small shops and freelancers
Post on 20-Oct-2014
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Presented by:
Andy Walters - Sailboat Media, LLC
Steve Kessler - Denver DataMan, LLC
www.denverdataman.com/dc2010www.denverdataman.com/dc2010
or
Drupal Camp Colorado site
Who are we and why should you listen
to us?
� Meet Steve Kessler
� Owner and Lead Consultant of Denver DataMan
@denverdataman� @denverdataman
� denverdataman.com
� Meet Andy Walters
� President and developer at Sailboat Media, LLC
� @andywalters
� andy-walters.com
Will Drupal work for me?
� What is Drupal?
Why open source?� Why open source?
� What do you need your site to do?
� Why Drupal?
What is Drupal?
http://www.tradeshow.co.za/chinese-car-parts/Chinese-Car-Images/Chinese-Cars-South-Africa.jpg
Why Open Source?
What do you need your site to do?
Why Drupal?� For the client
� For the end-user
� For the freelancer or small shop
Why small shops and freelancers?
� Pricing
� Timelines
Niches� Niches
� Customer Service
Pricing� Hourly
� Advantage: Straightforward for developer
� Disadvantage: Difficult for clients to budget
� Flat
� Advantage: Straightforward for client
� Disadvantage: Difficult for developer to budget time
Pricing� Velocity
� Advantage: Developer gets money regardless
� Disadvantage: Client has little guarantee
� Retainer
� Advantage: Developer gets money regardless
� Disadvantage: Client can pay too much
Timelines� SS/F can be available faster
� Clients: be realistic, but take advantage!
� SS/F’s: learn to estimate your time correctly, or find someone who can.
Niches� Niches can affect pricing and quality
� Example: DDM’s Niche
� Developers: Find a niche
Clients: Find someone in a niche, if possible� Clients: Find someone in a niche, if possible
� Gotcha: make sure you hire a Drupal shop, not just a php shop
Relational� Clients: Make sure you’re not going to be a number.
� SS/F: Treat your clients like they’re not a number!
How to find a small shop� groups.drupal.org
� http://groups.drupal.org/node/15685
� Drupal Association members
http://association.drupal.org/membership� http://association.drupal.org/membership
� Referrals
� LinkedIn & Twitter (other social media)
� Craigslist
� eLance, etc.
How to market as a small shop?� Make your profiles
� Link your profiles to your website
� Become a member of the Drupal Association (its cheaper now with the Euro falling) cheaper now with the Euro falling)
� Optimize for Google
� Make clients happy so you get referrals
� Use social media - think Geek vs. marketing
� Contribute
Qualifying questions to ask SS/F’s� What referrals or references can you provide me?
� What experience does your company have doing Drupal sites like the one I want?
� Can you speak English and Geek?� Can you speak English and Geek?
� Ask about their development process (more to come).
� What regular communication practices do you have with clients?
Requirements� Get to know your users story.
� What do they want the site to do?
� Why do they want the site to do it?
� Can you achieve ROI with this use case?
Proposal and clarifications � Tell them what you are going to do.
� Let them know its iterative as you better understand their project.their project.
� Meet in person!
SOW� Clarity!
� English and Geek.
� Remember it’s a contract!
Site Plan� Tell your client what you are going to do
� Specific details like fields, roles, etc.
� Wireframes
� Mockups� Mockups
� Workflows
� Menu/page structures
� For DDM this overrides the SOW
Implementation� Development.
� Design.
� Iterations in the implementation.
Site review and testing� Make sure the client knows what there getting.
� Be approachable.
� Be reasonable but not a push over for changes. Stand your ground.
Training � Manuals.
� English and Geek.
� Teach each type of user.
Maintenance� Year 1
� Out years
How to be a rock star client� You get for what you pay for.
� Drupal is free like kittens are free.
� Beware of unreasonable project timelines.
Beware of scope creep.� Beware of scope creep.
� Communicate clearly -- SS/F's aren't psychic!
How to be a rock star SS/F� Have a process, and sell your process.
� Be able to say “no”.
� Learn your limits—bandwidth, client communication, etc.etc.
� Beware of scope creep.
� Communicate clearly -- clients aren't psychic!