A few days ago, I was approached by a small business owner about creating a short Powerpoint presentation. Until this encounter, I had never really explored the idea of adding power point designs to my bag of design tricks. The proposal got me thinking, after all, a Powerpoint presentation is nothing more than a mix of great graphic design and a simplified website.

Later on that evening I went home and decided to look up powerpoint designers. I was actually surprised by how many paid and FreePowerpoint templates and backgrounds there were out there. Obviously, many of the free ones lacked serious design, but this just goes to show how much potential there is in this niche.

If you are interested in learning a little more about Powerpoint presentations, check out Presentation Trees list of Powerpoint tips.

Other Niche Markets
As I said before, this whole Powerpoint thing got me thinking; how many other niches are there that the average graphic designer over looks?

What are you thoughts on this?

Just like designers, small business owners are a unique breed of people with their own special quirks. Unfortunately for us as designers, some of those quirks includes being cheap and bull headed. The combination of these can making sealing the deal with a small business owner a frustrating experience.

So how do we deal with these eccentricities without going postal on the client or giving them more than they paid for?

Landing jobs with small business owners is a lot like hunting. The more you understand your prey and how they work, the better chance you have to be successful on the hunt. Below are three problems you’ll often run into when dealing with small business owners (SBOs) and how to deal with them.

1. SBO’s don’t like paying large, lump sums of money.

No big surprise there. Small business owners usually have a lot of expenses and a strict budget at the start of their operation. Unfortunately, many of them don’t know how to justify paying hundreds and thousands of dollars at a time for design or code work. The solution to this problem is simple, offer them options.

Small business owners like options, especially when it comes to billing. With so many online invoicing and payment tools it shouldn’t hard to find a way to keep track of payments and clients. Here are a few billing option you can offer:

• 25% deposit, 50% half way through or upon delivery of proofs, and the remaining 50% upon completion.
• A discount for paying 100% upfront.
• Monthly billing is always a huge favorite for small business owners.

2. SBO’s always know someone who will do it cheaper.

Everyone knows someone who is or claims to be a designer. Small business owners think that all designers are created equal and that if their brothers son can design a logo or website for $100, that they shouldn’t have to pay any more than that. Because small business owners are cheap and like to haggle, they will milk this for all its worth. Don’t fall victim to this and simply lower your prices. Instead, think of ways you can out perform “their guy.”

Rather than lower your rates, offer to add on some “free services.” These of course shouldn’t be things that will consume a lot of your time, but will seem beneficial to the owner. Some great examples of freebies include:

• $100 worth of SEO on the sites home page
• A free black and white friendly version of the logo design
• A free business card layout

3. SBO’s always want more revisions.

One thing you need to understand about small business owners is that they are always thinking. Because their mind is always running at 100%, they tend to change their mind and ideas quite regularly. What this translates into in the design world is unlimited revisions. Unlimited revisions can quickly turn into a nightmare and is something I never do for anyone.

The best solution here is to create a clear definition of how many initial concepts you will offer and the number of revisions that will be included. After that, create a price that seems fair to you to charge for additional revisions. This way, you won’t be stuck doing hundreds of revisions for free, but the owner will feel like they have the option for more.

Just asking our regular readers for some help on raising our status on the For Web Designers website. If you don’t know about the For Web Designers website, you’re missing out. Its a really cool, ever growing list of quality resources for web designers. I suggest checking it out.

Please vote for Outlaw Design Blog here.

We decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a Flickr group for Outlaw Design Blog. To get the group jump started we decided to hold a little graphic design contest. All you have to do is add a few of your best designs, artwork, logos, etc. Read on for the details…

The Rules:
Add as many designs as you want to our Flickr Group. Anything that falls in the realm of design will be accepted. Categories include, but are not limited to; logos, graphic design, 3d design, graphic art, Photoshop, vector illustrations, etc.

Previously published work is fine, but if its original you’ll get extra points!

Judging:

The judging will be done by the Outlaw Design Blog staff. Sexual favors will not increase your chances of winning unless you are a hot MySpace girl. A piece of advice, we like cool “outlaw” stuff and pirates.

Deadline:
The final deadline for entries is March 25, 2008

Prizes:

1st Place
Graphic Design Portfolio Builder
Color Workbook

2nd Place
Launching the Imagination

3rd Place
A Type Primer

As many of you know, as of Febuary 2008, I will be living and working from the sandy beaches of Costa Rica. As nice as it sounds to work from the web in the Caribbean, there are a number challenges to overcome. Snail mail is almost impossible to receive, internet connections come and go, and phone services are never 100% reliable.

Because of these short comings and the amount of traveling I will be doing, I have been researching online tools. I want to have as much of work based online as possible. That way if I decide to jet set down to Panama for a week or (God forbid) my laptop get stolen, I won’t be out of business.

Thanks to the web 2.0 fad there are no shortage of online tools. This is a collection of the tools I will be using while working from Costa Rica. I have tried to include reasons I chose one particular program over another. I have also included other useful tools that the traveling freelancer may enjoy.

Tools You Need to Run a Business

I started my search for online tools by creating a list of tools I currently use to run my businesses. This list helped keep me on track when looking for tools. There are so many good ones out there and I easily absorbed into online applications that I have no need for just because they are well made.

Here is my initial list of needs I wanted to find an online replacement for:

• File/Image Store
• Telephone
• Snail Mail
• Office Software (Word, Excel,Etc)
• Meetings
• Finance Organizer
• To Do List
• Photo Editing Software

A few of these items are no brainers, but some of them took me a while to find one that fit my needs. One of my main needs was that I didn’t want to have to pay them. So I first sought out programs that were either free or open source. I then went to products that had limited free versions and lastly to paid products.

File/Image Storage

There’s certainly no shortage of choices for this category. What I wanted here was a way to easily backup my data from my laptop to my online server. I also wanted a fairly universal way to store my images online that could be used with other programs.

Flickr – I decided on Flickr because its one of the most widely used photo sharing sites out there. Many other programs and plugins have Flickr compatibilities so I figured this was the best choice.

Media Max – From what I can tell, Media Max has the largest amount of free online storage. They offer 25 GBs while many of the others I saw only offered 2-5GBs. They also have a desktop application that you can use to save directly to your free storage account. I used this as a backup for my backup.

Telephone

Skype – I went with Skype for a number of reasons. The main selling point was the ability for me to choose my phone number. Since most of my family lives in Georgia, I choose a phone number with a Georgia are code. This means that if anyone in Georgia decides to call me in Costa Rica it costs them nothing. Its as if they are calling any other GA number. I also like the fact that it has a chat and web cam feature built in.

Snail Mail

Earth Class Mail – Aside from Skype, this was the one other tool I pay for. The service costs $10 a month and is worth every penny. What they do is give you a PO box number to have all your mail sent to. They then scan the envelope and post it online. You can then check your mail online and ask the service to open your mail or trash it. Open mailed get scanned and uploaded to your account. Pretty freakin sweet.

Office Software

ZoHo – I figured I would start using an online office suite as my primary source of office tools just to make the online storage process even easier. While Google Docs is great, I felt like ZoHo just had a lot more to offer.

Meetings

MyQuire – Until recently I had been using the Base Camp alternative, Active Collab. It works great and I still love it. But the one thing it lacks is the built in chat feature that Basecamp has. MyQuire has many of the same features as these other online collaboration tools, but it also has a built in chat feature. Best of all its free and well made.

Finance Organization

Mint – Not to be confused with mint analytics, this program is much like an online version of Quicken. Its lets you add all your back accounts, credit cards, etc in one place so that you can keep with them. It also offers budgeting software and email reminders. Combine this with automatic bill pay and your set.

To Do List

I Want Sandy – While MyQuire and ZoHo both have to-do list features built in, I like the Ask Sandy program. All you have to do and send an email to your personal assistant (Sandy) with the item you wish to remember in the subject line. Read my review of Ask Sandy here.

Photo Editing

Picnik – While there are a few online photo editing programs that are like mini versions of Photoshop, I was worried they might be too hard to use on bad internet connections. I decided on Picnik because it’s fairly lightweight, but has the basic tools I would need for editing pictures for blog posts. That and it has built in Flickr functions.

More Resources

• Online Business Toolbox: 230+ Tools
• Putting Together a Portable Office
• Nine Online Tools for Web Based Business
• Freelancers Toolset: 100 Web Apps

FreelanceSwitch Job Board
Design, Development, Writing, Illustration, Flash, Misc.
Cost: $7 a month

This Job Board is part of the Great Community of Freelancers. You can start your whole freelance carrier here, as you will be able to find all advice and information necessary for the good start. It has a blog, where you can search for advice and opinion from other freelancers.
Handy tools for the freelance newbie and for the professionals.


WebProJobs

Design, Programing, Copywriting, Marketing, Other
Cost: a 180-day listing is only $50 for full-time, $25 for freelance

Web Pro Jobs is a job board for web professionals and the companies looking to work with them. The main difference that you can find not only freelance, but full time jobs as well. If you post your job here, your job gets automatically listed on various websites.

Programmer Meet Designer
Programmers, web developers, designers, entrepreneurs, writers
Cost: joining is free

You can search the site to your exact needs, filling out a simple form, or you can browse by the hundreds of tags, each indicating how many jobs available with that tag. Latest listings and Top tags are listed on the main page for your convenience.

Krop

Design, Programming, Other
Cost: Free for the freelancer. The price is paid by the companies.

Krop is a company based in Los Angeles, CA. For your $ 199 you will get one credit. One credit = 1 job listing. There is no categories, you will have to use the search engine, which will found you the jobs you want. The available positions will be listed by location in alphabetic order, indicating the position they are offering, and the company name.

SoloGig
Technical, Graphic Design, Web Design, Writing, Accounting, Etc.
Cost: Free

Great source for contract jobs, consulting jobs, freelance, and part time jobs.
You can search by keywords, city, state, or distance from your current location. You can sign up for free, and not for only a trial period. No bidding either, you contact the employer directly with your profile.

No Agencies Please
Web design/development, media, Flash, Programming
Cost: Free

This simple site’s goal is to skip the middle link between companies and the freelancers. The companies can choose to post either a job, or a project. The freelancer decides which is more suitable for him/her and search accordingly.

Authentic Jobs
Web Design, Web Development
Cost: free for the freelancer

The site requires no registration. You can freely browse the full-time or freelance jobs, both locally, or anywhere around the world.

Simply Hired
No registration fee.
Administration, Architecture, Arts & Entertainment, Business, Computer & Math, Consruction, Facilities, Healthcare, Law, Management, Manufacturing, Military, Non-Profit & Social Work, Science, Teaching, Transportation, Sales.

You can search the site by job title, salary, company, job type, education, work experience, company size, company revenue, or date posted. Freelance and local jobs in a wide range of fields. Local jobs available only in the US. The special search filter includes criteria like: dog-friendly, or 50+ friendly companies.

Fresh Web Jobs

Design, Programming, Other
Cost: $75 for 30 days listing

Small job site, currently with 72 available positions. Three cathegories altogether, so you won’t get lost in the site. Full time jobs presented in bigger percentage here.

37Signals
Design, Programming, Business, Other
Cost: $300 for 30 days listing

Concentrates on the web professionals, programmers, program developers. The companies are mostly looking for local employees, for full time jobs. The location is highlighted in every job ad, to make selection easy for the job seeker .

Design Crowd

Web design, programming
Registration: free

A site built by freelancers, in a forum format. After a detailed registration process, you will be able to use all the forums features. The applicant is supposed to follow the link provided in the postings by the companies, not replying directly to the thread.

Guru
Writing, Design, Programming, Flash, Illustration, Everything
Cost: Free to $129 per quarter

A larger freelance job bidding website. Much like Elance, Guru has categories for everything from virtual assistants to search engine optimization. Sign up for a free account to look around and get a better idea of how the site works. The jobs vary in locations, some are location specific, while other are telecommuting.

Freelancers Network
General web
Cost: free

Freelancers.net is UK focused and lists many jobs and projects open to UK freelancers, but those of outside of UK can find can find something occasionally. You will have an own domain where you can put your portfolio and profile. The site has wizards to create a professional portfolio if you are in need of one.

FreelanceBBS
All types of jobs
Registration is required but free

This simple working site provides searching options for both parties: freelancers and employers. You can search, browse by available projects, profession, or use the advanced search for more specific needs.

Go Freelance
Writing, Editing, Graphic Design & Illustration, Web Design & Development, Programming, Administrative, Consulting, Photo&Video, Sales&Marketing, Other
Cost: $2.95 (7 days trial) $39.95 per month

Be aware that if you do not cancel your membership after the 7 days trial, it will automatically renewed for 39.95 per month. With joining the site offers a bonus book and video about successful freelancing. You can browse the categories from the main site without the registration though.

With Cake

Developers, CakePHP
Free

The site and it’s goal is simple: to help CakePHP Developers and those who are in need one, find each other. There is two sections, one for the companies and one for the developers. You can grab the RSS feed, to be updated regularly.

Altpick
Photographers, Designers, Illustrators, Animators, Graphich related business
$299 for one year of unlimited access

Artists will have their own Altpick site, where they can upload their potfolio. With the registration fee they can update their own site whenever it is needed. Besides waiting for the customer to find them, they can check the latest job listings on the site.

Coroflot
Designers, General Creatives
Free

With Coroflot you can sign up for RSS feed job alerts. You can browse, or search for specific jobs. Upload your profile to maximize the chance of getting the perfect opportunity. Creating a portfolio is free. You will have an own URL with your profile.

Craigslist
Local jobs, all areas
Free

We all know Craigslist. But did you know that you can look for jobs there? In a forum format, in a daily listing, you can browse all kind of jobs, all over the US, should it be local, or freelance.

GeekUp Job Board
Business, Design, Development, Other
Free

The site is specialized in web industry jobs in the UK’s North-West. Registration is a must, but free.

AWN Career Connections
Computer graphics, web development, other
Free

The site is part of the Animation World Network. You can search the jobs by keyword, job function, job type, business type, state, country. Jobs are collected from various sites.

Creative Heads
Video Game, Animation, 3D Technology
Free

You can create your profile in a few minutes, and you can choose from the three visibility status: ‘visible’, ‘anonymous’, or ‘invisible’. Interesting feature: You can prevent specific companies from ever finding or viewing your profile, while you stay visible to the rest of the market. Or you can choose from the wide selection of jobs, updated continuously. The list contains quality jobs from the top creative companies.

Flay
3D artists
Free

Type in your keyword, or browse the categories. The site also provides news and resources for the 3D artist. A lot of useful tutorials and Lightwave Plug-in Database is also awailable here.

VFX Talk
Digital composition & VFX
Free

This site is also an informational site, with a job section. Forums, news, tutorials, and gallery for the computer graphic professional. The jobs are listed in a forum format.

Job Serve UK, USA, Australia

All types
Free

The candidate registration process is designed to be as simple or as thorough as you want to make it.
If you want to register quickly then all you need to do is provide your email address, a password, select those markets in which you wish to work and then press the finish button. Alternatively, you can proceed through the full registration process which will take a bit more time, but will speed up the process of applying for jobs later.
With one registration you can sign up for all the three main sites.

Chin Wag
Online marketing, design, technical, business
Free

Currently nearly one thousand jobs available, which you can search with a simple search window, or by tags, locations, top companies. Registration is fast, free, and easy.

Job Burner
IT, Engineering
Free

With the free registration you will be able to use the detailed job hunting tool the site provides, enable more advanced features – like watching jobs closer to your location.
You can keep a personal history of your searches, and preview some beta features.

All Freelance Work

All types of jobs
Registration is required but free

The site covers the whole field of job categories. The site helps you to create a professional portfolio, also for free. Browse the whole list of jobs, or use the more detailed search engine.

All Data Jobs
Data Architecture, Data Modeling, Data Analysis, Data Integration, Business Intelligence, DBA, Database Administration, ETL, Metadata, Data Mining, Master Data Management jobs
Free

Connect with top employers with data hiring needs. Sign up and apply for data jobs by simply cutting and pasting your resume. Set up job alerts and hide your resume from all you want to.

Filter

Business
Free

Register to be able to get the top jobs. Copy and paste your resume text for keyword searching. Upload pictures of your work. This simple. Covers only the USA West Coast.

Freelance Seattle
All kind of jobs in and around Seattle
Free

Non-profit, volunteer association, run by freelancers. The creaters aim is to make the job research easy and cost-effective both for freelancers and companies. The freelancer needs a registration first.

People 4 Business, People 4 Charity
All types
Anywhere in the UK

The registration process includes a CV section, rate and availability description. Professionals registered as Sellers on the two sister sites have experience in a wide range of industries, both in the public and non-profit sectors. They are now ale to select a ’charity rate’, which is a discount on their hourly rates.

Job Agg
Web design and development
Free

Aggregating Web Design and Development job boards. You can make sure you will find exactly what you are looking for, without wasting too much time to sort out the things you are not interested in. This list collect all the relevant jobs for you, from Authentic, 37 Signals, CS Beauty, Freshwebjobs.

Job Pile
Web design and development
Free

Collect the available jobs from the following sites: Authentic, 37 Signals, Krop, Metafilter, Freshwebjobs, Slashdot, CS Beauty, Coroflot, Ministry Camp.

Job Lighted
Software and web-related jobs
Free

The site’s main page features a handy map, which indicates the available jobs with a little bulb in every country. If you click on the bulb, you will get the further details about the job. If you want to go specific, there is search available by distance, or keywords as well.
Collects from Joel On Software, 37 Signals, Crunch Board, Slashdot, Authentic Jobs, Venture Beat, Tech Gigger, Metafilter, Python, Krop, Coroflot, Fresh Web Jobs, Smashing Jobs.

Most Hired
Business, Development, Design
Free

Collects information from 37 Signals, Krop, Venture Beat, Authentic Jobs, Giga OM, Joelonsoftware.com, Crunch Board. On the main page the site lists all jobs, where you can search by keyword, or use the board search.

Yosumo
Free

This site simply lists the boards it aggregates the jobs from: Joel on Software, 37 Signals, Crunchboard, Authentic, Slashdot, Vitamin, Fresh Web Job Gizmodo, CSS Monstor, PLOPT

Indeed
All types of jobs
Free

A search engine for jobs. Free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites. The site includes all the job listings from major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages.

Get a Freelancer
Web Designers

Gold membership: $12/month

After a simple sign up procedure you can find web design, programming, copywriting all over the world. However, if you are looking exclusive project, or higher ranking, you may wish to subscribe for a Gold membership.

Elance
General web, writers, designers, developers, general
Start-up is free

Elance is a growing market for everyone who is trying to find work they can do online. Both individuals and companies can join Elance, create an online profile, and immediately join the community. With a free registration you have the right to bid on the available jobs in one of the categories, and a set number of ‘Connects’, which is the official currency of the site. You can buy more Connects, and be able to bid on more categories, on more jobs.

iFreelance

General Web, Illustrators, Writers, Designers
Free

Post your profile today and get access to thousands of buyers in need of your services. Advertise to buyers, bid on projects, and earn money doing what you love to do.

Rent A Coder
General web, development
Free

Subscribe to the newsletter and receive daily bid requests from the registered buyers, or brows in the currently open bid requests.

Script Lance

Programmers
Free

The site offers a service that connects programmers with buyers that need custom programming done for their websites. Much like an auction, programming projects are posted and interested programmers bid on them.

Get A Coder
Programming, Web Design, Writing.
Free

The site offers a service that connects programmers with buyers, throughout the world. Much like an auction, programming projects are posted and interested programmers bid on them.

Agaveblue

Design, programming, development, online marketing, etc.
Free

Create a provider profile describing you unique expertise. Attract employers with an online portfolio highlighting your top work samples. Agaveblue automatically notifies providers when new projects are listed in their selected categories, inviting them to bid on projects that best match their professional capabilities.

Freelance Job Search
General web, USA only
$5/credit

After registration, you will be able to purchase credits. You can then use these credits to purchase the contact information for the client. After you purchase the contact information, you should call or e-mail the company to get more information to create your bid. Each project allows up to 8 bids.

Freelance Auction
Web development, programming, design
Signup: $59.99 + $ 10 % commission after every bid won.

Browse the list of projects posted by businesses for the ones you would be interested in, or have Freelance Auction send you an e-mail whenever a new project is posted. Then you can decide to place a bid on the project, as well as provide details of the work you can do. Update or retract your bid anytime you want.

Project 4 Hire
Web design, graphic design, programming, writing
Registration: Free

Although registering and bidding is free, you will have to pay a commission after every bid you won.