Entrepreneur Scrambles To Grasp $3000, Shares Business-Saving Tips

I’m here with Matt cook, and from this interview, you’re going to learn how to manage a big project: where someone pays you thousands of dollars, and how you can get through it without any hiccups.

Matt closed a deal recently where he got 50%, for doing marketing for a company, managing their email list, and launching products, as well as some other stuff like that. Another deal he closed, was with a local business for copy, for several thousand dollars. It was a very interesting project, and we’re going to find out what lessons he learnt from it, and how you can learn from it.

Matt closed a deal worth three thousand dollars, for a website that he did with a partner. His friend is quite good at web designs, so he did that aspect, and Matt read the copy (they shared the responsibilities).

About a month in to the project, after the design phase was nearly done, and they were doing more implementation, Matt discovered that the expectation hadn’t been clearly set from the start. There was some potential confusion about the contract: the client may have been expecting one thing, but Matt’s not meant to deliver that, and the client was asking for a tonne of other stuff, and Matt didn’t really have a leg to stand on, because the contract was to hazy.

What he learned from this, is that it’s really important not just to manage the expectations, but also to explain what he’s going to do, and have it really tight in the contract: what you’re responsible for delivering, and what you’re not responsible for doing.
I’ve found that it’s really common, when you close a contract, for websites or videos, or whatever you’re selling, to have the expectations set incorrectly for the client.

Matt discovered the danger, within the contract, after the design had been delivered, and in implementation phase. They were actually putting it on the server, and making tweaks, and then things came up, where the client would ask: “could you also do this page, and that page”.

It actually got to the point where he was saying stuff like: “actually, the term that you’ve used”, or “I’m actually renaming my project, so can you just go ahead and change every occurrence of that term, and change it to the other term”.

Matt hadn’t got the money yet, and the project was quite important to Matt, and the other partner involved, so he was put in the position, where he said yes to whatever the client wanted.

Matt found that, the thing that could have made this not happen, is be specific about the payments, and when they’re to be delivered.
Initially Matt had agreed to be paid, after it had been completely delivered, and then the client would pay the final amount (Matt got half up front).

In hindsight, he wishes he had got the other half of the payment, halfway through the project: so after the client had accepted the design. Then you have all the money, and then you’re a bit more in control.

Matt didn’t have complete control over the project. He couldn’t dictate what was allowed, and he wanted to get the money, and the only way to do that, was to comply with every single one of his requests.

We’ve had this situation happen a few times, on the daily business hustle, and mastermind that I run. Sometimes, people tend to get in a friendship relationship with their client.

Matt has found this happen to him, when he was travelling, and stayed at a hostel. He suggested to the owner to get a website. The way he was acting towards the hostel owner, was in a friendship first, and then a client relationship.

For Matt to lay down the law, and what was happening, became very awkward, because they were basically friends. This made business discussions very hard, and awkward. He’s sure it was possible to do it, but it would have been at the cost to the friendship, and smoothness, and to a certain degree, his enjoyment in life.

The lesson he took away from this, was to have a discussion, and be very upfront, and be very clear, and separate business from friendship. So in the future abide by the contract, and do it in a business manner. Don’t let the friendship compromise what he’s trying to achieve.

Matt imagines, it was probably very difficult for the client. He probably had problems coming to Matt, and it made it very difficult to get the job done, and adhering to the proper software, and cycle development hard.

They had this friendship competing for the interaction at the same time. Avoid having the friendship compromise the business relationship.
I’ve found, that when a lot of entrepreneurs just start out, they tend to close their first contracts, with people they know, and it’s a very common occurrence that they don’t lay down the specifics, step by step, delivery process, and not even a contract sometimes. People understand the contract completely differently, compared to the way that you would understand it, especially when they aren’t used to paying for a project like that, or having something like that made.

Most people can’t even understand how website delivery works, or the implementation phases of a website. You can also have video, design, and copy writing, and all that kind of stuff as well.

If you follow step by step, a specific process, you’ll always have a better time, an easier time, and a risk free time, compared to if you’re just winging it like: “let’s see what happens, I’ll be fine”. If you have it all laid out properly, and explain it in layman’s terms, then you’re going to have much better time. Especially on your first project, it’s going to make it a lot easier, and even the intermediate, and advanced guys still make these mistakes – this is totally avoidable.

There’s advice around saying to make sure you have a tight contract. In your head, you probably have an image of what a good contract is, but it’s probably not correct. Matt did that, and he went forward, and it turned out not to be right. His advice would be, to draft up the contract, and then before you have the client agree to it, show it to a mentor, or a business advisor, and get there take on it, and how to improve it. There’s probably a lot you’re not taking into account, when coming up with it yourself.

There are some really valuable lessons here. Old, and new entrepreneurs should takes notes from this, and implement this in theirbusiness. If you have any questions, comment down below.