1. A socially correcting blow delivered through the demonstration of superior technical knowledge. Denotes playful to serious disrespect for the person being geek slapped as they are just not worthy.

Examples: Shane complained that firefox kept putting œ in his words, which he claimed must be a bug as that character doesn’t even exist. Reid IM’ed him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Œ, then told him to change his spell-check dictionary back to English from French and to consider himself geek slapped.

Often I find that when pressures mount my first reaction is to defend myself.  Take, for example, a recent conversation between me and Reid.

Reid: Peter, when you have a moment, I could really use some dev support to spec out a small plugin for one of our clients.  It’ll only take an hour tops and would really help me a bunch.

Peter: I’ll get you some dev support as soon as our dev projects calm down in a couple of months.  We’re working as hard as we can and you’re not the only one who has need you know?  I mean I’ve barely slept in like 5 months and have started to BUY laundry and dishes instead of cleaning them because of these deadlines that we have to meet and oh my god you’re totally STRESSING ME OUT WITH YOUR INCESSANT DEMANDS!  CAN’T YOU SEE THAT WE’RE DOING EVERYTHING WE CAN? AHHHHHHHHH!

Reid: Um…  I’m sensing that this is not the best time to ask you about this.  When can we talk about this again?

Peter: I’m sorry Reid, I don’t mean to be wigging out so much.  I’m really not that stressed.  But I don’t know when I’ll be able to help more.  I appear to be double booked for every appointment i have over the next 6 weeks and I just can’t think about this right now.  I know it might not seem like it but I’m working really hard and you should know that I’m working hard, can’t you see that I’m working hard?  What more do you need from me?  AHHHHHHHHH!

Obviously this slightly dramatized interaction could be improved.  There are any number of ways to better address Reid’s request, but one stands out to me in particular: an open call for help (possibly paired with some anti-psychotics).

The Jedi Force

It’s a funny thing how people can transform when you invite them to join your side.  It’s the basis of Jujitsu (not that i’m any sort of expert on martial arts).  It’s a founding principal in any long lasting relationship.  It’s a fundamental approach to any conflict.  And above all, it’s my favorite tactic in addressing crowds of surfers.

In the conversation above, Reid makes a reasonable request.  I hear it as a threat to my already limited resources and defend myself.  Reid, with his supreme tact, sees through my defense and continues to approach from a helpful stand point.  If I was talking to anyone else and acting that defensive they would probably also become intensely defensive and we would start a fight.

This could have all been avoided and have a favorable outcome if I simply responded with something like this:

Peter: Reid, I’m under a lot of pressure to meet a bunch of dev deadlines right now.  For me to secure a resource for you I think I’m going to need some help.

At this point I’ve invited Reid to be on my side and work with me to find a solution. He’s on my team now so we’ll both work to find a mutually beneficial positive outcome

Realizing that this is a relatively silly example, I’d like to point out that this scenario can manifest in any number more significant situations.  Shane and I recently defended our contractual expectations against one of our clients at the expense of an otherwise mutually supportive dynamic.  As it turned out, all we really needed to do was to ask for help.  In my personal life, Lindsey and I have to relearn this lesson again and again with each other.

Cheers In the Sea

When I go surfing I’ve come to adopt a strategy of cheering people on and openly offering waves to people sitting next to me.  The effect is that I become a friend.  When a wave comes my way, I don’t feel like I have to fight for it.  People turn and flag me in and cheer me on in turn.  My life is better when I can help people feel good and maintaining transparency.

Love without Arms

Lindsey and I have had our share of relationship challenges.  From day 1 until now, 11 years later, we’ve overcome our biggest and smallest challenges alike by asking each other for help.

Recently I was growing frustrated by an increasing share of responsibility in our family.  My calls for help were buried in aggressive and disparaging comments.  At some point I got really upset and in the process set Lindsey’s defenses off.  At that point we are fighting each other all the time.  Life sucks when we’re always upset.

I wish it had occurred to me earlier.  All I needed to do was to ask for help; to appeal to Lindsey’s compassionate side.  The moment I let her know that all I needed was some help, she jumped onto my team and we launched into a coordinated effort to breath joy and passion into our lives.

Wanna be Right or Happy?

Maybe you can be both right AND happy.  Try asking for help, spreading some cheer, or commenting in my blog post.

Sometimes I really debate writing about some of our more successful techniques. What if someone actually takes our advice and does something with it? Make our competitors smarter? Then I remember that there really is enough work for all of us (I absolutly believe that) and I unclench my ass.

The fact is that starting a conversation with a stranger is uncomfortable for most people. For the developers I know, it is often more so. After all, they did not choose a people oriented career. The problem we often face when recruiting: How do you make small talk with developers in a public space, get them to come out of their shell and talk to you? Our solution: Hang a sign around your neck.

Most people are quietly wondering “what do you want from me” when you start talking to them out of the blue. It is a fair question. We all usually want something, perhaps friendship, perhaps influence, money, direction or a piece of gum. The easiest way to disarm people is to simple make it obvious what you want. If your interests match theirs, an instant form of trust is built. If not, then no harm no foul, you can quickly dispense of the awkward dance.

So here is how we played it. We went to Google I/O in 2007 looking for developers and hoping to learn a thing or two. Day 1: 37 aborted chat attempts and 2 business cards. Definitely the least social conference I had ever attended. We almost didn’t come back on day two.

You live in Santa Cruz long enough and you eventually figure that our homeless population must have some insight into things. Their sheer volume alone attests to that fact. Downtown has people lined up every 100 feet or so with “Buy me a beer (I’ll buy my own sandwich)” cardboard signs. Perhaps that will change some day, but at the moment, it is a part of the scenery.

So where am I heading (as if you hadn’t guessed from the lead in photo)? Most great inventions are simply taking a successful pattern from one part of your life, your industry or technology and applying it unexpectedly to another.

Peter climbed into my car the next morning with two manilla folders and four pieces of paper on which he had printed “Need Freelance Work?” We taped them together and off we went. We each took one and held it in our hands as we navigated the halls and sat in events. People consistently ask us what we were looking for. We didn’t initiate anything. They approached us. “You looking for Developers?”; “I freelance!”; “Can you tell me more?” and for us, the unexpected “What kind of work are you looking for?” After all, it didn’t occur to us until that moment that the sign read both ways. Day 2: 200+ successful dialogs, 47 cards worth keeping, 3 solid clients leads and 5 prospective devs got interviewed. In short, one good day.

And since then we have used it time and time again. It works. Just make sure you have a pile of cards and have a short spiel ready to go.

Despite all the possibility for disaster, projects went relatively smoothly. We learned a few good lessons and as a result, our terms and conditions grew.  Time to update the old contract.

It Doesn’t Matter What Your Contract Says if They Don’t Understand It.

We may build software and create intricate designs, but we are neither a software company nor a design company. Those are just tools of the trade. We are a service company. The goal is to help our clients be successful. Our business thrives on happy customers and the referrals they generate.

So, when the day comes in which the client understands thing one way and our contract said something else, who is actually correct? Technically our contract is the final word. It is a valuable safety net. But that is its secondary purpose. When it comes down to running a long term healthy business, working with a client is much like being married. It is a long running set of compromises. My wife often says things to me (while I am focused and working) which I never hear. Later when we find ourselves arguing, who is at fault? Is it her fault for thinking I was engaged when I clearly was not? Was it my fault, as I did not take the time to stop what I was doing and giving her my full attention. In one short word: Yes. But does it actually matter whose fault it is? Not really. What is vital is that communication resumes.

The purpose of a contract is to facilitate communication (and be there as a fall back in case it breaks down completely). I am completely indebted to Reid for reminding me that we need to walk our clients through each item in the contract. The greatest value we have ever received from our contract is the discussion surrounding our terms and conditions. It is when the expectations are set, determining how we will work together.

Tricky issues such as response time, hosting up time, getting hacked and more are all things we faced in the last 6 months. Most of them would have easily been resolved with an early conversation and a little documentation for later. We may have had clauses (or not) to address them, but the understanding reached from a discussion is what actually created the sense of trust that a contract should, but rarely if ever creates.

So what changed?

A lot. In some ways, I am a touch sad to have to add this level of bureaucracy to our contract. Not all of these items make it into each contract (hosting for a design gig makes little sense), but forewarned is forearmed.

Response Time

Shane & Peter, Inc. works exclusively with Independent Contractors. The benefit of a flexible team is rapid scalability and a diverse set of services. Due to the nature of the business model, Shane & Peter, Inc. is not set up to support on call services. Within the duration of this Contract Shane & Peter, Inc. will make every effort to reply to inquiries within 48 hours except where The Client has been previously notified of a period of limited availability. Shane & Peter, Inc. will respond in good faith but cannot guarantee any specific action within a given time frame.

Dependencies

In the event that any aspect of this Contract is dependent on a separate third party or the Client’s in house team, the quality and punctuality of the Finished Product(s) may be subject to said party’s ability to meet the required time lines and/or level of quality. Shane & Peter, Inc. is not responsible for any delay or defect caused by separate third party or the Client’s in house teams.

Hosting

Shane & Peter, Inc. does not provide Hosting services beyond temporary internal development environments. The Client is responsible for choosing, paying for, and maintaining any required Hosting solutions and associated services. As a courtesy, Shane & Peter, Inc. may offer suggestions, however, Shane & Peter, Inc. is NOT responsible for down time, poor performance, or loss of data caused by the Hosting Provider. Additionally, Shane & Peter, Inc. is not responsible for any bug caused by changes on the Host after the Acceptance of this Contract, including but not limited to updates to operating system, compile systems, code libraries and languages, or any changes resulting from security violations.

Backups

Shane & Peter, Inc. maintains internal backups of active project code and design files. This backup system is not intended as a solution for The Client, rather as a code archive through the duration of this Contract. While the Shane & Peter, Inc. backup system is fully redundant, it is not guaranteed and does not support any content produced by the Client. The Client is solely responsible for the Backup and Restoration of the Finished Product(s) and any associated data.

Security

Although Shane & Peter, Inc. makes every effort to provide secure Finished Product(s), due to the nature of rapidly advancing technology, Shane & Peter, Inc. can in no way guaranty that the Finished Product(s) will not be subject security breaches. Shane & Peter, Inc. recommends the use of strong passwords and the observance of standard security practices. In order to minimize the chances of security violations, systems should be updated often. The Client is solely responsible for tracking software updates. Any updates during the life of or after the expiration of the Contract can be negotiated as an addendum to this Contract or as an additional Contract.

Review, Expiration or Cancellation

This Contract is valid for the calendar year of in which it was signed, upon which point it expires. Upon expiration, both parties may review and amend the Contract and decide whether or not to renew. This Contract may be terminated by either party with a full 30 day written notice. All payments will be due and all work will be submitted upon the termination of Contract.

Steal What You Like: Caveat emptor

Don’t have a contract of your own or want to steal some juicy bits? Go ahead and borrow ours. OBVIOUSLY, we are NOT liable for whatever mess you get yourself into. Yes, our lawyer went though ours. But her job is to represent our interests, not yours. We just share out of the goodness of our hearts.

In short: Caveat emptor

Download: Shane & Peter Inc Contract Template

Please let us know if you find any errors, have suggestions or things we may have not considered!

Today our good friend Iris from NextSpace asked us about our corporate culture mantra. Shane and I delighted in recounting it:

Happy, Helpful, Curious and Accountable.

As we recited our beloved chant, it dawned on me that it deserves a long overdue blog post.

What, you ask, is this 12 syllable slogan? It’s our cultural measuring stick. These are the words that we iterate whenever we meet someone new or review someone we’ve been working with. It applies both to our colleagues and to our clients.  In fact, we apply this gauge to everyone in our lives from presidential candidates to car mechanics. I asked Shane, who recently became a father, how he envisions his daughter as an adult. He thought about it for a while and after a couple days of deliberation replied,

I would be delighted to see Serenity grow to be happy, helpful, curious, and accountable.

(I am thrilled to report after the first 6 months, Serenity has a great head start on the “happy” part of the equation and is currently working on “curious”.)

This mantra came about a few years ago when Shane and I were deliberating over how to choose our team. After a great deal of debate and reflection, we concluded that there are 3 common characteristics among the people with whom we’ve had consistent successful relationships. These people are uplifting, they are always looking for ways to add value, and that they are always learning more about their trades. We summarized these attributes as “Happy, Helpful, and Curious.”

After a few months of applying that standard, we came to realize that a person can make us smile, have a supportive attitude, and be learning new things, but still not deliver on time or set our expectations so we added “Accountable”. I’m pleased to report that after a few years of testing this mantra, we’ve got a pretty solid song.

Happy.

I love what i do. I do it because I enjoy it.

My theory is that robin hood’s merry band was merry because they all enjoyed robbing the rich and giving to the poor.  I want to be surrounded by people who love what they do.  I look for people who are cheerful enough to match the enthusiasm of our team so that we can inspire each other.  (Cheerful = full of cheer)

I’ve worked in offices filled with miserable people.  It sucks.  Some years back when I was bouncing between freelancing and cubicalling I had a boss, Mark, who turned out to be a down-right vicious character.

When I first joined the team he was very supportive and complimented me often. Being new and not having a sense of self-worth, his financial offer seemed generous. After a week or two, I noticed that although he was quite nice to me, he was frequently YELLING at other people on the team. Though I often wondered why he didn’t yell at me, in my youthful naivete, I assumed there must be some valid justification (In retrospect it rather wreaks of Milgram’s controversial “Obedience to Authority” experiment in which Milgram convinced people that it was ok to torture). After a few months, a team member quit prompting Mark to reveal himself as he yelled,

Damn! Now i have to pretend to be nice to some other gullible newhire for 3 months.

It wasn’t long until he was unleashing his wrath upon me as well. By the time I left, I had been swindled out of more than $5000 and was starting to have regular nervous breakdowns. It was at this point that I decided that no matter what I do next, I refuse to tolerate tyrants. From now on I’m looking for happy people.

What is a happy person?

A “happy person” is a person who actually really wants to be smiling.  I realize that sounds weird…  Doesn’t everyone want to be happy?  Personally, I do not subscribe to the philosophy that we all seek joy.  In fact a couple years ago John Lanchester published a great article in the New Yorker Magazine, Pursuing Happiness, in which he argues that happiness is a relatively recent invention and that people are inherently built to be cautious and anxious.  In my own experience, I find that someone with an overabundance of resources can just as easily choose to be happy as they can also choose to be bored, stressed, jealous, angry, dramatic, or inhabit just about any other state of consciousness.  Happiness seems like the obvious choice though in practice, it can be very challenging and is generally reserved for the brave and the ignorant (We’re more so looking for the brave ones).

A happy person is uplifting by their nature. This person has problems like everyone else, but this person is balanced enough to be able to manage their problems with aplomb. Happy is trustworthy. Winnie the Pooh is happy. Rabbit is not. Ernie is happy. Bert… eh… not so much (though Shane is quite a happy person - the picture on this post was just for fun). Happy people have down times, but in general, they bring cheer. Happy is contagious.

How to tell if someone is Happy

How do you like freelancing?

We do a lot of phone interviews. If after a few minutes, I want to get off the phone, it’s usually because the person i’m talking to is making me feel bad. However, if I find that the person has a lot of uplifting stories, is quick to give compliments (that don’t sound like ass-kissing), and generally is making me smile, they are probably generally happy. Simply put, I tend to feel better after talking to a happy person.

In particular, in the freelance industry, we often come across freelancers by design as well as those who are between jobs.  Generally, it’s pretty easy to tell if someone is a genuine freelancer.  If a person is choosing to be a freelancer, it’s because they enjoy it.  However, if someone is a freelancer because they can’t hold a job or just got laid off, it’s more likely that this person is suffering a lack of direction and is not freelancing by choice. The difference between the two is tangible on a daily basis. We look for people who are doing what they want to do.

Helpful.

When I was a kid, I often would join my father in the garage as he worked on one of his many projects. I can only imagine how annoying it was to hear me say “what can i do?”, “how can i help?”, “is there something for me to do?”, “I’m bored.”. Though my heart was in the right place, I didn’t realize that all my nagging ceaseless questions were centered around MY own entertainment. I’m quite sure that my father must have imparted this wisdom to me countless times before the revelation imprinted in my memory,

Petey-boy, the best way you can help me is to quietly stand by until I’m ready for your assistance.

Aha! An epiphany! Helpfulness is about YOU, not me. Some people learn this lesson well while others thoroughly miss it entirely. Helpful is an art of living. Consideration is a way of being.

When Nick Ohrn pinged me the other night about a Wordpress embed pluggin that he found on his own time that might be a significant time-saver for an upcoming development project of ours, Nick was being helpful.

Reid Peifer is another fantastic example of a helpful person!  Not only does he often anticipate points where Shane and I are about to need assistance and volunteer himself, he’ll ping me on AIM once in a while and just check in to check in and see how I’m doing.  To borrow from Obama’s phrase, Reid embodies the Audacity of Helpfulness.

Honestly though, without getting too mushy or anything, the truth is our whole team is helpful.  I’m deeply grateful to be surrounded by such supportive people.  It’s one of the great pleasures of being in business for myself but not by myself.

How to tell if someone is Helpful

What’s the biggest mess you’ve had to clean up?

Think about it.  What was the last wrecked client relationship, code snafu, or general unexpected business debacle that you had to deal with?  How did you handle it?  How did it turn out?  Were you able to resolve it?

I’ve asked this question and been amazed at the responses. The beauty is that it’s not directly implying any aspect of helpfulness.  But a helpful person is often going to have threads of consideration woven into their tale.  This also often reveals accountability.  If someone is particularly not helpful, they will take this opportunity to blame other people for the mess.  The worst answers that I’ve heard to this are ones where the mess is not even cleaned up i the end.  A helpful person can not walk away from a mess.  A helpful person wants to make sure that everything is going to come together in a project and that everyone is being cared for.  Helpful is taking responsibility beyond your own domain.  Helpful people get joy out of offering solutions.

Curious.

When I was being interviewed for the job of Interactive Designer at 2Wire, my final interview was with then VP of Marketing Brian Sugar.  He asked me some pretty direct questions like, “How do you like this place?” and “You excited about this job?” But there was one question he asked that just floored me.  It was brilliant!

Teach me something about Flash.

I was extremely excited that he asked me this.  At the time I was basically living and breathing Flash.  Where do I begin!  I decided to just pick the most recent thing I had been learning about.  I believe it was something about XML sockets or maybe it was something to do with a new Tweening algorithm… Who knows? Who cares? He had opened a can of my passion and could see that I was clearly devoted to the technology and that I was constantly learning more about it.

I now realize that the secret brilliance of this is that specific interest in a field is independent of the general quality of curiosity.  For example, just because I’m personally not excited about being a Quality Assurance tester doesn’t mean that it’s not exciting for someone else.  If I want to find a good QA person, I need to find one that is curious about quality and about the evolution of technologies.  When I find the right person for testing our Wordpress sites, I’ll ask them to teach me something about testing Wordpress and they will brim with excitement and unravel a ball of passion about bugs they’ve found and how they’ve helped to get them resolved.

How to tell if someone is Curious

We ask people a lot of questions to help identify if people fit these qualities.  Some of the questions that best address curious are:

• What books have you read lately?
• How do you keep informed about the technologies and philosophies in your trade?
• Teach me something (a la Brian Sugar).

Accountable.

One of my favorite aspects of working with independent contractors is that they are running businesses.  In order to run an enduring business, you have to deliver on budget and on time.  As Shane often says:

I get my projects done on budget, on time, or else i can’t pay my mortgage.

Some years ago I had a client, Jonathan, who taught me a very valuable lesson. At the time, I had this philosophy that any financial or accountability issue can be overcome by working harder.  Oddly enough that philosophy lead me to work increasingly harder for less money with ever decreasing clients satisfaction.  The fact is, no amount of work will make up for silently failing to meet essential deadlines.

My perception was that Jonathan was getting to be very hard to please and the more challenging the project became the less I wanted to confront him.  My solution was to silently work harder.  At some point I had to confront him just to walk him through my work.  After a hair-raising shouting match, we reconvened with a truce and he explained to me the concept of Setting Expectations.  It’s Ok to miss a deadline.  It’s Ok to not accomplish the entire scope.  So long as you set expectations.

If I’m not going to be able to make a deadline, I need to inform my client as early as possible and work out an alternative strategy.  If the scope of a project is panning out to be much larger than initially expected, then it is entirely reasonable to renegotiate with the client as long as the renegotiation happens early.  What’s NOT ok is to let a due date pass silently.  Or to deliver part of the project but miss a bunch of essential components without any prior warning.

For the most part, people are reasonable.  When reasonable people work with reasonable people, then things get done and everyone has a good time.  People with accountability deficiencies involuntarily cause everyone else to work harder.  If someone can’t set expectations, then you can’t rely on your own expectations of them.  It means you have to micro manage or suffer the fate of frequent ‘fire-drills’ where everyone is forced to stay up late for a week to make up for the fact that a timeline or scope has become untenable.  This is also a point at which money can start to rapidly bleed out of the project.  When you are so focused on working that you can’t do your dishes, how are you going to remember to clock your time and review your budget?

How to tell if someone is Accountable

One super easy way to tell that someone is NOT accountable is if they are late for or miss entirely the phone interview.  Seriously.  We now always make interviewees call us so that we can immediately see they are NOT accountable.  Every single time we’ve interviewed someone who missed the call or was late, that person ended up performing really poorly where accountability is concerned and ended up not working out for our team.  On the other-hand, if someone emails or calls well in advance to politely request that we reschedule, then that person is likely to be solid in the accountability department because they know how to manage expectations.

Mantras Make Me Happy.

I have a horrible memory.  I’m always looking for easy to remember tricks.  That’s how Shane and I came to develop the happy, helpful, curious and accountable mantra.  My dear reader, I invite you to add your favorite life mantras below in our comments.  I’m always curious to find other phrases that can help bring clarity to the myriad murky decisions of life.

What started as a volunteer weekend Wordpress project to help the City of Santa Cruz address the budget deficit has transformed into an adventure. Partnering with UserVoice and Rob Knight Shane, Peter, and Brandon Jones produced an integrated portal for community participation. Mayor Cynthia Mathews worked with Koht and a number of collaborators to produce content for the site and to articulate the state of the budget.

The resulting site instigated conversation amongst both the online and offline Santa Cruz community setting the tone for collaboration.

On a related note, Jonathan also interviewed Shane on his podcast, Career Renegades Profiles.

We are delighted to announce the launch of our first complete iPhone app: “Surf“. Working in conjunction with WaveWatch.com, we’ve developed an iPhone app for surfers. The app features the first ever iPhone streaming surf cams, an intuitive user interface for reviewing current conditions as well as 6-day forecasts.  Surf also features:

• Tide
• Swell & Surf
• Wind
• Sunrise, Sunset
• Lunar Phases
• Weather Conditions

For more information or to download the app, visit the tunes store:
http://iphone.wavewatch.com/download

We’d like to thank some folks in particular for helping make this happen:

Aaron Spjut is the man!  He single-handedly wrote this entire app!

Anthony Ghiglia offered his super beautiful loading screen photographs. 

Rafael Patterson, Brand Manager at WaveWatch.com, is the man at WW that made this happen.

Jens Rasmussen, contractor at WaveWatch.com, ensured that all our API needs were handled.

Jeffrey Frederick set us up with the worlds first Cruise Control Continuous Integration system for iphone development, thus allowing us to have constant on builds of the app on hand and ready for testing.

None of this is possible without the friendly giant with eyes all over the world: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Charlie Fox for his support navigating the world of meteorology and wave prediction.

Brandon Jones and Reid Peifer for their design support.

The Santa Cruz Geeks over at NextSpace gave us great marketing guidance to get this app launched.

David-Michel Davies, Webby Awards Executive Director, writes:

As a result of the exceptional quality of submissions this year, the Academy has recognized outstanding entries as Official Honorees alongside our Nominees and Winners. The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to the top 15% of all work entered that exhibits remarkable achievement. With nearly 10,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for you and your team.

Freelance Camp Santa Cruz 2008 was exceptional, emotionally charged and a total win for our local community. The amount of interaction and support that came out of that event had a direct impact on the rebirth of the freelance / tech community that is rapidly growing in Santa Cruz today. It was a catalyst. If you are involved in the local community, or wish you were, I cannot imagine a more powerful way to get involved. No bar camp in your town yet? Grab some people and start one.

Off the wings of that event, I received an email from a freelancer in Texas who wanted to run his own freelance bar camp and so was born freelancecamp San Antonio. I still see blog posts appearing about it 2 months after it happened. In the pipeline: Freelance camp Miami 2009, Houston 2009 and Santa Cruz 2009 (Go sign up). I am starting a small series of posts on tips and tricks I have picked up running this event. I will probably also post these to the new freelancecamp.org website once we finish the wordpress mu build (anyone want to lend me a hand?).

Finding Sponsors: A quick idea list

First figure out how much you need and what kind of money you are comfortable asking for. It cost me just over 3k to run the event last year with a free venue (Thank you Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History) and 150 attendees. That covered breakfast, lunch, t-shirts, internet, a phat after party (Thank you local Heineken distributor for sponsoring and throwing down beer) and a pile of office supplies. I was asking for $250 per sponsor either in cash or in kind. We ended up with 17 sponsors in order to get the event accomplished.

This year, I expect to have more attendees and really don’t have the time to hunt down 15+ sponsors, so I asked for $500 per sponsor and will keep the number smaller. In order to cover the cost of the event, we have decided to charge $25 per person. So I knew that I was looking for 6-10 sponsors this year.

First things first. I only have one sponsor per business vertical. I found that increased value in their eyes and really helped sponsors make a commitment. This was the #1 concern sponsors expressed aside from the legitimacy of the event. So, where should you begin to look for sponsors.

First, ask your friends, your coworkers, your twitter pals, on facebook etc. Tell people you are looking for sponsors. They will most likely send you a bunch of leads. when you ask, make sure you keep it short, but clearly explain the event in a few sentences and what a sponsor looks like should they spot one in the wild. Once you have exhausted the personal connections list and you hit the pavement at a jog, think local.

Start by visiting your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and talk to them. They can be incredibly helpful. They might be a sponsor and if not, can connect you with numerous business owners. If you need someone from the SBDC to vouch for the event, I can ask my local SBDC director to email them. Even if you don’t plan to run a freelance camp and just want some help, the SBDC kick some serious butt. I’m talking free HR consulting, free bookkeeping support and education, business planning, marketing consulting and more. They exist (thank you well spent government programs) to make sure we are succeeding.

Go talk to your city and your county. The City of Santa Cruz is one of our sponsors as it wants to support any activities that drive business and are a viable solution to the current economic times.

Approach local service providers who support small businesses: lawyer, accountant, bank, ISP, insurance, payroll specialists, investment/retirement, web service firms, print shops etc.

Hit up any local services firm and startups that use freelancers and want to meet more / be seen positively in the industry.

Check out any local institution that has small business owners as benefactors: museum, design center, coworking centers, coffee shops.

Set a meeting with any educational organization such as jr college or local university that wants to help their students transition into business ownership or has a business education department.

Think of large companies that service freelancers and email them. You never ever know. I have a meeting tomorrow (which came from an email sent into the ether) with the folks from Elance.com (fingers crossed) to see if they will sponsor. I am in discussions with Sugar CRM, Automattic, Freelance Switch, Adobe among others (fingers triple crossed).

And so there you go folks.

Attend Freelance Camp Santa Cruz 2009!

I’d like to sincerely thank the current Sponsors of Freelance Camp 2009 (August 15).

City of Santa Cruz
Cruzio
Baskin and Grant LLP
Lighthouse Bank
Nextspace Coworking and Innovation Center
Agency Santa Cruz
Shane & Peter Inc.