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It is one thing to be brought into a project as a team player, where the project is managed or you are delivering a predefined piece of it. However, that is typically not the way things happen when doing work for a small business or an initial project which will result in a business launch.

The more challenging and demanding opportunities for a freelancer are those one-man top-to-tail projects: creating the whole megillah[1]. Here is a brief look at the steps that could give the poor shlub[2] a fighting chance.

1. Initial Meeting: The client transfers his vision to you. Determine what specifically makes or breaks its success.

   Output: Management Summary: Mirror the client’s vision back to him in your own words, for validation.

2. Reference site(s): Ask the client to point to sites exemplifying functionality that works and functionality that doesn’t.

   Output: Create a spreadsheet that will contain a row for each function, and identify that function as either a launch requirement, nice to have for launch, post-launch, or unneeded.

3. Conceptual design: Using the approved spreadsheet, decide what the site will look like.

   Output: Some conceptual prototype, such as wireframes, storyboard, etc.

4. Functional design: The details behind the elements of the conceptual design; how front-end elements should work, as well as the back-end functionality, business rules, and the seemingly small details (being able to print receipts with a receipt printer, accepting input from card-swipers, syncing with third-party applications, etc).

   Output: Functional design document.