I have a standard clause in my contracts that allows me to terminate a relationship with a client.  I’ve never thought about why I would use it much but it was recommended to me and it seemed like a good idea to add in.

Up until about a month ago, none of my clients had questioned it.  But while working on a proposal with a new client, they asked under what circumstances I might terminate the relationship.  It made me pause and think.  Why would I?

There are really only two major reasons I would consider activating that clause:

• I was physically unable to continue working due to death, illness or some kind of emergency
• A client was asking me to do things I consider unethical or that are illegal

While the second reason is pretty easy to deal with, what would I do if faced with the first possibility? So I put a backup plan in place that I could present to the client.  Basically, it involved having a colleague that I work with regularly agreeing to complete the project if I was unable to.

best laid plans

Having that conversation with the client was a small blessing in disguise.  A few weeks ago a family emergency dramatically affected my ability to work and I didn’t know how long it would be before I could get back into a routine.  Freelancing or running your own business means that if you’re not working, you’re not being paid.  I don’t have the luxury of sick days or vacation time.

Fortunately, the client for my largest project was extremely understanding and even offered to adjust their deadline.  Not all clients will be able to do that though, and knowing that I had an arrangement with a colleague who’s skills and work philosophy I trust completely was a huge weight off my mind.  And true to form, he jumped right in with an offer of help.

a backup of the backup

I occasionally work with a fellow who likes to have a backup of his backup plan in place.  I understand why.  In a time of stress, knowing you have alternate solutions that can be activated with a few moments notice can make things much easier for you, allow you to keep your clients and projects, maintain some degree of income and give you peace of mind.

Some different types of backups to consider:

file backups

First, make sure you have a backup system in place for all your computer files and do it regularly.  You may not need to back everything up but regular backups of your email, client files, design asset files, bookkeeping, your creative projects and anything else your business or art needs to function is crucial.  Hardware fails.  It’s not an “if” but a “when”.

How you choose to backup can be anything from a secondary portable hard drive, an online service like Dropbox, even DVDs.  Make sure you have an offsite backup of your files in case of fire or flood.  There are services that will do this for you or it might be as simple as putting a portable drive into your laptop bag when you leave your office or studio.  If you work from home, find a safe place to store a backup off of your property.  I’ve even read of one writer who keeps a disc of his current manuscript in the glove compartment of his truck!

insurance

Make sure you’ve insured yourself properly.  Talk to an insurance agent about your specific situation and make sure your business assets are insured.  If you’re a creative person, your biggest asset is your creativity. Consider disability insurance – if something happens and you can’t work, you need income.  In Canada, basic provincial medical covers most of things but you might want to look at extended medical insurance to help with other costs like prescriptions.

reciprocal relationships

If you freelance, finding a person who you can form a reciprocal relationship with can be a lifesaver.  They don’t necessarily have to have your skillset but they need to be able to take on your project and manage it.  If they can do that, they may be able to find subcontractors who can do different bits and pieces of the job.  The key is to find somebody you trust, who shares your business philosophy and who you feel comfortable leaving your clients with.  Be willing to fill in for them as well, should the need arise.

Realize though, that a reciprocal relationship will not ensure you an income while you are out of commission.  The person doing the work for you needs to be paid for their time.  But, what it will do, is ensure you have the ability to retain the client and protect any potential future income they may provide.

financial cushion

Try to keep a financial cushion available at all times.  Consider it an emergency fund.  All financial planners talk about them but they’re even more critical when your income can be sporadic.  Knowing you have 6 months of funds in the bank can be a huge relief when business gets interrupted.  If you need to use it, make it the first thing you pay back when you are back on your feet.

other ideas

• keep organized: this will make it easier for anybody who has to step in for you on a moments notice.  It also makes it easier for you when you walk back into your office after time away.  It’s far easier for you to pick up where you left off when everything is where it should be.
• develop passive income streams:  while they might not provide a lot of income, they can provide a consistent amount of money that can help you through lean times or emergencies – especially when used in addition to your emergency fund.
• wills, power of attorney, password files – all are things that are important to have in order and that key people should know how to access if necessary.

I had my wakeup call two weeks ago and fortunately, I had a couple of these things in place already which made my life much easier and let me focus on what needed to be done.  But even so, there are still several I need to take care of and you can bet they’re much higher up on my priority list now.

If you have any other suggestions, feel free to add them in the comments!

I have a birthday coming up, which usually means I start thinking about what I’ve accomplished and wondering when, exactly, I’m going to become a grown up. The first one is pretty easy, the growing up… well… it hasn’t happened yet. Heh.

The last few birthdays I’ve started to realize that life is not getting any longer and it’s too short to waste time on a lot of things – especially things that make me grumpy, miserable, stressed out (in a negative way) or, to be blunt, I just don’t enjoy or want to do.

Now, before anyone jumps up and down and says sometimes doing things you don’t like or don’t want to do is part of life… part of being a grown up, I know that.  I hate doing my bookkeeping.  But my accountant and the government tend to get persnickety if I don’t.  Of course there are things we have to do on a regular basis in order to be a productive, healthy member of society.

However there are a lot of things we do simply because we feel guilty or obligated to do them.   One of the best lessons I have learned over the last 3 years is how to say NO.  It’s incredibly freeing.  And recognizing that you are the person who has ultimate control over what you choose to do and not do is not only freeing, it can be scary.  It means you can’t blame others for what you choose to do or not do.  Ultimately, you are responsible for your own happiness.  Nobody else is.  Coming to those conclusions was a birthday realization.

I bring that one up because it’s one I’m revisiting this year.  I need a refresher course in reminding myself that I’m responsible for me.  And not only is life too short to spend on things that cause stress and clutter, but I really need to start spending time working on things that are near and dear to my heart, instead of putting them off for reasons that, when I’m at the end of my life and I look back, won’t matter in the slightest.

I honestly believe that if something is truly important to you, you will find a way to get it done.  If you don’t, it wasn’t that important, despite what you may tell your family or friends or yourself.  We are all very good at lip service, but so many of us fall short on walking the walk.   This year, I’m going to do my best to start walking the walk a little more consistently and focusing on what is meaningful to me.

That might sound very unappreciative or arrogant but let me explain.

Virtually every inquiry I get from people looking for work is the same.  It’s a form letter.  They are polite, well written and basically, they amount to this:

Hi

I need work
Here is my portfolio
Please hire me.

Thank you

Obviously, they’re not so blunt as that but that’s how the vast majority of them come across.  If it’s a slow day, I may take a quick look at the person’s portfolio but chances are very good that the whole thing is going in the recycle bin.  Here’s why:

what’s in it for me?

Let’s be blunt… a lot of times, this is how the world operates.  When a prospective employee sends me an email asking for work that mimics the one above, they’re about what’s in it for them – a job.  They’re really not interested in what’s in it for me.  Or else, they believe their portfolio is so amazing I will drop everything and give them a call because there’s no way I could pass on such a great offer.

Usually, it’s very obvious from their letter that they have not researched what Fine Lime does, who we work with or what kind of design we specialize in.   They see web design and fire out the form letter.

Form letters, in my opinion, are spam.  Nobody likes spam.

how to get the attention of a prospective employer

Are you looking for a new job?  Great!  Odds are good that if you do your research and craft your introductory letter carefully, you can get a second look from your prospective employer.

I work with other freelancers and while I may not have a project that will be the right fit for another freelancer at a specific moment, I’m always looking for potential people that I can work with and who will fit our process.  If somebody jumps out, I will definitely respond and file the name away for when the right project does come up.  So here are some tips:

know your market

If you read our about page, you’ll realize we’re a small group of freelancers who work together.  I don’t have dozens of employees or an HR department dedicated to going through resumes.  If you want my attention, you need to appeal to me and what I do personally.  Most small firms will be the same.

What do you specialize in? WordPress? Flash? Front end design? Logos?  Target firms that specialize in the same thing.  They’re more likely to need your services.   We work mainly with WordPress and Joomla.  I don’t really have a need for Drupal developers.

However, while I may not have a need for a Drupal developer right now, that doesn’t mean something won’t come up in the future.  You can still make me sit up and listen by framing your inquiry in a better way.  How about

“I see that you specialize in WordPress and Joomla projects.  My skills are mainly focused on Drupal and I realize this may not fit with your current niche.  However, should that change and you decide to start offering services for Drupal, I would love to be able to work with your team.”

Right there, you’ve already shown me that you’ve done some basic research into what we do and you’ve offered your services without being pushy.  No, I might not need you now, but already, you’ve separated yourself from the pack and that sticks out.

how can you help?

Honestly… this is where you can make a difference.  Tell me what you can do for me that’s relevant to my business. Having an amazing portfolio is not good enough because there is so much more involved in being a good co-worker than just your skill level.  There are masses of very talented people out there.

Let me know that you understand my company.  Tell me how you can make a difference to my clients.  Show me that you took a little more initiative than simply adding my email to a database so you could fire me out a mass mailing.

it’s a value proposition

The key thing to remember when you are looking for a job is that it’s a value proposition.  Yes, absolutely you are trying to sell yourself to a prospective employer – but the key part of that is showing them why you are the right person for their firm.  Why will you fit better than the last person or the next person?  It’s the same things as approaching a new client.  They can choose from literally thousands of web development companies.  Why should they choose you?  What makes you special?  And better yet… do you understand their business?  If you don’t, how are you going to come up with a solution for them?

So next time you’re out looking for work, keep a few of these things in mind.  It’s as much about the other person as it is about you.

In the meantime, form letters need not apply.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to meet one of my favourite photographers, as well as somebody who I admire and respect very much as a writer and businessperson, David duChemin (aka Pixelated Image).  If you follow along at all regularly, you’ve probably heard me mention him once or twice before!

I have to confess, I was pretty nervous, for several reasons.  First off, I can be terribly shy in new situations, especially when it’s somebody I admire.  Second, there’s always a little seed of fear when I meet somebody who I’ve come respect through their work or their writing that they’ll be… well… not what they seem.  And third…  with my innate clumsiness I figured it was only a matter of time before I spilled something on either him or myself.

Well… I’m here to report that while I’m still very shy, I did not spill anything (phew!) and David in real life is exactly what he seems in his work, his writing and his blog: warm, genuine and very down to earth.  It was a bit of a thrill to meet him and we had a great conversation.  Definitely a highlight of my year so far.

I highly recommend David’s book Visionmongers to any of you running a creative business.  While it’s aimed at photographers, it’s packed with solid advice for anyone earning their living through their craft.  If you are a photographer then check out David’s first book, Within the Frame and his newest book, Vision and Voice. And if you’re hungry for more, then be sure to pay a visit to the Craft and Vision store where you can find a growing number of e-book titles on improving your skill and your vision from David and an impressive group of other photographers.  At $5 a piece, it’s the best deal around for improving your photography and a lot cheaper than a new lens.

That’s it for me this week – have a great weekend everyone!

So I thought this week I’d point you in the direction of two sites that I’m enjoying a lot.  They’re very different but they both inspire me in different ways.

tartelette

Tartelette is the website of former pastry chef and now food photographer and food stylist,  Helen duJardin.  Her blog is full of luscious photos of her own creations as well as those of others.  Her love for fresh, local ingredients, and her accompanying recipes and charming stories make her site a must visit for me as well as breath of inspiration every time I read a post. Food photography is a little hobby of mine that I love, but this women knows how to evoke summer with nothing more than a photograph of pain au chocolat and a glass of milk.  If you love food or beautiful photography, or both, I highly recommend a visit.

screen parade

The second site I’d like to send you all off to is the flimnit parade – a personal project by a friend of mine.  His goal?  An original screenprint every day for a year.  I love 365 projects.  I love doing them, as I’ve mentioned before, but I also love seeing other people’s projects.  I love watching as their style evolves and the complexity of their work grows.  Watching others do a 365 project always gets my creative juices flowing.  Plus, I’m a big fan of screenprints and he’s got some cool ones up already! He’s only at Day 8 so here’s a great opportunity to follow along from the beginning!

That’s it for this week.  Hope you all enjoy a great summer weekend!

So?

Where did the last 6 months go???

The time has flown by much faster than I ever expected it to.  It feels like January 15th was a few weeks ago.

Anytime you make a major life decision, there will always be a small shadow of fear hiding in the corners, even if you know with every fibre of your being that you’re doing the right thing.  There’s always a voice saying that maybe, just maybe you should stay put.  I’ve known for the last 12 years that I wanted to be my own boss and to make a living from doing what I love and am passionate about.  When I was finally ready, there was still a whisper in the back of my mind reminding me of all the things I was about to give up.

I’ve been happy the past 6 months.  My mood has improved, I’m doing what I love and oddly enough, my stress level has dropped.  The last one surprised me.  There’s definitely still stress but it’s mainly positive stress and it seems more manageable.

All those things told me I had made the right decision.  But what confirmed it was a surprise.  I was on my way to a party a former colleague was throwing one night and suddenly I was oddly aware that I felt like the last 10 years of my life, at my old job, hadn’t happened.  I felt no connection to it, no memories of it… it felt like a memory gap!  Don’t get me wrong, I miss many of the people and I still maintain friendships with several of them.  But the job itself has slowly evaporated from my conscience.

It was the oddest feeling.  And yet, it let me know that I had moved on.  I’m where I want to be.   The whisper in the back of my brain has faded away.  And that makes me happy.

the creative habit

Last night I finished off The Creative Habit by renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp.  And I have to say, if you are in a creative field, or want to be, I highly recommend it.  It’s refreshing, straight forward, practical and laid out beautifully.

Although she is a dancer and a choreographer and the book is full of her own personal experiences and her way of working, don’t be fooled.  Her process is one that can be adapted for any creative field (in fact, she uses many examples of other creatives, both past and present) and the key word there is adapted.  Exercises are included at the end of each chapter to help you find your most productive way of working.

But, perhaps the most central theme to the book is that creativity is practice.  Practice, practice, practice and then some more practice and a lot of hard work.  It is about movement.  Not as in a dancer but as in a “just get out there and start” movement.  Her philosophy, and it’s one I agree with, is that the masters were the masters not because they were more creative than anybody else but because they were constantly in motion, constantly practicing, working, refining, expanding and honing their crafts – even Mozart!  His fingers were deformed by the time he died at age 35 from constant practice and writing.

Any artform is a skill – usually a combination of several skills and to be truly great, you must be constantly working on honing your craft.  There are many tools to help you along the way but ultimately, it is about mastering the basics, progressing to the more complex techniques and constantly pushing your skill level.  The Creative Habit offers an eye opening, very honest look at what is really behind any artist’s body of work: hard work.

vector magic

On a completely different note, I found a neat little software product earlier this week that I thought I’d pass along: Vector Magic.  It’s an on-line service and desktop software that will convert bitmap files (like .jpgs) to vector files quite neatly.  I use stock vector images a lot in design work but they can be quite expensive.  When I’m working on mockups for clients I often don’t want to purchase the files until we’ve agreed on the final design.  The comp files that many stock image companies give you for mockups are usually .jpg files so they’re very difficult to scale up without serious loss of quality or change colours quickly.   I never have much luck getting Adobe Illustrator to do the job for me so I finally gave up and searched the web.

Vector Magic provided a quick solution.  I uploaded my image, had a perfectly fine vector version in minutes and was back on my way.  I was given two free uploads for registering and the monthly subscription fee (which you are not required to pay immediately) is $7.95.  A desktop version with many more options is available for $295 (prices are US dollars).  I did not do any tweaking to my upload as I wasn’t looking for a perfect vector rendering for mockup purposes and I will purchase the final images used in my design so I can’t comment on what the highest level of quality that can be achieved is.  For my purposes though, it was a quick and very satisfactory solution.

That’s it for this week – hope you all have a great weekend!

My idea behind working smarter is getting as much accomplished in the working hours I have, with as much focus as possible.  Not an easy task – one I’ll probably be working on for years to come.

a change of space

In January I left my full-time job in an office cubicle and traded it in for a home office.  While I love it, it has definitely been a change of pace.  The distractions are just as great as in an open plan office space, but they’re different.  For the first few months, I found I was easily being pulled away by family, friends, errands, and a very energetic lab puppy thrilled to have me home all day.

While  one of the reasons I was excited about working for myself was the ability to have flexibility in my schedule, I was finding that maybe I was being too flexible.  All my work was getting done, but I didn’t feel like I was being anywhere near as productive or as focused as I could be.

At the same time, I recognize that working from home, for myself, does give me a lot of freedom to adjust and tweak my work schedule to one that works for me – a freedom I would not have had in my previous jobs.  So why not take that freedom to experiment and see what works?

concentrate

Recently, I read an article on working in concentrated periods of time and then taking breaks to move around, relax and refocus.  This is nothing new – I’ve been hearing that since being given high school study tips and it makes sense.

But at the same time, I skimmed a study in the newspaper (I can’t remember what study, sorry), on how our sedentary office jobs are damaging our health.  Again, nothing new but the twist to this study was that getting to the gym for an hour a day was not enough to offset this damage.  The human body is meant to be in constant motion.

Add to this a discussion I had with a colleague on his struggles with being more productive.  He mentioned a writer who had written his first book over a year working at least 8 hours a day.  With his second book he decided to take a different approach.  He would do 90 minutes of highly focused of work, 4 times a day.  In between those 90 minute parcels, he would go away from his office and do something completely different. His result?  He wrote his second book in a year but with fewer hours.  The difference?  The hours he did work were far more productive.

giving it a try

I decided to experiment with it.  Sam, my puppy, thinks that if I’m home, he should have my undivided attention at all times.  He’s a lab and lab puppies are go go go.  They only stop to sleep and eat.   They’re also very smart and as long as they’re engaged, they’ll behave.  Let them get bored and well… they make their own entertainment.  Usually it’s not Melissa approved.  Apparently, this continues till they get to be about three.  We’re two years and 2 months from that so we need a solution now.

The struggle I was having is I thought taking him for an hour long walk at lunch should be enough to get him through the day.  It wasn’t.   He’d fidget and whine and try to misbehave in the meantime and I’d spend half my time trying to get him to sit or lie down or be quiet.  I was constantly distracted.  When I got up to try and quiet him, I’d get pulled away to do something else.  Before I knew it, the day was gone and nothing had gotten done.  So I’d wind up working on the weekend or for extended periods at night.  What to do?

Instead of fighting it, I decided to work with it.  I’m trying the 90 minute strategy.  We have a run around for a few minutes before I start the work day, then he naps or plays with his ball while I work for 90 minutes.  Then we head outside for a good 15-30 minutes to play frisbee or catch.  He gets worn out, I get to clear my head and move around and get blood flowing.  When I come back in to do my next 90 minutes, it’s distraction free while he naps again.  When lunch hits, we play again for another 30 minutes, I eat, run errands and work for another 90 minutes.  Another play session and another 90 minutes.  After dinner, he gets his hour long walk, I relax for a bit  and then I usually put in another 90 minutes later in the evening before bed (actually my favourite time to work).

It seems to be working!  Obviously, we can’t do this every day.  Sometimes I have meetings or things come up but on the days where I know I’m going to be home all day, this is the schedule we follow.  And during those 90 minutes, I do my best, with my lists, to work really focused and get as much done as possible.  There are exceptions but for the most part, it feels more productive and less stressful and at the same time, more relaxed and enjoyable.

Time and Motion was only going to be a two part series but I think I will keep it running as I keep searching for ways to work smarter, avoid procrastination and keep balanced.  I’ll keep you all posted!

Chances are good that most of you are using at least one of the ones I’ve mentioned.  But are you being smart about it?

I’ll be blunt… given some of the behavior I’ve seen over the last few weeks, odds are good that you’re not being as smart about it as you could be, which is what brought me to write this.  This is not a post about how to use Social Media to improve your business or  your networking – I’ll save that for another day.  This is a post on what not to do with social media.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have used poor judgment on occasion – it’s very easy to do.  However, if you fall into any of the following categories, there are some things you should remember and avoid when using any social networking sites:

• you own a business
• you work for a business
• you one day hope to work for or own a business
• you are job hunting
• there is even a remote possibility that you may be job hunting anytime in the future, ever.
• you volunteer or hope to volunteer for an organization

More and more companies, organizations and potential clients are starting to google potential service providers and potential or current employees.  And with sites like Facebook and Twitter opening up their databases to search engines, what you do on those sites is becoming easier and easier to find.  Even without google, it doesn’t take much effort to search for a person directly on these sites.  If you are on the internet, you can be found and anything you put out there, stays out there.

what not to do

• don’t disclose company business unless you are authorized to do so.  It’s not yours to share and if you are unsure, check your company’s social media guidelines.  I recently saw somebody I follow on Twitter announce to the world that an employee at their firm was being laid off… prior to it actually happening.
• don’t make disparaging remarks about your employees, coworkers or employer
• don’t criticize the company you work for
• don’t criticize your competitors

Basically, behave like a professional at all times when you are on-line.  Twitter is very public but  Facebook allows you to control how public you make most aspects of your profile.  Be familiar with the privacy controls and learn how to use them.  Be warned, not all of these sites are good at informing you of privacy changes so it’s a good idea to check them out every couple of months.

photos

Use an appropriate profile picture on Twitter.  Most people do because they are aware that Twitter is very public.  But the same advice follows for Facebook.  While you can lock down access to your photo albums (and you should definitely do this), your profile picture is public (I believe you can hide it but the vast majority of people don’t).  So remember that even if you make your whole profile private, your profile picture will still show to anyone who looks for you.  Don’t do the following:

• use pictures of yourself in any state of intoxication, with a lampshade over your head or even holding a drink
• use photos of yourself in various stages of undress
• use photos of yourself holding any kind of weapon
• use photos of yourself making obscene gestures

In a nutshell, don’t use any photo that you would not want a potential employer or client to see.

If you want to post photos of yourself at that party last weekend, put them in a private album and make sure only the people you want to see them can.  If you are going to tag photos of your friends, do them a favour and make sure that they’re ok with it or that it’s not public for the world to see.  Don’t post on friends’ walls unless they keep their profiles private – and even then think twice about what you say.  You don’t know who they have on their friends list.  If there is one thing I have learned in this life, it’s that it’s a very small world and you don’t get a second opportunity to make a first impression.

Nobody is a saint and everyone is entitled to kick back and have some fun now and then – but use judgment before you broadcast things to the entire world, which is essentially what you are doing when you post anything on-line.

Obviously, time and getting things done has been on my mind a lot lately.  And as I’ve mentioned before, when I allow my brain to meander around a problem, things have a way of popping up and sending me in the right direction.  And when they do, who am I to ignore them!

In the past month, I’ve been seeing references to Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art. In fact, I was seeing so many mentions of it, that I thought it must be a new release.  The premise sounded promising and I wondered if somebody was trying to tell me something so I decided to hunt it down in Chapters a week ago. Imagine my surprise to see it was published in 2002!  Despite being on a strict book buying ban due to overflowing bookshelves, after reading a few pages, I was hooked.

The book is about breaking through all the blocks that stop you from being creative or following your passion.  Basically, overcoming the power of Resistance.  What does it comes down to?  Realizing what resistance is and then sitting down and getting it done, day after day.  It really is a war and every day is a new battle.  I felt like it was written for me.

Yesterday, I started one of the other books sitting on my overflowing bookshelf that has been recommended to me over and over again: Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit.  After just a few pages I’m coming to the conclusion that while her outlook might be a little different from Pressfield’s, the underlying theme is the same: sit down and do the work.  Every day.  I’ll let you know how that one turns out.

In the meantime, I do recommend The War of Art.  It’s a short book and easy to read, and you’ll probably want to go back through it again (it’s short enough that you can easily do that without feeling guilty on spending the time for a reread).  Pressfield also has a very interesting website chock full of interviews with other creatives on their creative process.  I plan to spend some time there checking it out – maybe this weekend from my patio with a cold drink!

Have a great weekend everyone!