds like you, please send me some samples (where you show the amazing things you've done with Storyline) and an idea on costs to develop 1hr course with branching and medium level of interactivity).  Don't worry about VO and ID as they will be provided.

Please write to erica@aukalen.com.au

Thanks!

Thanks, Erica, for posting to Freelance Heroes. You are sure to get at least a few quality replies. --Daniel

Hi, everyone: Saw this call for Storyline Freelancers on main thread and so thought I would post it here. Hope things are well. --Daniel

Hi All

Please view my updated Portfolio done in Storyline. I welcome all Storyline freelance-based job opportunities

Thanks

Lucia

http://db.tt/JVPtA5Ap

Hi, Lucia and welcome to Freelance Heroes. Thanks for posting the link to your porfolio.

Liked that you built in Storyline (I assume) and that you provided testimonials and resume.

I had trouble viewing the portfolio examples--e.g., I clicked on "farm examples" and nothing happened. Perhaps it's just me. Hope to see you around Freelance Heroes. --Daniel

Thanks Daniel.   I will post in Building Better courses now as well

I’m hoping some of my fellow freelancers might have someadvice, words of wisdom, or maybe just offers of moral support (ha ha) on something I’vebeen struggling with.

I have a client who is fairly new.  Overall, great client, and my first project withthem was a fairly large e-learning course. There were some bumps along the way, but I chalked those up to theprocess/expectations kinks you have to work out with a new client.  But at some point, it got beyond that and I started spending alot of time on things that turned out to be unnecessary. 

Let me give two examples:  (1) In one review, the client tells me thegrey used in the course isn’t consistent, different greys are used in differentplaces.  I’m pretty sure I was consistent,but I double check anyway.  I go throughall 100 or so slides, and check the color every time grey is used.  They’re all the exact same shade.  (2)  Inthe final review, the client tells me there is a technical glitch. (I'm not going into details in order to keep things simple here.)  I asked, "When you're reviewing, are you doing XYZ , which would definitely result in that behavior?"  Client says no, i start troubleshooting.  After LOTS of troubleshooting, it turnsout that he was doing exactly what I thought he was doing. 

There were several other instances like that.  The course is now done, but I’m just not surehow to handle this kind of thing in the future.  Obviously, I want to fix any issues a course may have, but I’vebeen spending time “fixing” things that it turns out aren’t broken.  We’re about to begin another project togetherand I want to avoid this issue, but I’m not sure how to talk to her about it…  On a personal level I really like her andenjoy working with her, and this could be a good, ongoing client, so I want tobring it up in as respectful a way as possible.

Has anyone else run into this?  Any ideas????

Where can I go to get quotes for online course development using Storyline?  I need online course development help.

Hey Mario! How's retirement treating you? I'll DM u with contact info.