PIXL Designs

When the iPad was introduced, Amazon’s Kindle faced immediate extinction in the eyes of many. Interest in the Kindle dropped nearly 40% and buyers began to hold off to see if the iPad would be the better investment.

Amazon had a problem.

Life presents many challenges. It’s how you, your church, or your business respond to those challenges that separate you apart from others. So let’s look at what Amazon did:

First they recognized the problem. It was hard to miss with sales declining and publishers demanding more control over their pricing.

Second they began to work towards a solution to the problem. Sure they were hurt by Apple’s move and frustrated. But they couldn’t stop it so they had to work towards a solution.

Third they created a solution that wowed many and I think rivals Apple’s own iBookstore on the iPad!

So what can this teach us? Amazon recognized the problem, began to work toward a solution and then created a solution that went above and beyond the problem, presenting it with new opportunities and renewed interest.

Don’t just settle for solving problems. Create solutions that present new opportunities that can create momentum in life and business. This is true success and that is the real way to problem solve.

1. Don’t believe in yourself.
2. Don’t seek accountability in life.
3. Slip into depression often and stay there.
4. Don’t pursue an active lifestyle.
5. Don’t stay true to who you are.
6. Don’t make goals or plans of action.
7. Don’t strategize.
8. Don’t be creative and unique.
9. Don’t take risks.
10. Don’t help anyone else along the way.

Anger. Jealousy. Fatigue.
These are a few of the emotions that appear when life is out of balance. Oftentimes, however, we know what the emotions are but we don’t know what we can do to counteract them. Here are my tips on how to deal with these three emotions:

Anger
Have you ever noticed yourself starting to get short with your friends, family, children or spouse during a stressful time? Placing more importance on making money than spending time enjoying life with people you care about the most will create anger. When the smallest things begin to set you off for no apparent reason, it may be time to reign in your anger. Start by recognizing that life is out of balance. Shut off the computer, leave early from work or find another way to unplug for a while. Spend that time doing something fun instead. Play a board game, go for a walk, work out with friends or take a short trip to a state park. I find that escaping the pressures of the world and finding release through fun and nature are the two biggest ways to neutralize the emotion of anger.

Jealousy
This is one emotion that I continue to struggle with, especially when people around me are seemingly working less and making more money. It irks me because I have a strong work ethic from growing up on a farm. And yet I seem to lag far behind some of my peers. Or so I think.

The problem with jealousy is it often onsets when you have an unrealistic expectation for yourself.

Your peers are your friends that care about your business’ success. They are not online companies with Fortune 500 clients that write a blog you subscribe to. They are not people that live celebrity-style lives. Make a point to create clear expectations for life and business. Don’t create a fantasy reality or you will easily fall into the trap of jealousy. In 2010 I finally redefined our focus at PIXL Designs. I began to say no to projects that fell outside of this focus. I lost clients, but I gained confidence. Now I don’t have to be jealous, I have to be me. And I like it this way.

Fatigue
When life is speeding recklessly forward, fatigue often sets in. When you begin to do work that falls outside your focus and passion, you’ll begin to work slower. You may become angrier, less patient, and irritable. And you’ll definitely become fatigued. This often sets in on me when I am doing too much at once, saying yes to everything, trying to be all things to all people and giving 110% all the time.

This is unhealthy and unsustainable.

I am naturally a hard worker and it is really easy for me to give 110% to my work and business and have nothing left when I get home. This is not healthy and not conducive to keeping life in balance. So how do I deal with fatigue?

1. When I become fatigued, I finish my projects at hand and take a break for a while. Any new opportunities I put on hold until I can restore my life balance.
2. When I find it hard to get started on a project, I schedule out my brainstorming time on my calendar. Laying aside a specific time creates the sense of a deadline, and let’s face it, we all work better under pressure.
3. When I am overly tired I know I am not giving my best. So to counteract this, I not only make sure I take a break and schedule specific times to be productive, I also use this time to refocus. Taking time to remember why you are doing what you are doing helps you to define your purpose. Knowing who you are and what you believe helps you to get things in balance. You don’t need extra sleep, you are usually just overworking yourself because you haven’t set defined boundaries. Now is a good time to do this.

Hopefully this short list can help you fight the emotions that arise in life. Keeping balance is important for a variety of reasons. Tomorrow I’ll talk about a personal example of when I let work and business take priority in my life and how that affected those I cared for the most.

One of the biggest questions I have to continue to force myself to ask is “Do I have a healthy balance between work, life and business?” We recently saw the importance of this when Tiger Woods spoke about life getting out of balance.

As a freelancer, this question needs to be constantly on your mind.

I have experienced the ups and downs in this category. So to start this week, I want to share a few tips on how to recognize that your priorities are out of balance.

1. Anger: This emotion is the most consistent for surfacing when life is out of balance. Small things will set me off. Things that don’t even matter will give me fodder for angry comments.
2. Jealousy: When things are out of balance, it’s easy to look at others’ lives and businesses and become jealous for what they seemingly achieve without working very hard. It’s easy to forget that they have pressures and struggles just like I do, and they had to work hard to get where they are at today.
3. Fatigue: When you are firing on all cylinders all the time it’s easy to get tired emotionally and physically. This not only makes it even harder to regain balance, but your quality of life/work suffers.

Tomorrow we’ll be exploring how to counteract these three mental and physical emotions. Keep in mind again that this is not an exhaustive list. Instead, it’s a few of the more common emotions that I believe can surface when life gets out of balance.

Watching several athletes take tumbles in the Olympics lately has reminded me of something that is a rule in sports and business: let the momentum carry you.

When you take a tumble in sports you can’t tense up. You have to let the momentum carry you or you will otherwise get hurt. You have to be aware of your surroundings and how you are falling and let the momentum carry you. That’s the only way you can walk away from a fall without injury.

Momentum is a strange thing. On the one hand in business terms it defines you. On the other hand, you cannot manufacture it—you have to let it carry you. You can’t do momentum, you have to gain momentum. If you try to force momentum, you’ll only hurt yourself.

So as a freelance business we have learned to simply do what we do best and when momentum around a design, an idea or a project begins. Let is carry us forward to our destination.

One of the biggest things we have to do with running our business is trim the fat. We simply cannot waste time. It is important when there is work to be done, to do it. And when there is none, to spend time together as a family.

I will carve out specific time to work on the Web site, hone my skills or even reach out to some customers. But family is essential. That is why I trim the fat.

As a freelancer it is easy to get into a pattern of reading site after site looking for all the answers you seek on what makes good design and how to increase your design prowess. However, if you don’t learn to trim the fat you will waste your time. Trimming the fat is all about:

• increasing productivity
• maximizing free time
• creating efficiency

Focus only on things that make you productive. Don’t worry about ready every single article in the world. Read a few, find inspiration and accomplish the goals you set. Maximize your free time by cutting out the things you don’t need. If you don’t have knowledge on a subject and it is really hard for you to grasp, go on to another subject. Keep your time wasters to a minimum. This will help you in creating efficiency. Every business has time wasters, but if you can work hard to reduce these you can create efficiency. This not only helps your workflow process but it allows you time to be creative and dream.

Creativity and originality are always on the forefront of a freelancers mind. It is imperative that we don’t let it bog us down, but rather let it move us forward.

We often hear the phrase, “less is more,” but what exactly does it mean? 37signals explored this in a blog post that resonated with me. I think it does imply that more is better, when the opposite is often true—that less is better. I think we need to apply this concept to our designs. Quit worrying about trying to achieve perfection, worry about trying to do better with less. The problem with “less” is many people interpret this as “I can work less and make more money.”

This is not what we’re saying.

You have to work hard in order to make money. So why complicate your work by doing things you don’t understand or don’t have the skillsets to achieve. I’ve often heard that you should never turn down a design project because you can outsource to someone who can do the things you cannot. This is crap. How can I uphold my design distinction and brand if I’m outsourcing?

Now, before you jump on me about how outsourcing is a great way to grow your business, keep in mind the focus of PIXL Designs. We aren’t growing a million dollar company. We have a mission and a vision that is about relationships and integrity. Working full-time in addition to running a freelance business doesn’t enable us to branch out wide and try to have this huge company so many want. To us, less is more. The less distractions and nuances we have, the better we can become by focusing on our strengths.

Freelancing poses some serious questions related to finances. Among these are Do I need a business bank account?  How should I keep track of business finances? Do I have to pay taxes quarterly? How can I invoice my clients? Do I have to spend money to get an LLC?

Each of these are great questions. I’ll attempt to answer some of the ones we asked, but know this is not going to be an exhaustive list. It will simply be what has worked for us.

Do I need a business account?
Since Laura and I are the only ‘employees’ in our business and we only run through about 10-15 projects a year, we do not have a separate bank account. I can see where this could benefit tracking if freelancing is your full-time job, though. The IRS requires you keep tons of records, especially if you have a home office like we do. The way I see it though is I don’t need a whole separate bank account to manage when we already have two IRA accounts, a 403(b), a stock account, a checking, savings, credit card and health credit account. That made me tired just typing it out!

How should I keep track of business finances?
In the past, we have used Quicken entirely to track our finances. And it is simply daunting. There are lots of features, but sometimes these can be overwhelming. This past year we switched all our financials over to Mint.com and haven’t looked back. Mint is simply amazing. In about 15 minutes I set up all my accounts, categorized all my expenses and income and had a clearer picture of my entire financial state. Mint has recently helped us set a budget and stick to it. It sends us weekly email reminders about upcoming bills, lets us know when we are approaching our budget allotment for a certain category, and it also has an iPhone app. Intuit, who owns Quicken, bought Mint out in late 2009 and while I wasn’t too wild about that, they promise to keep Mint the same and so I will continue to highly recommend it.

Do I have to pay taxes quarterly?
Taxes are extremely time consuming, but thanks to Turbo Tax I am still able to do my own taxes. One major piece of advice is track everything. I mean everything. Purchases, purchase dates, mileage, utilities, cell phone, internet, mortgage/rent, etc. The IRS requires you keep hard copies of it all too so you will need to keep good records. Anything I purchase online I also make sure to store receipts in an administrative folder based on the year I purchased it. As for the question, you can if you need discipline and make a lot. Since we don’t make much over $5,000 a year then we usually even out our expenses and earnings (which is what you want). Big profits will move you up in the tax bracket since social security and medicare are not coming out of your checks. Proper management can really alleviate all tax pressures so just be smart.

How can I invoice my clients?
We currently use Freshbooks, an amazing to track project time, estimates and invoices. Freshbooks is a simple, yet amazingly resourceful Web app. And the best part is it links to your Basecamp projects which enables us a more efficient workflow. It’s a breeze to set up and clients’ can even see their own invoices/estimates history. At the end of the year, I use the reporting feature to find out exactly how much I made for tax purposes. For a while we actually had enough client projects to justify paying for Freshbooks. Currently we only have three active clients. Freshbooks allows you to upgrade/downgrade easily which is a huge plus for freelancers.

Do I have to spend money to get an LLC?
This will really depend on your business. I would say it is a very wise idea if you have employees, but since we are a husband/wife team currently our business is filed under our names. Essentially this means your EIN (employer identification number) is your social security number when doing your taxes. You might want to read more on this topic since I’m unfamiliar with it.

I know this isn’t the most exhaustive list and there are probably a million other questions you have. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know your questions or opinions. We are simply excited we can even share about some things that have worked for us.

Project Management
We currently use Basecamp for all our project management needs. Basecamp is a web-based collaboration tool created by 37signals that lets you share files, consolidate communication, and assign tasks. Basecamp is also extremely easy to use and learn. Some of my first clients to use Basecamp were familiar with computers, but not as computer savvy as the current Generation X. And they figured Basecamp out in a cinch. This went a long way in my credibility and it helped create the experience for our client that we were looking for.

• Sharing files is huge in the freelance world. You want to be able to send your clients proofs, but you don’t want things to get lost in email jargon. Enter Basecamp. This project management tool let’s you upload your proofs or high-res files to your clients job where than can login and download as many times as they like.
• Consolidating communications is essential. When working as a freelancer you no doubt find it hard to keep personal and business email separate from each other. With Basecamp this is no longer an issue. Now I communicate with clients through messages on Basecamp. The biggest benefit of this is that Basecamp keeps your messages in a nice thread in your client’s project. This allows me to delete an email after I have read it or replied to it and know that it is saved under its topic in case I need to view it again.
• Assigning tasks is one of the best ways to bring your client into the project design without actually letting them control the project. We currently setup our projects once the deposit has been paid and assign tasks with deadlines. This helps to hold us accountable and it gives the client a view of the design stages. Once the design is complete, the task can be assigned to the client for proofing. This allows them to feel a part of the process, and rightfully so. This is as much their project as yours, and as your valued client they deserve to be in the know.

Basecamp has really served us well in the past year. It has some really great features and it is simple to use. In fact, it wasn’t until PIXL Designs started using Basecamp that our business really took off. I highly recommend freelancers give Basecamp a try. Who knows, you might even start to get over those design anxieties and make a little profit.

As promised, this week we’ll kick of a series on how we have implemented certain tools to help us in our freelance efforts. While not an exhaustive list, these should give you a good understanding of what/why you need something before you spend your hard-earned cash on something pointless.

Organizational Skills
Before you do anything else, you need to get organized. You need to develop a system for storing projects and their files on your computer or an external hard drive in a way that is easy to manage. And don’t forget to backup the files on a regular basis. This seems like common sense, but so many designers fall into prey for bad organization.

Just when you least expect it, a client calls will 8 months after their project and request that logo they sent for their project’s second page on the third revision. And while you are at it, they really liked you second revision and they’d like a copy of that as well. While you are stumbling over your words, your mind will definitely race back to when you first set the project up. And you’ll either freak. Or you’ll smile because you organized your project really well.

I currently assign all my clients call letters. For example one of my clients, Quartzsite Southern Baptist Church is QSBC. Then I organize a client’s project files by the month and day the design began. E.g. QSBC 0109 Would refer to Quartzsite SBC’s January 9th project. In addition, I use these call letters for invoices and estimates. This does two things for me: it keeps me organized; and it sets a date to the project that corresponds to the estimate and/or invoice.

There are many ways to stay organized and we will be discussing some Web-based practical tools throughout this week. Stay tuned and be sure to comment with your own advice on how to develop good organizational skills.