RE: Taking on a contract

["John Rosberg" <jrosberg -at- interwoven -dot- com>]

With a small shop, one of the first questions I'd have is "how much do
you want to spend."

Don't forget to gain the best possible vision of what THEIR expectations
are -- especially since you've a friend there (friends are harder to
gain than customers, and more valuable).

Both of these issues can be addressed by creating a solid Statement of
Work, and asking them to review and approve it. Standard stuff, but
easily skipped when working with friends.

You should, of course, do your best to guide their expectations based on
your expertise, but, at the end of the day, if you produce X, and they
wanted Y, there is potential for loss in both the professional and
personal areas . . .. neither is a happy event.



-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin McGowan [mailto:thatguy_80 -at- hotmail -dot- com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 7:33 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Taking on a contract

Hi all,

I have a shot at taking on some consulting work (which I find quite 
interesting!). I'm going to meet with the reps from this company
tonight, 
and am looking for a bit of advice as to what specific questions to ask.

Basically, they are a small company here in Ottawa, about 14 people.
They've 
all been doing the writing (tech manuals, marketing blurbs, help files, 
etc). To quote my friend there: "we're tired of doing the writing
because 
we're tripping all over each other." At the moment, they are creating a
lot 
of XML files and they apparently want to turn that source into nice
looking 
PDF files (probably with Word).

Sound like fun?

Aside from some basic questions like "who is your audience?" and "what 
materials do you want to create?", I'd like to see what other questions
you 
might ask in a similar situation.

Cheers,
Kevin

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