jasonackerman.com

Last month, I wrote an article entitled “What I’ve Learned As A Freelancer“. That was part one, and discussed the importance of communication. That really is part of retaining focus on your client’s needs. Part Two focuses on your needs.

The term “Who’s The Boss” probably brings up visions of Tony Danza in a hopelessly 1980’s northeastern household, or if you’re like me and was a junior high boy in the 1980’s, visions of Alyssa Milano in a denim jacket start to cloud your brain– but I digress.

In freelancing, it’s important to remember that you are the BOSS! Not Bruce Springsteen, but the guy in charge. Really. I know it sounds obvious, but this is YOUR business. It’s YOUR company, YOUR rules, YOUR livelihood. Many freelancers never get out of the corporate mindset. You may have left your corporate job for the freedom, the money, the control, but never really break into the right mindset. What does that mean?

1. It means you don’t have to take every job that comes down the pipeline. You may feel desperate – bills are looming, and you want to take every job you can get your hands on. And to be fair, sometimes you have to scrape for every dollar you can get. But YOU’RE THE BOSS. That means you can assess the hidden costs and turn down a job that appears to costly. Will this client be so needy that you spend 2 hours coddling them for every 1 hour of actual work you do? Will this client be so demanding that you lose your motivation and end up doing a crappy job? Will you have to incur expenses you can’t bill back? Will this client take an extra 60 or 90 days to pay? If you can identify these things up front, you’ll save yourself time and money by either turning down the job, or charging what I call the “high-maintenance tax”… bid it out to compensate you for the headaches you’re about to get into. Not all of these things can be identified up front, but after a few high-maintenance jobs, you’ll learn to spot the signs quickly.

2. It means that when it comes down to it, you set the policies and procedures. If you’re not used to running a business, you might find yourself getting run over by clients. If you set your policies and procedures up front, and are clear about them, don’t be shy about sticking to your guns. A client who CAN run you over, WILL run you over.

3. It means that you don’t have to answer to anyone but your client and yourself. This is the part I’m sure you got down right away – if you need to take the day off, and you can still meet your deadlines and pay your bills, then take the day off. Don’t feel guilty about not being at your desk. Some will say the way to succeed as a freelancer is to treat it like a “real job” – work consistent hours, restrict vacation time, and so on. I say that’s a load of bovine excrement. If you want to treat it like a real job, then get a real job! Me, I prefer the reality of being able to work as much or as little as I need to, or want to, depending on the circumstance. There are times when I spend several days putting in immense hours – which is the price I pay for having days where I work very little, if at all. And dangit, if I want to take a Monday off, there’s no one who can tell me no.

Remember – You’re The Boss. You may not look like Tony Danza, but you get to set the rules. Don’t forget why you got into freelance in the first place.

Next time, I’ll talk about workflow. Workflow is really the other side to the freedom issue – that is, how do you keep the lid on your wild side so that you stay organized and productive?

I upgraded to WP 2.7.1 – big jump from 2.5, where I was. Broke a few plugins – I’m hoping the new Live+Press actually works right. Most everything else seems to be ok.

So I’ve been reading some articles on the InterTubes about “freelancing”. Now having done freelance work for many years, but really putting hard effort into making a living at it this last 18 months, I have what I think to be a pretty solid perspective on things. I’m talking primarily about my segment of the industry – web design, development, etc, though it could cross into graphic design, copywriting, and the like. The first thing I have to say to most freelancers out there: It’s because of you that I have work. A major source of work for me is cleaning up after freelancers who either have no business being in this industry as designers, or no business being in business as a business owner. Did you hear the work business a lot in that sentence? I hope so, because as a freelancer, that’s what you are. So I thought I’d take some time out from the regular BORE of my blog and write something with some hopefully valuable content. This will be the first in a series. The series will be over when I’ve decided I’ve written about enough lessons. So it could be a one-part series, or this could continue on into 2012. We’ll see how it goes.

The first thing I’ve learned as a freelancer, is I think the single most important key to success: Communicate with your clients. In fact, every other lesson I’m going to write about are things you can avoid learning the hard way, by simply being a good communicator. OVER-communicate. Don’t keep your clients in the dark. Don’t try to ‘put one over on them’. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and be sure to deliver what you promise.

The worst thing you can do is avoid communication. When you’re running behind, and you aren’t able to meet a deadline, we tend to build up this gigantic confrontation in our minds (ok, maybe that’s just me). In reality, if your client has been in business for more than 10 minutes, they understand. They probably struggle to meet deadlines just like you do. That’s the problem of having work to do – which nowadays is a good problem. Most clients will understand if you pick up the phone, proactively, and tell them where you stand and what they can expect. What they don’t understand is why they’re paying you good money and they can’t get a hold of you and your deadline is 4 days past. And let’s be honest here – unless the client is paying you so much money that it’s worth it, a client that will verbally abuse you for falling behind isn’t a client you want. Once you can communicate your status, give an expectation that the client can count on. Then live up to it. If your deadline is today but you can’t deliver until Friday, say so. Then DO IT. Don’t say Thursday because they want to hear it, just tell the truth, then live up to it.

Your client will respect you, ultimately. And a client that respects you is a client for life – and a client that will pay more to work with someone they can trust. Almost all my business is based on referral. I occasionally hit Craigslist for a gig or two, but that’s the exception nowadays. A referral by a client who knows you are up front and honest is infinitely more valuable than any other. The reason a company is hiring a freelancer is because they don’t have the expertise in-house to do what you do – they are paying for your expertise. They are looking for a reason to trust you, otherwise they wouldn’t be paying the higher hourly rate. So always give clients a reason to trust you. Be open and honest, and you’ll set yourself above most freelancers. But if you want to be an incommunicative liar, that’s fine too — keep the bar low, that just means another client that is an easy sell for me. But I’d like for our industry to have a better reputation than that.

So that’s the first lesson in Freelancing. Stay tuned for Lesson 2, titled “Who’s the Boss?”. (rumors of an appearance by Tony Danza have been greatly exaggerated).

So the only real meaning in this post title is that it’s from “Dust in the Wind”, and holy CRAP is it windy around here lately. The mountains have seen gusts of 100MPH! Down here in ol’ B-Field, it’s only been sustained winds around 20MPH, but gusts reaching upwards of 50-60mph. The house has been shaking.

So things have been busy enough to curb my already seldom blogging into almost a complete stop. I’ve been blogging now for almost 8 years – since August 22, 2001. So I’ve come to terms with my blogging frequency. It’s remained remarkably consistent. Consistently inconsistent though it may be. That being said, I’m happy that my blog stats continue to stay solid at roughly 125 page views/month. Keep visiting, keep reading, and for crying out loud comment once in a while, eh?

The last month was almost completely overwhelmed with work on a website gig. Between that and just regular life/church/holidays – everything secondary got pushed down the priority list. This site was quite the learning experience. I feel like I learned some harsh lessons in project management. But overall, with Dan’s help, we put together quite the product. It’s a dynamic registration-based site for a national modeling agency based here in Denver – Premier Image Agency. The front end isn’t too much to sneeze at (except the cool little flash flipbook on the media page that Ray did, but the backend is something to be reckoned with. Each model they represent can log on and create their own profile, upload their own photos, and then there’s the whole search and booking engine. It turned into a bit of a time suck – ended up underbidding by probably 40%. But for the first time doing something of that scale, we’re pretty pleased with the outcome.

Now that we’re pretty much done with that, I have a few projects that have gotten backed up on the schedule that I need to wrap up. All of them involve customizing Wordpress in one way or another. Which essentially means that even though I’d really like to finish the redesign and upgrade of this site’s WP install, it probably won’t happen anytime soon.

The holidays were good… very different for our family. It was our first Christmas away from the rest of the family (we travelled back last year – remember?). So we stayed home and had a very quiet, family Christmas. That in and of itself was nice, though we did miss everyone from the NW terribly.

We are really feeling the bug to move down closer to downtown. Pending a successful tax season (we’re still too poor to get hosed by taxes, although that’s getting better by the month), we’re looking seriously to get down there before summer – before spring if the right place at the right price comes our way. The whole church planting thing still feels like something of an enigma right now, but what we know is that we want to live in and be a part of that community – what God does in terms of a church plant, if any, will happen then. It sure isn’t going to happen as long as we’re hiding out in Broomfield. Which is too bad, because Broomfield has been good to us. It’s a nice place to hide out.

I came down to Forza to get a little work done because I was having trouble focusing in the home office. That’s a consistent issue for me. Not having a place to “go to work” is nice at times, but it’s a struggle in other ways. I’m discovering that it’s almost as difficult to focus here as it was there, but I’ve made some progress, thus the break to do a little bloggity-bloggity. Though some of the source files I need I left on my home PC, and didn’t put them anywhere accessible. So I can only do so much here anyway. But another couple hours and I should make enough progress to head home satisfied with my day’s work.

So I’ll be heading back to that. That’s the semi-brief update from Monster-Land.

things that sucked this week:
- rockies getting swept in the world series
- there not being a game 5, to which i had tickets
- my brother spending a large amount of money on a plane ticket to come to aforementioned game 5
- not being able to get a ticket to the broncos game to replace missed WS game
- the broncos losing in heartwrenching fashion in said game
- showing up after a harrowing commute (45 minute drive, 2 mile walk) to find another instructor teaching the class i was scheduled for due to a scheduling error

things that didn’t suck this week:
- having my brother in town, despite expensive ticket
- not spending many many many dollars on sporting event tickets
- having an unexpected day to kick it downtown catching up on writing

basically, i’m stuck downtown until i decide how i want to get home. i think i might experiment with using the bus system to get part of the way home, just because it would be handy to know.

the rockies thing was disappointing, for sure, but it was nice to have matt in town. we decided it would be fun to head downtown and see if we could buy a few tickets for the broncos monday night game. we knew it would be tough, what with there being 50,000 people who had rockies tickets and were looking for something to do, but between that and the monday night game, and it being the packers, there were hundreds more buyers than there were sellers, and there were enough buyers willing to spend significantly more than we were, so that left us without a ticket. perhaps it’s for the best, we would have spent a lot of money just to see a heartbreaking loss.

so this morning, i had a class to teach. i hate tuesday classes, because we have one car and it conflicts with the girls’ schoolday. so we all got up at the buttcrack of dawn, loaded into the car and drove me all the way downtown. i hopped off at the coffeeshop, and the family went back to get the kids to school. i got my coffee, and walked 2 miles to the computer training center to teach my class. i walked in to see another instructor all prepared to teach. the school double booked us. so i let the other instructor keep the class, and walked 2 miles BACK to the coffeeshop, where i now sit plotting out my day. ugh. i guess it’s nothing more than inconvenient. the money would have been nice, but whatever.

i’m going to head back up to eagle next week mid-week (tuesday and wednesday). hopefully i’ll come back with a plan for being involved there for the next several months. i’m excited about that.

totally unrelated note: i played bass at discovery on sunday, which was really fun. i haven’t touched a bass in at least 7 or 8 months, so that was interesting. it was pretty cool though, and i only honked a couple notes all morning. it helps when most of the songs are in the key of G.

another totally unrelated note: i got a new phone. verizon just started offering the samsung juke, it’s a little itty-bitty mp3 player/phone. it qualified for my free upgrade, so i ordered it. the jury is still out. it’s definitely high on the fashion scale, and weighted toward the mp3 side. this is fine with me, since i no longer own an ipod, and dont’ plan to buy one. the mp3 software on it is rather handicapped by poor functionality, though, which is a bummer. the phone works just fine. i’ve got a few weeks before my 30-day guarantee is up. we’ll see if i keep it. i’m still undecided on that.

the denver post put up these great little cutouts of the rockies lineup. now, in order to bring the best of luck, the lineup graces our living room just above the tv. (click for a larger version..)

From left to right (in proper batting order): Dinger (the mascot – yes he’s a purple dinosaur. Shut up.), Manager Clint Hurdle, CF Willy Taveras, 2B Kaz Matsui, LF Matt Holliday, 1B Todd Helton, 3B Garrett Atkins, RF Brad Hawpe, SS Troy Tulowitzki, C Yorvit Torrealba, P Ubaldo Jimenez (starting tonight’s game).

I mean really. You wouldn’t want to be the opposing pitcher having to face the heart of this batting order, would you?

i’ve been simpsonized!

You can be too!

I made my first music video today. I hope you like it.

Characters were made at Meez.com. I couldn’t just make the character and post it, I had to get excessively geeky with it. Sorry for the choppy production quality.

it is in fact the bleak midwinter here in the pacific northwest, and yet things just seem bright. the grey and the rain just doesn’t get me all depressed like it does for some.

i’m sitting here, trying to work, but mostly my mind is churning on deeper things – practical life things like future plans, direction, etc., as well as less tangible things like spiritual depth, the hit and miss role of prayer in my life, stuff like that.

so in an effort to do something completely random, here is a picture of my workspace. i didn’t clean up my desk, i didn’t arrange it pretty or take things off of my desk that don’t belong, i just snapped with my semi-crappy cellphone camera a photo of where i do my ‘desk-work’. if you click on the photo, you’ll get an embiggened (this is not a real word, please don’t point this out to me as i’m fully aware) version, complete with labels pointing out things of note.

enjoy this little peek into the life of your favorite bald monster.

PHOTO CHALLENGE: reply by posting a photo of your workspace, but DON’T tidy it up or otherwise alter it first. let us see your true work environment. post it in the comments, then if you’d like post it on your own blog/journal and challenge your friends to do the same.

*edit* i didn’t point out in the labelling the blue bible with the cheesy cover art there on the end of my desk. it’s the ESV – english standard version, and is not a recommended translation. it’s terribly clunky in parts, just plain silly in others, and for whatever reason just doesn’t read smooth. stick with yer NIV/NASB/NLT for a good modern usage translation. heck, i’d read the message™ paraphrase before the ESV.

I’ve been playing Texas Hold em quite a bit lately. I know, it’s trendy, but it’s so much fun. I’ve been playing at PokerStars. It’s where Wil Wheaton plays, and they have quite an extensive network of free tables to play, which suits me just fine. (no pun intended). The whole point of this, is that I managed to hit something of a holy grail of texas hold ‘em, at least in today’s age of the poker bloggers… I won a hand with The Hammer! The Hammer is essentially the worst possible hand you can be dealt in hold em… a deuce and a seven of different suits. But if you play your cards right (pun fully intended), and you win the hand, you’ve just managed to really stick a burr under the collective saddles of the rest of the table. The image above is visual evidence of my hammer, which actually resulted in two pair, deuces and sevens. Click on the image for a larger size in a new window.

it’s been a weird rollercoaster of a week. nice to be home, though the trip was nice as well. never did get that walk on the beach.

played another show at cornerstone coffee tonight. not quite as successful as the last. i’m not sure if i sucked that bad, or if mcminnville hasn’t yet heard of the courtesy “golf clap”. i got some good response, as i warmed up, but nothing like the last time i played out there. i wonder if i just came in with a lack of energy, and it transfered through to the audience. this is part of why i think gordon shumway is pretty much over, i’m ready to have at it fresh. i did come away with a small bit of cash and a pound of fresh roasted coffee! that’s the great thing about that gig… they actually pay!

began work on a freelance project that came in just before the holiday. the client immediately decided the concept sucked and began pushing for immediate changes and updates. when working in flash, this is very difficult to do. when he began to threaten to pull the job from the firm i’m contracting for due to “lack” of progress, i began to lose confidence in the project. this guy is a salesman who fancies himself a designer, which makes it worse. on top of that, he can’t compose a coherent written sentence, it’s like deciphering a teenager’s instant message screen to read his emails. we’ll probably end up losing the deposit, which isn’t really fair based on the time we’ve put in (i did multiple phone consultations with him and his accountant over thanksgiving weekend! i also put several hours into redesigning what i had done that he didn’t like), but based on how he’s been, i’m not sure he’s the kind of guy we want to do business with. i’m doubting his sense of fairness is developed enough to pay us for our time up to now if he indeed pulls the plug before we do.

on the bright side, i’ve been hired by derby to do their new website. these guys are simply amazing, if you haven’t heard them. take a few minutes to listen, they’ve got this tight harmony, energetic, beatles/shins thing going on. what a grasp on pop melody songwriting. wayne, their bass player, is engineering my project. it all comes around like that.

christmas is coming. fast. had our first rehearsals with the string section last night… this is going to be fun.

there is much more to be said, but it will have to wait for later posts.