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RFP:
Love em or leave emThe topic of RFPs came up in our local WordPress user group a few weeks ago. They eat up a ton of our time, and more often than not result in absolutely squat. Worse than that, often I get the feeling that we never really had a shot at it in the first place. The evils of the RFP process have been well documented, and I don’t need to beat a dead horse. For context, … Continue reading
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The Freelance Primer
I gave an hour and twenty minute talk at How Design Live / Creative Freelance Conference in Boston on the art of the start. This talk has some serious meat on its bones. The organizers were kind enough to provide me the audio and I then paired it with the slides to create a video to share. We always give our educational content away for free to our audience and this isn’t going to be … Continue reading
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Looking for a Happiness Engineer
The community using Modern Tribe’s family of free and paid WordPress plugins is growing (over 650,000 downloads and counting), which means its time for the team to grow as well. We’re looking for the right person(s) to help our users achieve their goals. Are you happy, helpful, curious and accountable? Are you comfortable using and tweaking WordPress? Are you a quick learner who gets no greater satisfaction out of life than helping people? So are … Continue reading
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What Should I Charge?
The most common question I get when speaking to new, and even experienced, freelancers is “What should I charge?” How should I set my rate? Hourly or Fixed? How much will I make this year? I have a formula I use to raise or lower my rate, as well as some key strategies you can use to set up a good game plan. The key is to be intentional and strategic. This talk was given … Continue reading
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Making Money with WordPress Audio
This year at SXSW, I put a panel together on the topic of WordPress. We focused on the business side of the open source platform, primarily the three core revenue models heavily employed today: Services / Consulting, Premium Plugins / Themes & Premium Content. We got extremely lucky and nabbed some of the industry leaders in each category.
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Help us Speak at SXSW
As you all know, SXSW is one of the pinnacle conferences of our industry. Hopefully we’ll get to meet some of you there. Drop us a note if you are going! SXSW session picker voting has begun. Peter & I have two talks we are pitching, one on the business of technology and one of the business of people. We would really love your help in promoting them. Go sign up and vote. Leave excited … Continue reading
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Freelancer’s Guide to Sales: Followthrough
Quite often sales is like dating. The no-no’s in the land of courtship are exactly the same cardinal sins of the land of sales. Talking about yourself through the whole meeting. Never asking any questions about your date’s situation and needs. Taking the time to ask those questions, and not listen to their answers. Thanking them repeatedly in a gushing and desperate manner for meeting with you. Forgetting to make a friend. If you were … Continue reading
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Go to the Dentist
Hopefully you brush your teeth. You floss. You use anti-bacterial mouth rinse. You chew sugar free gum between meals. But if you don’t go to the dentist, you might end up having to get gum surgery like me. Go to the dentist regularly, it is worth the money even if you don’t have insurance. As I did not have dental insurance, and personally have no love for the experience of visiting my dentist, I let … Continue reading
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Life is Sales
I often find myself people watching as I work in coffee shops. A parent trying to explain to their toddler why it is not okay to scream at the top of her voice. The owner showing his employee how the coffee has to be brewed in a certain manner. The teenage girl offering coy glances to the guy next to me all dressed in leather and tattoos. The man in a suit to my right, … Continue reading
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Business Survival Guide : 8 practices of a long term contractor
Originally posted on FreelanceSwitch According to the Webster Dictionary, a practice is: – to follow or observe habitually or customarily – to exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation – to perform or do repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency None of the practices below are technical for one simple reason – technically, you should already be good at what you do. After all, you are selling your services as an … Continue reading
