When to send it
Send it straight after the client says yes, with or just after the contract and the deposit invoice. That is the moment they are most engaged and most uncertain about what happens next.
What to include
- ✓A warm welcome, short, in your own voice.
- ✓How working together goes: the stages of a typical project.
- ✓The timeline: key dates, and what you need from them to keep it.
- ✓Feedback and approvals: how to send feedback, how many rounds, and who approves.
- ✓Payment: when invoices are sent, how to pay, and the terms.
- ✓Communication: your working hours, how quickly you reply, and the best way to reach you.
- ✓First questions: what you need from them before work starts.
- ✓What happens next: the very next step, with a date.
Keep it short and friendly
Four pages is plenty. It should feel like a helpful guide, not a second contract. Use headings and short paragraphs, and leave the legal detail to the contract itself.
Set expectations kindly
The packet is the easiest place to set boundaries without sounding defensive. "I reply to messages within one working day" or "feedback is easiest as one combined list per round" lands well in a welcome guide. The same sentence in an email mid-project can feel like a complaint.
What to leave out
- ✓Legal terms. They belong in the contract, and repeating them invites confusion if the two ever differ.
- ✓A long history of your business. One or two lines of welcome is enough.
- ✓Upsells. The client has just said yes; let them settle in first.
- ✓Anything you would not stand behind, such as response times you cannot keep on a busy week.
Make it look like yours
Use your own name, colours and logo, and send it as a PDF so it looks the same on every device. Link to it from your welcome email rather than burying it as one attachment among several, and mention it on the kickoff call so the client actually opens it.
Write it once, tailor it each time
Keep one master version and change only the details for each client: names, dates and the first steps. Update it when you notice clients asking the same question again. That question belongs in the packet.
A welcome packet you can edit and send today. The Client Welcome Packet comes in four editions, for designers, videographers and photographers, social media managers and agencies. Each covers how working together goes, the timeline, feedback and approvals, payment, office hours and response times, and the first questions to answer before you start.
View in the StoreFrom the Stelaah Store
- ✓Client Welcome Packet. A four-page client welcome packet in Word and PDF, in four editions, that tells a new client how working together goes, the timeline, approvals and how to pay.
- ✓From Yes to Paid Starter Bundle. A bundle of five client-work kits for freelancers: email scripts, a welcome packet, a contract of your choice, invoice, quote and proposal templates, and a client onboarding system.
- ✓Free Client Onboarding Kit. A free client onboarding kit in Word and PDF: an onboarding checklist, intake questionnaire, kickoff agenda, welcome email and offboarding checklist.
We build Stelaah and the Stelaah Store. These guides cover the everyday problems our planners, kits and tools are made for, in plain steps you can use with or without them.
