ON RATES
Every day I learn something new about what to charge clients and how to do it, depending on various tasks and logically on the project. In the last 12 months I think I’ve quadrupled my rates, which suggests that I was doing things really wrong to start with. Here’s a handy benchmark: Take what you need to earn in a month to cover your expenses, double it, then divide by 10. Make sure your daily rate isn’t any less than that number.
ON TIMING
I love working under pressure and time constraints I thrive under pressure regardless whether it was putting my STG77 together in the military or throwing together a last minute request on a specific presentation for work. The challenge to succeed for myself is awesome, however in normal conditions i tend to underestimate how long things are going to take. It’s so easy to estimate time for something but then fail to take into account that bugs will come up, clients will want revisions, and sometimes everything will go wrong. Nowadays I try to take every time estimate and add a little float, this tends to be much more reliable than working with something that you know is not achievable from the get-go.
ON MOTIVATION
You can’t control it, it comes and goes. If you aren’t feeling motivated at all but you really need to get work done, I’ve found that the most helpful thing possible is to fully take your mind off everything for 15 minutes. I take Athos for a walk and clear my head, at work I take a stroll around our campus and so forth. How you do this will be different for everyone, personally I try to get outside. Motivation goes along side discipline and your visions of accomplishment, but that’s for another post.
ON PRODUCTIVITY
Much like motivation, it’s a hard one to control. I’ve tried cutting out all distractions and keeping everything (twitter/skype/etc) “off” but it didn’t make me any more productive, it just put me in a bad mood. I’ve found that my productivity goes in cycles, so these days I’ve just learned to run with them keeping work-life balance in mind. I tend to have that feeling of “I should be working on x or y” when I’m on the road and sometimes slip into the “I don’t give a s***” mood at other times. Again, this ties into discipline, time management, constructive organization and regardless of ups and downs, I do think I have mastered the skill of multi-tasking, efficiency and organization allowing me to work efficiently and productively through various means. What do you need to improve?
ON CLIENTS
Some clients are better than others, but all clients come with challenges. Learn to accept them, and for god’s sake don’t slag off your clients on Twitter. I see so many people doing it and it really boggles my mind. Some people are preaching to their clients about how great and transparent Twitter is, and then talking about them like they’ll never read it. Madness.
ON MARKETING
Don’t be shy, talk to everyone. When I started my first company I would’ve been out of business within a month if it wasn’t for the fantastic network of peers that I’ve established. Make friends with people, because as has been said time and time again: It’s not what you know, but who you know. If you’ve ever wondered why some mediocre web designers get tons of big clients and magazine features – here’s your answer.
ON RED FLAGS
If a potential client offers you revenue instead of money, talks a lot about “an ongoing relationship”, tells you how bad their previous web designer was, or quibbles over payments or contracts… run a mile. Don’t be blinded by the fact that it might be a lot of money – with this sort of client you’ll probably never see a penny, as I discovered only too painfully myself.
ON DEVELOPING YOUR SKILLS
Never stop learning, always make sure you’re picking up something new, but try not to diversify too much. No one in the world is looking for a “graphic designer who can build adobe air applications and also has experience with Ruby on Rails” – it doesn’t happen. I focus purely on my skill set while slowly expanding on areas I don’t know for the sake of my own interest, not for business. That serves me me well.
ON GOALS
Set them, keep track of them, have a time limit, and review them. Try and make sure you’re always working towards something – my idea of hell is working for the sake of working, and living for the sake of living. I don’t want that, I want to do something with my life. That means never sitting still and just being content with something that’s easy.
ON SIDE PROJECTS
Do them and have fun with them. If you have an idea that you think could work – go for it. Don’t put it on the back-burner for later. Once you’ve done the first version, you’re far more likely to come back to it in the future.
ON EFFORT
Put 100% into everything. Half-hearted attempts at anything will get you nowhere.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
These are just some of the things that I’ve picked up in the last months or so, but what about you? Got any tips to share? Let me know below in the comments!
