A web design freelancer’s or a new entrepreneur’s journey can easily go from, “I hardly have any clients” to “I have so many new clients. How do I manage them?” Clashing deadlines, meetings, hundreds of unopened emails, and last-minute changes can seep out all your energy. But worry not. Ruttl has found for you five doable tips to make working with multiple clients a breeze. Let’s check them out.
1. Efficient coding for a few theme templates
Instead of starting from scratch every time you have to design a website, how efficient would it be to have a parent theme that can help you save time? There is a lot of common syntax and code in every website design. Why not turn this into a template that you can use every time you need to get started with a project? This template will have the most basic theme configuration code that you can further work with and refine or remove elements from.
Some of the basic things in this template would be the layout style, object-oriented CSS to create elements, different filters, and some action hooks to insert widgets, banner images, and slideshows. When you’re dealing with multiple clients, this parent theme comes in handy and you can even design simpler sites within a few hours. If you do not have the time to create such a framework, you can view the many frameworks available on WordPress and select the one that is the right fit for you.
2. Identify a list of core plugins
There are many plugins you must be installing for every client website such as:
- SEO plugin to help optimize content for search engines to rank and attract new visitors.
- Security plugin to safeguard all your online data and alert you about security issues.
- Backup plugin to backup all your website data in case your site gets hacked, server crashes, or an update goes wrong.
- Plugin to boost your social media presence by connecting your site to your social media pages and allowing you to create share and follow buttons.
Instead of remembering to install all of these plugins, make a checklist of all the trusted plugins. You might also need to ensure that all these plugins work well together and make use of tools that allow you to back up and update all your plugins automatically. Customized plugins can also be made if you use them for every website client of yours. Not only will it save you time, but you also offer your client a unique element.
3. Have a single login platform for various sites
“Can you please tweak this content?” “Can you add this feature?”
These are some requirements every client of yours may have from time to time. If you are managing multiple client websites, having to log in and log out of different development tools, website-specific CMSs, and hosting platforms may take up a lot of your time. To avoid this unnecessary time waste, you can manage all your client websites from one single dashboard and manage login credentials for all collaborators so you don’t have to manually enter passwords each time.
You can find many such platforms online and deploy updates, make changes, add SSL certificates, and much more from one location.
4. Make a weekly plan
Have you ever woken up in the morning and thought to yourself, “I have so much to do. Where do I start?” Don’t worry. You’re not the only one. With too much work, comes indecision. To avoid that, take time out of your schedule at the end of every week and evaluate the goals for the next week. For example, you might have to work on three design projects, have two onboarding calls, attend four meetings and work on your personal project.
List down everything that comes to mind. The more specific you are with your planning, the more chances of meeting all your goals. Make a detailed schedule with every day broken by the hour. Always keep a buffer hour in handy so that if any emergencies pop up, you’ll always have that buffer time to get all your tasks completed for the day.
If you aren’t a fan of those complicated weekly to-do lists, let Brutask be your companion. It’s a simple task management tool that is easy to get started with and will help you prioritize all your tasks for the week.
5. Have a website feedback tool to speed up the feedback process
Working with multiple clients means working with hundreds of feedback comments. “This alignment is not what I want”, “Can you change the color tones of this page?” and on and on. Keeping a track of all these comments can be exhausting when it comes in the form of unopened emails and Whatsapp conversations. By having a website feedback tool, your clients can comment directly on live websites, give precise values of height, width, and background colors and collaborate effectively. Imagine the number of hours you can save when you don’t have to go through 500 unread mails to search for that one feedback comment the client left you a week ago.
With Ruttl, you get access to not only a website feedback tool but also a digital whiteboard for all your design projects. You can do everything from reviewing your progress, making changes, and sharing feedback with your team from one single tool.
For more such insights on UI, UX, website design, work management, check out more such post on Ruttl's blog page!
