It’s been a long day, but I feel the need to share. Today started early (7:30 am) when—after making lunches for the kids and sending them to school—I sat down w/coffee and email. Designer/IT Help Desk One of my Eastern time clients (I’m Pacific) was having trouble accessing his webmail (day 2). The day before, I [...]

It’s year end and time to take stock of the biz. Did I accomplish my goals? What is in store for 2010? Are my clients happy? Am I happy? Overall, it’s been a good year. Though I didn’t reach my income goal, 2009 was better than 2008. In this economy, that’s a win! Plus, as [...]

I had the good fortune of attending my first WordCamp this weekend. And though I was reluctant to give up two days of mid-September gardening, I knew I should give it a go. But I had reservations about how I’d fit in. It turned out to be a totally interesting crowd of very diverse people–and [...]

As a freelancer/small business owner, do you ever have to nag your client–you know, to get the content, the feedback, the sign-off, the whatever you need to keep their project on track? Of course you have. I just hate nagging. (Yes–even as a mother–though that hasn’t stopped me!) I figure that since I’ve spelled almost [...]

The State of Oregon is going to rename and refocus the Economic & Community Development Department. New name: Business Oregon. And since they’re going to need a new website, they’ve put out this RFP. Gotta love it! They’ve got a $90,000 budget for this baby. Quite a piece of change! However, read page nine, section [...]

That’s short for Web Design and Do It Yourself Recently, I lost a prospective web client. Bummer. Doesn’t want to spend the money or thinks he cannot afford to spend the money for a custom site. OK. That’s cool. But, stop and think for a minute. Imagine you’re highly skilled & educated in your field. [...]

I was looking forward to having a few weeks off during the holidays. October and November had been very busy and I knew that nothing much was likely to get done in December beyond my own business housekeeping and marketing tasks. Great! Task no. 1—visit accountant: pretty good year, needed a little tax relief, so [...]