How do you plan to catch the obvious?
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Many of you are just like me. You get up each day go to your computer and type. For some it’s writing, for some it’s code, for some it’s actually design. The point is that most of us spend a good chunk of the day mostly alone. You may have kids around and under foot…
June and July Reading
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Well my June reading post got a bit missed, it was written but I forgot to publish it. So today you get a combined June/July reading list. In June I went to BeachPress and I traveled home via bike which meant 700km of riding and lots of listening time. The first 3 books listed were…
Get more clients with your tone
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There once was a study at the University of Michigan[1]. This study divided participants up in to 3 groups which were all told the same basic story. You were originally given a ‘good faith’ quote of $14k on catering for a wedding you’re planning. Now 2 weeks later you’ve been told by the business manager…
Why go to a WordCamp
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Should you go to a WordCamp or not, that is the question. It’s one I certainly ask myself each time. While the tickets aren’t expensive all the travel is costly. Even my local WordCamp in Vancouver cost me $50 in travel and food to travel. Last time, I flew to Edmonton and stayed in a…
Losing Money with Honesty (it’s a trick)
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On a recent client project we had booked in a bunch of work to add ‘reordering’ to WooCommerce. Some of you are thinking: Hey there is already a function for that, so why would I charge a client for that work? Well I had looked at this before and either hadn’t found the code or…
Yes you can dishwash a keyboard, here’s how
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Today we’re going to deviate a bit from the regular business topics and talk about cleaning your keyboard. All prompted by a single photo on Twitter. https://twitter.com/curtismchale/status/497129093293277184 That is a Kinesis Freestyle V1 keyboard (which I reviewed) in the top rack of my empty dishwasher. Keyboards are filthy. We eat over them and use them…
Clients treat you poorly because of your boundaries
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Boundaries are a fairly simple thing really. They mark out where our property begins and someone else’s property ends. We have personal space boundaries that are allowably encroached by loved ones and strongly enforced with those we don’t know. We should also be setting strong boundaries with clients. Not only in when they can communicate…
Are you asking yourself these 3 questions before you write an estimate?
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To get work you need to send out estimates. Good ones should take a fair bit of time to get right. How do you structure your estimates though? How do you make them something that ‘sells’ the clients on your services? How do you make sure that you’ve covered the real needs of the clients,…
No I haven’t built ‘exactly’ your solution before, sort of
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If you haven’t heard it yet you’re going to hear it: We like you and are impressed with your portfolio, but we don’t see something exactly like what we want to do so we want to talk more about it. You know that you’re right. I haven’t built exactly your system before. And it doesn’t…
Why I don’t throw things in, and you shouldn’t either
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I know you’re expecting to read about how clients asking you to throw features in devalues your work. It shows you that they don’t value you and it’s a red flag about working with them, because there is always going to be one more thing that should get ‘thrown in’. You expect me to tell…
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