New client onboarding for freelancers

One of the key pillars to grow your freelance business is setting up systems that help you work smarter, instead of harder. Efficiency for you and improved client experience for them… It’s a win/win. I’ve streamlined my client onboarding process so it requires minimal involvement from me, even when booking 4 and 5-figure projects. This video walks you through a client onboarding checklist, including my suggested must-have steps for other freelancers, marketers, and copywriters.

If you’d prefer to read instead of watch, keep scrolling for the full blog breakdown.

Client onboarding checklist must-haves

I’ve worked with hundreds of freelance clients over the years of running my 6-figure copywriting business. I’ve also helped other freelancers grow to this sweet spot where you don’t have to be glued to your desk all the time. We work hard and give 150% when we’re on, and rest when it’s time to unplug. I firmly believe in the importance of work-life integration, and building a business that aligns with your life. This mission truly inspires all the work I do, especially the work with clients inside my mastermind program. It’s about building, growing, and scaling businesses in alignment with your ideal life, and allowing for a sense of freedom in the process.

One of the key pillars that I coach and consult on is setting up systems that help you work smarter, instead of harder. Even better when those systems improve the client experience for everyone who works with you. Because this isn’t just about you making money, but making an impact on those you work with.

This blog post will walk you through the key checkpoints you need to have in your client onboarding process if you want to close more sales while minimizing the non-billable hours that go into this phase of booking projects.

If your client onboarding processes feel icky, sticky, or just suck a lot of your time, this is for you.

Client onboarding checklist: Lead inquiry autoresponder

It’s 2024, which means that you need to have a lead inquiry autoresponder as part of your client onboarding checklist now. Please do not ghost your leads! Also, please don’t just send everyone who sends you an email a generic autoreply. I’m really not sure which is worse to receive: Nothing… Or a generic autoreply that’s clearly sent to every single email that hits someone’s inbox.

Improve the effectiveness of your sales pipeline by paying attention to the details. What details matter? Let’s look at that…

Someone inquires via your website contact form. Yay! What information do they need to know next? Can you provide that based on segmentation around the inquiry type? How can you further guide their buying journey without your immediate attention in your inbox? These are things you can do with a strategic lead inquiry autoresponder as part of your client onboarding checklist.

My lead inquiry autoresponder helps me book discovery calls with pre-qualified clients without me having to personally communicate with any of them. This process is entirely automated via Dubsado, which I think is the best CRM for other freelancers.

Aligning this step of the buying journey with the rest of your sales pipeline to increase revenue overall is something I teach clients. The goal is to drip information to inquiries at a specific cadence following your unique segmentation to increase sales an minimize the time it takes you to close those clients.

Client onboarding checklist: Discovery call scheduler

Whether you choose to include your discovery call scheduler in your lead inquiry autoresponder—or wait to send this manually when you view a new lead—you need a scheduler! No more manually trying to coordinate call times with people in different time zones and juggling busy schedules. A call scheduler makes life easier for everyone.

Depending on the workflow in question, my discovery call schedulers are both automatically sent out to invite qualified leads to book a time and personally sent to those who are pre-accepted. This not only protects my time in both cases, but those who are inquiring as well. It benefits no one to chat on Zoom if the basics of your project, agreement, budgets, timeline, and other details are misaligned. And no one ever received an award for getting on the most sh*tty sales calls.

Pro tip: Don’t just use the same standard scheduler for all types of calls. I’ve customized each call type so when it populates in my Google Calendar, I know exactly what type of call this is going to be (Strategy Session, Kick-Off, Review Call, etc.), and with who. Seeing these details in my calendar at a glance helps me get an overview of what’s to come for the week without having to log into my CRM or project management tool.

Client onboarding checklist: Proposal templates

You should absolutely do yourself the favour of creating a proposal template for your onboarding process. If you have multiple categories of services, I’d recommend building a proposal template for each category. Not only will this save you a ton of time, but it will likely help you close more sales. You’ve outgrown generic and vague! Let’s get specific.

For example, while I have a standard proposal template, I also have various templates customized for the specific services I offer. Someone coming for custom brand messaging and website copy will see a different proposal versus someone booking an Intensive day reservation, compared to someone who is going to join The Inner Circle Mastermind.

While these are all based on a similar structure, they are catered to close the type of service in question. This ensures that each has the appropriate information reflective of the service a lead is interested in, and saves time for me creating each proposal.

Proposals are an extremely important step in your onboarding process. This is going to be how you close leads and generate revenue! So many freelancers overlook this step. But by taking the time to refine yours, I bet you’ll see an immediate improvement in your revenue. Developing a 5-figure proposal for your business is just 1 thing those inside The Inner Circle Mastermind are prompted to do, and supported through. My proposal template has booked multiple 5-figure projects for years, and I guide my clients how to create their own following my proven format.

Client onboarding checklist: Contract or service agreement

This one may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many clients join The Inner Circle Mastermind with half-assed contracts in place! This is why I often walk through my service agreement with my coaching clients, so they can see all the necessary inclusions, why these clauses are important, and how to mitigate potential issues with their clients. While I definitely can’t provide legal advice and recommend that you speak to a professional, I’m happy to share what has worked for my business.

Good service agreements keep projects on track, clearly define the scope, and protect everyone involved. They don’t need to be scary! They set the stage for what it’s like to work together and minimize the potential for communication issues later on. I know that contracts and service agreements can feel good for you and clients. And good clients will respect having a clear contract to work with.

Overall, contracts are a necessary part of your client onboarding checklist. Don’t skip this because it maybe seems scary or overwhelming.

Client onboarding checklist: Invoice and fee schedule

Be upfront about fees, fee schedules, and make it easy for clients to pay from the beginning by including a streamlined invoice and fee schedule in your onboarding process. My fee schedules are always clearly stated in the service agreement and the attached invoice schedule.

I actually typically send the proposal, agreement, and invoice with the schedule in 1 single clickable link… Yet another reason why I love Dubsado. This way, everything is in 1 clear place for leads to review and move through the easy prompts to book.

If your clients aren’t sure when their payments are due, then you have a communication issue to address. I also think that freelancers need to be more confident talking about things like payments, fees, invoices, and rates. If you do good work and get good results, money conversations shouldn’t be a challenge. It’s a mutually beneficial exchange.

Client onboarding checklist: Welcome or confirmation email

Again, don’t ghost people. Make sure your new client knows they’re in! This could be a simple confirmation email that lets them know they’ve signed and paid a deposit, and what next steps to expect. Or it could be a more formal and detailed welcome or onboarding email that includes all the information they need to get started.

When you use a CRM like Dubsado, you can automate this step. For most services, mine are set up to send a confirmation of their service agreement immediately on signing, and a welcome email which releases their onboarding homework, client portal, call booking links, and more on payment. All of this happens without my involvement beyond checking yes and confirming all is good to go when I send a proposal.

Client onboarding checklist: Onboarding questionnaire

I credit a lot of my client’s happiness midway through and at the end of a project to the onboarding questionnaire and time I take to get to know them in the beginning. Many of my copywriting clients call me “First Draft Jill.” And while I take that as an absolute honour, I know it’s not just because of my writing skills. How I operate my copywriting business, including the systems in place, helps me deliver work they’re happy with.

My onboarding questionnaires and other related homework items for clients ask good questions that help me do my job well. It’s not enough to ask generic questions or gather surface layer information at the kick-off of an agreement. Dig deeper into the people you’re working with, and it will pay off.

Also, a good onboarding questionnaire ensures you aren’t wasting anyone’s time. You’ll show up to the kick-off meeting prepared, your clients will know what to expect, and your expectations will be easier to communicate. It sets the stage for your time together. And when done well, a good onboarding questionnaire can get your clients even more excited about working with you. It shows them that you know what you’re doing.

Client onboarding checklist: Internal onboarding processes

What happens after your client books? What are your next steps? That’s what this part of your client onboarding checklist is—it could include actually creating a client onboarding checklist for your business.

I’ve set up my workflows beyond the client booking to be semi-automated. It includes steps that integrate across various platforms.

• Dubsado is my CRM, so every new lead goes through this system to book. Essentially, this is where very project starts.
• Notion is my project management tool, so each new client or project booked gets a project with the related templated tasks assigned here.
• Google Drive is where I host project deliverables, notes, and more. This is integrated to set up client folders via Zapier when a new client confirms their project inside Dubsado.

How to onboard clients with Dubsado

You could technically do all of the above without Dubsado, but why? There’s no secret that I’m a big Dubsado fan—I’ve used this platform in my freelance copywriting business for years and love that it’s able to grow with me as my business does.

Dubsado allows me to combine many of the steps above so it’s easier for clients and me to get started working together. For example, my lead inquiry autoresponder sends targeted information to inquiries for specific service types. I’ve already shared that my proposal, service agreement, and invoices are sent via a single easy-to-navigate link. As we get closer to project kick-off dates, Dubsado reminds clients to complete their homework, book kick-off calls, and more. This platform has saved me so much time over the years… It’s like having a virtual assistant, but in robot form (and not ChatGPT).

Dubsado for copywriters

I think Dubsado is a great option for copywriters who want to streamline their workflows. If you’ve tried other options before, like Honeybook, and thought they weren’t robust enough, I definitely recommend checking out Dubsado. Of course, Dubsado is a bit more of a learning curve because it can do so much. But there are plenty of people who offer setup services if you need support with this.

Canned email templates for Dubsado

One of my favourite time-saving hacks in my business: Canned email templates for all client-facing emails. I’ve drastically cut the time I spend in my inbox over the years by creating canned email templates for all different projects, workflows, and scenarios. These live in my canned email template library in Dubsado, and I can pull from them as I need. Many are automated as parts of my workflow, or at least semi-automated with simple placeholders for me to finalize and approve before sending.

Basically, I don’t have to write project or process-related emails from scratch anymore. And that saves a lot of time (my most valuable resource these days).

The challenge: Setting up your canned email templates in the beginning can feel like a massive project. That’s why I’ve put together an entire template pack that you can plug into your own Dubsado and customize to fit your freelance business. Learn more about the Canned Email Templates here.

Tech tool recommendations

As I mentioned, I almost always recommend Dubsado as the best CRM for other copywriters, freelancers, and marketers. It’s great for anyone offering 1:1 or done-for-you services. For a complete list of all the tools I recommend, check out this link.

Take your client onboarding checklist to the next level

These things are all pieces you can build into your onboarding relatively easily, and they’ll make a huge difference in how your business operates, therefore the revenue you can generate and the income you get to take home.

Processes like this are things we audit together inside my mastermind program. So you can stop hustling so much, and make more in fewer hours. But in a legitimate, aligned way. You can learn more about The Inner Circle Mastermind here.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you choose to follow my recommendations, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you.