This post has been a long time coming, I think it’s important that I document both for myself and for anyone reading my blog that starting a web design business isn’t all bunny rabbits and dollar signs. Just like anything else in life, there are highs, and there are lows. This isn’t meant to come [...]
I can’t believe that I nearly completely forgot about this – but as of a day or two ago this blog is officially a whole year old. Join me as we take a short trip down memory lane and see what’s gone on in the last 12 months, and where I plan on taking us [...]
This post originally started out as a comment that I was going to leave on this article over at FreelaceSwitch, but after a couple of paragraphs I decided that it was something that I cared enough about to turn into a full article. It’s a really great post about new year’s advice for freelancers, but [...]
All in all 2009 was a really good year for me and I feel like I managed to achieve quite a large amount, but I’m certainly not resting on my laurels. I’m going to do a quick review of the goals which I set myself a year ago and then dive right into everything which [...]
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these (again), but I’m going to try out a new post-schedule for this blog so I can deliver content to you a bit more regularly. Quite a lot has happened over the last few months, thankfully the overwhelming majority of it has been positive – and [...]
Last week I posted an article about how I’d created some Moo MiniCards to use as Mood Cards in clients meetings, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by the response. The only other article I’ve ever posted on this site (so far) that was more popular, was ‘The World’s Best Web Designers Are Unknown‘. So today, [...]
Last month I ordered some Moo Minicards, which I posted a review of here. I liked them so much that I’ve been trying to think of a reason to get some more – and last week I found that reason! I’ve just started working with a major new client on a very exciting project (under [...]
I’ve always been skeptical about using Facebook for social media, in fact I’ve had some heated debates with people who suggest that it’s “better than twitter” – but I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve just been taking a close-minded approach to it and if there is in fact some value to be had. I’ve noticed [...]
I have something that I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time that I want to bounce off you (my loyal readers). I’ve always had a strong interest in authoring a book, and I’ve managed to half-write several since the age of 16. This year I found myself in talks with a couple of [...]
There are too many boring articles on the internet about what to do on Twitter, and how to be “relevant” and “engaging”. I’ve been slowly working together a set of my own rules for the people who I follow over the last year, so today, we’re going to look at what NOT to do.
The Rules [...]
I extended the competition by 24 hours, but the results are now in and the winners have been chosen and verified. First of all I’d like to say a huge thank you to the awesome guys over at FreeAgent for all of their support, and another big thank you to you – everyone who took [...]
About two months ago I was in a dark place: I was working extremely hard, but I didn’t seem to be making any money, and on top of all that I got landed with the worst client I’ve ever had in my life – who ended up costing me about £8,000. My finances were in [...]
I have a really big mouth, not in the physical sense – my actual mouth is a fairly ordinary size, but in the sense that I talk a lot. Some would call me an evangelist, others would call me an early adopter, Seth Godin would call me a sneezer. The long and short of it [...]
I’ve had some really (crap) old business cards for Lyrical Media for a while now, and a couple of weeks ago when I visited dConstruct I found myself with no cards to give anyone who I met. Whilst at dConstruct I heard great things about Moo.com, so I decided to give them a try!
Designing & [...]
I was talking to my good friend Phil today and telling him how I was planning to take all of November off if I could turnover enough in October. For some reason he thought this was a crazy idea and started telling me I couldn’t do it – but then later admitted that he didn’t [...]
It’s finally here! After a couple of months of promising you all that this was coming soon, I’ve finally managed to get it done. That said, sticking to the old 37Signals philosophy of “Release early and often” – there’s still a lot to do. I’ll be polishing lots of bits of the site over the [...]
Last week I set up an experiment. I posted my first ever video blog, but there was a twist to it — there were 3 different versions of the same video, and everyone saw something different, and filled out a different survey depending on what video they watched. Today, we’ll take a look at the [...]
I’ve been toying with the idea of doing videoblogging for a while now, but I’ve always been a bit camera shy, and I’ve also always questioned the value of video content on blogs. Japh and I were having a discussion about this last night and one of the main things that we both agreed on [...]
I’m a fairly positive person, and most of the posts on this blog have been pretty positive, but today I’m feeling very negative and frustrated. I’m not going to bitch and moan, I’m going to try and give a constructive insight into the issues that I’m uncovering as I continue down the road of self [...]
We’ve all looked at something in the past and thought to ourselves “I know how I could make that better” – but how often do we actually do anything about it? If you’re like me then I’m guessing that the answer is “not often” – and there’s a good reason for this. The majority of [...]
Well here we are again, another month’s review, though admittedly this month is going to be looking back across both June and July as I totally missed the “5th month” review completely. Incidentally, while the numbering of months will stay the same, this is going to be the last “Starting A Business” post. Half a [...]
I’ve spoken several times on this blog about The 4 Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferris (Amazon links: UK, US). A book which I didn’t expect to enjoy nearly as much as I did. There was one particular passage that really struck home with me towards the end of the book that I’ve been wanting [...]
July really has not been a good month for me. It has been full of stress, missed deadlines, unhappy clients, bills, lack of time, and lots more. But there is one positive thing that I’ll be taking away from this month, I’ve learned a huge amount about myself, about business, and about client communication; which [...]
There’s an inherent problem with the way in which running a web design business works, and I really need to do something about it for my own business. The short version is that we treat prospective clients too nicely during the pitch and sale process, which lines us up for nothing but problems further down [...]
I know I’ve been a little behind on posting lately, but I’ve been painfully busy! One of the things that I’ve done recently is submit a typographic layout design to a Smashing Magazine. To my great suprise and pleasure, my entry was one of the top ones featured in the Smashing Magazine results article.
The idea [...]
Just for a bit of fun, I threw together a mini-site yesterday. It’s called “I’m A Rockstar Ninja” – and it pokes a little bit of fun at people and companies who market themselves as “Rockstar Designers” and “CSS Ninjas”.
I’d like to write a long paragraph about the inspiration and meaning behind it – but [...]
I’m just coming up to the end of my first full month with my first member of staff, so I thought I’d put together a quick post on how it’s going so far. So far, it’s genuinely fantastic and I think that it will prove to have been an excellent decision.
How It Started
Last month I [...]
This is really more of a thinking-out-loud post than anything else, so just to warn you in advance, don’t expect a literary masterpiece. June so far has been a very slow month for me, I’m suddenly finding a big a drop in the motivation levels that were so high in previous months. Something needs to [...]
Real innovation on the web is hard to find. In an industry where everyone is constantly copying techniques and ideas, finding something fresh and completely new is very rare. In today’s post we revisit the previously covered You Love Us design studio, and my good friend and creative director Spencer Lavery.
Finding Inspiration
Let me take a [...]
For the first time so far, May felt (almost) like a full month in terms of elapsed time. I don’t think that I got as much done this month as in previous months, but that could just be a natural slow-down of settling into “real work” with the main hurdles of setting up the business [...]
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