Augmented Reality = Awesome for Consumers

Posted on March 1st, 2010 in Neat Stuff

I haven’t posted in a while but work’s been busy with catching up on new tools — but it also occurs to me that using social media tools is now part of everyday life for me, so I should probably be paying more attention!

As that is the case, one really awesome thing I noticed on Foursquare over the weekend was a new feature that is finally involving the geolocation game in local business interaction. I was fiddling around and taking a gander at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants and I noticed this:

Do you see that?  There’s a tab in the upper right that indicates there are specials nearby.  This is new to me. What kind of specials are we talking about here?

HELL YES!  This is what I’m talking about!

To understand my excitement, you should probably first recognize that while I’m first a consumer, I’m also interested in B2B possibilities. This little tidbit suggests some things about what’s been going on:

1. A connection was made – Opportunity knocks!  I found the form to promote a special for your business, and though Foursquare seems to be working out the kinks, I am stoked that this feature was added.  I work in an office that would love to give out our clients’ free swag to encourage people to talk about them on their own web real estate. Plus, we’d get to meet an influencers face-to-face, and in the blogosphere, tight connections count for a lot.
2. Network Traffic - Will this encourage people to actually check out those specials?  Um.  Yes.  In fact, I’m planning on hitting up Good Girl Dinette this week.  As a consumer who is playing a once-pointless (but still fun) geolocation game in the name of virtual points, now I have further incentive to use the app.
3. 100% Opt-In Conversion - I didn’t even flinch at going to Good Girl Dinette before, even though I’d heard good things about it, I was just so distracted by other things to do.  Now, I am making it a point to check in to that location and patronize a brick-and-mortar business. And the reason is gloriously nerdy. It’s not even to try to become mayor so that I get the free pop, it’s being part of a game.

Are you on Foursquare?  Why not add me so you can awkwardly know where I am all the time?

Some Pun About “Who’s The Boss?” Here.

Posted on October 5th, 2009 in Toolbox

The header lets you make the joke yourself.

I’m first going to bring up is how this post is out of the proper order of freelancing steps I posted earlier — but since it has to do with making sure you freelancers get paid, it’s probably appropriate to bring it up now rather than later.

People new to freelancing sometimes ask me how to properly invoice, and in response I usually just link them to a website that generates invoices.  Seems simple enough.  It saves me the time of explaining and the deadpan simplicity of the sites helps move everyone along so we can all get back to work.

One of these suites is Billing Boss, a CMS that has joined the ranks of free services to help you manage getting organized and getting paid. Free is a huge plus to start with, but it has the strong points every web invoicing CMS should have:

1. Extends to smartphones (I haven’t tried the iPhone app, however.  Anyone try that yet?)
2. Integration of online web payment for your invoices (PayPal, anyone?)
3. The final invoice looks clean and professional

There’s a couple of new things I’ve not yet seen before in this software, too:

1. Share access with, say, your accountant.  Interesting approach, but I don’t yet know how that works. Either way, always good to have that capability from the get-go than to not have it and need it later.
2. Integration of Beanstream, which doesn’t apply to me since that’s Canadian-based and I work in USD, but I just like to say the word “Beanstream”.

In both #2 cases, the heart of e-invoicing is the capability to get your invoices paid ON THE SPOT.  The invoices you send to clients will contain little buttons that give them the option to pay you online (securely, of course) via various web payment solutions.  Apparently this accounts for invoices getting paid at an average of 2 weeks faster.  TWO WEEKS FASTER. For salaried people like myself, that’s almost an entire pay period!

There aren’t a lot of web invoicing suites out there on the free side of things, and most of that invoicing software is largely accounting software that might make things difficult to manage — but as of late, the free suites have been pretty capable in my experience, and Billing Boss is no exception.   And they damn well better be, they’re dealing with money, here.

It’s good to see that of the few free invoicing CMS’s that exist (CurdBee and Invoice Journal, to name a couple), being capable, too. As I watch more and more people work they way out of corporate America, I am seeing a lot of people who turn to freelancing or contracting could really use web solutions.

After all, if invoicing is this easy and can get you paid online and looks better than a lot of the Excel Spreadsheets I’ve seen passed around the freelance market, what is the point of drumming up your own?

Anyone else out there find some good invoicing solutions?  Send links!

Freelancing In 3 Easy (read: Oversimplified) Steps

Posted on September 29th, 2009 in how to

(Original post from July 2009)

Why, yes, @erinichristine, I believe that you are!

A lot of people I know do, in fact, have the hustle to figure out this kind of lifestyle. But at the same time, a lot of us sometimes get so caught up in doing the actual work that we forget some of the main tenets to make sure the process moves smoothly. Yes, even those of us who have been doing this for years. But when you explain the “formal” steps to the uninitiated, you remember, “Oh, yeah! That’s how it goes.” And it’s always good to get a reminder.

Step 1: Biz Dev

The initial task is a simple one: network, network, network. Don’t delete ANY numbers you might save on your phone. Be socially extroverted. Respond to emails. Your portfolio doesn’t have to be done (though it does help), you just have to know what you can do.

That leads to the next sub-step: Capabilities. Once you have someone interested in what you can do, be sure to explain to them what is possible from your end of things. You don’t want a client requesting something way outlandish from the get-go, even though that’s what you’re going to shoot for (you overachiever, you). If they really need something you can’t do like Flash, consider cutting one of your buddies in on the deal. Don’t say “that’s not in my skillset”, just say “yes, I know someone that can do that.” Because chances are, you do.

Once you and your respective clients know what are your services to be rendered, you need to send everyone something that is called an SOW. A Statement of Work contains the timelines, milestones, services, overhead, and bottom-line costs to hire you for the job. These sometimes go through a number of drafts before everyone settles on an agreement, but it’s important to be meticulous about this because this is essentially your contract, and yes, that includes signatures.

As a useful note, an SOW guarantees that you don’t have to do anymore than you are asked to do. Being asked to do something outside of the scope of work warrants an additional fee. I know from experience that sometimes I take this for granted and have been ROYALLY SCREWED for not calculating for additional work in the first place. So, please, do this before setting to any kind of work.

And now… to work!

Step 2: Execution

Do what you promised to do, but when you report in, try to translate what you’re doing into plain English for your client. Use metaphors and analogies to explain technical processes, use figures and graphs where applicable. They don’t need to know the step-by-step process, they just need to know what they’re spending their money on.

Step 3: Invoicing

Ok! All done? All the revisions are cleared the approval process?

Ok. It’s time to get paid.

I hope you logged your hours because now is the time you tabulate them. If you negotiated a flat fee per service (which is my style, personally) then you need to match those services against timelines. If you agreed on an hourly / daily rate, you’ll need to tabulate all of this.

It’s also polite to include a postmortem report for everything that happened during the execution period, and the results that ensued.

Incessantly Frequently Asked Questions

“But what does invoicing look like?” Well, I’m not going to send you one of my own invoices, but you might want to consider using a free invoicing service like Curdbee or Billing Boss if you’re unsure about how to invoice properly. Ah, to live in the future.

“How much should I charge?” It’s different for everyone, really. Chat up your fellow freelancers and see what they charge for their services. Don’t undercut them too harshly because you don’t want to be working for peanuts. Unless you’ve found some sort of peanut-barter-black-market. (Heh. “Peanut barter”…)

“How do I find new business contacts?” …Oh, I dunno, the internet is a good place to start. But also, and not surprisingly, going out for drinks for various reasons. You don’t even need to drink, you just have to be social. You’d be surprised how many people have pet projects swimming around in their heads. These ideas gain buoyancy from alcohol, for some reason. It’s either that, or my industry is saturated with very industrious drunks.

Nicopolitan Guide To The All-Nighter

Posted on September 29th, 2009 in Tips & Tricks

(Original Post from March 2009)

Well, I’m at it again; giving the finger to biology so that I can be more productive. The All-Nighter. The nights where you just skip sleep.

A lot of people, probably the more sane people, will decry this method as an outright crazy means of productivity when they take work home with them. That or they’re just concerned about me (Hi, Cessie!). What they might not know is that I actually have a working method for getting through the all-nighter safely and effectively. And I thought I’d share these methods publicly to 1. possibly help someone, 2. get suggestions and make revisions to my methods or 3. raise more eyebrows.

Okay, young professionals. Here’s how to do it:

1. Preparing
   1. Stimulants: Let’s face it, you can’t do this alone. I’m not saying you should use drugs. There’s a wealth of completely sane (and legal) resources: Sugar in the form of candy or pastries, brewing coffee or tea (or yerba mate if you’re fancy), or energy drinks.
   2. Snacks: If you’re going to use any stimulants, being tired will mean you’re going to go through more of those than you ordinarily would. That’s not good for your stomach, so cushion the blow with light snacks. Yeah, you could go with junk food, but you’d be surprised how effective fruit is. Oranges in particular.
   3. Clothing: Dress comfortably because your ass is going to slouch for a long time. Try not to wear pajamas, as that’ll encourage you to lie down and possibly totally waste the momentum. Wear what you’d wear in the daytime on a weekend if you’re staying in. Sweatpants are useful.
   4. Tunes: You’re going to need lots of them. Don’t prepare playlists, just grab as much as you can and cue it up. I’ll explain why in a bit.
   5. Prep Nap: (Optional) Take a short nap, maybe an hour or less, so that at least you can get that much sleep. It’s not like it’ll “throw off your sleep schedule” since you’re doing that on purpose anyway.
2. Get Down To Business
   1. Stretch A Lot: Yeah, just that.
   2. Eye Care: You’re going to want to close your eyes, so stand up when you do that to prevent nodding off. Also, if you’re working on a computer, stare at something that is far away frequently so that your pupils don’t cramp. “Woah,” you say, “pupils can cramp?” And to that, I’d respond “Wow, you’re new at this, aren’t you?”
   3. Take Frequent Breaks: Watch YouTube, screw around on Facebook, smoke cigarettes if you’re a smoker, do push-ups or jumping jacks, make an origami paper crane, play with a pet if you’ve got one, blog about being awake for an extended period of time, organize playlists and dance to what you’re listening to, just DON’T LIE DOWN.
3. Watch The Sunrise
   
   1. You most likely have most or all of your work done by now. Here’s your reward.
4. Prepare For Being Tired
   1. You can’t go back to sleep right away or you’ll really throw off your sleep schedule. Tough out the day with the same methods in 1 and 2, and when that’s done, go to bed a time where you’d consider hitting the hay two or three hours early.

Godspeed, nightowls.