When running a small business, you’re responsible for more things than any single human should be responsible for, right?
Not only are you completing and managing each part of your design projects, but on top of that there’s everything that goes with keeping your own business moving forward.
When there are so many responsibilities on your plate, it’s easy to let things stay the way they are. Even if it’s not really working.
For example, there are likely a few parts of your design process that cause more stress and headaches than they should. Specifically, I’m thinking of things like getting content from clients and completing revisions before a project is wrapped up.
Both of those pieces can be so. stressful. We’ll talk more about gathering content from clients in a couple weeks, but let’s focus on revisions for now.
The pain of revisions
With this part of your projects, all you want is for the client to realize how amazing the work you’ve done is, love what they see, and send over that final payment.
But a lot of the time revisions drag on and on and cause tension. You’ll either get a laundry list of small changes that don’t make any sense at all or get the lovely surprise of hearing about a feature your client neeeeeeds for the very first time.
It is not fun. And really, the ends of projects should be the most exciting time! Instead of feeling frustrated and stressed out about revisions, you should feel proud of the gorgeous and functional design you created and excited to release it out into the world.
Make revisions easier
The thing is, revisions don’t have to make you want to pull your hair out every time. There are little pieces of what you do that can be tweaked a little bit to make a huge difference.
For example:
- It could be your actual process and the way your revisions work. Maybe your clients don’t understand what you’re trying to get them to do in the first place or your policies aren’t totally clear.
- It could be that you’re missing the part of your process where you really make sure your designs matter and get your clients results. Without that, there isn’t any good reason for clients to not change what you’ve presented them and it’s more difficult to make them appreciate your work.
- Or, it could be that your client isn’t understanding the strategic decisions you made for your design, leading them to have more requests than they should because they think they know best.
These are all things that you can easily tweak within your process.
For example, think about how you can educate your clients to help them understand how it works. Your welcome packet, contract, and project management software should tell them things like how many rounds of revisions are included, examples of what those revisions include, and how you expect those revisions to be presented to you.
Just that one little step can make things a whole lot easier. But there’s even more you can do!
To help you create a process to reduce revisions and end projects with happier clients, I’m hosting a 4-day event starting Tuesday, October 24. We’ll go over how to reduce revisions through your client process, your design process, and your design presentation. Each day you’ll have a workbook to follow along with and you’ll walk away with actionable tips that you can apply right away.
Update: The event is over and was SUCH a blast. If you missed out, grab the free Revision Survival Guide. Who knows, it miiiight just give you special offer of the 4 Days To Fewer Revisions replays, which are usually $39! 😉
