Category: Business
Boomerang – Making Gmail and Google Apps Easier
by
All of my email accounts are either Gmail or Google Apps. I’m firmly in the Google camp. I don’t even use an email client on the desktop, I happily use [MailPlane][mail] ([Appstore][mailapp]). You can read [my review of Mailplane][mailrev] if you’re really interested in why I use it. Today I want to point you at
A Company Culture I Might Enjoy
by
Yes I think that 99% of businesses suck and it’s unlikely I’ll work for most people (on full time contract or as an employee) but Valve seems like a place that might suit, at least judging from their [employee manual][man] > It’s our shorthand way of saying that we don’t have any management, and nobody
Chasing Payment Sucks
by
Getting work done is one thing, but getting paid for that work is way more important. > Later that day, she emailed me asking if I knew what was wrong with her website. I emailed her back that it was probably sad she didn’t pay me. It would cheer up after the invoice with the
What Does a Meeting Cost
by
I hate meetings. Well that may not be quite accurate, I hate meetings that waste my time and about 90% of meetings in the corporate world are a waste of time. At one place I worked I forced the boss to take something off my TODO list for every meeting I was supposed to attend,
Meshing with Employment
by
I don’t mesh well with full-time employment. Be it onsite with someone or on contract still working from home. While I have a few ideas about exactly why I had not looked at it from [this perspective][cook] before. > There are a lot of companies that want short-order cooks, they want implementers and builders to
Building a Crib Sheet for Client Calls
by
I like to schedule all the time I spend on the phone with clients. That allows me to refresh the points to talk about and be properly prepared for the call. Being prepared like that is not possible when a new client call you out of the blue though, unless of course you build a
Working Freelance or in a Company?
by
Riding today I got to hear the [Ruby Freelancers podcast][rfp] talk about business. What stuck out to me was their stance on working for yourself (freelance) or taking a job with company. Each of the hosts talked about freedom being the biggest thing that keeps them working for themselves. Late last year and early this
Time Estimating Fairytale Land
by
Like many programmers, I often live in project time estimating fairy tale land. I think that everything will go as planned and of course I’ll bill 6 hours each day. The fact is that life happens and when life happens, often work doesn’t happen. Another common mistake made when estimating software development centers on the
Getting Work in the Door with Business Marketing Ideas
by
Every business needs to get work through the door, but the livelihood of the solo freelancer depends on it. Work for a freelancer comes really based on building your reputation for quality work. Without good business marketing you’re probably not going to be brining in the work you want and it’s going to take a
