In this blog post, freelance web developer Tuur Swimberghe gives tips and tricks about using the project management tool CoManage for his administration. He also shares his pricing strategies and how he deals with scope creep.
“Using the project management tool CoManage helps me save time and brings me more peace of mind”
– Tuur Swimberghe, Freelance web developer
Tuur Swimberghe is a freelance web developer. He has worked 5 years full-time as a freelancer. Before that, he was freelancing on the side for 10 years. He has one big, fixed client that he has been working with for the last 2 years. On top of that, he serves about 15 clients a year creating websites and also helping with minor adaptations, updates and maintenance.
During his freelancing career, he quickly learned that he should and could be more structured in especially the administrative part of running his business. That is why he was happy to get the admin and invoicing tool CoManage recommended by a colleague.
Since he used CoManage he has become much more organised and efficient when it comes to his administrative tasks. “It helps me save time and brings me more peace of mind”, he says.
Now he does his invoicing on fixed times, twice a month.
He especially likes the feature of sending out periodic recurring invoices. Before he had to always remember to send invoices to his fixed client, now they are sent out automatically without him needing to think about it. If any edits are needed, it’s possible to adapt. The fact that it happens automatically also reduces his anxiety about sending invoices.
Pricing strategies and offers
Tuur uses three different pricing strategies. He has a day rate for the clients that ask for that. But he also has fixed pricing packages and for bigger assignments he prices per project.
Having a fixed pricing package makes creating an offer much easier. After creating an offer on CoManage and getting it accepted by the client, he can quickly and easily convert the offer to an invoice.
There is also a feature reminding Tuur when it is time to follow up on a pending offer.
Time registration
Before he registered his time based on a gut feeling. Since the new time registration feature by CoManage launched, he uses it for one of his clients.
He was stunned to see how much more time things actually take. It is probably due to external distractions such as email and chat requests, so now he is working on reducing those.
He also appreciates the ease of converting hours to invoices on CoManage. Before he tried Harvest but switching from one tool to another cost him extra time and effort.
Dealing with scope creep
Earlier in Tuur’s freelance career, he wasn’t assertive enough to address when clients asked for additional work outside of the initial agreement. He just accepted the extra work and didn’t demand more payment. Now he is much better at it. He still lets minor tasks and adaptations slide depending on which client it is, but for the rest, he always dares to ask for compensation.
CoManage
Are you interested in trying out CoManage? As a member of Freelancers in Belgium, you get a free pass to try the tool for six months!
What do you have to do to make use of this amazing offer?
1. Register for a free trial account via their website.
2. In the tool you click in the left lower corner on your initials. Thereafter you click on subscription. You click on the coupon code and fill out the following code:
FREEFORFREELANCER. Now you can use the tool for six months for free!
3. After six months you decide if you want to keep using the tool. If you want that you fill out your bank details and start paying. You only pay €12,50 per month annually or €15,00 per month. No strings attached!
7 on 7 customer service. The tool is available in Dutch and English.
