Month: November 2012
Consultants are not Freaking Banks
by
One thing I rarely do is take on expenses for clients. That means if they need a plugin to run their site, they need to be responsible for purchasing the plugin and providing it to me. I don’t purchase it for them, unless they want to provide me with a credit card. Here’s Why Then…
Team Sky – Enforcing Omerta
by
With the whole Lance Armstrong thing blowing up in the cycling world teams are scrambling to make sure that they’re not going to get caught up any scandal in the future. Team Sky is the big name out right now. They’ve enforced a policy that any team member be it a rider or staff has…
Talk about Budgets in Order of Magnitude
by
Budgets are something that most beginning consultants/freelancers have a hard time talking about. When you’re first starting you just need work so you don’t want to scare any client away. I totally get that, priority #1 is feeding your family (or your dog) and there is no shame in doing a good job of that…
Run Away Estimate Costs
by
One of the biggest time sucks in consulting is estimating. One way to combat this would be to bill weekly, but as I said I don’t have a decent answer to some of the questions surrounding that. When Estimates Get Away Doing one estimate, and a single revision for a client isn’t an issue, that’s…
Your Workspace Can Make you a Better Programmer
by
Came across a great article on what factors make someone a great programmer. It’s not salary or years of experience. The best predictor of writing good code is having control of your work area and having a relatively private work area. I know that days my wife interrupts me often (and she is awesome at…
What Does Apple and the US Military Have in Common?
by
Probably the best thing I’ve read concerning the executive shake up at Apple, has nothing to do with technology companies at all. In fact, it doesn’t talk about tech at all. It’s an article about the failings of the US military in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The short version is that US Generals aren’t…
Decision Paralysis
by
With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the Eastern US, we got a bunch of solid rain and wind in Southern Ontario. My family was on vacation and our planned flight back to BC out of Kitchener got cancelled, but WestJet made the scene so unclear we were paralyzed with indecision. See on one hand we…
Credit Cards and Cigarettes
by
I came across a very interesting article on the US financial crash of 2008. It speaks to the confusing dealings of the major banks in the world. It tells a story of influence peddling on the back of the middle class. The middle class and poor of the world have continued to have less disposable…
Determining ebook Pricing
by
So I’m writing a short ebook on writing better WordPress code. Something like 10 Tips to Write Btter WordPress Code Next Month. The thing I’m wondering about is ebook pricing. Does Length = Price I know I want to charge $10 for the book but I keep coming back to how the user determines if…