Mike's Biztalk posts

SmallTownGays.com

I have a new comic blog at smalltowngays.com It's not really a business thing, so I thought this was the most appropriate forum to mention it.

Isolation, boredom and the self-employed

For those of us who have Internet-based businesses and clients in far-flung places, the days can seem to drag on — particularly when the only human interaction you have is via e-mail.

To wit, I've been trying to come up with a list of "things to do" to keep from becoming a hermit during the hours that everyone else I know is at their 9-to-5.

Here is my list so far:

Lunch with a 9-to-5 friend — The most obvious solution. Eat light to avoid falling asleep in the afternoon!

Work in a coffee shop — This is assuming you work primarily from a laptop and not a huge computer system like me.

Meet the neighbors — If you spot someone at home and awake at 11 a.m., they are either self-employed, retired, disabled, a homemaker or a deadbeat. Either way, the conversation is usually interesting.

Walk the dog if you have one — I have cats, and they prefer not to be walked. But I'm working on them.

Walk yourself — I'm trying to get into a routine of midday exercise. I used to be an after-work exerciser, but I find that after a long day of working at the computer, I don't have any motivation to leave the house at night. Has anyone else become a midday exerciser?

Walk (don't drive or bike) to your next business destination — the post office, the bank, FedEx or anywhere else on your errand list. Walking takes twice or three times as long.

Make herbal iced tea — I used to bake bread or cookies, but those things aren't good to have around when you work alone. Iced tea is better.

Watch "The People's Court" — It's on at noon on Channel 11.

Go to meetings — Any meeting you can find. Chamber, Rotary, Biznik (hooray!). In Port Townsend, we have gay lunch on Wednesday. It's usually me and a bunch of 70-year-old lesbians, but it's loads of fun.

Stop feeling guilty — Remember that you don't have to work the same hours as everyone else; that's part of why you're self-employed. So go to a movie, take a nap, and call and bother your friends at their "real" jobs. As long as you get your work done, your clients don't care, and neither should you.

<hr>

These are just a few ideas. Please add more...

Cartoon blogging

Does anybody know of any cool comic strip blogs out there? I'm planning to start one as a little side project, and I'd love to see how (and whether) other cartoonists and illustrators are using blogs as vehicles for their comic talents.

Quality drum scans?

I recently moved to the Northwest, and I'm trying to get my bearings. Do any of the designers out there know of any high-quality scanning services in the Seattle area? I have a client who needs some historical photos and documents scanned for a book cover project.

Thanks! Mike Watters

The Designer Who Writes

Thanks to Biznik, I am really starting to get the message about finding a marketing niche and choosing to be a specialist rather than a generalist.

For my first few months in business, I billed myself as a designer/writer/editor who could help small businesses improve their overall communications. Now I'm rethinking that approach and focusing on my special skills in magazine and publication design.

However, I have an open question for any of you generalists out there:

When you are working on a project for a client that clearly needs help in an area outside of your professed specialty, do you tell your client? Do you offer to help them yourself, or do you refer them to another provider? If you do perform work that is out of your purview as a service provider, how do you bill for that?

I can't tell you the number of times I've been working on a design project that clearly had the WORST CONTENT EVER. Most clients love it if you can clean up misspellings and grammar gaffes, but when they’ve hired a Copywriter From Hell or (God forbid) have written the copy themselves, fixing the grammar sometimes isn’t enough.

Tell me, what is a generalist to do?

Pro bono ? good karma, good business or both?

I've been job-free for about three months now, and I'm learning all about the ebb and flow of a freelancer's lifestyle. (I also recently moved to a new community, so I'm trying my darndest to meet people and network, network, network.)

I am doing a lot of pro bono for animal-rescue groups, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and helps improve my overall satisfaction in the office. Although my activities haven't produced any tangible sales leads, I'm not sure if that's the point of what I do.

So here's my question for all of the socially conscious bizniks out there: When you work pro bono, do you do it for the warm fuzzy feeling, do you do it for the sales potential, or are you hoping to get a little of both?