5 Tips on Finishing a Freelance Web Design Project Faster & Better

Disclaimer: This branded content is from BeTheme WordPress & WooCommerce Theme, originally published on 07/12/2016.

As freelance web designers become more experienced, it becomes easier for them to take advantage of opportunities for additional work. Consequently, they become busier. If you fit into this category, you’ve no doubt began to experience a need to work better and faster.

Not having to work to a schedule, except those you set for yourself or agree to with your clients, is a situation many other professionals would envy. The same is true with not having to put up with a micromanaging boss looking over your shoulder.

When you’re on your own, you don’t always bring an efficient mindset to the table. This can be a recipe for disaster. You eventually find yourself working long hours, but missing deadlines. And occasionally losing a client.

Possible causes of your situation:

• Using the wrong tool — Why waste 2 hours installing a regular WordPress theme, when you can do it with 1 click. If you work with this highly popular theme, you’ll be ready in no time.
• Agreeing to work with difficult clients — You’ve probably been there. Working with clients who are never quite satisfied can be a drain on your time.
• You’re not prioritizing your tasks — Or, you are not working to your own priorities. Working on your time management skills and making an extra effort to organize your tasks can put this problem to bed.

Finishing projects faster and better with pre-built websites

We’ve already mentioned the time you can save by being able to install a WordPress theme with a single click.

Let’s take things a step further, and take a closer look at the savings in time and effort you’ll gain when working with pre-built websites.

There are presently 230+ of these pre-built websites, and the number increases every month.

• They offer clear starting points — Simply choose one and start customizing. It’s that easy.

  

• You can skip the mockup phase — This will save you a bunch of time. If your client is not Internet savvy, you can give them a pretty accurate look at what their website will look like. Saving the both of you the time and effort that would go into explaining how a wireframe or mockup is supposed to function.
• You won’t be confronted with technical issues — No coding or special technical skills are needed when working with pre-built websites. You won’t be wasting part of a day trying to figure out how to change a header.
• Pre-built websites help you minimize risks and maximize results. You can not only deliver beautiful websites, but your client will know what to expect. No surprises, no rework.

Let’s analyze the key moments you encounter when building a website using a WP theme. We’ll see how and where Be’s pre-built websites will save you time while helping you to deliver quality.

1. Deciding on a starting point is a no-brainer

Perhaps you haven’t been calculating the time that you typically spend finding a WP theme for a client. Try it sometime. Don’t be surprised to discover that it takes a lot longer than you thought. Don’t forget to add the hours spent on working change requests.

Or explaining things when the client doesn’t understand what can be modified and what cannot.

When you have 230+ pre-built websites to choose from, you can quickly reach a decision in one of two ways:

• By taking the short route. Find the pre-built websites that address your client’s category. This should take a few minutes at most. Conduct an analysis to see which one will work the best for your client in terms of looks and features. This may take a little longer, but it’s still time well spent;



• Or, you can take a little more time to analyze all the pre-built websites that belong to several categories. With Be, any pre-built website is easy to customize and transform into whatever you want. These pre-built websites are visual concepts. Their purpose is to provide inspiration, and not to place boundaries on your creativity. You could, for example, take a photography pre-built website, and create a creative agency website with an awesome portfolio.

Consider the time you’ve typically spent on modifications. With pre-built websites, that time can literally be reduced from hours to minutes. And if your initial decision isn’t exactly what your client is looking for, you have 230+ alternate solutions to show him.

2. Installing pre-built websites — It’s a matter of minutes

If your client is hard-to-satisfy, or doesn’t quite know what he wants, and you find yourself having to constantly bounce back and forth with new ideas, installing a pre-built website requires no coding skills and takes but 2 or three clicks. Your time spent can be calculated in minutes, not hours.

3. Work with a plan

Putting together a workable plan should require nothing more than using pen and paper. By doing so, you’ll avoid the situation of wasting time while wondering what to do next. Using a pre-built website allows you to skip wireframes and mockups, and get right down to business. Starting with a base grid, select a layout, choose among 20+ header styles, upload the logo, set the agreed-upon design elements, and you’ll have a working prototype that’s ready to show your client.

You’ll find that the powerful, easy-to-use Muffin Builder 3, or Visual Composer, makes page-by-page customizing a snap; whether it’s changing text, images, headers, etc.

4. Fine tune your website with shortcodes

Shortcodes enable you to create detailed design elements such as infographics, boxes, content blocks, typography, and a host of other useful design items. Shortcodes help you fill in the details once you’ve customized a pre-built website to fit the big picture you have in mind. To access a shortcode from a list, you only need to click "add item".

5. Wrap things up with an SEO plugin

Before you deliver your website, you want to make sure your client can start working on his content marketing strategy right away.

The Be team as already taken care of ensuring the website will be SEO compatible. The pre-built website you started with, will work perfectly with the most popular SEO plugins. After all, when you are working with the best tools on the market, everything seems to go much better.

Take away ideas

To find a solution, you first need to understand the problem and its source. If you find that you’re not cooking along on all cylinders, and you’re experiencing periods where you know you’re not making good use of your time, the tool or WP theme you’re using may be the cause. Or the way you organize your tasks.

Try taking Be Theme‘s pre-built websites for a spin.

• They give you a clear starting point, and you have 230+ to choose from.
• You can skip wireframes and mockups. Your clients will love you for it.
• You don’t require coding or technical skills. Having good imagination will suffice.
• You’ll save a ton of time — on every project.