Freelancing the Net

Using Google Voice for Business

Joe — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:28:34 +0000

Cross posted at casabona.org/blog

As a freelancer, I don’t have an office, or employees, or all the extra stuff that one might have as a business. I work from home, with my laptop, my cell phone, and if I need to offload some work, I have a group of subcontractors I can call. This of course makes it harder to separate personal and professional life, especially if I’m giving people my cell phone number as a means of contact. That has changed with Google Voice.

Recently Google Voice announced that they can offer voice mail for your current number, which is great; but my favorite part of Google Voice is the ability to get a brand new number forwarded to a current one. That way, I have one phone, but 2 numbers- a personal and a business one. Now I don’t have to give out a personal number for business contacts. But some might argue, “what’s the point if it’s all going to the same place?” Google Voice allows you to select when the number will go to your phone or go right to voice mail.

In Google Voice’s settings, you can specify both weekday and weekend hours for each phone. That means my Google Voice number rings only during business hours. Any other time, it goes to voice mail. There is also a “Do Not Disturb” feature which sends all calls to voice mail, no matter when it is. I do hope to see more robust settings for this- for example, control by day and by group. I have 4 groups in Google Voice, and being able to specify the call hours for each of the groups would be great.

On top of these two features, which I consider most important for business use, Google Voice has a number of other really great features such as email and text notification of voice mails, transcribing voice mails, and listing to them in mp3 form in your email. If you use GMail, it’s even embedded right in the email for you. Google Voice’s inbox even performs exactly like a GMail inbox with the ability to archive, trash, and organize voice mails and their transcriptions. Plus, cheap international calls.

All-in-all, I strongly recommend it if you’re looking for a free alternative to a business line, or even your personal line, now that they support your current number. I’ve got 2 invites- if you want one let me know in the comments, and make sure you leave your email address.

Ask Me: New to Freelancing & Looking for Work

Joe — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:14:33 +0000

This week’s question come from Brooke:

Hi Joe. I have a somewhat unique situation in that my husband is a pilot in the Air Force which limits where I can find work. Working remotely is great, but it isn’t easy to find that type of work. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing freelance work, but I’m a bit stumped where to look for work and the best way to find work. My background is in usability and user experience.I can’t decide if I should try to go to local companies and offer my services to improve their websites or if I should try some of these freelance sites on the internet. Do you have any suggestions on where to find work?

Brooke,
Thanks for your question! As far as finding work goes, you might want to check out my post of the same title, Finding Work.

Before I got a couple of good retainers, I was hitting the job boards hard to find work. The ones that worked best for me were:

FreelanceSwitch: It’s $7/mo for freelancers to use, but I’ve gotten the most work from them.

Craigslist: Tried and true, check out the “gigs” section of a few cities and respond.

There is also FreelanceSwitch’s monster job boards list and the job boards they deem as the best. I’ve gotten the best responses from the ones listed above, but it does all depend on what you do. I specialize in WordPress development, so I also look for WordPress specific job boards. You also might want to look at your skill set (maybe a niche in UX), and see if there are specific job boards for that.

Backpack for Freelancers: Collaboration

Joe — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:03:41 +0000

The final piece in the Backpack for Freelancers Series is on collaboration. After talking about managing your projects and managing your clients, it’s not too far fetched to think you might want to share your notes, screens, to do lists, with a client you’re working with. As it turns out, collaborating is very easy with Backpack.

There are many reasons you might want to share just a single page with someone in Backpack.

You want to share screen shots and other files
You want to collect feedback from the client or others
You want to share a todo list both of you can manage
You want to share and review notes

While I keep my client/project pages private (it’s usually conversation notes, billing info, to do lists for me), I usually share a page with someone when we are working on the same project. That way all of our notes, to dos, etc. are in the same place.

So how do you do it? Well it’s very easy- towards the top of your page, in the right corner, you’ll see a “Share” link. Click it. On the next page, put in the email address of the person(s) you want to share the page with, and you’re done! Those people are emailed a username and password only for that page.

How do you see yourself sharing Backpack pages? Other developers? Clients? Friends that give you feedback? Let me know in the comments! Also, I want to take this opportunity to open up a forum- if you have an questions on how I specifically use Backpack, ask away.

Backpack for Freelancers: Client Management

Joe — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:07:35 +0000

Last week, I talk about the project management aspect of Backpack, which I feel is the most obvious use for Backpack. However, a big portion of what I use Backpack for is management my clients- their projects, follow-ups lists, notes, and reminders to call or meet with them. Today, I will be talking in-depth about managing my clients with Backpack.

Let me start off by saying that 37signals has a product strictly for client management called Highrise, which on the surface, looks very good. However, I like having everything in one place, which is why I don’t use it. Word on the street is they are working on integration of all of their products, so we’ll see where I am at a few months down the line. For now, Backpack is my go to place for client management.

All of my clients usually start off on one page, which I titled, “Follow Up List.” It’s divided off into sections for each client, and I keep some basic contact info, notes on what they would like, quotes I’ve given them, and what the last thing we talked about was. That’s also dated. If I need to follow up with them, I will write the date I plan to follow up on the bottom of their section, as well as set a reminder in Backpack to call or email them with where we are and what our next steps are.

This is helpful for a couple of reasons: first, it lets me see how many people I’m dealing with so I can set deadlines and time estimates accordingly. Also, I am able to easily move a contact from the follow up list to their own page, since Backpack allows you to drag & drop content between pages. I just create a new page for the client (once a project is approved) and drag them from the Follow Up List to their own page.

Admittedly, this might seem a bit cumbersome, but it is a method that has proved to work for me. It goes right with being able to archive all of my projects in Backpack- each project now has the client’s contact information and initial thoughts/notes at the top of the page for me to reference which working on that project. This also makes it easy to collaborate with the client, since you can grant access to only specific pages, but that’s for next time!

Backpack for Freelancers: Project Management

Joe — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:57:00 +0000

What seems like ages ago, I posted the first in a series of posts I’m doing called Backpack for Freelancers. The series will cover the merits of using Backpack for managing your freelance (and possibly personal) life, and will be broken down into three parts. Today is the first part: Project Management.

Backpack is an easy intranet for your business. Store, share, discuss, and archive everything that’s essential for your team. Safe and secure.

In 37signals’ own words, Backpack is an organizational tool. The number one thing I use it for is organizing my projects. I create a different page for each project to keep track of files, tasks, notes, and screen shots- mock ups, logos, images, etc- and then have the ability to comment on each item with notes or changes that need to be made (that is especially helpful for tasks). This is the the main functionality of Backpack.

Click to enlarge

I like the page scheme because it really helps keeping things separate, but all in one place. The sidebar pages are changable, and with a paid account you get upwards of 100 pages. That means you can keep your active pages in the sidebar and archive past projects- but keep them for reference. I also have a main page for general tasks and notes. I usually use that to outline the day, especially if I have several small tasks to take care of. The pages, coupled with the calendar and reminders, really help me stay on top of my game. Usually I will use the calendar to note milestones and deadlines without mixing it with my personal (google) calendar, which I also import into Backpack. I will use the Reminders for follow-ups, call reminders, etc.

That’s really it! Project managament is the most straight forward of the three. Next time I will tell you how I use the pages and reminders for my client management.

Backpack for Freelancers: Overview

Joe — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:06:27 +0000

The tool I use most to keep organized is Backpack, an online organizational tool by 37signals. I posted it earlier this year as a resource, but since I’ve been busier, have found myself relying on it more and more. In this mini-series, I will take you through some of the things I use Backpack for, and how it can be beneficial to you as freelancer. Today, a brief overview.

First, let me recommend looking at the tour over on the Backpack website. It has in-depth audio, video, and screenshots of all the important, and cool, features of Backpack. Here, I will talk briefly about each major component (Note: I assume we are using the paid version, which offers things like the calendar, file uploading, and other features not available in the free version).

Newsroom: In the newsroom you will see a list of what everyone has done for the past few days, as well as the week’s upcoming events from the calendar. It provides a nice overview of what you and anyone else that has access has been up to.
Pages: The bread and butter, in my opinion, of Backpack. You can create a page for just about everything, and within each page you can add notes, lists, files, pictures, and tags. Not to mention you can send all these things via email, and invite others to view and edit only specific pages. The pages will be the backbone of this series.
Calendar: The calendar is just what you think it is. Add events, with alarms. Create as many calendars as you’d like; they all show up in the same place. You can also import iCal formatted calendars and view those events from within Backpack.
Reminders: Set up email or SMS alerts that aren’t necessarily events. You can set a specific time or use natural language reminder times like, “tomorrow morning” and “later today.”
Writeboards: Add a little flare to your notes by formatting the text in a writeboard. 37signals describes it as, “Word but simpler” and I couldn’t agree more. It’s a nice simple way to format notes. It also keeps track or changes/versions to the writeboards.
Journal: Quick entries on what you’re doing. This is a nice feature if you want to keep others updated, or keep a more personal log of what you’ve been up to.

So what will I talk about in this series? Three things: Project Management, Client Management, and Collaboration. I use Backpack for all three and think it’s a really nice way of keeping everything in one spot. Stay Tuned! Project Management is up first.

To PSD or to Not PSD

Joe — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:37:39 +0000

I was having a discussion with my friend the other day about my process and the use of Photoshop Mock ups (PSDs) before actually coding a site up. As I mentioned in my post, I do not- I sketch and then go right to coding. My friend does use photoshop first. I wanted to take the discussion here. Below is a poll- do you PSD first? Tell me why in the comments!

The Art of Pricing

Joe — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:50:32 +0000

I came across this story in the September 2009 issue of .net magazine on pricing, in an article titled, Be the boss: deciding how much to charge by Mark Boulton:

Legend has it that the artist Pablo Picasso was once sketching in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw her portrait. Of course, she was going to pay him, so after agreeing they sat down and- after a few moments of study- Picasso used a single pencil stroke to capture the woman’s likeness.

“It’s perfect,” she said. “You’ve managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank You so much. How much do I owe you?”
“Five thousand dollars,” Picasso replied.
“What? But it only took you five minutes!” she sputtered.
“Madame, it took me my entire life,” he answered.

It’s a great story, and a nice reminder that when a freelancer prices, it should take into account our experiences, not just the amount of time we spend on a project.

Lessons from Home Improvement

Joe — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:41:12 +0000

I wrote a post on my personal blog titled, “What Developers can Learn from Home Improvement” (the TV show). It was a fun little post that I thought about while watching the show, and how programmers and web developers can learn a few valuable lessons from the show. Check it out!

6 Ways Freelancers Can Increase Productivity

Joe — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:18:39 +0000

Smashing Magazine has a nice little list of how freelancers can increase their productivity. While all of the tips are very good, I find Making a Plan really helps, and I need to limit the amount of time surfing the web. Seriously, I do that entirely too much. It’s a good list that is definitely worth checking out!