While I certainly made a few jabs on Twitter, my initial reaction was purely based around, what I feel is, “amateur” design. I could care less about flat or skeuomorphic, neon or dull, rounded versus squared off. Those are aesthetic choices for the most part. Label it as you wish. Apple’s decision making reduced the extra noise surrounding iOS. Noise that at one point helped the non-technical folk better understand a new type of interface. iOS7 shows progression. Good on you Apple and any other product / site that does the same. The problem with iOS7 design flaws mostly lie in the backbone of great design: typography, contrast, spacial relationships, and continuity. Mark Boulton tweeted:

“One thing is true. When you remove the noise, your typography had better be good. Because it’s the foundation. It’s the thing.”

Nailed it. When you remove the clutter you’re standing face to face with what makes great design great. And we’ve come to only expect great from Apple. Not amateurish oversights. While I’m surprised to see Apple ship something that was not even a tad more refined, hopefully many of these issues will be addressed as iOS7 matures.

Beyond iOS7 and Apple directly, iOS7 is a great reminder to designers and clients that simplicity is hard. Users and clients hiring design services: you’re viewing the backbone of design and understand what makes great design great (or not so great). Something to think about the next time an email is written with something similar to “shouldn’t take too much time… we just need something simple.” Refinement takes time. Typography isn’t about which typeface looks great, rather which works great. Contrast and spacing help to not only to see more clear, but plays a role in tension and disconnect.

Hopefully, it also reminds us designers, at all skill levels, to refine and revisit our understanding of the important elements of design. Now that we have less time searching for the perfect texture, we have plenty of time to revisit our design principles forefathers.

Now where’s my copy of The Elements of Typographic Style?

.Net Magazine is one of our favorite magazines and the best in my opinion for the latest in our industry news and practices.

We’d love it if you could cast your vote for us in the Best New Agency category at the bottom. Regardless of your vote, we hope to continue to produce more great work for you and our clients and sharing our process and learnings with you along the way. You can read more about us over at our .Net Magazine Profile post.

Thanks all!

Ok, so I don’t really know how to make all your dreams come true. Neither do I know much about getting clients. However, I have had some success in the later and I think it’s directly attributable to three things. But, before we get to those things, a little background.

Most of the designers and developers I talk to would love to freelance, but few of them actually do it. This is true for a number of reasons, but I think the biggest is a fear of the unknown. And those unknowns seem to be mostly related to clients and money.

Getting clients is not an exact science. I can’t tell you that every time you do x and y, you will get z. But you can create an environment that fosters growth and attracts clients.

It’s like growing a garden. You have to be constantly planting, watering, weeding and nurturing in the present in order to reap a blossoming client roster in the future.

What that means is that it will take time. We tend to think of it more like sod. Just roll it out and we’re done. But it takes a lot more to get clients than hanging an “open for business” sign on the door.

After three years as a business owner and freelancer, it has only been this year that my business has really taken off. And that’s directly attributable to all the watering and planting I did in the first two years.

Three Things

As I mentioned above, I think there are three things that account for my success this year. I think they can help you as well.

Be good at what you do. It seems obvious, but I’m shocked how many times I see freelancers put out subpar work and then wonder why the floodgates of success have yet to open. I know this, because I used to be that person. I didn’t work hard. I didn’t know much about what I was doing. I was a hack. And most of my projects ended in stress and frustration. That’s a sure recipe for failure.

In order to get clients, you have to have value to offer. It takes time to figure out what this is, but you will never build a steady stream of clients unless you’re good at what you do.

Get a mentor. When I started out on my own, I found a great mentor (Adam Houston) who coached me through the process. He gave me advice on what to charge, how to manage all the ins and outs of running a business and helped me get my first clients. This is critical. I don’t think Bottlerocket would exist today if it weren’t for him.

Finding a mentor can be scary, but one of the greatest things about the web industry is how willing people are to help each other. Reach out to people. Ask for help. I guarantee you will find someone willing to coach you.

Go to conferences/meetups. This third step could be called “Investing in relationships,” but I find one of the easiest ways to do that is to attend conferences and meetups.

Sometimes conferences can seem like a waste of time, but it completely depends on what you expect to get out of it. I never go to a conference expecting to learn a new skill or trick. Sometimes that happens, but if so, it’s just a bonus. Let’s be honest, most of what you hear in a keynote from a famous speaker can be found on that speaker’s blog, in a past talk or in an article he or she’s already written. If my only goal was to “learn new things,” I would rarely attend conferences.

I go to conferences and meetups to meet people. And not for networking. I’m never trying to make contacts for some future gig. I’m just genuinely interested in meeting the people I interact with on Twitter and whose blogs I read on a daily basis.

But building and investing in relationships pays off in a huge way. First, you’re more visible to your industry peers. Second, people work with people they like. There’s a lot of psychology behind this that I don’t really understand (here’s an interesting book on the topic), but the fact remains, people are much more likely to hire someone they’re friends with than someone they’re not. So the more you put yourself out there and meet people and develop friendships, the more chances you have of working on fun and existing projects with those people.

At least 40 percent of the work I’ve done this year has come from relationships I built during 2010 and 2011.

In Sum

Doing good work, finding a mentor and investing in relationships have a residual effect. It’s like a snowball that gets bigger and bigger as it rolls down a hill. There are, of course, many other things you can do to get clients, but these three are what have been responsible for the majority of my business’s growth.

Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut. If you go out and plant a bunch of seeds today, you won’t wake up to a lush garden tomorrow. But if you do the watering, planting and cultivating (quality, mentoring, relationships), over time you will reap the reward of a steady stream of clients.

I’m scared for you.

It’s scary to see a much too large majority of businesses still viewing websites as a feature to their business. Yes, what was once a feature like ten years ago is now the price of entry to survive and thrive.

Last night I received an email from a prospective client that went something like this: “Can you give me an idea as for cost of a website only? We have a very limited budget. We just need someone to make it look the way we want.”

First off, asking a professional of any industry to design / build / make something the way you want is like asking a roofer to perform surgery. Ok, that’s not the point, but needed to throw that in there. Anyways, this had me thinking beyond the previous statement. People still view having a website as a small feature to their companies future. “Well I just need a website because my competitors do.” Yikes! Really? Ok, sit down, we need to have “the talk”.

As any respectable design business should, when we receive these types of emails, we try our best to understand the client and educate them as much as possible before sending them on their way. While I understand having limited budgets, digging deeper I’ve found many companies have “limited budgets” simply for the fact that they still don’t see the value in a website. Limited budgets often mean, “we don’t want to spend the money”, Not, “we don’t have the money.” Chances are you have the money, you’re just spending it in areas that you shouldn’t be and not saving more in other areas. The web and its technologies allow us to save money.

I’ll use my business as an example. If I were to put a price on my upcoming redesign of my company site [brianhoffdesign.com], I’d pay up to $100k for it. Seriously? Yep, dead serious. My website simplifies tasks which would normally need to be performed by a real person sitting behind a desk. This results in the hiring of more people – also takes time and time is money – paying them salaries, getting a larger office space. My website and blog does my marketing, so there’s one less person I’d need to hire. My website acts as a secretary and online forms help weed out and distribute new work. There’s another employee I don’t need. I’m getting more profitable as I type this, since this article will likely attract reactions. Pretty neat, right? Still have a limited budget?

I’ll jump around here a bit. I can talk about this forever. I’m tired of hearing about the slide of the economy and how those campaigning are going to fix it. Business is changing people. We buy and make decisions differently. “Oh, it’s sad too see Foot Locker file bankruptcy and close over 200 stores! The economy is so bad that people aren’t buying shoes like they did” Then why the hell is Zappos operating like a beast? If we’re doing so poorly as an economy, how are we making Apple the most powerful company in the world? Why not ask Blockbuster why people aren’t watching movies anymore? Oh wait, that’s right. Netflix.

Still thinking your website or online presence is feature? We’re no longer in the era of an ‘elevator pitch’. We run to the web to learn more about a company / product / service / idea. We turn to Collaborative Consumption before making trusted decisions. We don’t want to hear your marketing BS. We want real responses and reviews from real people that used your service or bought your product. We want to read your process through your blog. We’ve been in the making of a new Industrial Revolution and I’m scared to see so many still standing still and blaming depreciating profits solely on Washington. I know. I know that you know that “business is changing.” But do you even know what that means? Or are you just jumping on the Twitter and Pinterest bandwagon because your competition is on there? Do you truly understand the real value?

Your website is not a feature that you can half-ass. Spend some money. Protect your future. A good website works hard for your business. Much harder than many employees can offer.

Here’s how to win:

Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post and the hashtag #circlescon (the hashtag is important as this will be how we’ll be tracking entries).

Here’s a sample tweet: (feel free to copy and paste if you like)

Wow, @CirclesConf looks awesome and @behoff’s giving away 2 free tickets! Details: http://behoff.com/J3cb #circlescon

We’ll be choosing the winners later on tonight so get crackin’!

Super excited to be working with her and if you’re looking for an iconography designer, she’s your woman! Give her most recent work a view over at Dribbble or her portfolio.

I have to say that taxes suck.  As someone who runs a CPA firm that prepares taxes for creative professionals all over the country, I pass out a lot of heartache because of the suckiness of taxes.  Most of the confusion is centered around what type of entity they are in, and how that affects their personal taxes.  Let me try to clear it up.

We try to walk creative professionals through three steps of understanding what entity they should operate in and how that will affect their taxes.

First Step: Sole Proprietor

Operate as a sole proprietor.  This is the easiest business to operate in and the easiest to set up.  Just wake up one morning and say “I’m in business” and you are a sole proprietor!  You don’t even have to keep a separate bank account or accounting system (though you should).  This is for someone operating on the side.  As a sole proprietor, you will pay the most in taxes (called self employment tax) and will file a Schedule C on your personal tax return.

Second Step: LLC

Next, most creative professionals ask if they should become an LLC (limited liability company).  Maybe.  If you are still a single owner (meaning you don’t have a partner) then becoming an LLC won’t make any difference to your tax situation.  That is, you will still file a Schedule C on your personal tax return and will pay self employment tax.  You are still in the highest possible tax bracket.  Sucks.  So why become an LLC?  Because becoming an LLC can limit your liability.  But do creative professionals need limited liability?  Maybe.  Now we are getting into legal advice, which I can not give (because I’m not an attorney).  But I can give you some basic advice.  As a sole proprietor (from the First Step above), everything is exposed if someone wants to sue you.  That is, they can take your business assets and your personal assets.  But if you become an LLC, only the assets of the LLC are exposed.  Your personal assets (your home and car) are no longer exposed to anyone that may want to sue you.  Do you need to limit liability?  I’m not sure, but I would say you are potentially in more danger of liability issues if you do development (as opposed to design).  You probably won’t get sued because the logo you designed was ugly.  But if you screw up building an online proprietary ecommerce cart, then that may affect the sales of your customer.  Consider that, and seek out an attorney if you think you need to be an LLC.

Third Step: S-Corp

You may want to consider moving to an S Corporation if you are making more money and are now operating your business full time.  As a general rule, if we see your bottom line profit getting to around $75k to $80k per year, then you are a good candidate for becoming an S Corporation and saving a lot of taxes at the same time.  But beware, a LOT of requirements go along with operating within an S Corporation.  You will need a proactive CPA firm (like us) to help you manage all of the needs of an S Corporation.  The ONLY reason to move into an S Corporation is to save taxes.  It is a complicated move and is not for the light-hearted.  Many requirements (like payroll, operating a corporate set of accounting records, balancing distributions with salary, etc.) will confuse the crap out of you if not careful.  So, again, only make this move if you expect to save taxes.  As perspective, if you are making $150k in bottom line profit, you could potentially save over $10k per year in taxes.  Pretty sweet.  You’ll pay some of that to the CPA firm to help you manage this, but it shouldn’t be anywhere near $10k per year.  After paying the CPA firm, you’ll net a lot of cash in your pocket you can go buy some burritos with.  Now tax savings can be tasty.  Wurd.

Let me know in the comments if you have more questions about this complex matter.  I’ll try to hook you up, unless it becomes too complicated or too specific to your situation.

Jason M Blumer, CPA.CITP is the Chief Innovation Officer of Blumer & Associates, CPAs, PC. He wears flip flops and jeans, says “dude” a lot, and often works in coffee shops with headphones blaring the latest Bloomberg podcasts (though he  doesn’t understand most of it). Jason is an “out of the box” creative thinker. His daily duties include consulting, process design, blogging, marketing and business development, innovative thinking, coaching, practice management, and acting as a change agent. Jason is the founder of the THRIVEal+CPA Network, a creative consultancy for global CPAs. Jason is also a Strategic Partner with the Design Thinkers Group (US), a global service design consultancy.

Get it right – the first time! Clients often ask Designers if they can update them daily, bi-daily, or other timeframes that suits their craving. Designers, stop doing this. For good reason, I promise.

Designing is a process – a process that often adapts and transforms along the way. During this process, I’m sure I’m not the only designer that hates how it looks in the early stages. If I’m not proud or feel the decisions I made are the right solutions, why show the client? I can guarantee if you aren’t happy the client won’t be either.

It makes them nervous. A nervousness that leads to unnecessary changes early on which halts the entire system’s process. Great discoveries are often made through refined decisions. If clients are stopping them before they take shape, they take the steam out of the process and the designer. Not to mention the other effects nervous client syndrome results in (ticky-tack changes; endless phone calls; mockups over your mockup using MS Paint – you know what I’m saying). Setting the tone and exceptions early on is important to long term project success.

I’d be a liar if I sat here and told you I get it 100% right every time, every day, but you’d be amazed how a client respects your decision making and opinion if the first showing is something you can stand behind, support and feel confident presenting. As designers we have this unique ability to see beyond the process and into the final results. Clients often need to see to believe.