[Pasan Premaratne] We're almost done with asking questions.

We just have one area left to cover, and that's the administrative stuff.

Let's take a look at some sample questions.

What is your budget for this project? First and foremost, you want to know if the project is worth doing.

Are you compensated enough for the effort you're going to put in?

Now the budget doesn't always mean that's the maximum you can charge.

You can always convince the client that the features they want cost more.

But knowing the budget gives you an estimate to start off with.

For the first project you undertake, you can't be as flexible as you'd like to be with pricing.

But as you grow as a freelancer and get better, you can always charge what you think you deserve.

Next ask the client who the decision makers are on this project and what the turnaround time is.

It's always important to know who the decision makers are and to work with them directly.

If you have to go through a few layers to arrive at a decision, then there will be significant delays when getting feedback.

This applies to your turnaround time as well.

If you know there's going to be a day or 2 when hearing back, you need to build that into your timeline.

The worst thing is to deliver the project late because you were waiting on assets or approval.

Ask the client for all the people involved in the project and what they will be contributing to the project.

But make sure that there's 1 point person for the project—

1 stake holder who has a decision-making ability that you can coordinate the project with.

And ask them what their timelines are like. Of course you want to ask them if they have any specific deadlines.

Certain websites could be for specific marketing events that need to be launched by a certain date.

You always want to make sure you deliver a project before a client's deadline date.

But equally as important, you don't want to accept a project with an insanely tight deadline.

Now these questions are just the tip of the iceberg.

They might seem like a lot, but they serve a very useful purpose. So try and the get the client to answer as many as possible.

Depending on the project you could ask different questions in addition to the set we've already covered.

E-commerce sites have their own special set of functionality and goals, for example.

In any case the purpose of this questionnaire is to get as much information as possible on the potential project

to understand what you will be working on and to avoid conflict down the road.

At minimum you should be able to walk away knowing at least the following bits of information.

First, what are you doing? What is the project about? And what features has the client requested?

Second, who are you doing it for? Who is the target audience? How do they feel when they use a client's product?

And what do you want them to do when they end up on the website?

Next, who are you working with? Are there any decision makers or other people involved in the project?

And do you have the means to get in touch with them?

Finally, when do you need to do it by? Do you have a deadline that you are working with or a rough time estimate?

And have you taken into account turnaround times into this deadline?

Once you have your questionnaire filled out, you have sufficient information to make all the relevant decisions for this project.

That is, you can decide if you want to do it, how complex it is, how long it's going to take, and how much you're going to charge.