Listen to your client, understand his business, his target geographical area, his prospective customers and than take time to advice. Also know the reason why he contacted you – some people think they can start selling their products and services from the day their website is launched.
You also need to access the client’s budget. No client would tell you his budget – even if he does, he’ll be on the lower end. Study his lifestyle, his business, his motivation etc.,

Create a tentative sitemap for the client – here is where you advise him (keeping in mind the amount of time and effort you can spend for your suggestions!). If you are busy with other projects’ and the client demands more time from you – advice him to take the project in phases.
Once the sitemap / features are finalized – provide him the quotation. Usually two quotations one lower end and another on the higher end is advised – as it can help the client make comfortable financial decision. Let him know his annual recurring costs – hosting, domain name, maintenance etc.,

When it comes to empty handed clients: you need to tie-up with three professionals – A Graphic Designer, a Photographer and a Copy Writer. You’ll help the client to get his corporate ID designed, photos to be taken and content to be written. Never tell the client that you’ll take care of them all! – Just introduce / pass on the contact details to him – later advice them as to what you expect for the website.

It’s a mutual business scenario – you get them work, you get paid commission for doing so, it eases your web design process, in-turn you would also expect other web designing work from them.
I usually mention in my terms that the work order should be given along with 50% advance and the site contents like images, logos, text etc.,

Next stage will be to lock the client to a layout and color scheme. I usually spend around half an hour to finalise the site layout – depending on the sitemap. Colors can always be altered using CSS at any stage. I advice him to go for a set of harmonic colors used in his logo.

Let me know your views on this..
Thanks
anidentity@gmail.com

Where I work, we state in the contract that content must be delivered within 2 weeks of the contract signing, or else you lose your place in the project queue. When that happens, clients suddenly realize the need for staying on top of things.

Absolutely, and that’s a key point that I most definitely missed!

That said, most contracts also vaguely specify a time frame which needs to be adhered to day for day, and that’s where things generally tend to fall head first. I guess it all depends on how geared up and professional your client is on the other end and how much bureaucracy they have to wade through to get things going, which is sadly the way things are heading these days.

It’s always difficult to explain the importance of content before design to clients and why they should be considered completely separate phases of the development phase, and that to me is the reason why it is often difficult to draw an ultimatum that unless they cough up the information, the project has to sit and simmer.

I make it my goal to get started ASAP, so I can get on with what needs to be done when things progress.

I’ve seen this work a couple different ways. You get started immediately, you blow out 3/4 of the design budget, only to have the client finally come around with content — and the content clashes with what you’ve already done. You have to backtrack, trying to make it all work together, and the project goes way over budget in the end.

Or, you wait months to get the final content and by that time you’ve lost focus on the project and are neck-deep in other projects that demand your attention. Where I work, we state in the contract that content must be delivered within 2 weeks of the contract signing, or else you lose your place in the project queue. When that happens, clients suddenly realize the need for staying on top of things.

I generally prefer, if anything, to get started right away, why waste time waiting for something that might end up needing more attention when handed to you (copyrighter’s anyone)?

If they can at least confer the basic idea behind their project, and what they wish for me as the designer to create, then all is good and well in my eyes; it’s when they have no sense of direction, and they have nothing to show me even in terms of a basic idea or concept, then I have no hesitation in tuning a project down, or waiting for action on their side of the fence.

It’s always important to remember that time taken by a client to produce content can reflect on you as designer at the project’s completion, and as such, I make it my goal to get started ASAP, so I can get on with what needs to be done when things progress.

My question for you all is, how do designers usually handle this, should I charge an extra fee for clients who have no ID system?

In general it should be billed as a separate line item, and possibly at a different rate. In your case, it sounds like it may be too late to go back and characterize what you’ve done as a proper branding phase, so probably best to cut your losses.

Clients who come in without any branding these days are usually pointed toward one of our local print design contacts, who helps them develop a mark, a logo, sometimes a color palette and style guide. By the time they’re ready for a website, they come back to us and we help them convert it all into something interactive.

Two of the new clients suffer from a particular problem: they are in a hurry to get the project started, but they have not yet decided what the project will be.

I would direct the client to the correct people like photographers, copywriters etc to help him along.

These days I’m definitely leaning toward recommending outside help for the client to get their materials straight – print specialists, copywriters, whatever.

And for clients who don’t even know what their project should be yet, there’s little choice but to tell them to come back when more prepared. Once it’s explained in monetary terms, they understand quickly.

The time I spend on a project with no content is going to be tougher and take more time, and it just doesn’t make sense to make the client pay for that. It’s our job to advise accordingly to get the show on the road. Hooking client/prospect to a contact takes a few minutes, and creates a great impression of you. Higher chances of the prospect coming back to you when he’s all set.

Vicki