You are a WP consultant. I am a customer looking for one. I post a request, and you reply. We exchange a couple of emails and setup a Skype call. We discuss project goal, you give some estimates, I try to negotiate the price. Finally, seems everything is set: I open a PayPal to make a first payment, and write an email with hosting credentials. You confirm you received everything and work may start… Looks good, isn’t it? But then why – please tell me why – this idyll is broken after several weeks (or even days) of work? I doubt you understood the goal, you have enough time for my project or even competencies to finish it. In your turn, you think I can’t formulate tasks, not willing to pay and don’t understand very simple technical things. As a result, we do a very small part of the job, and decide to stop the project. Both are happy this nightmare ended, and we leave for good, hoping next time we are lucky to find an awesome partner for better cooperation.
Does it look familiar for you? If yes, please join me to learn from my experience being in both shoes. I used to be a WP consultant, and failed a couple of important projects because of… OK, you will know lessons I learned. I also act as a technology broker – an IT professional who facilitates the delivery of projects by finding and managing a best possible contractor for the current need of its customer. In this role I also failed to deliver on time and within a budget, because of misunderstandings with hired WP consultants. We will discuss one business case from my practice. In the end, we will discuss your approach and tips you can share with others, how to build trustworthy relationships with your clients during whole project lifecycle.