Posts Tagged ‘business’

Gigantic Update

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

Well…. hello everyone. Been a while eh? You may have heard through Twitter or Facebook that I’ve got a new job. It’s great! Nothing like my last lot. I think I’m going to be staying with them for a while. The perks:

  • They’re in Albion Park Rail! This means I can drive there in 25 minutes. BIG DEAL, since my last job had me catching a train for 90-100 minutes, then hiking to Glebe from Central station.
  • They sell tangible products! Not NLP which I find highly dubious.
  • I get to be part of a team, instead of having everything IT resting on my shoulders so I feel like I’m constantly under massive amounts of pressure.
  • I’m treated with respect. That’s a key thing that seemed to be lacking before.
  • I’m making about the same as before, only I don’t have to spend $57 a week on a train ticket. It’s closer to $25 a week in petrol. Oh and I get more perks because I’m an employee instead of a contractor… and they’re already deducting tax, so I won’t have a nasty surprise at the end of this financial year!

OK, so what else do I have to report? Well, what don’t I?

God knows how many goals I’ve achieved. I’ll have to do a full rundown in another post as this one will get too long.

I’ve done tons of drawing with my Wacom Cintiq (have I blogged about that yet??). It’s made it SO EASY to make cool looking drawings. I love it to bits. Look in the sidebar on the right to see a few links to images I’ve created with it.

A couple of days ago I registered the domain www.atherandearth.com. This is where my comic will live. I am still working on it, but I’m confident I’ll be able to start getting things done with it once NaNoWriMo this year is over.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I will be participating again in one month’s time. It will be AWESOME. I already have a fully developed plot!

Site Flight Web Design is over. I just never could get the hang of running a business. Don’t worry though, I’m not sad about it. It’s just me, I’m not cut out to be self-employed. Not enough motivation for things like that. It’s a problem I’ve had since I was about 10. Started out as a distaste for homework. Now it’s a distaste for doing things for other people while I’m at home. It feels like my personal space is being crushed, I guess. I’m happy to work while at a workplace, but I just can’t take that work home with me. Hence why I couldn’t handle working from home.

So it’s been a funny old ride, this year. It started out with me as enormously cashed up, buying cameras and expensive graphics tablets, leaving my Woolworths job, moving house, working in Sydney, ending each day feeling more drained of my sanity than the day before… then, I was unemployed, enjoying all the sudden free time but feeling lazy and sluggish and kind of doing that thing that George Costanza in Seinfeld did during the “Summer of George” – spending all my time “decompressing” by sitting idly. It got to the point where my sister tried making me do things by giving me lists because she was so upset that I seemed to be doing nothing. But I found my way.

I applied for a fateful job in late August, I got an interview, and the following Wednesday I was offered the job. I was nervous on my first day, and a bit spooked by the whole ordeal in the first few hours, where I had a whole lot of tasks bounced off me, and I was left worried about what I’d got myself into. But now that I’ve settled in, I’ve learnt that these things are doable and it seems like I’m appreciated in that workplace.

Because of my unemployment coinciding with my car needing a bunch done to it, I’m still in a bit of debt, but my job will take care of that within this month, and that’ll be a big weight off my shoulders.

Thanks to working close by, I will be able to not only join the gym next to my workplace and work out every day, but also work on my comic AND do NaNoWriMo without any problems.

This is it! This is the point in my life where everything works for me!

Smartphone

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

The other day I found that my phone was missing one of its most important buttons. I found it floating in my handbag and sticky-taped it back on. Of course, that was hardly a solution.

So I decided to get a new one. Because I have to keep the same number – it’s on my business cards – I figured I had better get one through Primus again, so I could keep the same SIM card but not have to pay huge sums to get the phone.

Looking at the sparse range of handsets they had to offer, I had little choice in the matter, so I picked one of the few smartphones available, a Nokia E71. I am currently using that phone’s miniature QWERTY keyboard to type this blog post, and I’ve made surprisingly few typos.

22. Own a smart phone

Unfortunately, Google phones don’t really exist in Australia at this stage. If I want one I’ll need to wait a while.

My Worst Client

Friday, January 15th, 2010

It’s been a strange year, and a lot has happened. I’ve had many clients, some of which disappeared off the face of the Earth before I could get any money off them for the design mockups I sent them. But those ones paled in comparison to one client I (nearly) had early on.

Back then, the business was fresh and exciting. I didn’t know I was in over my head at that stage. I received a phone call from a startup company that wished me to create a website for them. It would be a website based on placing working holidaymakers from Australia in jobs in London.

Sounded fine, I thought. I went and saw them and discussed it. They were pretty nice people. They said they would pay me a little to start off ($250 I think it was) and that I would make a percentage of the profits. The "offending" designThey complimented the Illawarra Directory, and said that they wanted their website to look similar to that. I was pleased, and went home feeling good about the project. So good that I made a design that day, because they wanted something for the next day – I did consider that somewhat demanding of them, considering I had other clients to work on as well, but I brushed it off and did it anyway. It was a good design. I was proud of it.

The next day they called me and asked me to come around again. They were close by, only in Shellharbour Village, so I obliged.
This time I wasn’t alone. There was another graphic designer there. She was really friendly, and I can only hope that she cut her own ties with this ridiculous company like I did.

Here’s where things began to go downhill.

They didn’t like my design. Apparently, they had decided that they wanted a “grungey” design instead of the sleek design I had given them, modelled off the Illawarra Directory. Okay, I thought, that’s fine. No dramas. I’ll use that design in some other way.

One of the ladies decided that she wanted Photoshop. She actually had me take her laptop home and install Photoshop onto it, and return it to her. Once I got back, the woman decided I needed to stick around for a while and help her use Photoshop. She’d never touched it before, but she wanted to participate in the website design for some bizarre reason.

Finally, I made an excuse that I was meeting another client that afternoon and had to leave.

The next business day, I received another phone call from the Photoshop n00b. She needed me to tell her how to do something. I think it was something to do with erasing a background from a photo. I did my best to explain to her how I achieved that, and then continued to work on another client once the phone call ended. The phone started to ring again. I answered, and the idiot had some other question that I answered, and hung up.

Then, she called again. I pressed “busy” on my phone. Then I switched off my phone.

When the day had ended I turned it back on, and I had two voicemail messages from her.

One of them was something along the lines of “Hi Natalie, I really need your help with Photoshop. I thought it would be easy to do things, but I’m having so much trouble. Can you call me ASAP?”

Yeah, she thought Photoshop was easy. Never mind that I learnt to use it through both trial and error and through my DIGITAL MEDIA CERTIFICATE IV course.

I sent her an email.

Hi,
I’m really sorry that I had to stop taking calls, but I’m really busy with three different websites and I work much better without distractions. I’d like to help you but honestly, I’m a terrible teacher and I’m only a web designer. I know how to do things, but it’s due to a lot of practice, classes and trial and error.If I had limitless time, and didn’t have to earn a living, I would happily teach it to you, but as it stands right now I just can’t afford to. If you want a website, I’ll make you a website, no problem. But I didn’t agree to be a Photoshop mentor as well. I’m sorry, but it’s just too much to handle.To help you out, here are some online tutorials for Photoshop that will easily do a better job than I could:

Regards,
Natalie

As you can see, I really thought it out. I even went to the trouble of seeking out tutorials for her.

Her response? (Red text is my comments)

I’m very sorry you have misunderstood our aim with requesting some help with Photoshop. We wanted to provide you with our ideas so that you could successfully design the website quickly to bring in the sales, which we would all proffer[sic] from.

We respect that you are busy with your other clients’ projects but our aim is to facilitate a team approach as we will be working partners for some time, and quite frankly we may need to teach one another skills from time to time to optimize the business. (What? Not for $250 upfront and a measly 2% profits, thank you bitch – you’re lucky I even gave you the time of day) I think it is best if we detract our partnership at this point as we are looking for someone who has the time for this project. (You mean someone who actually doesn’t object to being part of your little sweatshop operation?)

Thank you for the time that you have given so far and we both wish you well in your future business.

Best Regards

I simply replied “Good luck finding someone.

They’d need it. Anyone that would do that for them would have to be someone completely unemployed and desperate for work.

I hope those girls’ business fails miserably. They don’t deserve anybody’s money if they think that’s a good way to treat well-meaning but naive people.

Project 52

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Project 52Today, I was challenged by my English friend Skippy to participate in Project 52. The concept is to make at least one blog post per week for the entire 2010. Knowing that I need challenges such as this to actually be motivated, I accepted. I have never been able to get into writing a blog- maybe this will help me?

Given that today is the 7th of January, the week is nearly up so I’m getting in right away!

You might also have notice I still have not updated some of the pages on this site… I really need to get that done but first, I have to finish off some client websites. I was told off by one client for taking time off during the holidays. Heaven forbid I get a break in my work schedule.

Yeah, you might be able to tell I am having a lot of troubles with my business. I didn’t realise people could be as fussy as they are, and I never realised just how hard it could be to communicate. But that’s not the worst part. I am just not cut out to work for myself. I haven’t got enough of a work ethic to pull it off. I can work for a boss, but I am a terrible boss of myself. Does that make sense to anyone else?

Back and Blogging Again!

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Hey people! I gave up on my blog when it was all weird with bizarre symbols. But I was going through my email spambox when I found a comment on one of my entries. So I popped on over here and like magic, it was as though nothing had ever happened. Sweet.

Well, I don’t have much time right now as I have to get ready for work soon, but suffice to say that there is A LOT to catch up on!

  • The largest change has been my change of address. I now live with my sister in a 2 bedroom villa. It’s not that large but it’s cosy and a good size for just the two of us. I have a queen size bed now which is awesome.
  • Business is still chugging along, though it stalled for a while there. Not making much money at this point, but what the hey. I’m making a little. Just working out kinks in my process. Working on four sites currently.
  • Comic has been on hold since Script Frenzy. Haven’t felt like it but I plan to start drawing at that moment of inspiration. It will come eventually. :-/
  • I skimmed Drawing the Line a couple of months ago, and decided that it sucked beyond repair. I consider it my practice novel and nothing more. The plot is just too pathetic.
  • Next month I’ve booked a trip for my sis and I to go to Melbourne. I paid for it all since I owe her money.
  • I own a laptop again. Brand new from Catch of the Day. I made sure it had a dual core processor so I wouldn’t get frustrated with how long it took to do ANYTHING such as even load a browser, unlike the Compaq Presario I bought off Dad for $150.
  • I am a member of Contours gym. It was really tough for the first few weeks. I got so sore all the time. Now I don’t get sore but do get muscular fatigue for about 4 hours after I go, so I make sure I do it in the late afternoon so I can focus on working during the day. I’m seeing an improvement in my strength, but my weight hasn’t decreased at all. Hopefully it’s due to my big, heavy, bulging muscles.

So that’s a quick update on my life right now. Will try to fill it greater details when I have a bit more time ;)

Later!

Clients!

Friday, May 1st, 2009

I have two Website clients as we speak!

Sure they’re not getting me much money, but the more sites I do the more my name gets out there, and that can only be a good thing.

Dad signed me up for Barter Card a few days ago – and that’s what brought one of my clients to me. It’s not “real” money, but it doesn’t matter, so long as I find things to buy with my BC credits, and others see my little icon at the bottom of every website I build so that cash customers find me.

Not only that, but the more clients I get, the better it will be for my whole system. I’ll learn the ins and outs much quicker since I’m a Barter Card member and attracting more jobs. Barter Card isn’t for everyone but I think it can certainly benefit me in those ways.

So… I’m pretty happy with business right now. Never mind my lack of actual money form the business. That’s what NEIS is for anyway.

Logo and Business Name!

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

My Web Business has been on the backburner for a while, purely because it scares me. But, with the NEIS course less than one week away, I need to get on with it. So, tonight, I decided upon the name I came up with earlier, and created a logo:

Site Flight Web Design

I am very proud of it. I created it with the free illustration software Inkscape.

The most important things I need to do from here include:

  • Register business name
  • Get ABN
  • Storyboard the website
  • Create the web packages/templates
  • Work out pricing
  • Purchase domain and hosting (Servage, as well as being susceptible to hacking, does not offer .com.au domains)
  • Make the website

And that’s not even taking into consideration the actual business side of things. Guh.