Category : Discussions

in Discussions

Discussion – Getting ready for taxes?

Unfortunately, for many of us it is tax time again. Nobody likes it, but everyone has to do it. Personally, up until a couple years ago I did my account and taxes in the most unprofessional manner ever. I was just an unorganized freelancer who didn’t really do things in the proper maner.

I was still running my business as a sole-proprietor vs. a corporation.
I was paying myself on the fly vs. a roper payroll.
I wasn’t having my taxes done by a real accountant.
I wasn’t paying my taxes quarterly.

The end result of all that laziness is a huge bill at the end of the year. One I usually didn’t have the money for. I mean we are talking close to, or over $10,000. As such, I am still paying for those mistakes in a monthly bill to the tax man. Continue Reading

in Discussions

Discussion – Do you have a daily routine?

I have never been much of a routine person. No matter how hard I try, I can’t for the life of me stick to a routine. The extent of my daily routine is browsing the web for a bit, checking the RSS feeds, answering emails, and the doing some work. Half the time its doesn’t even happen in that order, if it even happens at all. I don’t know why, but I have always wanted to be able to stick to a very strict daily schedule.

To me, theres something comforting about regimented and planned out week. Knowing that I only have from this time to this time to accomplish a task offers some peace of mind. Because, after that allotted amount of time is done, I know that I don’t have to think about said activity again. Having a certain amount of time to accomplish something also seems to make one work a little more focused.

I also like the idea of a planned out week so that I could schedule tasks I normally would put off and never get done. Things like bookkeeping, customer management, and other boring business tasks are things I often never end up doing because they are boring. Even though these tasks would only take a few minutes if I did them each day, I usually put them off until each one is easily a days worth of work.

This week I am going to try and keep a strict routine. I will post it online and give daily updates on my progress, as well as my thoughts on working with a strict routine. I encourage you to do the same, as well as check up on my during the day via Titter or Facebook to see how I’m doing.

So, the question of the week, do you have a daily routine and if so, how do you manage to stick to it?

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in Discussions, News

New Feature – Weekly Design Challenge

Ever since I started Outlaw Design Blog I always wanted to do something to help the community polish their skills and allow them to show off to the community. In the early days I used a Flickr pool, but that didn’t really have the effect I wanted. It really was just more of a pool where readers could show of their work. I wanted something a bit more social and thought provoking.

When I was a professional photographer I had a book that was geared at teaching you how to shoot stock photography. The better part of the book was very specific assignments aimed at helping you build up your collection of stock photography. That is what I hope to achieve with the weekly challenges.

To start out, the weekly challenges will have to be a bit more basic so that they can gain some participation and popularity. Eventually though, I would like these challenges to help you produce something that you can put in your portfolio.

How it Works


The rules are simple, every two weeks I will post a new challenge in the forums. You will have up to two weeks to complete the challenge.

At the end of the two weeks, a celebrity judge will choose the winner.

Each week there will be a prize awarded to the winner chosen by the celebrity judge.

Weekly Challenge #1


For the inaugural launch of the weekly design challenge I decided to keep it basic with a simple wallpaper design.

Challenge:
Create a desktop wallpaper with an ampersand theme.

Prize:
Mac Divvy App – http://mizage.com/divvy/

Judge:
Rogie of Komodo Media – http://www.komodomedia.com/

Deadline:
2/21/11

in Discussions

Discussion: How’s your customer service?

As freelancers, I think many of us under utilize customer service and support as a business tool. I’m not saying we don’t offer or appreciate it. I’m just saying I don’t think we use it to our advantage as much as we could.

For example:

  • How many of you send out a thank you letter after the end of the project?
  • Have you ever sent out a “how’s my driving” type survey to clients?
  • Do you regularly check in on clients to see if they need something new or additional help?
  • Do you use a ticketing system for clients to contact you later on down the road if they need help?

It just seems to me that if we as freelancers put as much time into our customer service and support as big industries did, business would improve. I think that by improving your customer service and doings ome of the things mentioned above, that not only would your business improve, but that you would improve as a designer/developer and business owner.

What sort of customer service & support do you offer?

Personally, I’m as guilty as the next guy in the sense that I don’t really offer or do anything. Im always available to my clients via email, IM, or phone, but thats where it stops. One of my plans for this year is to work on a better email customer service system. I want to try and create a set of auto reply emails that get sent out to new leads (w/o being spammy) to check up on theme if I don’t hear back from them.

I also want to setup a set of emails that auto send after the end of a project that include a survey about our work, request for a testimonial, and periodic emails checking in on them to see if they need any new help.

Thoughts?

in Discussions

Poll – Design Float VS. Digg

Maybe I am one of a few, but I havent visited a industry news sharing sites like Design Float or Design Bump, in a long time. I’m wondering if I am the only one. I’m wondering if you prefer the more niche news sharing sites or the major news sharing sites for your industry specific news.

If you are interested in sharing your thoughts, please take this quick poll: http://verifyapp.com/p/5366

My Thoughts

I remember when Design Float first came out and it was all the rage among the community. It was almost an overnight success. As a blog owner, I found myself constantly coming back to the site to add my links and content to the news feed. That however, was pretty much the extent of my activity on the site. I very rarely went to the site looking for news items and almost never used it to promote content I found online.

In defense of Design Float, I never really did that on Digg either. I’m just not a major news sharing site player I guess.

It seems to me though, that at first glance, sites like Design Float appear to offer a lot of value to visitors. However, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that the majority of the traffic and activity on these niche sites are from the bloggers who submit their news to them.

If thats the case, it would seem that these niche news sites are heavily influenced by whoever the most active users are. This is of course unfair to visitors and users and something Digg had to work very hard at countering. Yes, many of these niche sites have measures in place to help prevent this, but nothing that can’t easily be “hacked.”

As a visitor, I just don’t really see the value in these niche news sharing sites. But, as I said before, Im not really a news sharing site kind of guy.

What do you think?

If you are interested in sharing your thoughts, please take this quick poll: http://verifyapp.com/p/5366

in Discussions

Discussion: Who do you look up to in the industry?

Im actually working on a post form sometime in the next few weeks that is nothing but a collection of people in the industry that I look up to and respect. It includes lots of local people as well as those that I have only ever admired from afar. It is a collection of designer, business owners, and even some developers.

So, I was just wondering who you look up to in your industry and why?

As I said before, I’m working on a post that answers this question, but the sake of this discussion, here is one of my top picks:

[sws_2_column title=""] [/sws_2_column] [sws_2_columns_last title="Carl Smith of Ngen Works"]I first learned of Carl at a local web design Meetup group where he spoke on the topic of user testing. Since then I have stalked him religiously. Ok, maybe not stocked, but definitely kept tabs on. Carl is just one of those “really good dudes.” Hes always happy to help, take the time to listen, and has some really great advice and experiences to share. I ad more him for that and for what he has turned ngen works into over the years.[/sws_2_columns_last]
Be on the lookout for my post where I stroke the egos of those who have inspired me to be a better designer, better businessman, and all around better person.