Don’t Just Hand Them a Bill…

If you work like I do, and probably a big majority of “web people” do, you don’t just design and maintain sites for your local customers, you probably visit them in person and act as a “go to” person for their general computer support.

I might do a little more in person work for my clients than most because I often come to their business places and take photographs and since I’ve got about a 60/40 split between local and out of town clients I just tend to be in my client’s offices fairly often.

One thing I decided early on was I would never give a client a bill in person.  It made sense to me.  It’s just basic Pavlovian psychology; when I come to see them I want them to be glad to see me.  I want the experience to be viewed positively from their perspective: something got fixed, they learned something, their inventory got photographed, progress was made, etc.
I don’t want them to associate seeing me with something unpleasant, like getting a bill, or even worse getting a bill while I stand around waiting for them to write a check.

The way I do it is I’ll go to the client’s place, do whatever they need, make a calendar entry on my Pocket PC (Verizon VX 6700), chat them up, prospect for other clients, then leave.

When I get back to my office I cradle the Pocket PC and all the calendar entries get transferred to my desktop PC (Outlook specifically).  Here’s the cool thing; Calendar entries can be marked as “Billable” in outlook if you’re using Business Contact Manager and have a connection set up to Office Accounting 2007 (formerly known as Small Business Accounting 2006).

It’s really a great set-up and you can try it out free if you have Outlook 2003, 2007 is better though because it uses a combined BCM/OA database:
www.ideawins.com (grab the free subset of OA)
www.Microsoft.com/Downloads (BCM Download)

By using this method you can keep track of who owes what, seamlessly move the billable information into Outlook, and have a nice atmosphere for YOU to work from.  The biggest benefit though is your bills just show up in the mail with all the other bills and your clients won’t develop an unconscious Pavlovian distaste for seeing you in person.