Tips for self-employed going on holidays

Lots of warning

Let clients know as long as humanly possible before-hand that you’re going away. If you can, arrange deadlines up to a month before– no project goes according to plan, and having some extra time will help you wrap things up.

Arrange trustworthy replacements

For big projects, it’s not always possible to just leave things in place until you get back.  If the client is happy to, use other freelancers you’ve worked with before and bring them onboard at least a week before.  If you’ve not worked with them before, try to do a small project with them a few months before.

I was lucky enough to get Pete from FoamCow to work on one of my bigger projects while I was away.  I know he’s good and flexible and we were able to get through a small portion of the website before I left.  It meant I didn’t have to worry about anything until I got back.

For other projects, I left them in the capable hands of Jena, who now works with Capra.  She was in contact with my biggest active clients, and could check things out if the Capra website went down. Capra was still earning while I was away too– meaning I didn’t have to absorb expenses with future work.  With all this help, I have returned to only a small mountain of work to get through, and it feels less daunting!

Don’t bring your computer

If you can arrange your clients well, it’s best to leave your computer at home.  The temptation for work-a-holics is to obsessively check to make sure everything is okay.  The reason you’re going on a holiday is to get away from things!  So get away!

A time to step back

When you’re working, sometimes you’re so focused on the every day that the bigger picture gets a bit lost.  When I came back I began to focus on what I want Capra to be all about, and will be working hard to make it that way.  Stay tuned for some new stuff coming very soon!

(About the holiday)

Ollie and I went to Sri Lanka for our friends wedding.  While I suffered from some brutal stomach problems, I had a great time– highlights included the wedding (our friends looked amazing!), the elephant orphanage, white water rafting and A LOT of doing nothing!  We are glad to be back though, and England is beautiful in the snow!

So when I saw this surfing goat, of course I thought it was the coolest.  Goatee is my hero. I may be obsessed with my dog, but this is making me want to get a goat friend for Kenny even more!

Goatee is on facebook.

Read the Goatee story here.

(The owner, Dayna McGregor, is also selling t-shirts to sponsor buying goats for needy families.  You get a t-shirt if you sponsor.  If you would like to join in, read more about that on his website.)

So, after wallowing in self pity and a bit of wine, we redid it this year, with fresh illustrations and a new UI process.  It’s launch day today, so time will tell if our hunches were right, but already today we’ve had more hits than for all of last December.  Here’s a bit about what we changed.

Logging in first sucks

Last year, we wanted to avoid spam and allow people to reuse and edit their cards.  So, we integrated with a login from facebook.  Big mistake.  By not allowing people to play with the card maker before asking for their facebook login, we lost loads of potential people before we even started.

Don’t overengineer it

It takes 10 seconds to decorate a new tree, so we stripped features out:  You no longer could have a list of your cards, except via url you got in the email once we sent it.  Once you sent it, no more editing.  So far, no complaints!

Emphasize its free-ness

Many people are a bit weary about apps online, because they worry that they’ll have to pay something.  This app is a Christmas present to the world, but I think the old version didn’t make it clear that it was free.  Now it’s in headlines.  Hopefully that helps!

It’s still not perfect

Ahhh, twitter.  The best way to test a design!  So far people have been great and the tweaks that we’ve made because of their feedback has been invaluable.  Thank you to all the opinionated folks I know over there.  You rock.

Some people have pointed out that they didn’t understand why there were two versions of every ornament.  That was a personal choice in order to have more decorating options!  Sometimes you do things just because you want to!   It’s a work in progress…

Stay tuned!

We’re trying out  some google ads (yay free credits!) and few facebook ads to see how the general public get along with it.  Hopefully everyone will enjoy decorating the trees and we will get some good data that will help us become even better app designers.  Any feedback is greatly appreciated, as well as ideas for next year! Try out Mr. Snowflakes here.

Technically, we’re looking for:

• A full-bodied understanding of html/css, with some knowledge of html5 and css3
• An ability to take a design and apply it to other pages
• A good knowledge of photoshop, and a good design eye
• Some basic jquery would be nice
• Some experience with source control (such as subversion or git) is a plus
• Likes to learn new technology tools

Non-technically, we’re looking for:

• An enthusiasm for learning
• An ability to follow direction, but also shows lots of initiative to get things done
• Can commute to Eversley, Hampshire (RG27) and Liphook, Hampshire (GU30)
• Must love dogs, as Kenny is an employee

A little bit more

You’d be working at both the Eversley and Liphook locations. We’re both very small teams, so we’re looking for someone who will learn quickly and soon be better than us at their job!  Of course, since it’s an apprenticeship, we don’t expect you to be an expert yet, and training and improving will be a huge component to the position. There’s a chance after 3 months, that we could take you on longer.  So, if you’re enthusiastic, and have a portfolio, please contact us.

Tell us

1. Why you think you’d work well with us (we like compliments, so be specific!)
2. What your favourite colour is and why?
3. What’s your favourite browser, from the perspective of coding css, and why?

Please contact us from here or get in touch via twitter.

I think most people agree that Steve did something extra special.  I know he did for me: I fell in proper love with computers, graphic design  when my family spent $5000 on a Mac LC3 when I was around 12 years old, after my uncle, a great photographer, convinced us all that Apple was the way to go. Soon I was routing through preferences, designing magazines and drawing pretty well (even now I’m impressed) with Aldus.  I spent hours on it, so much so, that the family computer became MY computer.

In high school we had the bubble macs in our labs; I learned photoshop, illustrator and html, staying until 10pm some nights to work on the yearbook.

In university, I worked at the newspaper, and we all had macs.  When I bought my first computer of my own, it was a macbook.  Now, my whole job is on my mac.

Steve, you’ve been with me through thick and thin.  I wish for 1/10 of your drive, creativity and ambition.  Rest in peace.

The problem I end up having is that every day ends and the workload never seems to get smaller.  Why does each day fill up with nothing, and I end up with some days where the amount of real design or code that I input seems smaller than it should?  Often it comes from people whom I haven’t trained to respect my time.  Here’s some things I work on, and struggle with, when dealing with clients.

No to requests when unscheduled

We all do it; a client, who you’ve asked if they need some of your time, and they say no. Then they come and want us to do this ‘little thing’, even though you’re not scheduled to work with them, and you’ve made it clear that you’re now booked up.  So you do it. You may or may not charge them for it, and it makes you feel like a good person, one that takes care of their clients.

The problem is, caving for one, means you cave for many. And often. And they’ll expect it. What happens then is the clients that planned ahead and booked your time are pushed back by the manic, unorganized clients. This means you’re not doing your best work for your best clients. This can’t be a good thing.

What to do instead

Tell these clients your next block of time, for eg, in three days time you can give them an hour, or next week when you can give them 3. With decent clients, blowing them off until next month is not good for business, but letting them know that you can give them a small block within a week or two, followed by booking in your time properly in 2 months will leave them less disgruntled. This sets their expectations right, and it will force them to be more organized in knowing when they will need your time and booking ahead.  It also means that you can give the proper attention to those who deserve it the most.

No to the leeches

I’ve wasted hours and days helping out former clients and friends with their technical hosting problems (where I have only a small amount of knowledge) or website problems (where I have lots), when I have paid work waiting, and other deadlines looming. The problem here is often this type of help often uncovers deeper issues with whatever they’re working on, or what they’ve done to mess things up.  Before you know it, half a day is gone, you’re no where closer to fixing their problem, and you’re resentful.

What to do

It’s hard to say no to these people, as they always come up with smooth reasoning, or seem so desperate, so I have a policy to not take on friend’s problems unless they are my best friends or my mom. Many people think because I make my own hours that I can just take time out of my day to help them (for free, of course). That’s unfair– I wouldn’t ask a friend to take a 1/2 day off work because I’m too cheap to pay for something myself (don’t say that to them like that though, or you’ll have a lot less friends!).

Keep a list of contacts that are excellent at fixing computers and websites, and when someone asks, and expects help right there and then, let them know that you have a completely booked week, and unfortunately can’t help them until 3 weeks time (if you can tell them you’ll have to charge for it, that would be even better). Then offer your list of help, with approximate rates (sneak in that your rates are the same), and let them know that you highly recommend them. These people don’t value that your time costs you money, so even if you have to be a bit harsh, it’s better than wasting days.  Again, you’re taking time away from people that don’t value it, and giving it back to the people who do.

No to emails or unscheduled calls

Every once and a while I’ll get a small client who seems to think I want to hear their whole train of consciousness.  They’ll send me a few emails a day, with a line or two, or maybe a question.  These ones are easy to respond to: just do an email daily answering all their questions, suggesting to them that they keep an email draft with their compiled questions on it, so that it would be easier for you to make sure you have answered all of them.

Others have this great habit I like to call ‘email and notify via skype’.  They send me an email, and I see the notification (via growl) and before 5 seconds have passed, I receive something like this via skype:  ”I’ve just sent you an email.  Let me know when you’ve read it and you want to discuss.”  Others have no skype etiquette and will skype call me without confirming that I’m not busy, and that it’s okay to speak.

One of the biggest problems with productivity is interruption.  How can I do a great design, or code something up efficiently if I’m being interrupted, especially by a message letting me know I have an email? I leave skype on because I work with some colleagues remotely and it’s a great way to keep connected.  I have no problem with clients talking to me on skype, in fact it’s a great way to keep connected and share ideas.

What to do

Because skype is an instantaneous thing, I will often respond to such skype texts with, “Thanks, I will have a look a bit later!”  This lets them know that I’m not ready to discuss quite yet.

To unannounced skype calls, I will decline the call, and let them know that I cannot speak right then, but give them a time when I can.  The key here is to make the client understand that you are busy, possibly working on their project even, and would like them to respect that.  If you always respond and communicate immediately, they begin to believe that you’re at their beck and call and you’re only steps away from their 2am call when they have a question.

No is not really no.  It’s not now.

If you’re like me, you like to be busy, and you work hard, long hours.  Your clients respect that you work long hours too, and for the most part you get along great.  When you take a bit of time to address a few of the bad habits clients and others have with demanding your time and attention, you not only regain your time, but also claim their respect for your time and attention.  It means you want to work harder for your good clients, and will produce more of your best work, which is really what they want, right?

Having the opportunity to get a dog is one of the perks of running your own business.  Because the dog can hang out with you all day, it’s not cruelly locked away in a crate while you’re at work.  But it’s far better than that.  Here are just some of the benefits so far of having Kenny around:

More time outdoors

When you work on computers, it’s really easy to go the whole day without a ray of sunshine.  The  stereotype of the pasty computer person who gets no exercise has definitely been true for me!  Kenny and I have a lunch time walk, which is good for both of us to get some exercise and step away from work.  And I top up my vitamin D.

More breaks

Anyone who does creative work knows that having a break every hour or so can be great for finding solutions that have eluded you as you sit for hours and hours not accomplishing anything.  Just as many find creativity in the shower, having a play with your dog is a great way to come back to your work fresh.

More adventures

In the past few weeks I have seen more of my surrounding countryside than in the whole year before.  When you’re building a business and trying to get things done, it’s easy to get lazy about going out.  Exploring your local forests is a great way to de-stress and appreciate what a beautiful country I live in!

Less ‘doing nothing’

I often find myself sitting at my computer even when I’m not working, “Putting in time”.  This is completely inefficient, and I find I spend my time working much better now: I actually get MORE done, in much less time.

Less partying

Days of feeling less than rosy after going out and having drinks are now a rarity:  the pup isn’t ready for long hours in his crate, so it means I get home at a decent hour.

All day company

It’s well documented that those working home by themselves can end up feeling lonely.  With a dog though, it’s very social.  Not only do we hang out together, we also meet and talk to our neighbours, and there’s nothing like a dog for striking up a conversation with other dog owners and dog lovers, especially if your dog loves meeting new people too.

Carefree zone

After dealing with difficult clients, it’s so great to be with a creature that wants nothing more than to be happy, play and run.  I can feel my blood pressure going down already!

The dark side

Pups need lots of training to make sure they don’t bite or jump up (especially on children) and can’t be left alone for too long.  So, if you have client meetings, you’ll having to hire a dog walker to come a few times in the day.  You also have to make sure you work really hard to teach them good manners when they’re little.  If you’re busy and working 100 hour weeks, it will be hard for you to give your pup the attention and socialization it needs!

Even though I told them that there was no guarantee that I would get things right, they insisted that I get it done.  So, I designed the document, and showed them what it would look like.  When they were happy, I prepped the document with a 5mm bleed as is standard in printing to edges.  I explained to the client why, and they said, “No, remove the bleed”.  After another explanation, and no dice, I said, “Please ask your printing company about their policy on bleed.”

Their sales rep said, “No bleed necessary”.

The customer is right, right?

Finally I gave in, and produced the final print document without a bleed.  The next day, I received a forwarded email from their printing staff saying that the file was the wrong size. FINALLY I was dealing with someone who understood, and they sent me a specifications document.  In it: Bleed required (at 3mm). (Don’t even get me started on the fact that a printing company employs sales reps that won’t give people spec documents and don’t understand what a bleed is.  Grrr.)

What I learned from all this

1. If you can, cut the client out of the printing conversation:  if you can deal directly with the printing company, knowledge that you have (and your client is paying for) doesn’t need to be transfered through multiple people.
2. Show clients what the final version where they will see what it will look like, not the press-ready version.
3. Get the specification document as soon as possible: often by the time the design is signed off, it’s urgently needed, so you don’t want to spend over a week changing things and learning how to upload them to your printer.
4. Have your own printing company that you know and trust. That way, you don’t waste time figuring out how they do things!

How about you?

Have you got any tips for me to make printing jobs easier?

Design Usability & content

As an industry, design is changing, and the talks all focused around these three components of design meant that pixel pushing is a secondary skill.

Here are the highlights I took from my favourite speakers:

Brian Suda tells us to “tell one story and one story only” when we’re visualizing data, and asks us to strive to make data more engaging and fun.  He also makes a point of studying usability on colours and other visualization methods. How will his colour graphics reproduce on a kindle?  He then takes weather to make logos, and seismic activity to make art.  Why shouldn’t these things have deeper meaning? Hopefully he shares his svg code with us so we can all play some more!

Jeremy Keith asks us to see the web as one– steering us away from viewing mobile and desktop (of varying sizes) as different beasts, and realizing that we never had control over a website’s size. He asks us to focus on content first, and let go of all this pixel perfect nonsense.  While I agree in theory, I still think branding and styles have a role to play.

Jared Spool challenges us to spend at least 2 hours every 6 weeks watching our users interacting with our designs.  He goes through studies that he’s done that gave surprising results, and we were all on board.  He talked at length about a staircase of knowledge, and making sure getting people from current knowledge to the required knowledge to do what they wanted to do.  He made us think about what happens when we move things around for people and how we turn them into novices once again.  He was by far the funniest most engaging speaker at the conference, it’s just too bad his slides were white text on light green.  Maybe he should have done a 2 hour usability testing on his slides!

Jeffery Zeldman took us on a crazy rollercoaster through the creation of the web and looks closely at how much more important content is.  He said it’s now our responsibility to make sure the content is good, and often times we have to create some initial copy to get the client started. Death to Lorem Ipsum! This is something I already do for most of my clients; I often pre-write, copyedit and lead clients through content structure. We’re both happier that way, and we’ll call in a real copyeditor when necessary. He talked about what it meant to be a web designer these days  and makes it clear that knowing semantic markup for web designers is a fundamental job skill. I totally agree– to work on web design, you should know the basics on how it is going to be built and should be able to say to anyone “this is an h1, h2, ol, etc”.

Build it?

The problem with a two streamed conference is that if you’re interested in all the design talks, you don’t get a chance to see the dev track presentations.  I did go and see Jake Archibald talk about @font-face and learned a lot about how different browsers deal with fonts.  Unfortunately, even though his presentation was brilliant, I was left disheartened by the fact that I’m still going to get flickering and inconsistencies between browsers despite my efforts.

The other great thing about a two track program is that you mix the designers and developers together. While I know some great designers, developers are great to talk to, and usually have the best ideas about making things work.  There’s no question that more of my partnerships are with developers as we have the compatible skills to bring something to life.

Grow it!

We heard from designers and developers on the day, but some of the most useful information often comes from those people that are experts in fields you know little about.  Hearing from FreeAgent‘s founder Roan Lavery was amazing.  I am a huge FreeAgent fan, and hearing about their successful referral programme and the problems you get when you try and keep things simple was great.

I was also impressed with Jonathan Gold, the investment banker from Rivers Capital (who invest in English businesses… Yay local!).  Good on him for coming and telling us straight what they do.  Our industry is notoriously weary of investment bankers, but he seemed genuine and down to earth.

It’s all about getting results.

It turns out it’s most important it is to design and build with care. It seemed less about trying out new technologies and more about the best and most effective ways to stun and impress users without overwhelming them with features.  The combination of business skills with designing and developing show that DIBI is thinking holistically about our professions.  Hopefully this will mean that we will all be more careful to take everything into consideration.  DIBI is highly recommended as a one-day excursion to rejuvenate your enthusiasm for designing building and growing your businesses.  Well done to Gavin Elliott and team for putting on a great conference!

Just like your garden, creative people should rotate their projects, or they burn out

Projects shouldn’t all be the same

Vegetable plants have different needs: beans fix nitrogen into the soil, and then plant your broccoli. Rotation also stops disease as vegetables planted in the same place year on year can build up bad bits in their soil.  Unless you can afford a lot of manure, the soil should also have a rest, in order to make it ready for producing beautiful crops the next time.

Just like your garden, as a creative person, you need different types of projects for gaining different types of skills and should make an effort to work on them at different times of the year. You will burn out if you take on one ultra challenging project followed by another and another.  A happy mix of challenging /exciting/money making/ straight forward/ and then a break is the best way to keep you fresh.

Prevent disease and keep your skills healthy

What happens when a designer works day after day, month after month on the same thing? They lose the ability to be creative, stop being able to draw as well, which in turn leads to stagnating talent. They stop coming up with creative ideas, stop challenging their skills and don’t improve.

So, just as if you plant the same crop in your garden season after season your soil sours and you’re riddled with disease, designers sour too, if they don’t make sure they take time to work on their own thing. This could include…

• Working on personal projects
• Taking a day off
• Reading about influential new ideas
• Exploring the rest of the world for inspiration
• Meeting like-minded, talented people
• Writing their own blog entries (hello!) to solidify opinions
• Try out new technologies

Happy gardening!

I love gardening and web designing, and every day I see the lessons I learn while gardening relate to the work I do in web design. This is the second in a series of short posts on similarities between gardening and web design business. Read the first post, Don’t sow more than your space allows. If you have any good gardening analogies, please let me know for future entries!