LinkArtist Multimedia Blog

I will have some more projects to post in the next week or so, but in the meantime, I wanted to plug this little column I have been working on called "Work 2.0" on Babble. It is intended to be a lighthearted look at the ups and downs of running a home-based business. I hope that you can subscribe to it, tell your friends about it, and do all that viral interwebnets magic that I know you can!

The first main column is called The Accidental Entrepeneur: How to start a business without really trying. Check it out!

Tags: work from home, home-based business, freelancing

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I have had 3 clients contact me in the past couple of days telling me that their default WordPress WYSIWYG Visual Editors aren’t working as they should. I thought it was a problem with my themes, but all looks fine from what I can see.

I have found that replacing the Editor with Dean’s fabulous FCK Editor for WordPress fixes the issue — so by deduction, I can assume that the problem still lies with the TinyMCE Editor in WordPress. A-gain… I thought they had fixed it?

In the meantime, if you have had a blog setup by me, get in touch and I will sort it all out for you.

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I was interviewed this week for Babble about new ways of working, and how, as a mother, I balance working from home with children.

It is always weird to see yourself quoted, but I like the article, and I think it raises some pertinent points about opting out of traditional workplaces and carving your own niche and business instead.

Anyway, have a read and let me know what you think!

Check out the article here

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In my previous post, I mentioned that my list of 5 things had blown out to 10 things I wish I knew about the web design business. Well, here they are:

5. Don’t take criticism personally

All of the business advice and freelance blogs will talk about the idea of "you" being the Point of Difference when it comes to your clients. People approach LinkArtist, fundamentally, because they want me, the word about town is that I do excellent work and have a personal touch that not many other designers can replicate. My pricing is set according to people’s desire to have a site that has been designed by me. I don’t compete on price alone, and that is because I have a reputation as a designer that pours my heart and soul into my work.

But what happens when you have put all of this physical, emotional and mental energy into creating something, and the client rejects the work? Don’t take it personally. Yes, it’s really hard when you are selling yourself as the product, to distance "you" from "the work you do", but it is necessary to keep you from burning out from stress, or worse, being rude to a client and acting unprofessionally.

When a client approaches you for a project, more often than not, they want "you". Or, more specifically, they want you to help them look the way they think they should, and the unfortunate reality is that, sometimes, clients have a mental picture of what they want, and they expect us to pluck it out their head. We try our best, but, sometimes, we get it wrong, they change their mind, or whatever, and yes, it’s frustrating. But, it is also a big part of business.

So, remind yourself that yes, your business is you, your work is you, and that’s great, but criticism comes from the customer wanting a certain result - and does not mean that you are at fault. Of course, if a client if abusive, or is deliberately changing the spec of the project those are different things entirely!

6. Take risks

It is tempting to get complacent, earning the same money for doing the same things, over and over. But it is also very easy to get yourself in a rut. And even worse, get into a situation where you feel ripped off.

I recently took a very big risk. I broke up with my very first client. The person who supported me when I was nothing but an amateur designer and wannabe webmaster. The person who cheered me on when I didn’t think I could do it anymore. The person who became a very close friend. There were lots of very good reasons to stay.

I broke up with this client because even though they were ultimately very supportive and nurturing, there came a time where they were not prepared to pay beyond my entry-level rates, and were taking up more time than I could afford to grow my business. I started to grow resentful, and often felt as though my opinion didn’t count - much like that aunt that still sees you as a 10 year old: they couldn’t see that I had grown up and could no longer be bought with candy.

So, I made the risky decision to dump my highest profile and first-ever client. I was worried that I would be frozen out of the network somehow, or that I would stop booking clients. But, that didn’t happen. I took a calculated risk and it paid off for me. And, the friendship has remained intact!

I have increased my prices and billable hours 3 times in the past year. Each time I have felt it was risky and I have lost some clients because of it. But others have stayed, and I am attracting a higher level of budget than a year ago, and am building momentum.

So, even though some situations or decisions may seem risky, you need to assess what the payoff is. For me, it was actually having time with my children, or at least, if I was having time away from my children, being compensated justly for it.

7. Know when to ask for help

I have a tendency to think that, as a generalist, I can do it all.

I have also spent many a night going round and round in circles trying to figure out a solution to a problem that was then promptly fixed in 15 minutes by a programmer. I don’t do this anymore, of course, because I have learned that there are a hundred other things I could be doing with my time, and, for the sake of a few bucks, my sanity, self confidence and sleep are saved.

Start compiling lists of people you can contact when you’re stuck. I also encourage them to contact me, so it becomes a loose network of troubleshooters with particular skillsets. If you want to be on my list, email me, because I always need programmers to call on with half an hour’s notice for small jobs

Part of knowing when to ask for help, is also being able to identify when you aren’t coping with your load. I now let my phone go to voicemail to avoid interruptions, I do invoicing once a week (with some exceptions like deposits to commence work), and as soon as I can afford it, I will be outsourcing all of my admin. You can’t be expected to do it all AND be good at your work. It’s just not possible.

8. Don’t pretend to be bigger than you are

If you do this, people will expect certain levels of service and availability that one person just cannot provide. Even though it is tempting to talk about the "we" or big-note your "team" of people, this will come unstuck VERY quickly.

I have always tried to explain to my clients that I am small. Even though the personal touch makes for excellent service, the reality is that having to provide personal service to everyone at all times becomes overwhelming. There are many benefits to going with a freelancer over a bigger Agency, but one of the costs of that is that often, I may not answer my phone, or I may take a little longer to get those "5 minute jobs with a minutes notice" done.

Being honest about your size and your time will make your life easier in the long run, contrasted with any short term gain you may get by overselling your services and capacity.

9. Don’t befriend clients without knowing the risks

Freelancing, and especially freelancing from home, is very isolating sometimes. Despite working every day, I can go several days without actually speaking to anyone outside my family. I have plenty of friends, but because I am so busy, it is hard to fit them all in. It is inevitably those who are on Facebook, or take the time to email me, that stay in touch. It can be lonely.

Then, you get that client who is just like you. They too work at home, find it isolating, and are very chatty and personable and you have a lot in common. Your kids are similar ages and you talk about anything and everything. You don’t censor yourself. It’s all roses, the projects go well, they love you and you love them. You’re on a high, you cannot believe your luck of finding someone who finally "gets it". You go above and beyond for them, because that’s what you do with friends.

Then, there is a problem that needs to be dealt with, business to business, and it goes to shit faster than bad seafood, because you blindly went into a friendship without negotiating what it means to the client relationship. The boundaries were never negotiated, because you think "oh that person would NEVER treat me like that". And then they do. And it makes you question whether you even want to continue working in the business, and if only you’d defined some clear boundaries from the outset, and not befriended clients, it wouldn’t suck this much…

I just had a friendship and client relationship fall apart like this, so I am speaking from experience here. Tread very, very carefully when you decide to become friends with your clients. I talked about being too candid with clients in the previous post, but this one goes a step further. Be very, very aware of what can happen when a client falls out of love with you, or there is a disagreement over money, or you feel tempted to give them more than what they can afford in the name of friendship. Or, in this case, if the client starts to rely too much on you for stuff that is in their "too hard basket".

Think about friendships with clients like you would if you were going to have a pre-nuptial agreement. As hard as it is to think about, you need to consider the "what-ifs" if it goes sour.

10. Hosting just ain’t worth the effort.

If you are a web designer or developer and are tempted to sell hosting as well. DON’T DO IT. It is not worth the grief, the disruption or the small amount of money you will get. Clients will expect you to provide tech support, and this is a full time job in its own right.

Take it from someone who has been there and is currently trying to wind back from hosting… DON’T DO IT.

So, hopefully some of this list can help you with your journey, whether you are at the beginning, or partway through, like me.

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With so many sites like bludomain, bigfolio, or other template sites selling Flash-based websites for $100-$400, I find myself having to "defend" my pricing to photographers (and other creatives, who, ironically, also charge thousands of dollars for their own work - you’d think they’d be more sympathetic if anything :)), who either don’t understand why the template sites charge what they do, or even flat out refuse to pay a designer for a bespoke site.

I refuse to compete in the hundred-dollar market and here’s why. First of all, the only reason that Bludomain and BigFolio can sell websites can sell a Flash website for a ridiculously low price is because they are selling on volume. A Flash site with a content management system will cost you at least $15,000 - often much more. But the template guys spread their costs over a hundred people instead of one. Of course, the downside to this is that 99 (or even more!) other people have an identical website!

With a template site, you may get the benefit of a cheap website, but what is the real cost of that? I have browsed many, many, many photographer’s websites, and if you put yourself in the "browsing photographers" position, as most brides are, you’ll notice that they all start to look the same.

In a highly saturated market, a good stand-out web presence can make all the difference. Custom sites will instantly stand out from competitors (from a web browsing point of view)… simply because templates are so common!

My clients have noticed a significant jump in enquiries and bookings, just from having a site that is different from 90% of the other photographer’s sites. Part of it is in the SEO, but I think a big part of it, anecdotally speaking, is that if a bride is surfing through 15 (or 30 if shes particularly obsessive :)) sites, 95% of which are bludomain sites… I guess that it has a homogenising effect in terms of the experience of the website.

And you are naive if you think that people don’t switch off if they see the same thing over and over, even if the images are different.

Websites are not just a directory of business, but are also an experience, that invoke emotional reactions. They are more like television advertising than, say, the Yellow Pages…and people wholly expect to pay for TV Advertising because it brings results. I guess if I can use an analogy with Yellow Pages listings, its like the difference between having the standard 2 line Yellow pages listing, versus the display advertising with your custom graphics and your look and feel. The display ads will always cost more (often a lot more than you think you can afford), but you get more, and the majority of the time, you get better results.

You ultimately get what you pay for with web design. And when someone next tells a photographer that they can go to istockphoto.com and get a great photo for much less, hopefully that photographer will know how web designers feel about template sites.

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3 years ago this week, I left my government job. I didn’t leave willingly - I was 7 months pregnant with my son and had developed complications that meant I had to resign. I was terrified of the prospect of ruining my career in Policy, and wanted nothing more than to get back to it as soon as Jules was old enough.

It turns out that it was the best thing that could have happened to me, because it freed up enough time to take on some small graphic design projects, which became more small projects, which tuned into some larger projects, until all of a sudden, here I sit 3 years later, running a business that was literally formed from the ground up with nothing, with no formal training in graphic design or programming, that is growing more every week.

I have learned so much in a small amount of time, that to look back on my old bad habits of business make me cringe. In fact, the list became 10, but I will spread it over 2 posts :). So, here are the FIRST 5 Things I have learned, that I wish I knew 3 years ago:

1. Do NOT negotiate on prices (unless there is a substantial benefit. And yes, I mean substantial.)

Many of the freelancing and career sites will be very cut and dry in their advice about setting rates and sticking to them. In my case, having a degree of flexibility, and seizing opportunities for exposure, actually allowed me to build credibility in an industry where I was a hobbyist, with lots to learn, and I had no idea what my hourly rate was or should be. I had a fair amount of ability and unrefined skill (it’s still not fully there!), but not a whole lot of formal training. So, I offered to do work that other designers would snort at, eg $400 websites, just to get my portfolio up and improve my skills. It was awesome just to make some cash with a small baby at home, doing what I love!

It worked. Really well in fact.

But working for cheap for a good reason is not what I am talking about here. I had already made a conscious decision to do a certain number of cheap projects for the exposure, and I had already built that in to my strategy. Some of those lower priced websites still bring me new clients. That is just plain smart, because for my discounted work, I was getting, and continue to get, something in return.

But, there will come a point where someone contacts you and demands that you lower your rates, but will offer absolutely nothing in return. This is a mistake I had to make at least 3 times before realising that you do not want those people as clients. I was afraid that there would be "no more work" and that any client was better than none. Neither of those fears are grounded.

In hindsight, I still felt that I was winging it, and it affected my ability to stand my ground when people tried to set the price based on what they could afford. So I accepted those projects. And, guess what? They went nowhere. I will tell you that just about every single time I was pressured into discounting, the relationship went sour down the track. I don’t do it anymore.

When it comes down to it, if I have a slow month (which I haven’t had in a year and a half), ultimately, I would rather be spending time with my kids, or learning something new, or developing my own projects, than working for less than minimum wage for someone who doesn’t respect you. There are any number of jobs where you can do that!

2. Use contracts and clear specifications

If there is one thing that I will tell you to repeat, over and over and over again, it is touse contracts and have clear specifications.  Use contracts and have clear specifications. Use contracts and have clear specifications.

Spec creep and chasing money are two of the biggest minefields in this business. I once had a 1 month project drag on for 9 months because I did not enforce the original spec and kept allowing changes to be made (and revision after revision) without reviewing the contract and the spec, or charging the client for my time. It was a complete disaster from start to finish, and needless to say, it was the catalyst for me not only upping my rates, but setting limits on what I will and won’t do as part of the payment.

There are lots of people out there who don’t understand the difference between a Flash site and a non-Flash site, and the substantial differences in costs between them. Never, ever assume that clients understand what they are getting for their money. Put it in writing.

And don’t be afraid to say "we are wandering off quote here" as soon as it starts to happen.

3. Be open and honest, but not too open or too honest

When I first started in this business, I was on a high. Everyone was my buddy, everyone was on the same page as me, and I didn’t care what people thought. I said what I wanted, when I wanted, and I made no apologies. I brought people into the fold, befriended them, confided in them, and occasionally even complained about clients on IM. People asked my opinion, and I told them honestly. I made small talk, I had even deeper conversations.

Oh, how naive I was!

Being an open book is great if you are the right kind of open book. If you use honesty and transparency well, it can benefit your business tremendously. But, there are limits.

Here are some things you don’t talk to clients about:

• Other clients
• Your Health
• Your children, beyond the basics
• Your marital problems
• Your financial situation
• Anything that can be used against you later on.

Try to keep some distance between your personal life and your work life, and definitely do not complain about other clients, no matter how tempting it is, and ESPECIALLY if they are in the same industry.

4. Be (emotionally) prepared for the hard times

There was a turning point for me where this business stopped being just "extra" cash, and started being, well, an actual business. There came a point in 2007 where I was being offered policy jobs, and was thinking of going back to the public service, when I suddenly realised that I was actually not that person anymore. I was a designer with my own little business. That was a massive shift in focus for me, and then I started thinking about it like a business.

When this mind shift occured, naturally, I started to wonder about the work, where the next job was coming from, and living invoice to invoice (something which I am still not entirely great at!). It is pretty common knowledge in all business literature that the first 2-5 years are very hard financially. The business books offer up a lot of advice on how to deal with ebbs and flows, and how to deal with cashflow (my single biggest problem and a common one for self employed folks), and how to avoid failing in those formative first few years.

What I wasn’t prepared for, however, is the massive emotional strain that business can put on you. I always knew it would be hard financially, but the emotional rollercoaster came as a huge shock to me. When the sale of a website was not just about keeping the business afloat financially, but it also determined my worth as a designer and a human being. That every success was met with extreme happiness, but every rejection being hurtful.

I used to let the mood of my day be dictated by the moods of my clients. I don’t do that anymore - well, at least I try not to. I have learned to distance "myself" the business-person and "me" the human being in a way that my mental and emotional well-being is not so entreched in the success or failure, or ups and downs, of the business. That takes practice, and I am still learning, but, be prepared for a wild ride!

5. Know when to end it

It’s easy to sell a website. I have skills that not many people can do (or at least, do well!), and eventually, even the people that suck at web design get some clients.

It is not so easy, however, to end a client relationship. I have been going through a process in the past 6 months of assessing clients that cost me the most time for the least pay, or don’t fit my future goals with the business and have been trying to gradually move away. The vast bulk of these have been US clients, who for varying reasons, can’t (or won’t) pay competitive rates with local people and even the UK. I have been taking on less and less US clients, who seem to want far too much for far too little.

It was a very hard decision to make, but it has been the right one. Knowing when to get out is as important a skill as knowing how to sell to a client in the first place. Some of the reasons I may choose to end a relationship:

Clients that:

• refuse to pay market rates
• want work-for-hire, or otherwise try to set the agenda or micromanage
• don’t respect that your time = money
• view you as replaceable
• constantly pay late
• often ask for free "5 minute" jobs, or expect anything for free.
• threaten to use their cousin’s friend’s brother, or refer to said cousin’s friend’s brother who can do it "cheaper", or threaten to go to India or find some other impressionable young guy…

……are NOT worth your time.

How you actually end it is up to you, but being able to look at your situation and realise that there are always better clients than that out there, is the single biggest leap I have made in the past year.

I enjoyed writing this list, and I actually thought of 5 more things whilst I was writing, so I might write a sequel to this! I am starting to see things growing, and getting better, and it DOES get better. But knowing some of these little things can maybe make it easier.

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I have been so busy of late, so my blogging duties have been somewhat neglected. There has been a state election called and I am working on the campaign, so have been working pretty solidly on that, plus putting my nose to the grindstone on a fair few other projects too, which should be unveiled in the next couple of weeks.

I have also been working on a redesign for the LinkArtist main site and blog, and was planning to launch on July 15, but like mechanics drive shitty cars, and carpenters have a list of jobs to do around their house, I have not found the time to be able to prioritise it. We are also working on a really exciting new project that will be launching soon, so …. watch this space I guess!

If you are feeling neglected by me at the moment, I apologise, elections only come around every 4 years (in theory at least) so I’ll be back on board and replying more reliably to emails in the next week to 2 weeks.

NK & Anna Rose

Jen and Tasj are 2 of Perth’s most talented photographers, and they are my friends and clients (in fact, I take the credit for introducing them - well sorta!), so it makes sense that they have decided to pair up and create their own studio. They wanted a site that was really white, no faffy bits, and I think we managed to come up with a logo and overall site concept that fits their style.

As always, there are still a few tweaks to be made, but overall I am happy with it.

Check them out at nkannarose.com.au

Aksent Photography

Kirsty approached me to create her a custom blog design, with a custom Flash slideshow. I just LOVE what Next-Gen gallery adds to Wordpress. After some customisation, we got the player to do what we wanted. Yay for Flash challenges!

Check it out at aksentphotographyblog.com

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There have been so many times that I have been tempted to quit this little web design caper.

For those that don’t already know, I am not just a web designer, but I also had a previous life in the drudgerous grey cubefarm known as the public service. I thought that that was what I wanted to do, until I realised very early on in my career that it wasn’t for me. Policy was a passion, it still is in varying degrees, and the temptation to quit has hit me on at least… I dunno 70,000 occasions in the 3.5 years I have been working as a designer.

I have been going through a bit of a rut lately, working through things, pondering the direction of the business so that I don’t suddenly hit 40, realise that I am still working 14 hour days, and realise that I have wasted my life…

So, browsing today, I found this. It applies to production, but it still resonates:

“It takes a while, its going to take you a while, and that’s normal… you just have to fight your your way through it…"

“It takes a while, its going to take you a while, and that’s normal… you just have to fight your your way through it… "

And again, just for posterity:

“It takes a while, its going to take you a while, and that’s normal… you just have to fight your your way through it… "

It is always so tempting to quit when things get hard. But I watched this video, and I have to admit that I got choked up hearing those words… at just the right time.

Nothing worth doing is going to be easy. It is a series of lessons, practise, constant mistakes and errors in judgement that get us to the point where we feel like an artist, rather than a Policy Officer pretending to be a designer… or a Mum with a hobby that earns her some cash "on the side" (that’s my favourite, given that I am the main income earner :)).

But, knowing that I am not alone, when there are SO many times when it feels that way, gives me comfort.

And hopefully, it helps to inspire me to keep going with this "little web design thing", and get better at it, so that when I am 40, I look back with pride and accomplishment.

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Cindy Yen has been a dream client. She came to me through the extremely talented Ellen Petty, who designed her logo and business cards. Despite some delays on my end, Cindy showed tremendous patience, and a great understanding and appreciation for design.

This is another site powered by Wordpress, which is valid XHTML/CSS and all that good kind of stuff It also uses the fantastic NextGen Gallery, which, in my humble opinion, should be used in every single Wordpress install.

Best of luck with your new site, Cindy!

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I have been neglecting both of my blogs a bit lately, because I have just been so busy that I haven’t had time to do anything other than work, sleep and (occasionally) parent.

I have a queue of work right now, and the very first (almost) finished project to come out of my head down, bum up couple of months is the redesign of Cahoots’ website.

Cahoots have a great product. They produce hard bound photo books from your digital (or scanned) images, and have great software that is really easy to use. They have a number of options, which depend on how involved you would like to be in the process - from downloading the software yourself, designing and sending the finished product through, to having a book maker produce the design and book for you. They also run workshops, which I think is a great idea for people who want to get started but are not really sure how. They also have some great opportunities for Mums who want to work from home and have a knack for design, so be sure to check them out!

This project was delivered in pretty much record time, and I am proud of the result (which, for me is a pretty big ask seeing as I am highly critical of my work!). I worked with Cahoots’ existing branding and style guide to create a fun, practical and clean design that utilises a lot of really cool features, including a Flash flipping book (after all, they sell real books and we needed to get that across), some neat javascript features, and some really cool work with the Joomla templating system.

There are still some of those inevitable "smoothing out" things to do after going live, but be sure to check it out here:

Click here to visit Cahoots

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