Part 3: Client Relationships from Start to Finish without Burning Bridges - Onboarding + Offboarding

Get ready to marinate as we dish up the final episode to our Three Part Series "How to Get Started as a Freelancer".  Whether you're new to freelancing or a seasoned pro, we will make sure you've got the fundamentals to stop burning out and start ruling your business like the bad*ss we know you are.

TLDR:
☕ How to send professional contracts to protect your business and avoid problematic clients
☕ Invoicing clients and get paid without awkward money convos
☕ Onboarding calls - how to start off on the right foot with clients
☕ Logging into all clients accounts during onboarding (ugh what a pain!)
☕ Communicating constantly so clients know you got their back
☕ Offboarding clients without hurt feelings when it’s time to move on
☕ Asking for testimonials you can use to attract more ideal clients
 
Platforms We Love!
Molly likes Freshbooks
LaTara likes Honeybooks

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Transcript

LaTara: [00:00:00] Welcome to part three of our series, How to Get Started as a Freelancer. And in today's episode, we will discuss onboarding contracts, how to get paid, and starting off on the right foot without feeling that imposter syndrome. Hey, I'm Latara. And I'm 

Molly: Molly, and we are the hosts of The Burnt Out Freelancer.

Molly: So just to do a little recap, in part two we talked about some red flags. Some scams to look out for and the discovery call how to maneuver through that and how important it is And we can't wait to dive in about the onboarding process And why the onboarding call is the stepping stone in your relationship with your client But before we

Molly: have the onboarding call, we always want to send our clients a contract and make sure we receive the payment that is being requested before you schedule that onboarding call. I use FreshBooks.

Molly: this is what I've used since I started as a VA. I've been using it for almost four years. I love the simplicity [00:01:00] of it. I can get a little unorganized and I love how it keeps all my invoices, all my clients, all my proposals super organized.

Molly: And I also love that I can log into FreshBooks and I can see if a client has viewed my proposal. If they viewed a contract. If they've set a payment, I can also set up reminders. So if I send a client a contract or an invoice, I can set it up to remind them after a certain amount of time. I just love everything about it.

Molly: and it just makes it super easy at a glance for me to... Be in the know of the next steps that I will be taking with my client, based off of if they've viewed it yet if they've added any questions in after my contract or my proposal. 

Molly: What do you use, Latara? 

LaTara: so I absolutely am obsessed with Honeybooks. It was the first platform that I used when I became legit after being like, Hey, send me a PayPal link or whatever, or [00:02:00] Venmo, and I was introduced to it. A couple years ago now, and I absolutely fell in love with it.

LaTara: So, Molly, you have a link for FreshBooks, right? So if they want to check it out, they can click on that in the show notes? 

Molly: Absolutely. I will be putting that link in our show notes, and That way you'll be able to use that code for your 

LaTara: FreshBooks account. Awesome. And then if you want to check out HoneyBooks, I'll make sure to share a link for that as well.

LaTara: I really like it because it has so many incredible capabilities 

LaTara: I can send a proposal, a brochure, so they could see multiple packages I offer. I can send emails, so I can just be emailing my clients with inside that platform, so I don't lose things inside my Gmail account. I can connect it to my social media and obviously that's how I get paid.

LaTara: so what's cool about it is HoneyBook will send me a notification like, Hey, so and so viewed your proposal. They've signed your proposal. You've now been paid. [00:03:00] Oh, a payment is late. Let's send them a reminder. And you can set up a bunch of automations, which is really amazing. And then the other feature that I like 

Molly: is you can create your portfolio right there. So you can eliminate multiple platforms.

LaTara: and it looks like a website almost. And so it gives you a little bit more of that elevated feel. Once you become more seasoned. And you now have, example work to show and you want to work on your design, you can migrate away from Canva.

LaTara: And then the reason that this is really beneficial is because they can look at your services and if they want to book something right then and there, so say you're a project based person where you're going to do a website design or you have templates. They can see what you offer and then they can just check out and buy your services 

LaTara: So it eliminates the back and forth conversations which sometimes can be a little daunting and a waste of everybody's [00:04:00] time. it gives them an opportunity to just be like, yep, this is what I want and pay. Or they could just click your link and view your calendar and see what you have available for a call, which is really awesome.

LaTara: So that's why I like HoneyBook. So once they receive my contract from HoneyBook, they fill it out. There's a way to submit a signature. So it's a legitimate. Contract, right? It's not just right. Silly Google form. And having a contract is very important. Okay. And the reason why is because you want to protect yourself.

LaTara: And you want to protect your client, you want to do right by them. companies do sell freelancers contracts that you can use that A lawyer has helped provide information on to make it more legal and whatnot. But HoneyBook does come with a generic contract.

LaTara: So when you're just starting out and you're like, I don't even know what I'd put in this. There is one there for you and you can change it as well. So if you're like, this doesn't really apply to me, this paragraph. You can [00:05:00] delete it and customize it however you want, which is great. And what I have done as my business has progressed, I'm not a lawyer, so obviously I cannot write, a legal contract.

LaTara: Right. But I've been able to purchase a contract that was, It's written by a lawyer and I just want to throw this in real quick. People do sell templates that are for service providers, but you have to remember if something were to, God forbid, ever happen legally, your contract is only legitimate in a setting like a court or something like that.

LaTara: If an actual lawyer did write that contract. If you just made it up. Most likely, the client that is going to be fighting against you will have, they might be able to financially afford more. And so, you just want to make sure you're setting yourself up for success for any type of situation, okay?

LaTara: I [00:06:00] am a huge advocate on that is a place to invest in your business is making sure that your contracts are legitimate, and they are protecting you, but looking out for your client. And so something that I have in my contract is I have zero refunds. And when they sign that contract, they already know there are zero refunds.

LaTara: Therefore, if they ever try to file a bank dispute through their bank, I can then say, well, we had a contract and they signed this contract that there are zero refunds. Therefore, they cannot take that money back from me, right, because I have protected myself. And obviously, I never want any of those things to happen to anyone, but they have happened to me, and I never thought it would.

LaTara: And I lost 6, 000 from a client because I did not have a proper contract. And that 6, [00:07:00] 000 was huge 

Molly: I mean, that's massive. I remember when this happened and I was just mind blown by it and it made me rethink, my business strategy and the documents I have in place, too, because I'm like, oh shitnot everyone's going to be this super nice person.

Molly: Some people have different, motives. Some people have different things going on in their lives. And it's all about, 

LaTara: protecting your client too, but at the end of the day, it's 

Molly: protecting 

LaTara: your business. Yeah exactly. And so this client, she took her money back.

LaTara: She wasn't, there was some miscommunication. She decided she wanted to pivot with what she was doing. And then she claimed that I didn't do what she asked, but I did. But, we never got to finish the project because she decided that she wanted to be done. Inside the contract that I had, it said, she highlighted it and sent it to me and it said something along the lines of [00:08:00] If you are unsatisfied with the work or feel that the work has not been complete, you will receive a refund.

LaTara: And she was able to get it back. And that was because I was using a generic contract. And I didn't fully understand it. And after that, I knew I had to make a change. So I invested that part into my business because this is a business. This is not a side gig.

LaTara: This is not a little hobby. This is a legitimate business and I needed it.

Molly: I 100% agree. 

Molly: And I just want to piggyback what you said about the contracts and this refers to the payment aspect. Something I did not do when I first started. Being professional and sending contracts is two things. One, I didn't have in there, which I have in there now, that after, if the invoice is unpaid for, I think mine says three days, there is a 5% fee that is added on.

Molly: I had to include that because when [00:09:00] I first started, I was working very minimal hours for clients. I wasn't making that much. So I always got paid the next day, maybe the day after at the latest, but I got my payments right away as my business progressed and my offerings progressed, I started working for higher end clients and, more hours and higher retainers.

Molly: which first off, retainers, you should be getting paid before you even start the project, unless you do a split retainer, which I have done sometimes. But, I have had clients in the last year pay me two weeks after I've sent an invoice. I now have in my contract that after three days, it's a 5% fee. And that eliminates that, because...

Molly: You work hard for your money. If you're at a regular desk job, when you're getting your paycheck, you don't get paid whenever the company decides you get paid on that set Friday or whatever the date is through that company. And you [00:10:00] always can rely on that money coming in. You should always be able to rely on the money coming in for your freelancer business as well.

Molly: And you can do, a different. Timeline you can do a different percentage. However, you want to do it or if you want to do a flat 20 will be added or 10. Whatever the case is but always add a stipulation if the payment is late and if you are doing hourly Let's say you're just starting out and you don't feel confident and retainer payment yet If you're doing hourly and someone hasn't paid your invoice You don't continue to work until that invoice is paid.

Molly: I've also run into that before where I've had clients not pay an invoice, but then keep sending me work to do. 

LaTara: No. That is the worst. No. I have clients like that too. And my,husband, obviously I keep my husband up to date when someone hasn't paid me. 

LaTara: Because we rely on that income for [00:11:00] our family. Exactly. And he's wait a minute. Why are you working on that project for them? You just told me they're three days late in paying. You and I'm like because we still have deadlines to meet and but they're not paying you 

Molly: Exactly. I feel guilty and I'm like, well, I know they have a big launch and they haven't got a lot of sales yet, or they're stressed.

Molly: I try to make excuses for my clients, which at the end of the day, it's a business. I'm a bit business and their business is their business. And I don't want to feel stressed when I'm not getting paid to work on stuff that I haven't even been paid from the last project or task or hours or whatever the case is.

Molly: So those are two things I definitely recommend putting in your contract. And again, you can always customize your late fee or the terms for, late payments, Always have something in there because exactly, that covers [00:12:00] you. And then when clients see that.

LaTara: Obviously, they're going to be more on top of their payments because they're not going to want to get a late payment, and by doing that don't feel bad because it's not like you're making up something new. This isn't reinventing the wheel. This is like any other payment plan or bill you have in life itself.

LaTara: So 

Molly: exactly if you don't pay a bill, 

LaTara: he doesn't care if you're late, they're going to still charge you. 

Molly: Yeah, if I don't pay my Verizon, they're either going to charge my car directly or that thing's going to be canceled because payments can't just be made whenever people want to make them.

Molly: You have to put those stipulations into place and doing it right off the bat. Right in that contract sets the expectation for your client out of the gate, 

LaTara: which is why I am such a huge advocate for getting paid for projects and retainers Because you don't have to worry about that hourly rate and that's why we're telling you [00:13:00] these things because when you start out Most likely you're gonna be hourly.

LaTara: You don't have to. You can start right out with, exactly 350 package or something like that. Right? Like a small package. If you're too scared to or nervous to start out with a 500 package, it's okay. No one says you have to start hourly, but many people do tend to do that when they first start.

LaTara: because they want to gain that clientele, right? And experience. So Molly is so good about adding that fee. And that's actually something I've never implemented a late fee charge. I've never done that before. 

Molly: Yeah, it I had to because I was getting so beyond stressed out because I invoice my clients. I try to invoice every other week.

Molly: On a Friday, right? Yeah, it would be nice for that money to be in my account on Monday because it does take a day for FreshBooks to clear it. And, they pay yada, right? I would check FreshBooks and it would, what would stress me out the most is seeing that they viewed it, but hadn't paid it.[00:14:00] 

Molly: And it would stress me out so bad and then I'm not a confrontational person. I don't like confrontation. I freeze. I start crying. So I don't like having to reach out to my client and say excuse me, I sent you an invoice a week ago and you still haven't paid. Can you please pay that? I shouldn't have to ask my client to pay me.

Molly: Right. You shouldn't. End of story. You shouldn't. It's irrational. 

LaTara: Yeah, it's their responsibility. 

LaTara: Okay. Let's talk about that onboarding call. So we've sent them the contract We've sent them their invoice now. These should be together. They should be paying and signing in the exact same step. Do not do it separately. It needs to be together. And then as soon as they make that payment, there needs to be some form of notification that goes back to them because you might be busy.

LaTara: And this is where an automated step is super important. If you're just starting out, it could be some as simplistic as that receipt, customize that receipt [00:15:00] to say thank you so much. Welcome. I'm super excited to get started. Don't just have them pay and then leave them hanging, and the reason you want to do this is so if you're busy or if they pay you in the middle of the night, they're still not being left with this feeling of Oh, I just dropped this big chunk of change.

LaTara: Now what? What do I do now? 

Molly: Right? Exactly. You're following up 

LaTara: with them, So that is a great opportunity to email them a thank you. And then when you're more advanced in your business, you can send them something that's called the welcome packet. And a welcome packet is going to show them What you're going to talk about on that onboarding call.

LaTara: So that step says, thank you. It has your signature on the contract because you don't sign the contract until they do. And then you send them the welcome packet with a booking link to book that onboarding call. And I recommend making a suggestion on when you're available. 

LaTara: say Hey, how's tomorrow at 1230, right? Or 1 p. m. or whatever, and make sure [00:16:00] you always include your time zone. 

Molly: Yes, this is so important. This is so important. Don't ever assume. for instance, I started with a client a few months ago who was on Mountain Time.

Molly: Mountain time, six, six months out of the year is two hours behind me, and the other six months is three hours behind me. So, it was a shit show. I didn't know if we were meeting in two hours, three hours, always confirm time zones, look it up. If you're not familiar, 

LaTara: Yeah, I like that for sure. And the onboarding call is so incredibly important because your discovery call shouldn't have been that long.

LaTara: It should have been maybe like a 30 minutes, 40 minutes maximum, right? Because it's very easy to turn that discovery call into an onboarding call and you need to remember at that point they haven't paid you yet. You haven't signed in. Exactly. Yeah, so you get that onboarding call done as soon as [00:17:00] possible.

LaTara: And the reason why is because you just want that first impression to be on point, right? And that's why we're saying set up an automation right after they pay you. And they need to feel taken care of. And they need to not regret the decision that they just made.

LaTara: Because remember, they're still getting to know you as well. Like you're a complete stranger in their eyes and they're now trusting you with their business and their livelihood. Exactly. Yeah. So you get that onboarding call scheduled. You guys meet. Hopefully they've looked at the welcome packet.

LaTara: Most likely they haven't, but you're just going to pretend that they have and you're going to remind them and be like, don't forget to look at your welcome packet. This again, it just goes over what we're going to cover on our onboarding call, and it's just to come to the table with some organization because they're going to be excited.

LaTara: You're going to be excited and it's very easy to get off track on that call and there's some important things that you need to cover. So [00:18:00] in my welcome packet, I'll share what's in mine and then Molly can talk about what she does on her, on her onboarding process. So in my packet, it's like a short little thing, it's literally a PDF that they can just view.

LaTara: And it's Hey, here's who I am, blah, blah, blah. They should already know that, but it's just like a recap. This is my email and how you can contact me. These are the hours that I work. This is how I communicate. This is our workflow on how we'll be going through the project. And then also we're going to be getting logged into all the platforms because logging into all of your client platforms is so important.

LaTara: And very time consuming. And it's very frustrating when a client expects you to do something, but you're not logged into their accounts yet. And then they get mad at you that you can't log in because they don't know their password. There needs to be codes passed back and forth. No one's available.

LaTara: The dog needs a walk. The kids are crying. You're on another client call. So [00:19:00] annoying to go through that process. So you gotta do it on the onboarding call and you're going to be on the call and you're going to be doing this and your client might get a little frustrated and you're just going to keep saying to them.

LaTara: We're doing this now because as you can see, it's a little time consuming, but once we get this out of the way, everything's going to be fine. 

Molly: Yes. And doing it on the onboarding call is the easiest way I've found because you guys are both available. You might as well just get it done. 

Molly: the worst is if they say I'm next to my phone, you send them a code, let's say for Google and with codes, there's a time limit.

Molly: And then they respond to you with the code, but it's 10 minutes late and the code doesn't work. Right. They're going to get more frustrated. The more times you got to keep sending these codes. So getting it out of the way on the onboarding call, I think is the easiest. just remind them you only have to do this once and putting that expectation and your welcome [00:20:00] packet, allows them to prepare and getting all their passwords together, because you got to think a lot of people when they're reaching out to you as a VA.

Molly: They might be a small business who has tried to do it on their own for x amount of months or years And it's just been them. So the passwords are just saved in their phone or saved on their laptop. So giving them time to figure those passwords out or reset their passwords and write it down or whatever the case Is a lot easier 

Molly: it helps with that organization aspect as 

LaTara: well. And you can make a suggestion in your welcome packet and in the email that you'll send to them right before the call to remind them, that you're meeting soon say, Hey, if you use something like LastPass, feel free to add my email to LastPass right now and we can get the process rolling and then we'll test everything.

LaTara: Once we get on the call, last pass is a great tool to use it's free. And it's a great way to keep [00:21:00] track of all passwords because as your business grows, you as the freelancer, you're going to have millions of passwords, millions. So many For some clients, I have 30 different passwords for multiple things, and there's no way you're going to remember it, but you also need to make them feel safe sharing it with you. So something 

LaTara: like LastPass is a good way to keep it organized and secure for your client and then they're going to feel more safe. They're going to be like, Oh, okay, thank you. This is in LastPass, blah, blah, blah. If they don't have LastPass, that's okay. You can say, I will make sure to have all your stuff in LastPass, which is a safe encrypted space for your information.

LaTara: And I'm never actually typing it out. but. It can be a little finicky. So once you're on the call, you gotta actually test it. You have to log in and test it. Yes, it's likely that first time you're gonna need a code sent to you anyways. So [00:22:00] you just gotta do it. So what I like doing is saving on a LastPass.

LaTara: That way I can get logged out because a lot of my clients use similar platforms. Like I said, I'm a Kajabi web designer and funnel builder, so all of my clients use Kajabi. Literally maybe two of them don't use Kajabi and. I'm in Kajabi all day long. So I need to be logging in, logging out, logging in, logging out.

LaTara: So

LaTara: LastPass, saves me a lot of time, right? Because I don't have to actually remember anybody's password because I'm never going to. 

Molly: Right, and you can also go in there and make like folders. you can go in there and label things properly because I can't tell you how many Instagram logins I have, how many Facebook logins I have YouTube, you name it.

Molly: So you are going to have very similar platforms and you always want to make sure they're labeled properly. And at the end of the day, you want your client to [00:23:00] feel safe with you having their information because this is their personal 

LaTara: stuff. and this is such a professional way, another little detail that shows them that they can trust you with their information because they are giving you a lot of trust by letting you inside of their back end of things.

Molly: Exactly. And you had mentioned earlier about the welcome packet. I do the same stuff that you do a little introduction. I think that's important because yes, they should already, know a little bit about you But I like to give them a few little details about me some personal things They don't have to be like my deepest darkest secrets But just some little things so they can connect with me.

Molly: They understand i'm a real person. And then go into how they can contact me hours. I work hours. I'm not available. And then the communication and going into, the flow of scope of work. We're going to be leading into.[00:24:00] They don't know you, they'll probably never meet you in person. So just giving them that reassurance that, hey. I'm Molly. I'm your freelancer. I'm going to get shit done for you. 

LaTara: That is so good. and then the next step you want to take is. Okay, let's talk about the workflow.

LaTara: So let's recap what it is that I'm going to be doing for you at this moment. I actually pull up the proposal that they had already signed and paid for because I have an outline on that proposal of what we're going to be doing. So I pull that up and just look at it as my notes while we're on the call to remind me.

LaTara: Yes, I'm doing for them and how we because it's very easy to get off track because they get excited and they talk about other things that they want and you're like, Oh, yeah, that would be great. Let's do that. And then you forget about what you're actually supposed to be doing for them. So I look at my proposal and I'm like, Okay, these are the things that we talked about that we're going to work on together over X amount of days or whatever.

LaTara: and I [00:25:00] say, so this is where we need to start. I already know going into the call what I want to work on first. And so I have an idea already mapped out and I tell them what I'm doing first. I don't say okay, where do you want to start? I say, I think it would be best if we started here because.

LaTara: By doing this step first, then we can tackle the other parts of the project afterwards. And so I'll say this is, how I think we should go, or maybe I do some kind of like phase thing or whatever. And then I say to them, Now, I want to remind you the first couple days to a week, depending on how big the project is me going to be learning all of your platforms, learning your brand, and at this point, I say, please send me your url.

LaTara: Brand strategy or your marketing plan for me to look at it because I need to know these things for the types of projects that I do for my clients. So say if they want me to like audit their website before we rebuild a new website, [00:26:00] right? I need to know what is their strategy. What is their audience? What are they trying to accomplish?

LaTara: What's their onboarding process like, or I can't. audit their website, right? So I remind them the first few days to a week. I'm not physically going to be producing an outcome. I'm going to be doing a lot of research so I can learn the most about you as possible and ask you a lot of questions and then we can get jumped right into everything.

LaTara: And they say, okay, now I used to not say that. when I was still learning how to go about this, and they'd send me messages and be like, Hey, we started working together a couple days ago. I feel we haven't made any progress. I'm getting worried. That's like the last thing you want Like that sucks.

LaTara: And that makes you feel like garbage. Cause you're like, I am doing stuff, but obviously they can't. see what I'm doing because I don't give them a play by play, and then that makes me feel shitty and then start questioning do I actually know what I'm doing? Right? [00:27:00] So it's all about the communication and just to remind them.

LaTara: And then that's why slack is so important. So you can send them a little. Update Hey, this is what I I'm doing today. I'm going to be going through the website. I'm going to be going through your email platform and gathering my notes on that so we can start mapping everything out.

LaTara: And just by saying something as simplistic as that, they're like, okay, cool. She's thinking about me today. I don't need to think about what she's doing. I can continue on with whatever I need to do to work inside my business. We'll 

Molly: Yes, and first off, Slack is amazing. Second, you can get it free. You can make different channels.

Molly: But the communication, is just so important. Because... They're putting this trust in you. And I feel like when you first start working with somebody, like I'm a big communicator. I communicate all the time with my clients, like every little thing I do. But in the beginning I communicate the [00:28:00] most because I never want a client to question if I'm working on their stuff or not.

Molly: I totally understand my process till they, fully trust in meKnow that, okay, I haven't heard from Molly, but she's still working on shit for me. Before they know that I just, I tell them every day I'm gonna be doing this, or I'm doing this today. the first week, No matter what aspects you're doing, whether you're doing websites or you're doing social media, the first week is all about learning that client's business, the in and outs of everything.

Molly: yeah, you might not be producing a whole lot right off the bat, but you're still taking the time to learn their business. So going, further down the line. you can make a plan, whether again, it's websites or social media. You're not just starting blind. You're actually investing in researching and learning about their individual business.

LaTara: we're going to talk more throughout this [00:29:00] podcast, obviously the relationship between you and your client, what it's going to be like working together in all walks of life that you're going to connect with, but we also want to touch on offboarding.

LaTara: We mentioned earlier in the series that we were going to talk about it. And it's because this step is often forgotten and it's incredibly important, when you're going to be ending the relationship or the work or the project has come to an end with your client. That you're working with. And sometimes people think Oh God, is this call going to be awkward?

LaTara: Is it super weird? Are we breaking up? And it 

Molly: feels like a breakup. 

LaTara: It totally does. Especially the first time you do it, and then when you get off the zoom call and you say bye. Okay. Never see you again in my life. Right? it's very weird, 

Molly: right? Oh my God.

Molly: It is. And I'm such an emotional person. I sometimes cry because I cry at everything. So like, I'm like, [00:30:00] bye.

LaTara: So we want to make sure that we give you a few tips on it and, really. hit home in regards to how important this call truly is almost a little bit more important than the onboarding call. Really, like I hate to say it, but it kind of is.

LaTara: so Molly, if you want to share, One, what is the reason why you're having an off boarding call, the type of different scenarios, and then two, what are you actually doing on that call?

LaTara: Yeah, so 

Molly: off boarding calls are extremely important for many reasons. I think the main reason, and I've had this happen in my, past work is you want to keep that relationship solid. No, are you going to be, probably texting them afterwards and asking them how their day is? Probably not, but I had a client that wasn't able to afford services at the time.

Molly: we did an off [00:31:00] boarding call. And because it was such a professional goodbye, I actually started working with her again, six months down the road because I didn't just say, Oh, okay, bye. And didn't support her to the end. I did. That's all right. I did support her the whole way through, made sure she felt confident once we got off the call and, knew what I had completed.

Molly: In the off boarding calls, I always go over the last things that I've done. So that way, whether they're going to be taking over, whether I'm moving on and they maybe have a new VA, they know where I left off and what I've completed and what maybe still needs to be worked on, based on the circumstance or situation.

Molly: and people appreciate that, A super important thing to do on an off boarding call is to log out of everything. we talked about on the on boarding call how much of a pain in the ass it is to log into all your different, [00:32:00] platforms for your client.

Molly: Well, it's super easy to log out and you just need to remember to do it. And honestly, it makes clients feel more secure when you do it on that offboarding call. if you have anything in your Google drive. Sharing it with them, removing, transferring it to them. if 

LaTara: you're called, it's called transfer.

LaTara: If you're not sure what that means, if you're brand new, it's called transferring the ownership and do that in the share settings and you, and it will say pending invitation. Yes. Until they accept it. So it's really great to just do that right on that call because then it will force them to accept the invitation right then and there.

LaTara: And then you'll be able to delete all of those assets from your computer after they accept it. 

Molly: any websites you're logged into, email platforms, anything that you have used for them, logging out of it. again, it just makes your client feel secure that you don't have access to things and especially platforms, you know, like payment [00:33:00] platforms, Stripe, PayPal, things like that.

Molly: Websites and then social media, social media, logging out of all of their accounts. if you are an admin on a Facebook account, having them remove you. Logging out of Instagram and LinkedIn and all that stuff is just so important because one, you don't need it anymore.

Molly: And two, again, it just makes your client feel better. It makes your client feel like there's no loose ends. That's what you want. You don't want any loose ends. 

LaTara: Molly and I, we were discussing, before, when we were deciding how we wanted to talk about offboarding. And both of us said, pretty much at the exact same time, we still, in the beginning when we weren't on top of, realizing how important this was, we were still logged into past clients social media accounts for so long 

LaTara: And we don't want to know what's going [00:34:00] on in their social media because It feels almost like you're violating their personal information because you're no longer on that project, right? So also is better to do it anyways just for yourself 

Molly: another reason why you wanna make sure that you exit their social medias is because so many people get hacked all the time.

LaTara: someone is always getting hacked and you don't ever want to be working for someone. And then two months down the road they get hacked and they're like, Oh my God, this assistant I had, she was on my social media. Now I have this new assistant on my social media. Then I have an agency on my social media.

LaTara: I'm on my social media and we're going to get kicked out. And they fear. They fear they're going to personally get kicked out of their platforms and not be able to get back in because that actually does happen. Right. And so by you making it a priority to log out of their content, you've got nothing to worry about on your end.

LaTara: So you're protecting 

Molly: yourself. we obviously want [00:35:00] to make the client feel secure and, but really protecting yourself in situations like that because Latara is right, people get hacked all the fucking time, all the time, and you just never want it to come back on you. No, not at all.

LaTara: It's not a good feeling. It's definitely not a good feeling. we could talk about clients losing their social media accounts all day long. 

Molly: Yes, we could. Absolutely. Oh my gosh. 

LaTara: And that goes for emails as well. there's going to be instances if you're hired for general services, your client's going to have you monitoring their inbox, 

LaTara: And you need to be responding. As them if they're not that big yet They're not gonna have a google team space, right? Exactly Well, they're gonna have you they're actually gonna have you most likely log into their google chrome So you're gonna be You're going to be them, right?

LaTara: But as they get bigger, they can have a team and they can add you on a space. And if you're in that situation, that's the best route, obviously. But if [00:36:00] not, you might be them. And that's just how it works because they want something that's super simple and they're just going to have you log in as them.

LaTara: Now, when you're monitoring someone's. inbox. There's also a lot of personal things that come into. So you need to say from the gecko, do you want me to be going through every single email that comes in Or are there just certain types of names that I need to be looking for?

LaTara: And so therefore, you're not wasting your time reading every email, but to you're Respecting their privacy and so then when you get done working for them on that offboarding call you need to tell them okay, right now I'm going to get signed out of your email.

LaTara: since I'm no longer going to be responding to these emails as you, I'm going to turn this off and I'm going to sign out of your Chrome right now. Because also it would suck if an email came through and say you guys decided you weren't a good fit.

LaTara: They need to be hiring a new VA Those new emails are gonna start coming through and you don't want to be reading those because it's not gonna help your ego So you [00:37:00] need to 

Molly: find out No, it's not 

LaTara: Just as we know from experience, it happened to us too Yes, 

Molly: And then the last thing that's super crucial when you're doing that off boarding call is reminding them Of sops, so sops if you're not sure what that means. Those are that's called standard operating procedures. And what it is, is it's basically like a handbook or a playbook or an outline set of rules, a format that this business follows for each thing that you do for them.

LaTara: So, sometimes they might not have anything like this set up. And what's really good is say you've been managing their social media. Or you have been building like a sales page or a marketing funnel and you went through the whole process with them and it was their first time that this has ever happened.

LaTara: It's really important for you to record how you did that. Therefore, one, they know how to do it and make changes. And two, when someone [00:38:00] else comes aboard, they have that outline of how these things were done and they can share it with the new person that's going to be working for them. because the goal is for the owner to know how everything's done, but the owner shouldn't have to do everything.

LaTara: The client shouldn't have to do everything, right? Exactly. And if they're hiring you, it's, they know that and therefore you should be doing those things. So if you've created something new and it's really good for you to hand over those assets of those SOPs to them and be like, this is how I went through this.

LaTara: This is how it happens. It's not detailed. You don't need to share your creative flair or anything like that. It's just straight up an outline, like. these are the types of things that we are allowed to post on social media This isn't that what we're not when we do this on instagram We also do this on facebook when we build this funnel.

LaTara: We make sure to follow these tagging title procedures, right? and so it's just helps keep everything tight and clean and organized 

LaTara: Um, anything else you think that we should talk about with offboarding Molly? 

Molly: I don't think so. I think we hit, the main points that I always [00:39:00] follow again, the off boarding call in the first place, is so important because you want to keep that relationship open in case a future opportunity comes around.

Molly: You want to make sure that you log out of everything, and the importance of doing it on the actual call with them, and any assets, that you have created for their business. You created it, but it's for their business. So making sure that you're sharing everything with them. and again, communication, just, telling them what you've done, what is still left open.

Molly: If maybe, there was a few projects that, haven't been completed, but you guys are ending relationships. There's so many different reasons why off boarding happens. Well, just following those. Those steps I think is crucial and don't be afraid to have the 

LaTara: offboarding call. 

LaTara: if you're going to be doing project based stuff, like say you do a website, build. I have in my contract [00:40:00] that even after that call, they have up to two weeks. So I say 14 days of slack communication.

LaTara: And that is for them to be able to ask questions in regards to tech and making sure they understand the way that their website works. After those two weeks, they will be charged a rate. And that's all in my contract when they first Sign on with me because when you do a website build they're gonna have questions But you all and you want to be able to provide them with some information, but there's a certain point where it's like, yeah No, you need to pay for these questions.

LaTara: Like I'm not gonna keep telling you everything You know, so and then once those two weeks are up I remove them I send them one last message and I say, Okay, our two weeks has come to an end in Slack communication. I'm gonna be removing you from my account. again, here's my email. You know how to contact me.

LaTara: And I look forward to any future projects that you have. I would love to work with you again. And that's a great opportunity to also [00:41:00] ask them for a testimonial. 

Molly: Yes. Yes. Testimonials are so important, especially for your portfolio. 

LaTara: Right, right. I have to say testimonials is definitely a place that I slack on and it's, I think it's because typically we're, when we're in the heat of the project, they, they are always giving me incredible feedback.

LaTara: Like they're like, Oh my God, this is amazing. Like I couldn't have done this without you. Holy crap. You've made me feel so calm about this project. once you started everything just felt so simple and they'll say things like that throughout the time and they're so happy.

LaTara: But I always forget at the very end to ask for a solid 

Molly: testimonial. Right, right. I know, I forget too sometimes but it's so incredibly important. so you can show future clients. from past people that you've worked with, how they felt working with you, the work that you were able to complete, your work ethic, all of that stuff.

LaTara: All right. I feel like that covers everything in offboarding. And if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us in our DMs on Instagram. We would love to answer [00:42:00] any questions that you have and hear your feedback. 

Molly: So it's been so much fun, I've just enjoyed every minute of it. Molly, do you want to wrap up today's episode? 

Molly: Yeah, 

Molly: Alright, so we went over a lot in these last few episodes.

Molly: And a big thing we just want to end with here is making sure you're, enjoying your journey. I want to encourage you guys when you're starting out to stick with it. There's challenges that are going to come up. There's roadblocks that are going to happen. You're going to get rejected.

Molly: Things happen. LaTara and I have both gone through this and we want you to Not be discouraged when those things happen learn grow from it and Excel and just enjoy enjoy this and we can't wait to talk about the real burnout and Work life balance in our next episode. So thank you so much for joining us today, and we'll see you next time.

Molly: Bye[00:43:00]