As a small business owner, you wear many hats and can sometimes feel like you have no control over these hats. Does this sound like you?

Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us and that’s why I’ve developed a client on boarding system for my business to help me feel organized while going through a client process.

Not only do these processes help me feel more organized and efficient, but it also gives my clients the understanding of what to expect from me and what’s expected of them. Since implementing this process, I’ve eliminated hours of “repeated work” because it’s already set up and ready to go when I take on a new client.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series,: next week I’ll be sharing my client off-boarding process! Everything that you’ll read in this process is from Dubsado, which is a great CRM for creative businesses! Definitely worth checking out!

Step 1: Client reaches out via website.

This sounds self-explanatory, but before even starting to figure out an on-boarding process, you must know where your inquiries come from. Are they coming from your website? Word of mouth? Instagram?

Once you have this figured out, create a form that enables you to have all the information you need to understand what the potential clients needs and if you’re able and interested in providing this service for them.

Step 2: Send project overview

Before even hopping on a phone call with this person, I make sure to send them a project overview questionnaire. This is a more in depth questionnaire (but not too long) where I can get information and do a little research on the client’s business before our phone call.

I ask questions like,

“What are 5 words that describe your business?”, “What’s your ideal budget?”, “Where do you see your business in 5 years?”

And other fill in the blanks such as,

Social media links, current website (if applicable) and what services they would like assistance with (brand design, website design, social media, etc.)

I do this so that going into the phone call, I know what to expect from the client and how serious they are about working together. Once this is finished, we schedule a 30 minute phone call to discuss further in detail how we can work together.

Step 3: Send Contract

After our phone call and agreeing to work together, I send over a detailed project timeline, contract and brand strategy questionnaire with a Pinterest link.

Contract:

I send a contract that has the summary of work that we’re doing together, the amount of the project and the payment options we agreed upon. I am generally very open to the payment options because I know how big of an investment some projects are, but I usually offer about 4 different payment options.

Project timeline:

I’ve put together a project timeline for each service that I offer, that gives a detailed outline of each design step, what i’ll need from the client and what they can expect from me. This has been a HUGE hit with both my clients and myself because this way everyone is on the same page and we all know how long each process will take!

Brand Strategy Questionnaire with Pinterest

No matter what service we’re working together with, I send my client a brand strategy questionnaire. It doesn’t matter if you have a beautiful logo or website, I truly believe that when there is a solid foundation in a business, it will lead to success.

This brand strategy questionnaire is similar to this one (but with WAY more detail!). It helps both myself and my clients to really understand their mission, services, goals and vision for their business. With this questionnaire, I give them a section to create a Pinterest board with 20-30 pins that visually represent their brand.

Not only does everyone love Pinterest, but it allows me to see how they see their brand through their eyes!

Get your FREE brand strategy guide HERE!

** This is just a little extra thing I do, but after the contract is signed and the first payment is processed, I send a little hello card to my new clients! I love owning my business and i’m so grateful to work with such amazing people, so I make sure they know how appreciated they are.

Step 4: Brand Strategy Call

The brand strategy questionnaire usually takes about 2-3 days to fill out because it is so in depth, but once it’s completed, we schedule a 30 minute call to go over the first step of the project, whether it’s brand design, website design or social media strategy.

Once we get off the phone, I get started on the project!

Implementing this process (and sticking to it) has not been easy, but it has proven to make both my clients and myself happy! I do this whole process with Dubsado, which I highly recommend for service-based businesses! Stay tuned next week for Part 2: an inside look at my off-boarding process!