Need some advice about charging clients.

[e10y8]

Hello,

I have some questions.

Let's say, I want to charge local client for seo service at $100/month. What do you guys normally use the payment method, is it paypal, credit card, cash, or bank transfer. And, would client pay me next month fee by themselve or I will have to contact them. If I have to contact them, do I send them a letter or call them. Let's say a client is interested, is it necessary to meet client in person, and do I need to have contract agreement form and let them sign also, and is it necessary to let them have a 12 months contract.

Thanks

 

[SharkServers]

I'd always offer the client to choose their preferred payment method. Just let them know what payments you can accept and let them make the choice.

 

[UrsuAke]

What I do is that I bill clients on the hours worked. I don't use the method of "you pay me xxx$ per month and I do SEO for you".

Why don't I do that? Because it's easy to go from profit to loss without knowing it at the moment. Let's say you agree to do SEO for the client in the amount of 100$/month. You do your planning and you find that it's ok, you're profiting. But then there are unexpected developments that require you to work 20 minutes more here, 20 minutes more there, stay on the phone with the client for few hours and at the end of the month, you've worked double than expected and profitability has gone out of the window.

What you should do is:

1) Setup some activities, let's call them A, B, C.
2) Give out estimates for those activities (in hours) to the client informing him that your hourly rate is, let's say, 50$.
3) You wait for the client's acceptance and then you start work.
4) When the work is done, you give your client the notice and invoice.

Any additional activities get quoted and billed separately as they come.

If you still want to go with the "xxx/month no matter what" then at an agreed date with the client (either start of end of the month) you give him the invoice and wait for the payment.

At the end it all depends on what procedure you negotiate with the client.

 

[thisismymp3]

i use fresh books, they also have a pay by paypal option, but i take whatever they want to pay whether cash check credit wire money order what ever. just give me the bloody money!

 

[Disloyal]

Hope your not only charging $100! But that's besides the fact. You always want to keep you client up to date on what is going on. IF you don't communicate with them, they don't know what's going and wonder if your doing what you said you would.

If you want to be professional about it, I would create an LLC and open a business checkings. I would usually prefer cash or credit card. Even though for credit card payment you get charged a fee, so usually cash is way to go(at least for me). Clients pay you, when you invoice them on a monthly basis so you NEED to keep in contact with them like I stated before. IF you meet a potential customer in person and present yourself well, you have a better chance(In my personal experience) than e-mailing or even texting for that matter.

It's good to have a contract with a client, but some might be hesitant at first until you prove yourself to them.

Go in there with confidence, and you will do fine. Just remember ALWAYS keep customers in the loop and try to have contact with them as much as possible. IF you are interested in opening an LLC(if you are in the states) take a look here: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...dvice/317443-cheapest-way-start-your-llc.html

Also, a good free accounting tool is waveapps.com (I use it). You can invoice from there, keep track of expenses and profit per month. Another cool thing is, you can e-mail your invoices right from there and the client has the option to pay by credit card(if you set that option). Just though, I recommend it to you as it has helped me out big time.

 

[UrsuAke]

Hope your not only charging $100! But that's besides the fact. You always want to keep you client up to date on what is going on. IF you don't communicate with them, they don't know what's going and wonder if your doing what you said you would.

If you want to be professional about it, I would create an LLC and open a business checkings. I would usually prefer cash or credit card. Even though for credit card payment you get charged a fee, so usually cash is way to go(at least for me). Clients pay you, when you invoice them on a monthly basis so you NEED to keep in contact with them like I stated before. IF you meet a potential customer in person and present yourself well, you have a better chance(In my personal experience) than e-mailing or even texting for that matter.

It's good to have a contract with a client, but some might be hesitant at first until you prove yourself to them.

Go in there with confidence, and you will do fine. Just remember ALWAYS keep customers in the loop and try to have contact with them as much as possible. IF you are interested in opening an LLC(if you are in the states) take a look here: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...dvice/317443-cheapest-way-start-your-llc.html

Also, a good free accounting tool is waveapps.com (I use it). You can invoice from there, keep track of expenses and profit per month. Another cool thing is, you can e-mail your invoices right from there and the client has the option to pay by credit card(if you set that option). Just though, I recommend it to you as it has helped me out big time.

You must be lucky to prefer cash, means you only deal with local businesses and the owners are so old school they accept cash payments. For my local clients it's hell to even set up a meeting once in a blue moon, they're so busy or so lazy that they prefer a skype conf any day compared to actual meetings. And some are in walking distance from me...

 

[Disloyal]

You must be lucky to prefer cash, means you only deal with local businesses and the owners are so old school they accept cash payments. For my local clients it's hell to even set up a meeting once in a blue moon, they're so busy or so lazy that they prefer a skype conf any day compared to actual meetings. And some are in walking distance from me...

I'm actually surprised! To be honest, usually I am the lazy one that doesn't want to meet. So in reality you're the lucky one... The only reason I do the meeting thing though is because I lost a client once, because I wasn't keeping in contact with her as often as she wanted. So at least in the beginning, I try to keep the client in the loop as much as possible so they don't get discouraged.

 

[originalposter]

Charge them quarterly. Take the checque. Save paypal % and get immediate access to those funds in your bank (assuming you have good credits / standings with your local bank). Done

 

[cwscontentwriter]

Buddy,

SEO is not magic, so a minimum 12 months contract should be there, this would also yield you more money as well give your client time to see the quality of your work
You should have a contract made and put in the payment terms and condition as well the delivery time and other things required like the nature of work, whether you would work on specific keywords provided by the client or you have to provide the keywords, whether you would do PPC for the client or not and if so how much extra the client has to bear for PPC
Since the client is local, I would suggest you should meet the client face to face for a better interaction and closing the deal fast, in addition you can ask the client to pay you cash for a receipt or via check try to avoid PayPal since you would end up paying PP charges for the transaction

In the contract put the payment terms properly as in that the client needs to pay on a specific date every month and that the client abides by it, else the contract would come to an end and that you would hold no liability for the work and even after that make sure to shoot an email or make a call to your client just a day prior of the due date as a curtsey call for reminder

Hope this helps

Hello,

I have some questions.

Let's say, I want to charge local client for seo service at $100/month. What do you guys normally use the payment method, is it paypal, credit card, cash, or bank transfer. And, would client pay me next month fee by themselve or I will have to contact them. If I have to contact them, do I send them a letter or call them. Let's say a client is interested, is it necessary to meet client in person, and do I need to have contract agreement form and let them sign also, and is it necessary to let them have a 12 months contract.

Thanks

 

[twilightofidols]

What I do is that I bill clients on the hours worked. I don't use the method of "you pay me xxx$ per month and I do SEO for you".

Why don't I do that? Because it's easy to go from profit to loss without knowing it at the moment. Let's say you agree to do SEO for the client in the amount of 100$/month. You do your planning and you find that it's ok, you're profiting. But then there are unexpected developments that require you to work 20 minutes more here, 20 minutes more there, stay on the phone with the client for few hours and at the end of the month, you've worked double than expected and profitability has gone out of the window.

What you should do is:

1) Setup some activities, let's call them A, B, C.
2) Give out estimates for those activities (in hours) to the client informing him that your hourly rate is, let's say, 50$.
3) You wait for the client's acceptance and then you start work.
4) When the work is done, you give your client the notice and invoice.

Any additional activities get quoted and billed separately as they come.

If you still want to go with the "xxx/month no matter what" then at an agreed date with the client (either start of end of the month) you give him the invoice and wait for the payment.

At the end it all depends on what procedure you negotiate with the client.

How do you prove to your client how many hours you worked and verify the accuracy of your claims?

 

[Panda power]

Bend according to the clients needs when you approach them. It helps to convert them to deal with your service. Requesting or insisting the client to pay for your convenience may frustrate them

 

[garcinia]

offer paypal, cc payment, direct deposit. also with cc payment you can either take the order over the phone or send them a payment link via sms or email and they can pay themselves. different people like different things. best to have multiple payment options.

 

[platinumcent]

If I am getting payment from the foreign land, I use Paypal otherwise I use ONLINE banking.