Twenty-eight orders for one client over five years

A client who started with single-site transfers and ended up planning their own cloud server, then turned the order for it into site work when they changed direction partway through.

The objective

The client had been buying transfers and small hosting jobs for years and wanted to move to their own cloud server with a control panel, starting with four sites and adding more later. They hadn't done it before and asked to be walked through what was involved.

A control panel of that kind needs a paid licence that the owner has to buy. That's easier to raise before the work than to explain afterwards, so it was the first thing I asked about.

Partway through, the client decided to hold off on the server and spend the order on changes to their existing sites instead.

What I did

I set out the cost of building the server, what the control panel licence involves and who buys it, before starting.

When the client asked to cancel, I asked to keep the order open and use it for the site work instead. A cancellation on the platform costs a seller more than the money does, and the client was happy either way once I'd explained it.

Then I moved onto the list of site changes they wanted: profile pages showing city, state and country instead of a full address, heights and weights shown in both metric and imperial, custom profile backgrounds for members, and a language pack so each member reads the site in their own language.

The result

Twenty-eight orders across five years with the same client, running from single-site moves through to planning their own server.