Why onboarding systems are so important

When you first get into the WiFi money game, there are so many things you've never heard of in your entire corporate life. Or, if you have, they meant something else and totally new to you. One of those that has proved to be completely necessary and invaluable to me is using an onboarding system for your clients.

Now, I will be the first to tell you that my onboarding is still a work in progress. I have some serious blind spots in my onboarding process. This is mostly anecdotal into why should have onboarding, not so much explaining mine.

What's an 'onboarding system?'

Contrary to the sound of it, an onboarding system is not complicated. I mean, it can be, but it doesn't need to be. It also doesn't have to cost anything. It doesn't have cost anything, either.

A system is nothing more than a corporate tagline for a series of processes that gets the important details ironed out before you ever get started. What processes?

Anything you want, really. But the ones I have found particularly important are:

• Pay-you need to lay out how much you are being paid for how much work, and what the metric is. Are you being paid per word? Or are you on a retainer? Make sure it is defined.

• How are you paid? Zelle, PayPal, Stripe, or ACH?

• How often are you paid?

• What communication methods are to be used? Slack, WhatsApp, email, or Teams?

• One of the biggest is a revision policy. If your policy is out there and they have agreed to it, there is no question what your policy is if it comes up. And it will eventually come up.

Why do I need one?

There are two big reasons why you need an onboarding system. The first is continuity. You want to be on the same page with all of your clients. It has been my experience that most clients don't really care all that much about a lot of these things; they usually ask you what you want. Oh, and it has also been my experience that the ones who are extremely strict about these things are a bear to work for. Absolutely awful. And I will write about that one of these days.

Having your contracts function the same way makes your life far easier. For instance, I have been weeding out my small contracts over the past few months. It's not personal, but having 9-10 little accounts is no way to freelance. You need two or three big clients who pay at the same time every month. It's the only way to get ahead.

The second reason is CYA (cover your ass). I have worked with at least 100, but probably closer to 200, clients over the past seven years, and I can say that only three stick out as terrible experiences. By and large, they are normal small business owners who also want to grow with you.

But one or two bad clients always make you regret not getting your expectations out there and agreed upon. It's all about setting up common expectations. Going back to the revisions policy, 10x this one. First, when you find a client and/or editor who only makes minor revision suggestions, and they pay well, keep them forever. Seriously. But others will send back work loaded with red ink. You need defined boundaries. You can't make any money if you are constantly having to go back and revise.

What's the worst that would happen without an onboarding system?

The worst case scenario without an onboarding system is either dissatisfied clients, you are miserable, or both. And those are pretty bad outcomes.

Where can you start?

I like free. My suggestion is to start with Google Forms. Other services are maybe more comprehensive, but Forms is a fine place to start. And again, it's free.

There are loads of free templates for a form, or you can make your own. You can send this out before the discovery call so they know exactly what your terms are. Speaking of terms, the onboarding form or your landing page are great places to put your rates out there so it is already known.

Nothing is more awkward than getting on a discovery call and discovering that your rates are not in the same ballpark as the potential client. It's bad if you are way under what they expected, but it's worse when you name a price, and they were thinking of a number, like, a quarter of your asking price.

You don't need to perfect your systems when you get started. In fact, even though their fees suck, I still begrudgingly recommend Upwork to new potential freelancers because the onboarding is all handled as a part of the program. If nothing else, it helps you understand how the freelancing process works with some added protection you won't get from 1-on-1 relationships.

Of course, I suggest you check out my book on Upwork. I would not be where I am now without Upwork, so I do owe them a debt of gratitude.