When I started freelancing, I didn’t fully understand all the questions I should ask when scoping and pricing out a project. However, as the years when on and I took on more projects, I have collected a list of questions I ask for every project I take on..

If you are looking at getting into freelancing, take a look at the list of questions below. I’ve found these to be super helpful when meeting a client for the first time. Hopefully you’ll find these useful too.

Describe your Business in a few sentences

  • What services do you offer?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • What makes you unique?

Project Basics

  • Why do you want/to redesign your website?
  • What need or business goals do you have for your website that aren’t being met by the current version?
  • What goals do you want your website to achieve?
  • What is the function of having a website for your brand?
  • What will your visitors accomplish on your site?
  • Top of the line when it comes to that. Will need to do some more research on that.
  • Are you selling products online? 
  • Some of the production programs or art side of ideas.
  • Once they kick off the new brand they would look at moving towards.
  • How do you measure success with your website?
  • I want people to go to the site and be “that’s what I want to be a part of”
  • When someone looks at the site, they want a clear and concise message of what they do and know exactly what they offer.
  • What image, look, or feel do you want your website to portray?
  • Do you have examples of sites that you like?
  • Who are your competitors? Do they have sites? Can you provide them?

Scope

  • What is the scope of the project?
  • What is the timeline you’d like to have this project completed by?
  • Do you have a budget for this project?
  • What functions or features of your site are necessary to have versus nice to have?
  • What is the most important call-to-action on your site?
  • Do you have current traffic load? Do you anticipate an increase in traffic with this project?
  • If your visitors were to only visit your home page, what’s the most important information they need to know?
  • Do you have someone that’s going to work on design? Do they have a brand style guide to provide you?
  • Who is the decision maker of this project?
  • Do you have plans of what will happen after this site/project is launched?
  • Do you need web hosting? 
  • When they have certain events, etc. there would be things that need to change based on events or other things that are going on.

That’s my list. Are there questions I’m missing that you ask? Let me know what you think.