Presented by:

Andy Walters - Sailboat Media, LLC

Steve Kessler - Denver DataMan, LLC

www.denverdataman.com/dc2010www.denverdataman.com/dc2010

or

Drupal Camp Colorado site

Who are we and why should you listen

to us?

� Meet Steve Kessler

� Owner and Lead Consultant of Denver DataMan

@denverdataman� @denverdataman

� denverdataman.com

� Meet Andy Walters

� President and developer at Sailboat Media, LLC

� @andywalters

� andy-walters.com

Will Drupal work for me?

� What is Drupal?

Why open source?� Why open source?

� What do you need your site to do?

� Why Drupal?

What is Drupal?

http://www.tradeshow.co.za/chinese-car-parts/Chinese-Car-Images/Chinese-Cars-South-Africa.jpg

Why Open Source?

What do you need your site to do?

Why Drupal?� For the client

� For the end-user

� For the freelancer or small shop

Why small shops and freelancers?

� Pricing

� Timelines

Niches� Niches

� Customer Service

Pricing� Hourly

� Advantage: Straightforward for developer

� Disadvantage: Difficult for clients to budget

� Flat

� Advantage: Straightforward for client

� Disadvantage: Difficult for developer to budget time

Pricing� Velocity

� Advantage: Developer gets money regardless

� Disadvantage: Client has little guarantee

� Retainer

� Advantage: Developer gets money regardless

� Disadvantage: Client can pay too much

Timelines� SS/F can be available faster

� Clients: be realistic, but take advantage!

� SS/F’s: learn to estimate your time correctly, or find someone who can.

Niches� Niches can affect pricing and quality

� Example: DDM’s Niche

� Developers: Find a niche

Clients: Find someone in a niche, if possible� Clients: Find someone in a niche, if possible

� Gotcha: make sure you hire a Drupal shop, not just a php shop

Relational� Clients: Make sure you’re not going to be a number.

� SS/F: Treat your clients like they’re not a number!

How to find a small shop� groups.drupal.org

� http://groups.drupal.org/node/15685

� Drupal Association members

http://association.drupal.org/membership� http://association.drupal.org/membership

� Google

� Referrals

� LinkedIn & Twitter (other social media)

� Craigslist

� eLance, etc.

How to market as a small shop?� Make your profiles

� Link your profiles to your website

� Become a member of the Drupal Association (its cheaper now with the Euro falling) cheaper now with the Euro falling)

� Optimize for Google

� Make clients happy so you get referrals

� Use social media - think Geek vs. marketing

� Contribute

Qualifying questions to ask SS/F’s� What referrals or references can you provide me?

� What experience does your company have doing Drupal sites like the one I want?

� Can you speak English and Geek?� Can you speak English and Geek?

� Ask about their development process (more to come).

� What regular communication practices do you have with clients?

Requirements� Get to know your users story.

� What do they want the site to do?

� Why do they want the site to do it?

� Can you achieve ROI with this use case?

Proposal and clarifications � Tell them what you are going to do.

� Let them know its iterative as you better understand their project.their project.

� Meet in person!

SOW� Clarity!

� English and Geek.

� Remember it’s a contract!

Site Plan� Tell your client what you are going to do

� Specific details like fields, roles, etc.

� Wireframes

� Mockups� Mockups

� Workflows

� Menu/page structures

� For DDM this overrides the SOW

Implementation� Development.

� Design.

� Iterations in the implementation.

Site review and testing� Make sure the client knows what there getting.

� Be approachable.

� Be reasonable but not a push over for changes. Stand your ground.

Training � Manuals.

� English and Geek.

� Teach each type of user.

Maintenance� Year 1

� Out years

How to be a rock star client� You get for what you pay for.

� Drupal is free like kittens are free.

� Beware of unreasonable project timelines.

Beware of scope creep.� Beware of scope creep.

� Communicate clearly -- SS/F's aren't psychic!

How to be a rock star SS/F� Have a process, and sell your process.

� Be able to say “no”.

� Learn your limits—bandwidth, client communication, etc.etc.

� Beware of scope creep.

� Communicate clearly -- clients aren't psychic!