Evolve Your Business or . . . Retire!
Reading up on new technology needn't be a headache. The 5 minutes you spend might even give you some new ideas.
John Hartigan, CEO of News Ltd. gave a talk at the National Press Club today which was picked up by Bloggers all over the world within minutes. He basically attacked Bloggers, accusing them of being unprofessional, unqualified and unreliable. And yet, News Ltd. also publishes BLOGs – in fact, they hire successful Bloggers to write the material. But the most interesting thing he said was that Bloggers lack “access to decision makers”. It seems to me that this is a response to upper management – who are rapidly losing their footing. Bloggers have found a set of skeleton keys and the gate-keepers aren’t too happy.
The same thing can be said of television. Packer abandoned TV and moved into the (more obvious) world of gambling. He’s invested Dad’s money in a bunch of Casinos because Internet advertising is taking an increasingly larger slice of advertising revenue and it’s more attractive because it’s targeted at warm audiences and gets seen by many more eyes … Read more
Social Networking Gone Mad
No more whispering if everything you can say is transmitted around the world. Is social networking jumping the shark?
I just implemented a thing-a-ma-jig called Tweetboard (left). It’s a kind of forum, but each post appears publicly – via Twitter. Normally when you post to a forum, only other members of the forum can read your post. In this weird forum thingo, Twitter posts are brought together forum-style. Anybody can read the conversations you’re having, but only Twitter people can post.
It’s all a bit mad if you ask me and also very experimental. What’s more, is it all a bit too much?
Twitter has an open API which means that developers can basically implement and modify people’s tweets and turn them into … whatever they want. But Twitter isn’t what bothers me. Later this year, Google are releasing Google Wave and they’ve put a LOT of money into its development. In fact, you could say, they’ve bet the farm. Wave is like a great, big, Twitter on steroids with everything interconnected. Email, Google Docs (Google’s answer to MS Office), online storage – you name it.
I’m not sure of any of this, but let’s see how we go. With all these plug-ins, I fear this site is taking too long to load.
“See me after class, Twitter!”
“Online Marketing Inside Out” by Brandon Eley and Shayne Tilley
Online Marketing Inside Out. Solid and well written but very conservative. Try Seth Godin for a more modern take on the changing digital marketplace.
Brandon Eley and Shayne Tilley have written a very clear, conservative book about marketing your product or idea online.
As a paperback, Online Marketing Inside Out is beautifully designed and put together. The Sitepoint artisans have done a sterling job. But to say that it’s worth AU$50 is a big call for such a little book. While expensive (and well written) it did come with Darren Rowse’s “31 days to Build a Better Blog” PDF book – which took the edge off my wallet shock (I’ve read and am now actioning 31DBBB as you read this).
The book covers website production, search engine optimisation (SEO), email and affiliate marketing as well as online advertising. And it does all this . . . adequately. As a uni lecturer and web developer, I felt I’d read this stuff before. I was a bit disappointed in the chapter on social networking. The book played it safe, telling me nothing about the subject that half an hour on Facebook or Twitter wouldn’t reveal.
Writers like Seth Godin and the team who brought us The Cluetrain Manifesto (which you can now read free online) have been predicting the impact of social networking for years, so it was both surprising and disappointing to see it glossed over in a Sitepoint book (I usually like Sitepoint books) . . . Read more
5 Tips for When Good Jobs Turn Bad
Sometimes it's good to get rid of the problem and enjoy life.
Sometimes when you’re working freelance, a job goes bad. It happens rarely. Maybe 1 in 100 jobs, but it does happen. We never hear about bad jobs as they are awkward. A bad job might reflect on our business practice or our personality in some way. We might get a bad reputation / name if someone finds out. The bad job may not be your fault . . . or it may be and you don’t want to talk about it. You might be sub-contracting some work out or your client might be a micro-manager, wanting too many changes for too little money.
You get to a certain point. Half the bills are paid. Half the work is done. But the job stagnates. Over time, it starts to smell like a stinky fish. You loathe the idea of communicating with that particular client. You may even avoid phone calls from that person.
Either way, something has to be done about stagnating bad air. The government isn’t going to bail you out of this one like it did with the banks because you’re a small business. So it’s up to you . . . Read more
Total Job Quote or Hourly Rate?
Giving a rock solid quote can be like trying to crack a walnut. Estimate your fee instead. And don't be afraid to charge more for more work.
I was talking to a freelancing friend of mine today. His client asked for a ballpark figure on a job and then agreed to pay the hourly rate based on the figure. As usual, the job went into over time and became 25% more expensive. My friend let them know that he was going over his original estimate and gave a rough guess at how many more hours were needed. The client seemed fine and the extra work was done.
It’s important not to smack your client in the face with a bill that’s beyond what was originally agreed upon.
Most jobs that come in take longer than your estimate – especially if you like to fiddle and get things just so. By working for an hourly rate, you ensure that you are getting paid for what you do and that’s a good thing. But you must communicate in advance how much more work is needed with your client if it looks like you’re going over. It’s better to see that client again (if it’s a good client and you’re comfortable working with each other) than have them walk away feeling sore. Or you feeling short-changed . . . Read more
21 Days of “Grumpy Old Man?”
I know you're out there. I can see you in the website stats. Can I ask you a question?
I don’t want this BLOG to be a whine fest. Maybe it’s the grumpy old man syndrome kicking in (I am of age) but I feel that some small businesses are forgoing honest business practices by unnecessarily blurring the truth, avoiding telling the whole story or simply lying outright in order to make a profit. And small businesses turn into large businesses over time. And this ends up being the world in which we (Westerners) live and that others aspire to live.
There’s only one of me, but I do have other website outlets. The following various sites cover the other aspects of my life.
The Family Home. Rent or Buy?
Whoops-a-daisy! Ah, well. Not my problem. Now. Where to go for a cappuccino?
For years, I’ve watched mortgaged friends suffer relationship wrath and financial stress during the most fun years (20s) of our lives. The advantages of being $300K in debt for many years are dubious at best. You are basically tied to your job. Three out of the five days you work is just to finance your car and home. And by the time you own your home, you’re almost dead anyway. I, personally, think that mortgages are suicide in slow motion.
Australia’s grumpy old businessman, David Koch recommends renting. And this nifty rent or buy calculator that I found on the New York Times site tells me I’d be financially better off only after 18 years of mortgage payments. To top off this madness, soon-to-be oldest mother in England, Elizabeth Adeney, 66, has decided to have a baby so that she can leave her money to someone! What the … ?
The rich old lady who owns my place recently died and left the house to her nephew. Because I’ve kept the place in such good nick, and she’s nicely settled in her underground home, he can now move in. I’ll remember to curb my enthusiasm for home maintenance next time. While it might be better financially for anyone above the age of 30 to rent, it’s a bit of a pain having to move every 5 years or so. Such are the disadvantages of living a more affluent lifestyle than those who choose to work for a bank and ultimately leave the proceeds to an entire generation of spoilt brats.
I’m going to give Melville a go.
If You Want A Job Done Well, You Have To Do It Yourself
A little help goes a long way and it's no longer cool to be a Little Red Hen.
The second film was a complex scene from a feature film I’m working on. It was a tricky scene where there were lights, sound recording equipment, reflector boards and a fan. But, as I’m doing this for no money at all with friends, it turned out that we needed a few more than just me! It’s the way we’re shooting this film and it held together okay. Because there’s no budget (and we’re proudly keeping it that way) I can’t really lure too many people to the “set”.
I’d like to only have one thing to worry about, but the actor did such an intense and engaging job of it, we should be okay. We went into this one half-expecting to re-shoot anyway, but I doubt that will happen as it was actually a great scene. Part of me felt like The Little Red Hen – like the entire Western world’s sense of community had failed me again – but then I remembered it was our film and the world doesn’t owe us anything.
I guess the moral of this story is this : if it’s a big job and you think you can do it by yourself, call for backup anyway. Perhaps you could think of the job as an opportunity to involve someone you’ve always wanted to work with, or someone you haven’t seen for a while. There’s an opportunity for connection (or reconnection) behind every phone call – and only you know what I mean by that.
5 Ways to Save Your Business From Social Networking Enthusiam
All this communication is driving me nuts. I need to tweet . . . and pee.
A: Nobody really knows and probably.
I just tweeted a private message to the world when I though I was using Google Talk with a friend. It’s the equivalent of hitting reply all instead of send on a sensitive email. One thing’s for sure – all this social networking stuff is extremely distracting and it’s time a set of rules was drawn up. Email alone distracts me from doing my less interesting jobs. We ought to log out of pop-up talk-n-tweet programs when actually working. I’m pretty sure I’m losing a good hour per day. I know you are, too.
Tweeting (joining Twitter.com) is becoming more useful to small businesses by the day. Pro-bloggers tweet almost 5 times per day. It’s part of their stay in your head business strategy. PR firms are already coaching new businesses in the art of social networking. The number of followers you have roughly equates to people in your shop. You’ve got 140 letters in which to pitch your product and you can include links. Go! . . . Ah. It’s all too much. We need to ignore the hype and get on with servicing our clients.
I suggest we live our freelancing work life by certain rules and regulations.
Tweet-Talk Contract Between Me & Myself
I, _________________ , promise to . . .
- log out of all pop-up talk and tweet-like programs during office hours
- allocate 15 minutes each morning and / or afternoon for tweeting
- allocate 15 minutes each lunch time and / or afternoon for email
- switch all social networking alerts ON after 5pm weekdays
- use Facebook, Tweet, G-talk, Skype or Tumblr liberally on weekends
Lord help us when Google Wave arrives late 2009. I predict, my little Monkeys, that nothing at all will get done.
Do Your Work, Love Your Hobby
I don't know about you but doing the same thing on a daily basis sounds a lot like hard work to me.
I was reading about the great pianist and musician Béla Bartók the other day. Bartók’s music wasn’t well accepted in Hungary, so he had to seek fortune elsewhere. It was only in 1939 (when he was 58) working in Hollywood that he happily wrote back to his Son, “Since 1934, I have worked exclusively upon commissions.” It took over 50 years for him to make a living from his true love. Writing and making music.
I have a new way to look at this money / art problem. I don’t like doing any one thing for any stretch of time, so that one thing I will call work. And as we all know – work needs to be broken up with spatterings of love. So, I have relegated my first love, film, to the lesser status of hobby. If I were making films every single day – I know I would become worse at it, maybe even tired of it and I’d almost certainly, eventually even despise it. It would become, in a word, work! By calling it a hobby, it stays special. It’s something that is inextricably tied in with my personality. A hobby can’t be bought or sold. It’s yours. In Australia, you are even allowed to make money from your hobby and the income derived is not called income. Filmmaking is my joie de vivre – mon raison d’être. By bringing it down a notch – by not doing it every day and thereby making it something to look forward to, it stays magical.
And I don’t get bored.
