Inside the mind of sheer-design.

So yesterday and Monday I ventured out to Bristol, for two seminars hosted by Justin Ricks of BRAVE, supported by Barclays bank. Over the two days I gained some really useful information, and met a few new contacts in the networking opportunities (hello if you’re reading!). I now have a much much clearer picture of what I need to get sorted to get myself setup and off the ground as a registered sole trader, and as I’ve recently started invoicing, I need to get onto Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs pretty sharpish, else I have no doubt the taxman will come-a-knocking. Best keep everything above board right from the start really. Good news is, I have up to three months to register once I’ve begun properly trading.

I’ve been in contact with Lloyds, the local SME manager should be getting back to me after a training course she’s on over this week, and I should be able to get a business bank account setup through there – I’ve been told it’s very easy as I’m already with them and have a stellar account history… *adjusts and polishes halo*

Speaking of banks, I don’t intentionally publicly go about slating anyone (honestly, I don’t), but I know Lloyds also has a really good online banking service from experience, unlike other services I’ve signed up for of late who have two very long ID strings and eight pieces of memorable information to remember. *cough, pause for clarity* Nationwide *pause for clarity, cough*.

But back on topic.

Other useful tidbits included a pretty comprehensive summary of the types of business to trade as – as mentioned, I’ll be going with sole trader for the time being – along with insurance, expenses in the context of profit and loss, and a basic guide to self assessment  tax and national insurance, and more information on working from home and claiming for that on the business. I also learned I don’t have to worry about VAT until a turnover of £68k p.a. is on the cards, and I think I’ve got a little while before that’s even a possibility, though one can dream.

Marketing was covered, the importance of networking made clear again, along with having a USP (unique selling point^*1) I almost had a heart attack when I heard FABA^**2 from my old O2 sales training mentioned, at least it’s nice to know I’m already on top of that one I suppose!

LinkedIn was mentioned by a few of the people I’ve met, which kicked my behind in gear to getting it set up – I now have a profile – http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/dan-sheerman/19/997/246

In other very brief news, I’m still trying to get a work placement sorted at Carsonified, Performance Solutions‘ (link to existing) shiny new website (link to proposed new) is having the very last finishing touches put on it, and the Horsham Leisure Link template is coming along nicely, content to be added in the coming month(s), I’m reliably informed.

That’s all for now,
Toodlepip.

^*1Mine’s being a young designer, with enough experience to know what’s what, but still being fresh enough for all my ideas to be original and not being churned over and over for every project – and the fact I try to be available pretty much 24/7 for content management. (There’s a simple, catchy way of wording things for you)

^**2 Feature; Advantage; Benefit; Ask – If you don’t know what it is, thank the lord you’ve never sat through a training seminar about it! (Though that’s not to say it isn’t a really effective way of selling)

This week’s guest speaker was Imogen Woodford, who came to give us advice on software and general tips to help managing a business, which really got me thinking about things.

Planning and Organisation

Something I really really should concentrate a lot harder on is general time management. Imogen suggested an application I’d previously heard mentioned; Remember the Milk. Something worth looking into due to it’s notification and syncing features, I currently use Appigo Todo, but haven’t really got the syncing with iCal set up to my satisfaction. It sort of works, as I use it mainly on my custom iPhone lockscreen (to be featured in a future post), but it sure would be nice to have a little more ‘push’ assistance to really nag me to get things done. MobileMe gets all my calendars (Work, Freelance, Uni and Personal) synced nicely across my devices, and I’ve recently started really pushing myself to use it for every little thing, I need to rule over myself a bit more to dedicate time to doing certain things, else I just won’t get them done when the work (hopefully) starts to mount up more.

Finances

This is something I mainly have under control due to Billings being absolutely fantastic. Again, I need to get round to setting the database up on the iDisk, as at the moment it’s a bit of a pain to use it on the MacBook when I’m out and about, then export all the slips back to the iMac, it sure would be nice to have it centralised in the Cloud, then I’d be much more tempted to work on the move, for the simplicity of billing my time. I can’t recommend Billings enough, especially with its minimal pricetag, the stress it’s saved me from the times I was using Office for Mac, and seeing my Excel invoices disintegrate before my eyes due to corrupted files is worth the price, and then some. In terms of separating out personal finances, I really, really, really need to get a business bank account setup now, that’s right at the top of priorities.

Security

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from doing an A-Level in Computing (Networking & Programming), it’s gotta be: backup, backup your backup, and then back that up for good measure. Mine’s taken care of by all essential data for sites being stored primarily on a local iDisk image, synced to the cloud as soon as something’s changed, so it’s constant across the iMac and MacBook (and any other devices I choose to access it from), both Macs local storage are also backed up with Time Machine to the Time Capsule automagically. It might seem excessive, and thankfully I don’t have to use it to recover things that frequently, but it’s saved me a couple of times, and you just don’t know how much you’ll value all your data being easily restorable until your iMac decides it has had it with living. If you’re looking for a bit of free online backup, you can’t go wrong with DropBox, MobileMe just happens to give me 20GB included in a package I already have. All other security issues (hardware etc.) are taken care of by Mac OS being built on Unix, nuff said.

Research & Development

Something I’ve really bought into over the past year, I’ve well and truly ‘got my RSS on’, and started following anything that’s relatively interesting or relevant to design and tech. I enjoy doing it as much as it is essential to stay current, which is pretty handy really. NetNewsWire is really easy to use, syncs with Google Reader, and is my favourite kind of price: free. MobileRSS is thus far the nicest RSS reader for iPhone I’ve found, it’s clean looking, has a nice homescreen icon (I’m picky about the apps’ icons I’ll allow), and thanks to a recent update, a ’shake to view fullscreen’ feature that really comes in handy, and puts the previous and next icons in a more comfortable place. Worth the £1.79, though there is a free, ad supported version. (There’s also a Pro version for £2.99, but all that gives you is keyword searching, and you lose the nice orange RSS logo for a blue one. As I said, I’m picky.)

Networking

As my recent blogs will hopefully prove, I’m trying really hard to get myself out there, it’s still something I need a kick to do, though I have been poking my nose into organisations that can help, and got a telephone call from a representative from BNI this week about the possibility of joining one of their chapters. Shall update as I receive news. I also still need to setup my LinkedIn profile. Add that to the long list of Todos. And then there’s writing articles that’ll hopefully get me noticed, hence the loooong blog today with lots of links, and potentially useful information. Hopefully at least some of it was helpful to someone.

Hooray! My first networking event. And jolly enjoyable and informative it was too.

First of all, let me say that for a considerable amount of time one of my pet hates has been standing around at parties making small talk with people I apparently have nothing in common with. I considered it a general waste of my life, breath and energy. Networking is something I dreaded the thought of. Among friends and even slightly outside my comfort zone, I have no problem expressing my opinion (I’m sure someone anyone who knows me will testify to that), but with someone I’m meeting for the first time, I’m somewhat surprisingly reserved and bashful.

Held at the Mercure Holland House Hotel in Bristol for both newcomers and existing PCG members, the event gave a great introduction to the way networking works, how it can help freelancers, and tips on how to go about it. Featuring presentations from Kevin Brown of Business Networking International and Colin Butcher of XDelta, the speakers were easy to listen and relate to, covered a wide range of topics.

One of Kevin’s most impacting comments let me open my mind to the fact that even while it may seem to me like I have nothing in common with those I’m making small talk with, it’s still worth paying attention to what they have to say, and taking a genuine interest, as leaving a good impression is essential in order to gain access to their contacts. On average, he said, most people will have a thousand contacts. Not necessarily contacts in the sense of friends, but contacts in the sense of knowing people, who in turn know people. Thus in a room of only 20 people, meeting all of them could potentially put you in touch with anything up to 20,000 people. The chance of one’s services being desired by any of the 20 people in the room is pretty low, but the chance of one’s services being desired by at least one of 20,000 at some point in the future? Well. An eye opener to say the very least.

Getting outside the comfort zone seems to be the thing I need to accomplish, talking with people in my field is great, as it’s always good to know people that know about ‘things’, but in order to to have the need to know about ‘things’, it’s good to know people that know people.

It’s good to, when asked, be specific about what you do, but don’t go into technical details, as people will become bored. Be specific enough to be useful, and don’t be stereotyped. I shall be changing my introduction of myself to being a “Designer who specialises in web and corporate identity“, any more detail than that can then be expanded on if necessary, but that detail is key, having found people just put designers in a box marked “people who draw things”.

Colin shared a fantastic guide to the type of clients to work with in an ideal world. They come in two tiers of three mindsets. The mindsets consist of those who need something done yesterday, could need something done, and those who are in the process of deciding that it’s probably a good idea to have something done. The two tiers are based on the first question asked by the client, normally falling into “How much is it going to cost me?”, or “How can we get this done?”. The first thing to stand well clear of (in the same way you would of a nuclear war) is those in the first of both. Someone who’s in too deep, needs something done yesterday for as cheaply as possible is already in the mindset where however fast you do something, however much of a good job you do, and however you charge, it simply isn’t going to be good enough. Run, run like hell. Even someone who could need something done and wants to immediately know costs isn’t great to work with. The ideal clients are those in the last two columns of the second row; they have their priorities right, things can be thought through, the client will take advice from someone in your field (you), and the job will be beneficial to both of you. It’ll feel like you’re working with them, rather then for them.

In terms of meeting people also at the event, we didn’t do too well, we spent a little while talking to a printer, who made it very clear he didn’t like my business cards, but did at least have some useful experience from freelancing for a year; doing any job for free just doesn’t make sense. Sure, it’s okay to discount, but think of where your next work is coming from. Instead of offering to do the first job for free in promise for a second, do the first job paid, then a discount on further work.

Some other useful quick hints when talking to people included:

• Ask about people, they love talking about themselves, it’s listening that makes you valuable to them.
• The law of reciprocity; putting other people in contact is one of the best ways to get referrals from them.
• Always leave on a good note, no matter how uninterested you are; Kevin explained how networkers really like coffee, and have terribly small bladders, because they’re always popping to the bar, and find themselves needing to leave to go to the loo. (The irony of my actually needing the loo every five minutes wasn’t at all lost of me – heheh.)

Overall a really useful experience, and a great start to introducing me to the world of meeting people. Now I just have to keep persuading myself not to be such a hermit. It’ll all become a lot easier when I go full time freelance after the uni course and I’m struggling to pay the bills. Hopefully.

Just a quick post to keep up to date on current projects, there’ll be a more detailed blog sometime this week most likely. The site I was helping out Toni with, I had to sort of take over and finish off, as the client wanted it done, presented it last Friday, all is well, he’s asked me to review and give examples of what I can do with another of his sites, and is also sending over a brief for a video project I’ll be asking another colleague (Laurie) to come in on if all takes off.

Busy Christmas, but did have the time to meet Graham, another Management-Training-Consultant-area-person who’d like his website to be overhauled. The other project for Horsham Council is well underway, proofs have been sent over, adjustments made, and coding has started. More on all happenings later, I’m busy doodling away at the moment.

Just a quick blog to revive the brief mention I gave to one of my existing clients’ interest in bringing me on board for another project. I’ve just received some more in-depth details for this, and have been given the go-ahead to start templating and wireframing ASAP. This should be another great project to develop to be a part of the portfolio.

I also met with the food-based venture, for which I’ve been asked not to disclose any specific details of for the time being, but this is also all go, need to get back to them with three mood boards by the end of January.

Have sent a two quotes for the PHP-based system for myself and Toni’s projected time spent, based on a basic layout and more in-depth (dependent on accessibility to the existing system’s code), we’re waiting to hear back for a go-code.

No rest for the wicked.

Humbug.

Catherine has informed us we’re not allowed to do any work whatsoever over the Christmas period. So that’s nice, but it won’t happen as I’m busy as ever. No speaker this week, there’ll be a review of all my colleagues’ blogs on here in the near to distant imminent future, I will of course be very nice so as not to have tomatoes thrown at me, and with a bit of luck will give me some inspiration of even more to ramble about. I’m near the middle-ish end bit of drafting an article on the progressive uses of typography from the dawn of the webpage, which will also be posted for anyone who’s interested in that kind of gumph. *tumbleweed ensues*

Business cards need printing ready for my new-year-networking-resolution, the usual projects will of course continue, along with all the uni assignments due in January, and in addition I’ve just been called in by one colleague to assist with styling a part PHP-based system, and another to do final tweaks and complete coding for a band called The Hovercraft Pirates. I also have a meeting this friday for a corporate branding job for the launch of a mysterious new food-based venture. Sometime in the new year I shall hopefully be spending some time with the visual marketing team at O₂, so that should be something to look forward to as well – apparently my area manager is always keen to help employees advance to different sectors within the business, so that’s some potential financial security options when branching out on my own come the end of this year.

That’s a non-breaking-space tag in the title, by the way. The first rule of design club, is you do not talk about design club. The second rule of design club, is no smoking (unless you hang your head out of the window).

Merry non-breaking Christmas.

This week’s guest speaker was Dan Brown, photographer and ‘web entrepreneur’ (not the writer).

He started up and still runs Bath In Time photography as a one-man-band, and reinforced some of the things other speakers have been saying. Being passionate about what you do is key, and will lead to success, even if it sounds cliché, he says. It’s really hard starting up by yourself, but a lot of fun having the freedom of doing it that way. It’s all about being lucky with who you meet and networking (his Flickr helped him alot with this); being the guy who ‘knows everyone’ can never hurt, meeting people, and just seeing them around again can sometimes be enough.

I’m now 99% certain I’ll be attempting to go into industry with an FdA rather than sticking around for another year for the BA, strategy being keeping up part time work to pay the rent and bills, and hitting the freelance work as my own small business hard along with networking hard to be able to afford food.

Good news on the networking front; I chased up Keir Whitaker of Carsonified who I met over the summer, who will be able to offer me a work placement sometime in the coming year; really looking forward to meeting the team, it seems like a company who I could learn alot from.

Also got the draft of my upcoming essay/rant/blogXL finished, so that’ll probably get posted on here once it’s all shiny and polished. I figure my blog might have some sort of home environment for a good old ramble about web typography with a hint of CSS3 love/IE hate thrown in.

Just had a talk with Bella Gingell, a local businesswoman. Some fantastic advice focused more around starting and running a business, and really motivated me to get certain rear regions in gear as well. Lessons learned include:

• Do written quotes – protect oneself; don’t get shafted by clients who don’t want to pay
• Put aside for VAT
• Be careful choosing clients – see above
• Find an accountant who can be bribed/blackmailed – a good one, and stay friendly, they’re worth the earth if you’re not good with numbers. (Think I’m alright on this one for the time being)
• ‘Expenditure up, profit down’ means paying less for the taxman, but less luck with bank loans. Plan ahead, and work out if the business can be self-sufficient.
• Get a business bank account, keep things separate
• Keep receipts for everything.

Oh, and offers of cake can be seen as a distraction from not actually being very good at what you do. Show off and be memorable with work, not with unrelated gifts.

Definitely one of the most valuable sets of advice from a guest speaker yet.

On a slightly positive note I’ve been too busy to keep updating the blog; work work work. On a slightly negative note, I’ve been too busy to keep updating the blog; work work work.

So, due to all this work, I skipped unfortunately missed a talk from what was supposed to be a guy from ‘Radio’, a Bath-based design firm upon hearing news that it was actually to be a talk from ‘the radio’. I’m sure working at Heart FM’s all good and fun, but so far the same things seem to be happening on a weekly basis; there’s only a tiny bit of relevance to the field I’m actually in. So sorry, Mr Heart FM man, whoever you may have been, I’m a little snowed under.

What I did manage to catch was the session with Jack Owen from Icehouse, very useful indeed, and reassured me that an hourly pricing structure is a widely used thing in the industry, also made me think more about the importance of specific briefs for projects in case things go pear-shaped – though this hasn’t actually been a problem at all with the clients (that’s you, thank-you, lovely people) I’ve worked with thus far. The importance of having a good set of contacts in different fields that one can bring in for projects has also been highlighted again, so keeping colleagues on side will prove wise as well (that’s you, other lovely people).

I will be updating the blog more often, and when I don’t, I shall have to come up with a new way of reminding myself. So far I’ve narrowed it down to either post-it notes everywhere or electrodes attached to various bodily places.

A great, informal and friendly session with Lucy Owen, also of Ice House Design. She was complimentary of my copy writing skills – yes, complimentary of my ramblings, nothing can stop me now – and seemed to like my portfolio of work. I’m assuming the lack of criticism of my work is a good thing, though I was the first to present… I’ll take it as a good thing, as it’s put me in a ’sure’ mood of the new site.

Something to consider may be regularizing ‘who’ is speaking my site. The main page is deliberately third person, but it was questioned if the rest of the site being written in first made perfect sense.

Tips for getting work placements include… Actually, I’m going to keep them to myself. If you happen to be reading this after my interest in your place of design, they’re all my own ideas, heheh. No, tips for work placements were just that, to be oneself, and only apply for places I have a genuine interest in.

That’s all from me for the day. I’ve just rediscovered, been abnormally amused by, and been playing endlessly with the Extrude tool in Illustrator on some of my typographically created images, so I’m off to do that for a few hours. It’s the little things that make my day.

P.S. Also! Also! I’m proud of the fact I’ve just taught several people where the ‘#’ key is on a Mac (Alt+3 in case you were wondering); including Catherine. As I said, it’s the little things.