Today was one of those road crash moments. Currently at work I have 3 of the largest sites we have ever dealt with come in at once. I am getting a distinctive bus effect with these websites. WIth another 3 not so small sites due to be squeezed out in the coming month or so, I was beginning to feel a slight drowning feeling. Being the only one who can do these projects is also hardly helping matters – only web designer in the village feeling again. My husband is starting to think that I’ve lost the front of my body and I am just a head poking out from my desk chair.
Something did cheer me up today though and that was a post from a certain Mr Oxton. The post itself is a realisation one and really reflected what is going on with me currently. To sum, let people take advantage of you and they will. It is all about coming to the basic business conclusion that you just have to meet in the middle so both parties are not being bleeped over.
This also reminded me of my big lesson for 2005 which is a series of basic business principles (yep I hadn’t known it all it turned out – go figure). I am thinking about posting them soon, they really are common sense but why is it assumed that a web designer should even know about business practices? This may seem an odd thing to say. Perhaps it is the freelance nature of our business. I will say that in most even full time jobs I have had the way the web departments are run is different. Currently, the company I work for take the same approach as so many I have worked for. They allow me as manager to quote and basically run the department as if it were my own business. I like this, but there have been some harsh lessons to go with this. I did think I had learnt most of what there was to learn, it seems I was ooooo so wrong. The past year has taught me by client example and in many other ways that you are never done learning with business. Just as in web design you can always learn more about business.
