Project Management and Client Handling Guide to Scale Your Agency/Freelance Business
All of you people want to scale your agency or scale your freelance business. And all of you people are struggling with how to connect the client with your editors or team. Or how to properly smoothly manage the client's project so that deliveries are not late and your clients are also very happy.
For this, I will properly clear to all of you people in three steps how to manage tasks, manage projects, manage clients, and keep the team connected without any problem. Delivering videos or projects to the client.
🚀 Step 1: Connecting the Team and Client to Manage Multiple Projects
we move towards our Step Number One: How to manage multiple projects if you want to close more and more clients. So all of you people simply need to hire a manager to manage multiple projects. Manager means Operation Manager and Quality Checker. Both these things should be inside one person. Meaning, they should know how to manage both quality check and operation.
Within operations will come things like organising the client's video. Like, creating a client's folder properly inside a Google Drive, numbering the client's videos in it and uploading them. Maintaining a Google Sheet that shows how many videos you have delivered to the client.
Checking the client's video quality before delivering the client. And giving revisions to editors or designers, noting "these are the revisions". Managing the subscriptions of all software. And giving a timely response to all editors. Solving the problems of all editors. That will be the work of an Operation Manager and the work of a Task Manager. All these small tasks an Operation Manager will easily handle. And after that, a headache will be gone from above all of you people.
Essential Tools for Optimizing Workflow (Trello, Frame.io)
Now, you also have to connect the client with the Operation Manager. But you should not do it in that way that Operation Manager can run away with your client. So to build trust, you have to hire the Operation Manager either on-site at your in-house or you can hire them freelance or remotely as well. But for that, all of you people will have to do two things:
1. Number One: You have to keep a copy of their National ID card with you. Or you have to keep a copy of their Matric certificate with you. So that if they run away taking your client, you can claim and take legal action.
2. The second thing: You have to give them the login of your profiles. So that they converse with the client directly from your profile. So that they do not scam the client or run away with the client. If they contact from your profile or contact from your number, your time will be saved. Contact will also go with the client. Videos will also be smoothly delivered to the client. And contact will also remain with the editor. This is how you can connect your editor plus your manager with your client. This is how you can manage multiple clients. Okay?
Now, all of you people can use multiple tools to manage projects. And by using these tools, all of you people can easily manage multiple clients. Now we move towards our Step Number Two, which is our: Tools help us to optimise our workflow and automate our agency.
Look, all of you people have to use three tools for project management, organisation, and data storage:
1. Number One: Trello for project management.
2. Number Two: Frame.io for video delivery or for revision sending. And for delivering to the client, you must also use Frame.io.
3. And for data saving and material sharing and data organizing, you can use Google Drive and plus Google DC (Docs/Sheets).
All of you people can use these three or four tools. And you can also use Notion for managing tasks and projects. You all can easily use these tools. Now we move towards our screen to show how all of you people can organise and maintain Trello with your team. And how you can share it with your client. So that your team and client are all combined together. And you don't have any issue. I will share the screen of all three tools. And let's go to the screen.
So hello everyone, how are you all? I hope you are all perfectly fine. So now we move towards our screen. First, our first tool is Trello. So we will use Trello. All of you people first have to come to Google and search for Trello. The first website that comes up, you have to come here and log in. You have to sign up here. You will come here to log in or sign up, get for free.
Now I am already logged in. After signing up and logging in, you will get many interfaces. Okay? Now, what I have to create, I will go to a new board, like I have to create a board. So to create that board, I will come here to the Create section. In the Create section, I will click on Create Board. And here I will name the board "YouTube Video," but mine is for Project Management, so "Video Editing Projects". Okay? I will click on "Video Editing Projects". After clicking on "Video Editing Project," I will hit Enter. Coming here, I will first write Projects. I will write Projects.
Then in the second listing, I will write an editor's name. Like, we will write one editor's name, Abubakar, editor. We will write one editor's name, Tahseem. We will write all the editors' names. Okay? We will just write the editor's name, Rafes (sorry). Okay? We will just write any editor's name. Okay? So here, after writing all these names, after writing the editors' names, I will simply write Under Revision. Here I will create a list Deliver. Here then I will create a list Paid.
Now simply, what to do after creating so many boards here? I will explain to you. Whenever client projects come, for an example, I got a client project, Head Over. Wait a minute, let me do something. I will write the details of my latest projects. What shall we write here? Why I Am Spending Little. Okay? You wrote this, the video title, which is the video title.
Then here you wrote mine, Head Over One. You wrote Head Over One. Then you have to come here. After coming here, first, it's simple. You clicked here. You clicked here. After clicking, you have to come to Label. After coming to Label, these are the labels. You have to use this Label in such a way that many colors are coming. Okay? Now I will click on this Label.
I will come here to the pencil icon. I will give the Label a title of my client's name. Okay? My client is Charlis. I gave Charlis. Charlis Upwork. Okay? Since my client is from Upwork, I will give Charlis Upwork here. Okay? I gave Charlis Upwork. And then that's it. I gave Charlis Upwork here.
The Importance of Contracts for Long-Term Client and Editor Retention
Now my member came here. Now whoever the member is, like, I have to give it to my editor Tahseen. So here I will first invite him as Tahseen. I will tell him to join. I will make him join by sending an email. After he joins, I will assign it to Tahseen. But here I am assigning it to myself right now. Okay? So here I will put the Deadline. And I will tell him the same deadline that will be put here. Like, I have to deliver this video on the 4th. And I will just write Never here. Okay? And I will Save here. I put the deadline here. And after putting the deadline, I did everything here.
Now I will come to Attach. After coming to Attach, the client's raw file. Like, let me show you by searching for it. Let's suppose this is the client's raw file. Now I will come here. I will copy the raw file. I will copy this raw file. After copying, I put Raw here. Okay? Now I will come here. The client must have provided some data to us. Scripts are there. The client's guideline is here. So I will put the client's script here now. So I will come to this script. And the script the client has given.
I will copy the client's script here. I will click on Attach again. I will Paste here. And the script came here. After the script came, I simply put the script here. You can call it a guideline. Here I have to add the client's messages, the client's tips. The client says Notice. Like I write Notice here. And after doing Notice... just a moment. We wrote Notice here. Now we have to write the client's instructions. Whatever the client's instructions are. Like we come here.
There is an instruction from our client. Like any instruction. So like an instruction came here from the client. So I will follow this instruction. I will follow this and paste it here. This is an example I am telling you. After the notice, you followed the client's instruction here. Simply, after following the client's instruction here, I clicked on Save. This is how you can create a Trello board.
Now, after the project, you have to put the project in the folder of whichever editor you assigned it to. Like, I have to assign this video to Tahseem. You put it in Tahseem's folder. Now whenever Tahseem opens it, he will see everyone's folder here. But this is Tahseem's folder. The projects that are currently assigned to Tahseem, the projects he has to complete, will be visible here.
Now you have to keep assigning to all the editors like this. Now the editor's job is that when the editor's work is done, one editor will give it. Then they have to put it Under Revision. When the client's revisions are done, after that, you have to put it in the Delivery Section. And when the client's payment comes, or you pay the editor, put it in the Paid Section. This is how you can manage clients.
So now our Tool Number Two is Frame.io. Frame.io is such a tool. To be honest, I love this tool. That after creating this tool, project management has become very easy.
Meaning, project delivery has become very easy. Simply, I will click on Start for Free here. After clicking on Start for Free, basically it's like a second Google Drive. But we can share this with our clients easily. And they can review and give revisions here. Simply, I will put my Gmail here and Log in. And I will click on Let's Go. And after clicking, we will simply log in to Frame.io. And yes. As soon as we log in, you will see many tools here. Meaning, many projects.
I will click on New Project here. After clicking on New Project, whatever client's folder you have to create. Or whichever client's video you are delivering. Like, I had to deliver the video from the Trello board we just made. Why I Am Spending Little. Right? I had to do this.
So I wrote this here. I clicked on Create New Project. After clicking on New Project, simply you have to Upload here. Like, I want to upload anything. I just wanted to upload a small video. This one, like, I want to upload this video.
So I will upload this video. After uploading, I will simply Rename this video. After renaming, I will keep the same client name. And then here, whatever you want to upload repeatedly, you can upload here.
Meaning, you have written the name of one video. Okay? This has become your folder, an asset. Right? If you have to upload more videos, you can upload more videos here easily by clicking your left side mouse.
✍️ Essential Rules for Editor/Designer Contracts
Now you have created a client's folder here. You have to keep sharing here. And if you have to share the project video, simply you come to Create Share Link. After coming to Create Share Link, you can put the Name or Number or whatever you want to put. But I recommend you directly publicly copy the link. And send it to your client. Like, I have to send it to my client. So I just go here. And here is the video. I clicked on "Here is video". And I will just paste here. And then I will paste here and send it to the client. This is how you can use those tools. And this is how you can automate.
And regarding Slack, the process of Slack is very easy. You simply have to create your workspace on Slack. It is very easy. So I am not, I think so, I am not giving you any Slack, you can say, tutorial. That is very easy. You can search on YouTube as well.
So now we move directly to our next step... Finally, all of you people have learned the tools. How to use the tools. And how to give submissions to the client. And how to maintain deliverables. But I will tell you How to maintain client as a long-term game. Meaning, how all of you people can walk for 6 months, 7 months, a year, a year and a half, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, long term with the client.
If you are a video editing agency owner or if you are running a designing agency, you need to create a contract with your editors plus clients. How can you create it? I will also tell you the proper method of the contract. Creating a contract is also very easy. But on what basis should the contract be for clients? And on what basis should it be for editors or designers?
Contract for Editors/Designers: If you want to create a contract for your designers or editors, all of you people simply have to write that those editors will do so many videos per month. All of you people simply have to write inside your contract: your company's name, what your company is about, and what your company's vision is. And why you are hiring that editor. And for which clients you are hiring. And where you bring the clients from. And how much budget you will give them.
Budget plus how many videos they will do. Plus, what are your rules and regulations? That if you do these rules and regulations or you do evaluation, then your payment will be cut.
The second thing all of you people must also write is: That if all of you people reach out to the client outside, and we find out, then your entire month's salary will be stopped, and you will be fired. It is mandatory to write this in the contract because editors steal your clients many times.
The third thing all of you people have to make is policies on late deliveries. Before not updating us. If all of you people do a late delivery, then 20% of your amount will be cut. If the late delivery is more than 12 hours. And in fast projects, there will be no charge for your late deliveries.
The second thing you have to write in it is the budget. That you will pay this much. And you will pay on this basis. And you have to write this in the editor's contact as well. That you will get paid on a weekly basis. Or you will get paid on a per project basis. Or you will get paid on a monthly basis. And if it is on a monthly basis or per project basis, then all the payment of the whole month will be received by you on the 1st date or from the 1st to the 5th. You have to give them a date so that trust is built within them too.
And after that, you have to put some of your policies in your contract. All those things, the references. If the editors do not follow those things, you have to put all your instructions. And get that editor's sign done. Plus, you have to take a picture of the editor's CNIC and Matric or their National ID card or Passport. You have to attach it with them. And you have to send that contract to him with your sign. So that his trust remains built. You must take his sign and keep a copy of the contract. This is how you can work as a professional. Signing the contract is mandatory. So that the editors keep following all your instructions 100%.
💼 Contracts for Clients: Policies, Payment, and Expectations
Contract for Clients: Now comes the matter of client instructions. And what contract to make for the client. Your contract for the client should be of this type. Simply: Your company's name should come. Your name should come.
The client's name should come. And besides that: What is your company's vision? And what results can you give to the client? And why did you close the client? And what service are you providing? And how many clients have you given results to? And what is the name of that client? After that, all of you people simply have to put the details of that client. For what reason did you close that client? What result can you expect from that client within 90 days? How long term work should be done with that client? And before that client leaves us... they should give us a response one week before if they have to leave.
So without giving us a hard time, they should update us one week before that "I want to leave, I want to work with some other agency". And if we are unable to deliver to the client timely, then we will give this much refund to the client. And our payment policy should be of this type: 50% in advance, 50% after all deliverables.
And we use these tools for the client's deliveries. Inside which take Frame.io, Slack, Discord. You have to write all those things. And you also have to write this in the client's contact: "If our team reaches out to you we run a small team if anyone reaches out from it, you should need to update us". If you do not update us, then we will fire that editor if we find out even a little bit. So if you update us beforehand, it will be great for us. Because we want to save you from scams.
📜 Legal Requirement: LLC Registration for Large-Scale Workflow
We want to give you so many results. We can publish so many videos per month. You will have to publish so many videos per month. You will have to give us this much time. And our call with you once a month will be mandatory for getting results. We will manage your channel. Whatever services you are giving, all those things should be mentioned. Your results should be mentioned.
Pricing should be mentioned. And in how much time you will deliver should also be mentioned. And you must also use Trello or project management tools. And what requirements you have from the client for videos, scripts, voiceovers. How much time you should remain communicated with the client. What rules the client should follow. And what rules you will follow of the client. You have to write those things. And then you have to sign yourself. And send the contract to them. And tell them that they will sign this contract.
Legal Requirement (LLC Registration): When the client contracts with you that there is a contract for so many videos, this is it then you can also proceed on a policy basis. But before doing all these contracts, all of you people will have to register your LLC. So that you can work on a large workflow. The country whose LLC all of you people register, you can only contract in that country. Otherwise, your contract will be useless. Even if your client signs, they will not follow your rule. So you have to make sure of this.
❓ Conclusion and Next Steps
Now, some four websites will be visible on the screen of all of you people for registering the LLC. Through which all of you people can register the LLC. It is very easy. Your LLC is registered within $150 to $300. Inside which you can take access to PayPal, Stripe, Wise, and many other platforms.
If all of you people have any problem regarding any topic, any agency model, or within freelancing, or if you are struggling in freelancing, bringing clients... all of you people can comment. Or you can,000. And I am also providing my personal training program which helps you to collect your first $1,000 as a freelancer or as a video editor.
