Why I Don't Show My Pricing?

Over at the Go Media blog, they have a cool disccusion on whether or not designers should show their pricing. From the post:

“Go Media chooses not to advertise our rates on our site. Mostly because we don’t want to appear too “selly” on our site. Another reason, is our rates are generally higher than a lot of freelance competitors (we know we’re worth the price, but a client sometimes just goes by price alone and might talk himself out of even contacting us if he sees that Joe “Freelance” Designer has a much lower price).”

When I first started out I, I too showed my prices. It was easier and alot quicker than answering prices and the such. The downside was it pigeoned holed me in the lower tier of designers, I thought. A ala carte’ style of design. This is ain’t McDonalds! (Not even Burger King, “have it your way! Nope, more have it my way to make you look good. Wait did I say that aloud?) It also didn’t reflect my constant improvement either. A site I did 1 year (shoot, 6  months) ago is already my worse site. Cause I’m constantly getting better, so my prices should reflect that.

That brings us to the here and now. Usually, I have a “budget estimate” that kind of implies the level that I am working at. This helps weeds out the tire kickers  and set a minimum I will work at. No more “Hey man, I need a full site and I got like $300″ which NOW is insulting! Waste of time (and money) to hear and deal with that. lol. Of course, I have an internal document that I use to base each project but by not showing it it helps fashion each quote to the client. Hopefully, my work is the real marker for pricing and getting of the work. Instead of “Websites for $150 plus business cards AND a logo. Hurry now!” type of campaigning. So I think you SHOULD show your pricing if you aren’t getting better and you WANT to stay at those prices and the level of clients you are at. If not, keep it to yourself, and let your skills dictate your price. or maybe I am wrong?

Review: Outright.com formerly Bootstrap

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Outright, formerly Bootstap, is a free online accounting app. It aimed at freelancers and small biz owners who do their own book keeping.

The Goodies

I am a fan! I officially started my biz in june and went through a few off accounting apps. Quickbooks: industry standard but super confusing for a non numbers guy. Very in depth for all purposes and accounts will love you if you bring aQB file rather than a box of papers. MYOB: a lil simpler but interface is horrid. Just as deep as QB but more for the smaller biz and streamed line for the biz person doing their own books.  Again overcomplicated for my simple needs. Freshbooks: more invoicing (which its excellent for) than accounting but can track expenses and give minimal reports.

Now we have Outright which is super easy, wonderfully clean interface, and perfect for a freelancer. With 4 buttons: income, expenses, taxes, and reports. Done. Your home page gives you a brief over view of your last 5 transactions and Profit/Loss reports. I enter in all my receipts and it groups it by vendor or category. You can enter your invoices manually or import your Freshbooks acct info. This is super convenient. This best part are the reports broken up into various useful parts. Report by vendor, 1099 report (for sub contractors), income by customer, expense by vendor, and of course profit/loss report. This helps me see my expenses and let’s me under a crucial part of my business. This by no means a substitute for a real accountant but definitely helps you answer questions the an accountant would ask. As a small biz owner, its nice to know where the hell your money goes. A recent upgrade now allows you to get a tax 1098 form estimate as you go along. Helping you plan for tax time.

The Baddies

Like all online web 2.0 apps, what it gains in usability it fails in robustness. For example, entering in income is all well and good but if you need more detailed client info for your taxes, this is not for you. Like wise w/ expenses as it only asks for the basic info. There are no options to link your biz checking or saving accounts. Nor can you add different categories on your expenses. As of now, there is no fee but I anticipate it will change eventually. The other concern is how well will it help when I present my info to my accountant and will he/she will tell me to suck it up and learn Quikbooks or MYOB.

The Wrappies

For me, I really needed a quick, easy, and helpful accounting software. I  want to worry more about art/design than taxes. This app helps me do that and gives me a clear and helpful view of my money matters. As a freelancer with no bookkeeper, this app is priceless. There is a new app called Shoeboxed, which allows you to scan your recipts and keep track of them. Outright has Shoboxed integration (coupled with Freshbooks), which again adds to the value of Outright. The idea is to have a virtual office which is more cost efficient and easy in the crazy economy. As a more complex company, you should be using quickbooks from jump w/ a bookkeeper.

Review: How To Be A Rockstar WordPress Designer

 

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Rockable Press’ How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer By Collis Ta’eed & Harley Alexander is a diamond in the rough of WordPress books. Having scoured through my fare share of WordPress related books, this one gets it right! They focus exclusively on WordPress Theme designing while most books designate 2 to 3 chapters at most. Excellent for beginners, great for the intermediate, and a few gems and reminders for experts.

The Goodies aka The Good

Written in a straight forward and clear style, the authors take you from conception planning, PSD design, HTMLcoding, and finally WordPress PHP theming. At a little over 300 pages, they cover the gamut of topics one needs to know when creating WordPress themes. The bread and butter of the book are the extras packed into it: 3 full themes, tutorial files (PSD and HTML), cheat sheets (from Liquid City and WP Candy). They give a clear process of building the 3 example themes which represent the most common usages of WordPress; blog, portfolio, and a basic non blog site. I really enjoyed them taking the time to explain and show examples for If Statements, Conditions, customizing comments, custom fields, and building a basic plugin.

The Baddies aka The Bad

For an intermediate designer, such as myself, a lot of the information could be obtained through the numerous “Build your first theme” tuts out there (which they also list). While not a bad thing, I think the advanced designer would easily get bored and gloss over these sections (which make up the first 4-5 chapters). However. more advanced users will find value in the last chapter and the building of the portfolio theme.

The Wrappies aka the Wrap Up

WordPress is loved by a lot of designers because of its customizable features. The authors take that as the basis for getting you started on making your own themes. The last chapter, on extending WordPress, is gold. From ideas on creating a Job Board, Membership site, E-Commerce Store and even a Video Portal site, the last chapter gives you just a taste of the possibilities out there. Finally, the WordPress community gets a good book on the process of making themes. It is a great starting point but also reminder of time saving theme practices. I highly recommend it to all beginning and intermediate WP theme designers.