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Being straightforward and honest with clients is very important. The Internet is a shady place full of people trying to scam you. Just open an Elance job offer and see how many liars immediately appear and start pressuring you to give them an upfront payment. This is what many of your clients are wading through before talking to you. Many have already been scammed by someone who just took off with their money.<\/p>\n
Remember, these people are essentially buying un-made art from you on your reputation alone. It\u2019s scary for them to hand over a down payment or sign a contract when they have no idea about how you work, how long it\u2019ll be, what happens if they\u2019re not happy and other things like that. Try to put their mind at ease by being up front about as many of these things as possible. I have a sort of \u201cboiler plate faq\u201d document I email all my new clients to answer questions like these:<\/p>\n
-What happens if I don\u2019t like your song?
\n-How long does it take?
\n-How many revisions am I allowed?
\n-What formats do you deliver?
\n-What if I need a change a few months from now?<\/p>\n
Another thing that helps is to make a clear spreadsheet of exactly what is to be delivered, in what format, and when. You can always refer back to this later. It protects both you and the client for forgetting what was agreed on or one party trying to add\/remove things dishonestly or unintentionally late in the project.<\/p>\n
Organization<\/h3>\n
Organizing files and contracts and making time tables and a schedule are boring tasks, especially to us creative types. But it\u2019s a necessary evil if you are going to do music for more than a hobby.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like to schedule every minute of the day, so I tend to group things into, \u201cDo this today\u201d, \u201cDo this sometime during this week\u201d, \u201cDo this by month end\u201d and just work my way through the list taking breaks in between or whatever. Most clients aren\u2019t in a time crunch on music, but they do expect to be kept in the loop and have a general idea of where you are and when you\u2019ll have them something to listen to.<\/p>\n
Useful Services<\/h3>\n
Here\u2019s a few websites I cannot live without as an indie musician:<\/p>\n
Soundcloud.com<\/a> \u2013 We\u2019ve already talked about this one obviously. Best place to set up a portfolio, works great on mobile devices, lets you showcase your work.<\/p>\n LegalZoom.com<\/a> \u2013 A great place to get contracts made, incorporate your business and other exciting legal junk.<\/p>\n EchoSign.com<\/a> \u2013 Having e-contracts makes you look more professional, and clients usually sign them with a lot less hesitation than if they have to print something, sign it with a pen, scan it back in and email it to you. I\u2019ve actually lost clients because they were in a country where not everyone has scanners and they just got annoyed with the manual hard copy process.<\/p>\n Webs.com<\/a> \u2013 This might seem like a wimpy little web building site, but it does one thing that soundcloud doesn\u2019t. You can upload MP3\u2019s to the same page and play them with a little play button. Why does this matter? If a client wants to preview SFX, it\u2019s really annoying on Soundcloud since it automatically moves on to the next sound. Also, you can make a nice minimal \u201csoundboard\u201d type page of nothing but a list of your sound files and play buttons next to them.<\/p>\n Elance.com<\/a> \u2013 Great place to find postings and clients. The odds are stacked against you at first of course, but keep at it!<\/p>\n