Question

WordPress isn’t something I decided to specialize in, it just sort of evolved. My first introduction to the software was with putting together this blog. In the months before leaving my old 9to5, I came home every night and spent hours at the computer slowly teaching myself WordPress and building what was version1.0 of the CMD+Shift Design blog. It was late 2007, I was working with WordPress Version 2.3 — which when I think about it now it was pretty primitive compared to what we know as WordPress today!

Time Lapse from Late 2007 of me learning WordPress and building V1.0 of the blog in the hours after my “9to5″ workday was over.

As I worked with the software more and with the big upgrade to features that version 2.5 brought, I was very excited about how vertistile WordPress could be and naturally started selling it to clients. It is not a solution for every type of site, but it is much more than just a blogging platform, for sure!

What I like most about it is how easy it is for my clients to use! Whenever I do a WordPress project I always include a tutorial session at the close of the process. The client has a chance to sit down with the software and get walked through how they will update and maintain their new website. As the software evolves more and more, it has just gotten easier and these sessions rarely last more than a half hour.

Over the last month, I have even opted to make screencast tutorials for my clients  — in a 10 minute video I can walk them through all they need to know and they have that to reference back to whenever they need it! There are also some great resources for helping your clients get familiar with the software, like WordPress.tv.

I remember the days when having a content management system was an expensive process that was still not very simple for a casual user to pick up and for the most part — websites were fully static creations, meaning if you wanted to change something, you had to edit the code. I’ve dealt with teaching clients how to do basic HTML editing, it was awful! No client should have to deal with that stuff, they have businesses to run and they shouldnt have to shell out my hourly rate everytime they need some contact info changed.

Content manegement systems put the power into you clients hands so that they can grow their business in an efficient way and it ensures that the integrity of the design you have created with them is not compromised by any code blunders along the way.

WordPress isn’t the only game in town, there is a bunch of great CMS’s out there that can do a variety of unique things for you unique projects! There is Joomla, Drupal, Expression Engine, Movable Type, Magento, CushyCMS, CMS Made Simple and a lot more. Download and install and just try one out, see what it can do and think about how it may benefit your clients and you business!

What really excited me about what Kendal put together is she took some of the aspects of my “look” really distinguish me — my bangs, my cat-eye glasses, my black clothes, my wristband and used them to turn me into a character! It boils me down to an iconic image that communicates who I am in a more easily recognizable way that a photograph (which can often be deceiving.) How cool is that? Turning myself into a character proved itself to be more than just a novelty yesterday when I had a coffee shop meeting with a new client. She looked my way and immediately exclaimed “Liz! You look exactly like your Twitter icon, it’s spot on!”

AWESOME!  :)

I don’t work weekends.

From Friday evening through Monday morning my home office stands untouched (unless my cat sneaks atop the desk to chew on a pencil – the little bugger!) I have a separate laptop for personal use, like laying on my couch watching youtube videos or making mixed CD’s. If you were to call my work phone on a Saturday evening — you’d hear my outgoing message informing you of my regular office hours and that the office is currently closed and many of you who follow me on Twitter even know — my stream slows a bit as the work week comes to an end.

I don’t work weekends, Except For When I do.

I’m not going to lie, I do check in on email at least a couple times a day — But (perhaps it is because I’ve already set the standard with my clients,)  I rarely GET emails and never get phone calls on weekends!

Now, there are exceptions. If a client has an expedited project with me, I work whatever hours are needed to finish the job on time — weekend, holiday, day or night. If I commit to doing a rushed project and my client pays the additional fees involved — I am at their beck and call until we finish. Also… while I never tell a client I will be working on their project over the weekend and I never promise any deliverables during my days off — sometimes I work cause I just like to! …I love what I do and it can be a lot of fun, so sometimes I am typing up a style sheet at 9PM or laying out a blog comment form on a Sunday morning. But, shhh… don’t let my clients know. ;)

Family > Business

If you love what you do so much, why don’t you work weekends?

I love what I do, yes — but even more… I love my family and spending time with them (and my friends — which I group in that “family” label.) is something I value. Doing work you love is important, but having people to share your life with — there isn’t anything more important than that!

Over-Time is Over-Rated

But if you work more hours, you could make more money and build your business faster!

In some cases this may be true. But, the general rule that working more hours means you get more done, is bullshit.

At my old 9to5, I spent the better part of my 4 years with the company skipping lunch breaks, logging 50 – 60 hour average weeks. I took work home, I worked on weekends and eventually… as you might have guessed — I got burnt out! I started having terrible anxiety problems, I gained about 30lbs as a result of skipping meals and binge eating before bed. I found myself overworked and under appreciated. And then one day, I decided to change that.

You’re thinking “Oh! This is the part where she quits!” No.. no…  by the time I left to start my business I had actually found myself in a much healthier situation at my former post. The reason for THAT is because I made a conscious decision to stop with all the extra hours. I deleted all my work files from my home computer, deactivated office email from coming to my house. I started eating lunch (mostly) everyday and made it a regular habit to be out of the office no later than 6PM. After a week of this, I was amazed that instead of getting less done — I was getting MORE done! I felt less burnt out and happier, I was more productive! Since I knew my time at the office was limited, I worked smarter and prioritized tasks in a more efficient way. I was logging a fraction of the hours and getting the same amount (if not more) work done!

My Final Thought

So there you go… I don’t have some crazy secret strategy on getting more client leads… just a glimpse at how and why I do (or don’t do) the things I do. Is my logic on this warranted or do you think it’s in spite of this practice that I’m staying in business?

I’m not bragging here — and I’m not some mythical freelance fantasy. Having awesome clients isn’t much about luck, but more about defining the client base you are after and not being afraid to turn down work with clients who are not desirable to you.

OK, i know — we’re in a tough economy! One cannot turn down an honest dollar! But, I tell you… if I worked as cheaply as 85% (that may be a bit of hyberbole,) of the people who email me wanted, I would work four times the hours each week and make a quarter of the money! How do I spot and weed out these less than amazing clients?

Streamline your Inquiry System

While my portfolio site does have a prominent phone number available, most make their first approach to me via the small contact form — they are able to specify that they are looking to get a  quote and have space for sharing some details about their design needs.

By using a simple Google Mail Filter set up, I am able to track each quote request that comes in from my website, making responding to each a much more productive task. I will usually check in on these about 3 times a week and follow up accordingly. My follow up system has also been streamlined over time, mainly because of the large number of exremely vauge inquiries. Who else gets stuff like this;

”I need a website, how much will that be?”

I actually have a canned response for these that sends out a list of questions about the clients business, industry and specific needs, budget and deadlines. My first lesson I learned here? Most people who cannot be bothered to write a proper inquiry are not very serious about the project at hand. This simple step of following up with some questions weeds out a large percentage.. so … for those who follow up with a response?

Define Your Pricing and Policies

Clients who are asking for you to quote them on something WANT to know a price. Don’t be shy! Too many of us get weird talking about money, but it’s something you have got to get over. I rarely work on an hourly rate, usually define a project price. So once I have a general idea of what my client is looking for — I can get them an estimate. This is based on my experience with previous projects that may have been similar, and that clients particular needs. I send them a quote and if at this stage the project seems even a tiny bit undefined, I let them know that the pricing is based on the information they have supplied — if the scope of the project needs to expand, we can adjust the price accordingly.

Clients who make it with me through the quoting step… go on to be one of my prized clients — the rest fall into a few categories…

The Disappearing Client

This is easy. Some dissappear after I email asking for more information about thier needs… but some hold on and then disappear after I send them a quote. Is it outside of thier budget? Did they just change thier mind? Who knows — these ones never respond. They disappear into the client abyss.

There is a small subset of the Disappearing Client, they do follow up to let you know they will “let you know” or that they will be starting the project “down the road.” 99.9% of this subset will never be heard from again, but that small sliver of them — they DO come back. I’ve had people write back and say flat out ”I want to work with you, but don’t have this in my budget right now. I’ll contact you once I do!” …and then one day, they do! (yay!)

The Cheapskate

Unfortunately, this category seems to be a crowded one and I have heard it all. “I was hoping to get something for about $200.” or “I watched a youtube tutorial on Dreamweaver and already did all the design and development myself, but the navigation looks weird on my husbands computer and I just need a blog added. Could you just fix what I have here? It shouldn’t be more than a few minutes work.”

Look. I am a small business too. I don’t own a home (I don’t even own a car!), I do not have a fancy office or a staff of hundereds. I understand that you have to be smart about the money you spend when you’re starting out… but I would never say anything like this to someone who I am looking to do legitament work for me that is going to help grow my business. For these folks, be polite — but you can tell them “thanks, but no thanks.”

And then there is…

“I saw this design here and I like it a lot, can you do my site JUST like this, but with my logo – of course!”

…Oh yes, of course, because otherwise that would be stealing! No. I can not will not do that.

“This is not in my budget, but maybe you could just walk me through my current website and let me know what you would suggest I change about each page to make it look a little nicer and be more user-friendly and then I can just have my grandson who likes computers do it for me.”

…Sure. This is called Consulting… here is my hourly rate for that type of work.

“I really like the work on your website, but could you mock up what you would do for me so I can see if I like it first?”

If you like my work, you can hire me to work with you on a design. I wor really hard to make sure my clients are happy (no, THRILLED) with the product they get from me — but if you find it isn’t working out with us, here is my policy on canceling a project…

My Final Thought

I don’t usually rant on this blog and I really dislike those who talk shit about their clients. But, here’s the magic — these aren’t my clients… and I intend to keep it that way.

I have 3 Superstars enabled the Red, Yellow and Green. (You starting to see where I am going here?)

Emails I have read and need to reply to or follow up with by sending back something, I mark with a green star. If I have an email that I want to keep in my radar, but I am not ready to reply to just yet (waiting for more information before a reply is ready or something like that), those get marked with yellow. Red gets used only when there is no need to reply to the email at all – but the email may hold some information relevant to something I am working on. I want it easily visible, but it required no action perse.

I know this system isn’t rocket science, but in the last few weeks that I have been using it, I haven’t had emails fall through the cracks or those situations where you thought you had replied and then a week later get a “you still there?” from your client.

This also saves time, since I am not re-examining read emails to make sure I’m on top of them. I can do a quick glance at my inbox and see by the stars what needs to get done!

Do you have any simple tricks you use that make a big difference in your work day? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

It was a very big week for me, I am finally moving forward on a much needed upgrade for my office. A new Mac Book Pro and my very own shiny new copy of Adobe CS5 Design Premium! I put the order in and today (just a few moments ago,) the first package arrived. (see photo above, this is not a pose – I was seriously THAT excited.)

I’m still only in the early stages of my business — I’ve been reluctant to spend, in favor of growing capital and it’s been tight. It feels good to finally reward all my long hours and hard work with new tools (toys!) that are going to make my work that much more enjoyable.

Sorry for the lull in posting lately. Last week I spent a quick (but very fun) visit down to San Francisco to see my nephew graduate from High School. I was only in town for less than 30 hours, but managed to pack every second with laughs and food consumption (it’s what me and my brothers do best!)

Upon my return to the office it was time to wrap up a project I started a few weeks back with a local non-profit organization called, The Healing Center. I usually don’t post on my blog about client projects, but I’m mixing it up a bit and also this is inspiration for a post I want you guys to help me out with!

It was a great experience working with The Healing Center, they are a grief support community for children, teens and familes in the Seattle area and their founders are a group of creative and hardworking women! Check out their brand spankin’ new site and if you have a little love to share (in the $$$ form, send it their way – they will put it to good use!)

Have you done any work with a non-profit or charity organization (either pro-bono or at a discounted rate.) Send me links or images of the finished project and share with us about the experience!

Submit your responses via this Wufoo form and I will compile them all into a post later this month! :)

First, why I prefer Google mail to other set ups…

Storage Space, Archiving and Ease of Access

Having your emails in the cloud (stored on Google’s servers that you access via the internet) means you don’t have to worry about storage space on your local drive. Like many Google Mail users, I never delete anything! Having a full archive of your emails comes in handy! Just yesterday a client emailed me because he had accidentally deleted a font off of his system that was essential to his brand. He had remembered emailing me that file about a year ago when we did some work together and sure enough, I still had the email and the attached font that I forwarded along to him within a couple minutes.

If cloud storage makes you nervous, don’t be — Google Mail allows for you to download and make a local backup of all your emails! (I do this about once a month, just in case.) While having a backup of my messages on a local drive is reassuring, keeping my correspondence in the cloud allows me to have access to my mail anywhere an internet connection is, no mater if I have my computer with me!

Setting Up Google Mail with your Domain

This is simple, I promise — but first let’s make sure you have all your ingredients…

• a domain name (This is your websites address (i.e, cmdshiftdesign.com) if you don’t already own one, they got good prices at godaddy.com)
• web hosting (This is where your website lives. If you don’t already have this, I am very happy with my home at Dreamhost. I have also had good experiences with MediaTemple and BlueHost. Just don’t host your website with Network Solutions if you can avoid it.

So — when you first go to the Google Apps page, the options seem limited. But.. there is a free option! Choose Google Apps for Business and then click the Apps Editions menu and choose Standard. This doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Premium edition, but for most of us is MORE than enough!

Click get started and follow the set up guide. Once you enter in your domain name and some basic information, you will choose your first email address (but you can have up to 50.)Next you will have to verify that the domain you specified is infact YOURS. The easiest option for this just involves creating an html file and uploading it to your root directory.

Goolgle will take a couple minutes to check on that and once it does you are in with one small step left!

On your main dashboard, under Email, you will need to click the configure option — Google will have here specific directions on changing the MX settings with the host you are using. Just login to that account and follow the step by step instructions.

After this, it can take up to 30 minutes for all the dust to settle, but then you are good to start sending and receiving at your new address! :)

Art, at least art as i define it, is the intentional act of using your humanity to create a change in another person. - Seth Godin, Linchpin (page 99)

Discuss.