When a potential client comes to your portfolio, the very first thing they see is your brand, or to put it another way, YOU. Your portfolio can, to all extents and purposes be empty, but if you present yourself in the right light you can sell yourself instead.

Here’s a trade secret. Clients don’t hire you because your “the shit”. They hire you because you’re “the shit”, and great to work with. No-one wants to work with an ass.

Most times you know straight away if you like someone. This isn’t always the case, some of us are growers, but most times you’ll know. We’re all different, and we can be thankful for that. You and I might have a few things in common, for example, we’re both designers. We’re both either freelance or have an interest in the freelance life. And we’re both human (or thereabouts). But that doesn’t necessarily mean that, if we met we’d get on (it doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t either.) There are so many little things that make each one of us who we are.

I’m what the Spanish refer to as “especial”. No, it’s not what you think… It means I’m strong-minded; that I have opinions and I expect a lot of others. Essentially it means I can be a pain in the ass, (way to sell myself) but I hope that’s never transmitted to my clients. These traits can carry negative connotations, of course, that depends on who I’m dealing with at the time.

For instance, strong-minded can be a by-word for stubborn. This can be a blessing or a curse depending on who you’re working with. Good clients want you to know what you’re doing. They want you to have an opinion. They need to feel comfortable leaving decisions in your hands.

On the other hand, less experienced clients can be more of a challenge. They want to take control. They want to make decisions they have no experience in. This is where a person’s personality can directly affect the outcome of a project and future client relationship.

The trick is to be aware of what type of person you are and, more importantly, to be willing to adapt your character to whatever context you happen to find yourself in. Although I have quite well-defined opinions on most things, I’m also willing to bend if someone convinces me otherwise.

If I bring up a possible issue with a project and someone can give me a convincing counter-argument, then fair enough. I’m not stubborn enough to argue for the sake of arguing… although no-one can convince me that I should like iOS7.

Regardless of your personality there will always be that perfect client with whom you’re utterly simpatico. Then, again, there’ll always be that client who has all the personality of a cricket bat and all the compassion of a lamp post. It’s only over time that you’ll learn to find the people that compliment your personality and help make a project a success.

Search out these clients, make it your mission to only work with these types of people. You’ll be all the happier for it.

I struggle when meeting new people but when it comes to client relationships I feel quite comfortable, especially when I know that there’s a feeling of complicity. Hell, I can even be jovial! When a good client relationship is formed you should do everything in your power to nourish that relationship, why?

A few reasons:

• A higher chance of repeat work
• A higher possibility of referrals
• It’s easier to market to happy clients than it is to capture new ones
• Possibly the most important reason, it’s incredibly satisfying

Match your Personality to that of a Great Client

The easiest way to begin the search for the perfect client is to match your portfolio to your personality. Don’t be afraid to let the you shine through in your portfolio.

If you’re a funny, lighthearted, always-look-on-the-bright-side kind of person (damn you), then let it show in the design and copy of your portfolio. You will tend to attract like-minded clients. If, on the other hand, you’re more serious and look at everything with a little more skepticism, then let that shine through in your portfolio. These can also be positive traits.

Image Credit: Andre Gehrmann

You know why you should do this? Because your client will find out anyway. Try and be honest from the outset and things will be a lot easier. Remember what you’re mum used to say: “there’s someone for everyone.” It’s the same with clients. Once you realise who your best match is, hang onto them for dear life.

Make an effort to work with the same client type in the future. I don’t mean the type of work they provide, but the type of relationship you have with them. It’s gold. Work towards finding your perfect client personality match. But remember. To do this, you need to look at yourself first.

It’s not easy. It’s not impossible either.

Good luck.

The post How to Find Your Client Alter Ego appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

So what exactly are wireframes? Wireframes are visual representations of your websites structure, a blueprint to help establish hierarchy. They are usually limited to shapes, forms, and text, and they rarely use any color. The primary function of any wireframe is to show your client how their site will be structured. Pure information, no bells, and no whistles… a blueprint.

When I started designing websites, I didn’t have much of a clue. I did what I thought looked nice, and hoped that one way or another the design would work. If changes came in, then I’d huff and puff and get on with it.

I’d start with a blank canvas and jump straight in, without giving a second thought to what the site should do, how the information would be presented, or even what color scheme it could use. Believe it or not, this went on for a long, long time.

Like anything else, web design is an ongoing process. With each mistake you make, and each project you take on, you learn a little more. I can guarantee that I make mistakes on each new project, but I try not to repeat those mistakes.

It was actually a client who introduced me to wireframes. They presented me with their site, all nicely mapped out. It seemed they knew more than me, but even that wasn’t enough to kickstart me into using wireframes. It wasn’t until I began to account for my project time, that I began to get to grips with wireframing. My workflow was shoddy. I needed to accomplish more with my time, and therefore make more money.

I think my misconception about wireframing was that it was time-consuming. Why bother creating more work? This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth. Wireframes will save you time, over and over again. They’ll show your client how their site will be structured, and will also serve as a point of departure for your designs.

Photoshop doesn’t play nice with revisions.

Lets suppose you’re like the old me. You’ve jumped straight into Photoshop, and you have a beautiful home page designed. It’s ready to blow your client’s mind. You send it over, with a detailed description of what everything does, why you’ve used the colors you have, etc. Bill loves it, the only thing… he’d love to see the sidebar on the left instead of the right, and that set of super cool icons that you’ve toiled over all weekend need to go, he feels they just don’t fit in what he had in mind. He wanted something cleaner, less cluttered, different.

You see, there’s the problem, what Bill had in mind. OK, so Bill’s requests don’t suppose such a radical overhaul of the PSD but imagine you had to make these corrections across the board. You’d have to move every layer, graphic and icon, one by one, file by file. That creates a lot of work, work that extends your project time and reduces your overall income, and that’s not good.

How many ways can you skin a cat?

If you type wireframe software into Google, it throws back 2,420,000 results. That’s a lot of pages to work through. Where do you start?

You can never go wrong with pen and paper. Even if I plan on using software to create my wireframes, I still draw them first. Can’t draw? Neither can I, it really doesn’t matter. All you’re looking for at the moment are ideas. It’s a rough layout, not a work of art.

You’ll be amazed at how many you can churn out in a short space of time. The more, the better.

After I have a few down on paper, I begin to merge the best elements and structures of each version to form one SUPER wireframe. When I reach a stage where I’m happy with the initial ideas, then I’ll move over to my mac.

Rough or Smooth?

So what type of wireframe should I build? There are two main types, sketchy and digital. Do you want the outcome to be more informal, almost hand drawn (if not in fact hand drawn) or somewhat more sophisticated, cleaner?

There are those who say that sketchy wireframes give clients the confidence to criticize the layout. They feel that they are looking at something that is in the process of being created. It doesn’t have the appearance of a finished website, so they feel less inhibited. After all, we want feedback, right?

The more formal, cleaner look, can give the impression of a more finalized product, this can make it more difficult for some people to speak out.

Regardless of which system you use, there will always be exceptions to the rules, depending on the type of person your client is. My advice is to use whichever you feel comfortable with. Some workaholics even use both! They start out with a rougher, sketchy version and over time, refine it, making the elements cleaner, more precise and closer to a final product.

Throw me a bone!

Here’s a small selection of places and wireframe applications to try out your wireframing skills, most have trial versions.

• Balsamiq
• iPhone Mockup
• Mock Flow
• Pencil (FireFox)
• Hot Gloo
• Go Mockingbird
• Omnigraffle
• Dub

I started off using Balsamiq Mockups. It’s a cracking little program. Its simple to use, intuitive and can get you up and running in no time. There are some downsides, but there always are. I highly recommend their trial version.

Balsamiq Mockups specializes in the creation of sketchy wireframes. It does it well, but after a while, I wanted something a little slicker. Being the Scrooge I am, I wanted to create my wireframes using means already at my disposal.
Illustrator! I can hear the gasps… But there’s no automation, there’s no drag and drop, there’s no online access, (dropbox)… No, there’s none of that, but there is complete control. I can reuse my elements once created, and I can work to the pixel if I choose. This isn’t exactly your hand drawn wireframe, the results are stunningly clean. Once you’ve got yourself a little library of elements, you’ll never look back.

But there’s no HTML output… There isn’t with pen and paper either, but it still works. If HTML is something you must have, then you can quickly set up some code and linkup your images. That’s too much like hard work for me. I’m old fashioned, an interactive PDF is good enough for me, and for the majority of my clients.

Horses for Courses

No matter which road you choose to go down, you’ll discover that working with wirefames is a great way to help your optimize your workflow. There are no right or wrong ways of doing it, just experiment. As long as you can communicate a visual site structure to your client, a structure that they are willing to sign off on, then you’re good to go. All the rest comes over time. No doubt in 6 months I’ll be using a different method myself.

Also, let’s not forget, any discussions that may occur later in the project with regards to layout can always be resolved by referring back to the wireframe. Which ever way you look at it, it’s a lifesaver, or at best a time and argument saver.

Next time you get a project in, try it with wireframes. You won’t regret it. You’ll present a professional image to your client, and you’ll be more confident when you actually open up Photoshop. What architect doesn’t present plans before building a house, would you hire one that didn’t?

Pen and paper, software, chalk, and blackboard, it’s all the same. Get it down, and get it approved!

Good luck.

The post Wireframes… Who Needs Them? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

If you have ever struggled to get a project finished then you know the pain and frustration I’m talking about. You know all too well that life gets in the way, and the passion that was once your driving force can so easily fade away. So you start to look for the next design high, that next f*ck ye! moment.

The masters had their muses…

If it were as simple as working when the muse sang then we’d all be artists but we’re not artists responding to the call of the muse, we’re designers and we live according to some constant realities.

Food costs money. Rent can’t be pulled from thin air. The long and short of it is we have to work whether we’re inspired or not. In a perfect world, we’d only take on work that excites us, but in the real world we’re not always afforded that luxury. Even if a project does initially have our design juices flowing, there’s no guarantee that in 8 weeks time the excitement will still be there.

A wise designer once said: “there are no great clients or projects, only great designers.” What does that mean, exactly? I think it means we must strive to make the best of even the most mundane projects.

That’s easy to say while I sit here writing on a Saturday morning, but it’s something that I’ve come to realise as true the further down the freelance path I wander.

Personal Goals keep you moving forward

Over the last couple year I had two objectives. One was to launch a SaaS app (Nusii) and the other was to write a book (Guide to Freelancing). Beyond that, anything went. They may seem like relatively tame goals, but I was and am determined to take a slight detour in my design career. These were personal goals, aimed at keeping me motivated and finding another way forward as a designer.

How many people do you know who have started to write a book or bootstrap a product? A lot, I bet. The trouble with these kinds of ventures is that most fade out after a short while. The initial buzz and passion disappears and we move on to shiny new objects. How we love shiny new objects!

I can hold my hand up and say, “I’ve done this.” And not only once or twice. Several times. I’ve binned countless projects and even a couple of started-but-never finished books.

Hands up who’s tried to write a book, blog, or diary in their adult lives? Anyone? For those of you brave enough to raise your hands – how many finished that book, or continue to blog or write a diary? I can see a lot of hands disappearing…

It’s tough, right? Things get in the way and, of course, a slowdown in the inspiration department doesn’t help either. The problem is that inspiration and passion alone aren’t enough to get us from start to finish.

From inspiration to necessity

Designing and launching my SaaS app was relatively easy. From concept to launch it took about six weeks, maybe a little longer. I never had time to really lose sight of the end goal, which was simply launching the app.

It’s now, long after the initial inspiration struck me, that the real battle begins. I need to maintain the discipline to keep pushing forward. I need to keep promoting, to keep improving the service. I need to keep writing blog posts. It can be tough. The initial inspiration and passion has moved on and become something else, something tangibly different.

Inspiration has morphed into necessity. I need to make this work.

Turn up, regardless

So, if the initial passion has withered away, why do I keep at it? Do I care any less about my project? No, I don’t think so.

I keep at it because I haven’t lost sight of my original goals. I had clear, defined goals that were written down and even printed out (they’re still on my desk somewhere). So, each day, I continue to turn up, plug in and get excited about the possibilities of what could happen. The initial passion that drove me towards my goals has been replaced with a desire to reach my goals.

The fact that I don’t want to sit down and push on doesn’t enter into it. The fact is, I have to turn up, regardless.

Work even if you don’t want to

Working only when inspired is for the rockstar. But note how many of them cease to work when they don’t have to. Ultimately, all of us want to get paid. We want to launch our product(s) and we want to succeed. Think of it like this: would you want to be inspired twenty four hours a day? I don’t think so. You’d never sleep. Moreover, if all we ever had were great ideas, how would we spot a bad one?

We don’t get paid to be inspired, we get paid to deliver

There is a sad truth here, and it only really pertains to client work, but it is worth mentioning. When push comes to shove, a client doesn’t care whether you’re inspired or impassioned about a project or idea (they’ll say they do); all they care about are results.

As far as they’re concerned inspiration is for office posters. They want the finished product completed by the agreed date, done and dusted. There’s no getting away from it.

The harder you work, the luckier you get

I can bear witness to the truth of this statement (is it a statement or a motto? Not sure!) There’s no doubt about it: the harder you work, the luckier you get. Now, if there was ever an inspirational office poster, there you have it (I’ll have two please).

By hanging on to my goals and by continuing to write and design, I’ve found I’m getting luckier by the day. Good things seem to be happening and they’re happening because I keep pushing. All of a sudden, people are finding their way to help me out. I’m even receiving emails of support from complete strangers… If that isn’t reason to get inspired all over again then I don’t know what is.

It’s pushing through when you least feel like it that helps to bring another round of inspiration (and luck!) without you even asking for it. It’s working hard on the client project just so you can get the time to work on the ideas that you want to work on that helps you cross the bridge from despair to hope.

Wake up an hour earlier if you have to and make sure you work on things that are important to you. Inspiration is fickle. Working on a personal project can help you see through those dull projects where every hour seems to take an eternity to pass. Just remember that the more you move and shake, the more the movers and shakers will see you, the more you’ll feel like pushing on and, crucially, the luckier you’ll get.

Turn up, plug in and tune out

The best way to get started is to just start and the best way to finish is to just finish, regardless of your lack of passion or enthusiasm. Please don’t confuse the turn up and tune out method for continuing with a project you really ought to have binned a long time ago.

Clearly not all projects were meant to be. Realising that an idea, or project is material for the design graveyard is for another post. I’m talking about working on things that should and need to be finished.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a James Clear post. James was talking to a famous athletics coach who’s trained Olympians, and he asked him: “what’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else? What do the really successful people do that most people don’t?”

“At some point,” the coach replied, “it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day and doing the same lifts over and over and over again.”

Beautiful!

The post What Do You Do When the Project You’re Working on No Longer Excites You? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Unfortunately, when you work for yourself this can greatly affect the success of your business. There’s no sales team to bring in new clients, no project manager to make sure sure everything is setup and no irate boss pressuring you to get the project done on time.

It’s not surprising then, that the less enjoyable areas of our business tend to get pushed into a corner and ignored. We prefer to opt for “comfortable scenarios”.

Back in the Day…

When I started freelancing nearly a decade ago, I was an eager project beaver. When a potential project hit my inbox, I’d thank the freelance gods. I’d then quickly reply and fire off my tire kicker questionnaire. If the client took the time to fill out the form, I’d jump into a proposal and hope for the best. My attitude was that my work would speak for itself. After all, they’d contacted me.

In hindsight it’s easy to see why I wasn’t very successful at landing new projects. I was completely overlooking one important area of my business, that of “The Client Interview”.

Why? Because they scared the crap out of me. Jumping on a call with a complete stranger wasn’t high on my list of fun stuff to do. But it was limiting me. It limited the work I could take on. The quality of client I worked with and finally the budgets I was handling. I was very much at the bottom of the freelance ladder.

With nothing to lose, I decided to storm out of my comfort zone and start conducting Client Interviews.

Why Client Interviews Are Important

Client Interviews are little more than a good old fashioned chin-wag. They do however play a very special role: They help you to understand your client’s problems at a deeper level and they help your client to see you as an authority, and someone in whom they can place their trust. Trust is the basis of any relationship and a proposal goes nowhere without that vital ingredient.

I understand that client interviews can seem like a lot of work. Why jump on a call if you can get everything you need from a few emails and a questionnaire, right? But we work in an industry that’s built on relationships. And it’s very difficult to forge a relationship via email. Generally we’re poor communicators when it comes to the written word, so connecting in the real world, just makes sense.

I’ve discovered that some questions must be asked if you want your business to succeed and even thrive. Here are my five, must ask questions during your first client interview:

1. How Will You Measure the Success of This Project?

If a customer doesn’t know whether working with you has improved their business, then should they have hired you? It’s paramount that they can track how your work has improved their situation.

A website needs to generates signups, makes sales, create interest in a new product or any number of other measurable goals. Your customer needs to know that the money they are going to invest, is just that, an investment.

So make no apologies when you ask; "How will you measure the success of this project?" or to put it another way, “What will a home run look like for you when we’re finished”. Without clearly defined goals you’ll just be pushing pixels or code, and we don’t want that.

2. Why Do You Need This Project to Go Ahead? Or, Why Is This Project Happening?

This leads on nicely from the previous question.

So, let’s go back to the issue of designing or redesigning a website. This is a request that designers hear on a regular basis, but have you ever asked your customer why? Why do you want this redesign?

It’s your job to ask why, not "When do you need it by?"

The reason a client contacts you can be many and varied. Knowing why (in the client’s mind) a project should go ahead can help you get to the bottom of the real problem. This means you can be more effective in your work and in prescribing the right solution.

Let’s look at a quick example: John tells you that his company needs a new website because sales are falling. They automatically presume it’s because their design is a little dated and that a facelift will get them back on track. But you know better…

There could be dozens of reasons for the recent decline in sales, and it’s on you to dig deeper into why this is happening. The decrease could be due to:

• Fewer people getting on the mailing list and subsequently becoming customers
• An overly-complicated checkout system
• No follow up on failed payments or cart abandonment
• Less traffic
• A competitor in the space…

There are a hundred reasons why sales could be falling, and unless they start going back up, who will get the blame?

It’s on you to know why you’re being involved and how you can improve their situation.

3. What About Your Product Currently Works Well?

If you’ve ever asked this question, then kudos! Seriously. All too often we jump into a new project with little or no regard for what already works within their product. We are eager to leave our mark by tearing down the old, and building something new.

I’ve no doubt you’re an awesome designer, but do this and you risk destroying areas of a product that are already kicking ass.

Most clients will have a good idea about what works within their product and what doesn’t. So don’t be afraid to ask. It’s OK to request data and analytics should the project go further, but for right now just see how the customer feels about their current website or product.

As a side note; when I send out a proposal I often include a top end package that provides user testing. This can be incredibly valuable to both parties, as it gives your client the best possible chance to hit the ground running. Your decisions will be based on everything you’ve learned while working with your client and also based on qualified feedback from people who fit your customer’s audience. It’s great to be able to move past the age old Client / Designer conversation of "I don’t like this shade of green".

Working this way has helped me to increase client conversions by over 200%. Without user testing this would have been a considerably lengthier (and more expensive) process.

4. If Our Work Together Could Only Achieve One Thing, What Would it Be?

Here it is, we’re down to brass tacks. You’re basically asking, “If the money you’re going to pay me could only do one thing for your business, what would it be?”

This question helps your client to focus on the most important aspect of their project and business. Their answer will greatly impact how you approach the project. If their primary concern is to increase signups to their mailing list, you will no doubt approach the project differently than if it was to generate more trial signups.

Outside of this, it helps your client to focus. If they haven’t thought much about the "why" behind their project, this is a good time to start.

5. Do You Have a Budget in Mind?

Everyone’s favourite question, and usually the reason why most people avoid face to face interviews in the first place.

How much money are you going to pay me!

It’s rude to talk about money, right? We get embarrassed by having to ask… so we don’t. We hope that when we send out our proposal we’ll have guessed the right number and everything will just work out.

The harsh truth is, if you have ever lost out on a project because you were too expensive, it was your fault.

Always, get a client’s budget before continuing talks, and of course before writing a proposal. It can be a good idea to ask this on your initial client questionnaire if you have one, but always ask in person as well.

I will absolutely admit that this one takes practice. But practice means doing it. So ask over and over again until you are comfortable with it. If it really scares you, practice with a friend or even in front of a mirror, no one will see you.

When you do ask, some clients will hesitate to give a hard number, so one alternative is to ask for a ball park figure instead. Try something like the following:

"What kind of budget do you have in mind for this project John? Are we talking $5,000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $15,000, or something a little bigger? I don’t want to waste your time with some crazy proposal”

Regardless of the answer they give at this point, you are already 100% better off than you were 5 seconds before.

• If a client doesn’t want to give a budget, run!
• If a client is happy to give a ball park, or top-end number. You’re good to go… or not.

You’d be a fool to send a proposal without knowing if your client can afford to work with you. So get it out of the way as early as possible.

The questions we’ve looked at today serve as a starting point for your next client interview. There are plenty of other questions that you should probably touch on. Of course every interview is different and you have to play it by ear. But remember, you are in the driving seat. You are vetting your potential client, they should be lucky to work with you so make sure all your questions (and their’s) are properly answered.

If you’d like to learn more about how to conduct successful client interviews, head over to How to Survive Client Interviews and download my free book. It will walk you through the entire client interview process, including a full list of questions to ask, and why you should ask them. There’s also lots of great advice on getting a client’s budget from some of the industry’s top creatives. Give your next project a helping hand.

Download How to Survive Client Interviews →

The post The Five Questions You Absolutely Must Ask Before Starting Your Next Project appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Why are we dreaming of finding new clients, when there are so many things we can do to ensure a long term working relationship with our present clients?

How Do We Ensure Client Happiness

Every time I buy an Apple product, I suffer from a little pain in my right hand pocket, where my wallet lives. Why do I keep buying their products? They last. My iMac is my main workhorse and it’s still going strong. Their OS is solid and easy to use, and of course their products look great. Even though Apple is more expensive than its competitors, I feel I have value for money, and that, is gold!

Apply that to what we do… Your rates may be high, but if your clients feel they have value for money, then odds are, you’ll see them again. We need to instil in our clients the belief that they are investing in their company’s future, not just spending money. We all like to feel we have invested wisely.

So, What Constitutes Value for Money?

For starters, seeing a return on your investment… Here’s a simplified example, your client paid €2100 for their new website. They offer short-term caravan lets on the west coast of Wales. A one week let, costs €600. The client sells five in the first week. He’s already made his investment back and has started to turn a profit.

Do you think the client feels they got value for money? I would say so.

Chances are they will come back to you for future projects. You can also approach him with confidence, should you have any suggestions to further aid his business.

Supposing the site wasn’t such a roaring success, let’s say through no fault of your own. Sometimes the results of a project are just out of your hands. Be that as it may, you had gone above and beyond the call of duty throughout the entire project. You offered advice on everything from colour schemes, to ways of integrating their services with social media.

You projected an image of a professional who cares about his work and client, and who is willing to go that little bit further to hit the mark. Your chances of repeat work maybe lower than that of the first case scenario, but you’ll be on the right track.

A Strong Business Relationship Goes a Long Way

I have a client who has been with me from the beginning, he was my very first client and he continues to send work my way on a regular basis. He even bought us a gift when our daughter was born! I always make a special effort to accommodate any last minute work requests he makes, as it’s important to make sure he’s happy with the service I provide.

Over time, a professional working relationship can be developed that will actually save you time, and some of the usual headaches associated with the start of a new project.

You may know from previous experience that Bill hates big serif fonts and that he’s only willing to pay up to X amount for stock photography. Already, you’re saving time, you’re making more per hour and you are continuing to keep a client happy.

Remember though, a business relationship is just that. We have to try not to step over the line and become their best mate. I’ve been known to swear from time to time and am quite fond of short four letter words, but I would endeavour to keep these things for my friends.

Even if your client swears like a docker, be very careful at taking the friend approach. Remember, you want this to be a long-term relationship. Things said today in the spirit of friendship can be a lot harder to take back tomorrow, under the guise of a designer who’s charging for a premium service.

Less Time Marketing Is More Time Working

The other added benefit of repeat work, is of course the reduced time spent marketing yourself to potential clients. After finishing a string of projects, you can suddenly find yourself without a client waiting in the wings.

This risk can be reduced by having returning clients on your books. This doesn’t mean we can become complacent, far from it. Marketing is a continual process, whether we are conscious of it or not. The way we answer the phone, our emails or simply the way we shake hands.

We never stop marketing ourselves, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes we are so busy working that we forget to actively look for work. Having a base of returning clients who we can approach during quiet times is a valuable commodity. It’s easier to sell a service to a customer who already trusts you, and values your work.

A great example of continuous marketing is Andrew, our programmer. I first met Andrew via Concept Feedback a few years or so ago. I had posted a portfolio design, and he had offered some valuable advice. After that I wrote to Andrew several times and started to follow him on Twitter. He always had a minute to offer his opinion, on this, that and the other.

I knew he was a bit of a coder as well as a designer, so asked him to help me out with a problem I was having with a WordPress theme. He sorted it out, and the rest as they say, is history.

I would have been lucky to find Andrew through the usual channels, but thanks to a continued willingness to lend a hand and his great outlook, I managed to find what I hope will be a long-term partnership, without even having to look. That is marketing at its best, and something we should aspire to emulate.

It’s Nice to Be Nice

Sometimes it’s just nice to be nice. Let’s face it, we all like to be treated as if we’re special, like we’re the only customer in the shop. In an ideal world it would always be like this.

In an ideal world, the customer would come begging you to design their website. They’d be happy with the first draft and they’d pay up immediately. Unfortunately we don’t live in that world, so instead we have to work at keeping our clients. We have to go that extra mile. In such a competitive market, where the client can spend as much or as little as they like, it pays to “stand out”.

Standing out could be your exceptional customer service, your phenomenal designs, your reduced pricing scheme for returning customers or just a great haircut! It’s not pie in the sky, it’s a goal to aim for. If you seek the holy grail, then be prepared to work for it. Do everything in your power to be the best designer you can be. Provide a solid, consistent level of work and watch your clients come back, time and time again.

Image Source: Flat Modern Icons via Shutterstock.

The post Repeat Work and the Search For The Holy Grail appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Whether you intend to create your website proposals in Word, Indesign, or use an online service to help you out, it is important that you know what you’re doing.

Image Source: Proposal via Shutterstock.

Company Information

This refers as much to your company as to theirs. Include your contact information in a concise, unobtrusive manner. This can be placed in the footer if you like, but I also recommend that you include it in full on the front page. Make sure your proposal is made out to a specific person, with a name. A proposal to “The Marketing Department” is more of a long shot than a proposal.

Project Overview: Research your client

The hopes and dreams of your client. What does your client expect to get from this website, what are their objectives and goals? Here is where we let the client know that we understand what they need, and where they want to go with this project. This can be a brief paragraph setting the scene.

The Client’s Problem

Usually a client comes to you with a problem. Whether that problem is the lack of a website, or that their landing page has a bounce rate of 90%. We need to identify their problem and address it. Here we make a list of all the problems our client is facing. Explain to them that they can find your killer solutions below the list. Short and sweet.

• Site design is outdated.
• Contact form no longer works.
• Gallery is impractical both to use and update.
• Site was designed using tables and has no CMS.
• Home page has a bounce rate of 90%
• Etc.

Project Solutions: Research your solutions

All the above negativity has to be counter balanced with blinding positivity and clear solutions. For example our client has a very old website that is in desperate need of an overhaul…so instead of saying:

Macintosh Clothing needs their website redesigned. It’s 6 years old, looks very old school, and not in a good way. It needs something funky for todays youthful market…

Try a different approach. The fact that the site is 6 years old makes for many problems, that should be addressed individually. What will a redesign do for Macintosh Clothing? Apart form aesthetics, why should they update their site? Try something along the lines of:

Macintosh Clothing is finding that technology has passed them by, and with it the search engines. The website was built using technologies no longer relevant to today’s modern broswers. The Macintosh Clothing site was built using tables. This creates problems with search engines, while also making updates a laborious task. Any updates to such an antiquated system can be a long, costly affair. Google reads web sites in the order in which the HTML is written, therefore tables can result in…

You could, and probably should, spend a good few paragraphs outlining your solutions. It’s a pain but we can’t afford to be wishy washy. This is where our previous client research pays off. Let’s not forget, all that information we got from our project planner wasn’t just to make us appear conscientious.

Other Considerations

Sometimes there are items that are not necessarily requested but are good to mention anyway. You may even make an extra sale! For example if you offer hosting, now is the time to mention it. If you offer logo design, now is the time to mention it. It’s up to you if you want to discuss pricing here, or save it until the final costing estimate.

I offer maintenance plans to all my customers, some take it, some don’t. I let them know what the package includes, and inform them that they can find prices at the end of my proposal.

Development Timeline

How long will everything take? There’s a lot to take into account: Research, Wireframes, Sitemap design, Initial Designs, Design Revision, Design Approval, Coded, CMS and configuration, Testing & Debugging, Client Testing, Setup, We’re live!

Image Source: Life Cycle Icon Collection via Shutterstock.

How you lay this out is up to you. Some use graphs, some text, but make it easy to read and don’t forget to inform the client that all times are approximate. It takes two to tango, if your client isn’t fulfilling their side of the deal then it’s impossible for you to deliver on time. Make sure you have this stipulated in your agreement/contract.

Costing Estimate

Ideally this should be laid out in table format, making it easy to scan. The client can see what each item costs without the need to dig. Let them know why they’re paying 3.000€, tell them what’s involved etc. It’s also handy to add any common items that haven’t been requested…just incase.

The client should know, that if further down the road they decide to ask for extras then it will cost them X. Again, we need to be clear with our pricing structure. There can be no room for misunderstandings.

It’s also a good thing to include your pricing schedule. Most designers use a milestone system. I usually request 30% upon the signing of our agreement, another 30% upon approval of the initial designs, and the remaining 40% before handing the site over to the client. Some people ask for 50% up front. Go with what feels comfortable. Make sure you do get a deposit. Any client who refuses to pay upfront for your services is not worth working with. You can almost guarantee problems.

Again you can use a graph, illustration or simple plain text to let your client know your payment schedule. Make sure they are aware of how you work. After all it’s not like going to a shop where you pay for the product at the till. We as designers invest a lot of time in our projects, and there is always a risk that some people will decide not to pay on time. Get it up front and get it in writing.

Conditions & Contracts

Here’s where you lay down the law. State what you expect from your client and what they can expect from you. Only recently Include your work agreement (contract) within the proposal. If the client is happy with everything, they can sign off that very day, get your transfer done and you can begin. Before, I would send the proposal, wait for the OK and then send the work agreement. This way I save time and kill two birds with one stone.

Writing a contract is for another article and can be a bit of a pain, but it’s your only back-up, so make sure it’s air tight.

What’s Next?

Be sure to let your client know what comes next. If they agree to the proposal, what should they do? Do they need to sign a print off and email it back to you, or simply respond by way of email? Let them know. Don’t make them guess.

Once last thing I would suggest, even after spell checking your proposal. Get someone to read it through. It’s very rare if something hasn’t slipped through the net.

How do you create your proposals, what do you include? Everyone has their preferred method. If you have any ideas or comments, jump right in.

The post Guidelines to Writing an Effective Web Design Proposal appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Photo Credit: Daniel D’Auria

We all love a rags to riches story, they help us feel that anything is possible.

If you’re not doing what you love, don’t stop until you get there

Steve Jobs came from nowhere. He was given up for adoption to unschooled parents and later became a college drop out himself living off charity and friends. With such humble beginnings, how did he become the Steve Jobs we all know?

The only way to do great work is to do what you love.
How many of your recent projects have inspired you? Are you proud to have your name on them? How many of them make it into your portfolio? If you can say, “all of them”, then this post probably isn’t for you.

Who’s to blame? The client, the project, or you?

It’s probably your fault (and mine), if for no other reason than we take on projects that doesn’t excite us. Why do we do this? We live in the real world and bills need to be paid, right? Striving to get your perfect client, and your perfect project is not something that just happens, it’s a process that we have to work on. Over time we inch a little closer to where we want to be.

Even the mighty Steve Jobs was fired from his own company, no doubt shaking his faith in what he believed, but I don’t to explain how he came bouncing back! Not everything is plain sailing. We have to pull up our socks and work damned hard at it.

Keep looking and don’t settle

Photo Credit: Doug Garding

Keep striving for that business nirvana. Sure we take on projects we don’t always relish, but it’s part of a bigger picture. We’re striving towards something better. We all have our personal goals and these need to be held sacred. Write them down and revisit them from time to time. If your having a bad time of it and work has temporarily dried up, whip out that list and get yourself into gear.

Keep moving forward. Keep looking for that road to take you there. If this means learning a new technology or teaming up, do it. Think about the BIG PICTURE. Keep looking. I have tried several business ideas that haven’t panned out and with each failure I’ve learned something new. Don’t settle!

Live each day like it was your last

Photo Credit: Iwona Erskine-Kellie

During his speech at Stanford University Steve Jobs said: If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

How many of us can raise our hands and say that we have the courage to take such action? How many of us merely settle with what we’re given? It’s easily done. We plod on, every now and again raising our heads to check that we’re not going to crash into anything.

How about we take Steve’s advice and change something! Not getting the projects you want? Then do something about it. Complaining won’t change a thing. Turn off the computer and go and talk to some real people about the ideas you have. Learn a new technique or language, market yourself to the sector you want to work. Get proactive. Nothing happens by itself.

If today were to be the pinnacle of your career, would you be happy?

You’ll know when you find it

Here, I’ll have to take the man at his word. Perhaps you’ve already found it. You wake up in the morning and jump out of bed, anxious to tear into that new project. If you want more of what you have in front of you, then it may just be that you’ve already found it. Be warned, if you don’t keep moving, you stop, and no good can come from standing still. Have a clear picture of what you want, so that when it arrives, you’ll know you’ve found it.

You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart

Photo Credit: Mark Kenny

This is something I have issues with. Outside of my articles I am not the most confident of people and sometimes the fear of failure can be overwhelming. It’s easy to stay small and remain unnoticed. For some that’s fine, remaining small is in no way a negative thing. What I am referring to is that lack of belief in oneself. We need to have the strength to say “To hell with it, I’m gonna try”. What have we got to lose? If we fail, will there be hoards of people laughing behind our backs, reveling in our failure? No, and even if there were, so what? With every failure we learn valuable lessons, and with every lesson learned we know what to change for our next effort. If death is our final frontier, then it’s laughable to be scared about pushing ourselves to reach personal and business happiness.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life

Photo Credit: Sheldon Wood

How many years do we have to get it right? 10, 20, 50, 70? None of can know. The only certainty is that if you live as someone else dictates, then you will have a hard time finding happiness. This applies to all aspects of our lives. Do you want to work as others say you should? Do you want to live as others say you should?

It’s very easy to say that we want something different, but it’s the doing that stumps most of us. We need to fight for our futures. Without a solid plan, things drift and we end up getting lost. Time is a valuable commodity. Know where you want to be.

Stay Hungry, stay foolish

Steve ends his speech with a real gem, and it’s something I will try to hold on to. Stay hungry, stay foolish Being foolish doesn’t mean to be a fool…I hope. We need to hold on to that hunger that drove us to want things in the first place. Why did we want to be designers, writers or illustrators? What made us want to work in a particular sector? Hold onto that hunger and be foolish enough to keep pushing, to keep trying new things. Pay no attention to those who say you’re wrong. It’s up to each and every one of us to find out for ourselves. We need to fall on our face, so we can get up, brush ourselves off and say, “again, again and again”. The time will come when we stop falling. The time will come when you can say, “I’m where I want to be”.

Good luck.

Here is Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address video in full:

The post The Foolish Road of Steve Jobs and how it can work for you appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

In Spain, however it has slightly different connotations, and almost the opposite could said to be true. Technostress has been linked to those of us who are constantly on. Like me and perhaps like you. Those people who live with their smart phone or iPad or laptop switched on 24/7. We all know of people who seem to spend their entire day Tweeting, and we hate them for it. Stones and glasshouses are never a good mix.

Photo Credit: Jody Rodgers

When you work for yourself it’s hard to switch off. How many articles have you read on time management, and how many times have you tried to implement their suggestions? How long passes by before you slip back into your old ways? In my case, not long. As I’m writing this I’m using the Pomodoro method. I’ll let you know if this helps me to stay focused, and how long I end up using it for…

In our bid to concentrate solely on work we are forever seeing helpful lists similar to this one:

• Turn off all social sites and apps.
• Turn off your email.
• Try the Pomodoro Method (or similar).
• Close all programmes not in use.
• Close the door.
• Tell everyone to bugger off!

Photo Credit: Space Ritual

Now all these things are great when you’re in an office environment, but what happens when you leave the office? Do you keep your work email switched off? Do you shut down your Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but one thing’s for sure, the “niggle” is there, at least for most of us.

We need to know if that client has got back to us, we need to know if we’ve reached number X with our Twitter followers. Worst of all, there are some clients who expect us to be waiting for their email, regardless of the day or hour. We need to educate ourselves, before we can educate others about limits and boundaries.

The danger in always being on, is the level of stress it can create. We don’t allow ourselves to pause for breath, or to appreciate the little things in life that are passing us by. Being a freelancer is supposed to bring greater freedom, so what happened?

There’s no doubt that working for oneself holds endless benefits. One benefit we don’t have however, is the ability to close the door at the end of the day and to think, “great, I don’t have to worry about work until tomorrow morning”. I know this isn’t the case for all freelancers, but for many of us the office is usually open 24 hours, if only in our heads.

My partner has a job that can be very stressful at times, but she is perfectly capable of switching off when she leaves at the end of the day. So where’s the trick, what’s the answer? What do freelancers need to learn from office workers?

Nothing! Technostress is bigger than work related technologies. It doesn’t care who you work for or where you work! It can strike at anyone. Office workers feel the “itch”, the same as we do. They need to check if their best mate has added them to their list of friends via whichever social media site they happen to be using that week. They’re as addicted as we are, and while it may not be work related, the result is the same. Technological addiction to get through the day.

Photo Credit: Mehfuz Hossain

If some big bully came along right now and took away your smartphone, iPad, laptop, and computer, how would you get though the day? Would you curl up in the corner, or would you stand tall, punch your fist defiantly in the air, and chant, ‘yes I can!’. Right now I’d probably be the former person. I need my gizmos, I need to be connected… but I also need a life.

So what’s the cure? Social media blackouts? Throwing our smartphones in the bin? Leaving the laptop at the office? Are we so weak that we even need to cancel our home internet connections?

It must come down to strength of character. It can’t have anything to do with the amount of money we make, or our field of expertise. Us freelancers cover pretty much the entire spectrum when it comes to salaries. Whether we earn 8.000€ or 80.000€ the “itch” to be on is there. We need to know! What exactly is it that we need to know? What are we missing out on? No doubt there are already studies on the phenomenon that is Technostress, but I’m just a lowly designer who needs to get some of his life back. I don’t have time for studies or psychiatry sessions, I need to find out how many visitors have seen my latest portfolio update!

You won’t find any bullet point advice here, there are plenty of great articles around that offer ways to “Work Smart”. I don’t have any spectacularly impressive advice that will stop you in your tracks. I am simply becoming more “aware” of my interaction with work outside the office, and it needs to stop. This is my cry for help, and a call to arms.

I have only ever really had one golden rule with regards to freelancing. Never open work email outside office hours. I managed to maintain that rule until very recently, perhaps this was related to setting up the new studio, perhaps I’m more worried about closing projects. The simple fact is that I broke my only sacred rule, and that interferes with my personal life. I have a family and my health to think about, perhaps it sounds melodramatic, but I would like to keep these things both intact and separate.

Is it possible to draw a big thick line on the ground, and say “right, this is where it ends”?

Photo Credit: Conrad Rutkowski

I don’t want my life to be my work, hell I’m a freelancer! There is no better way to work… and live. I don’t want to be that person who is only capable of work, who has to check visitor stats while I’m playing with my daughter in the park. That wasn’t why I started in this business, right?

No easy answers, no advice and no where else to go, so what am writing this article for? This is my couch session, and its it’s free. I know I’m not the only one who suffers from Technostress, and I know that numbers are on the rise.

Workloads increase, and new technologies get their claws deeper and deeper into our apple-like souls, with their only goal being a 24/7 control. Through making lives easier, through being constantly connected, through being constantly updated and constantly on, we lose a little piece of ourselves that used to be free…

If any of you are suffering from Technostress, and have any ideas on how to kick this into touch, or perhaps you just need to lie on the couch for a while yourself, then I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m all ears!

Good luck!

The post Technostress – The Freelancers Disease? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.