Now with significantly enhanced audio quality, courtesy of Zoomy.net‘s Peter Richardson…

Here, for your consideration and pleasure, is the new! improved! audio recording of “From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small.” Listen and enjoy.

[tags]design, webdesign, podcast, recording, SXSW, SXSWi, SXSWi09, panels, panel, freelance, agency, smallagency, transition, survival, economy[/tags]

[tags]design, webdesign, podcast, recording, SXSW, SXSWi, SXSWi09, panels, panel, freelance, agency, smallagency, transition, survival, economy[/tags]

Filed under: business, Community, Design, development, work, Working

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Presenting the full audio recording of “From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small”, a panel at SXSW Interactive 2009 featuring Roger Black (founder of agencies huge and small), Kristina Halvorson (freelancer turned agency head), and Whitney Hess (agency pro turned freelance), and moderated by yours truly.

The panel was about quitting your job (or coping with a layoff), working as a freelancer, collaborating with others, and what to do if your collaboration starts morphing into an agency. We sought to answer questions like these:

1. What business and personal skills are required to start a freelance business or a small agency? Is freelancing or starting a small agency a good fit for my talents and abilities?
2. Is freelancing or starting a small agency the right work solution for me in a scary and rapidly shrinking economy? Can the downsides of this economy work to my advantage as a freelancer or small agency head?
3. I’ve been downsized/laid off/I’m stuck in a dead-end job working longer hours for less money. Should I look for a new job or take the plunge and go freelance?
4. What can I expect in terms of income and financial security if I switch from a staff job to freelancing? What techniques can I use as a freelancer to protect myself from the inevitable ups and downs?
5. How do I attract clients? How much in-advance work do I need to line up before I can quit my job?
6. How do I manage clients? What client expectations that are normal for in-house or big agency work must I deliver on as a freelancer or the head of a small or virtual agency? Which expectations can I discard? How do I tell my client what to expect?
7. Do I need an office? What are the absolute minimum tools I need to start out as a one-person shop?
8. How big can my freelance business grow before I need to recast it as a small agency?
9. What models are out there for starting an agency besides the conventional Inc. model with all its overhead? Which model would work best for me?
10. Who do I know with whom I could start a small or virtual agency? What should I look for in my partners? What should I beware of?
11. If I’m lucky enough to be growing, how do I protect my creative product and my professional reputation while adding new people and taking on more assignments?
12. How big can my agency grow before it sucks? How I can grow a business that’s dedicated to staying small?

Whitney Hess has written a fine wrap-up of the panel, including a collection of tweets raving about it, some of Mike Rohde’s visual coverage, and links to other people’s posts about the panel.

LISTEN to “From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small”.

[tags]design, webdesign, podcast, recording, SXSW, SXSWi, SXSWi09, panels, panel, freelance, agency, smallagency, transition, survival, economy[/tags]

Filed under: business, Community, Design, development, Freelance, Self-Employment, Small Business, Surviving, Web Design, work, Working

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New at WebProfessional.org: in Careers in the Web Profession, WOW’s Bill Culver interviews your humble narrator and Scott Fegette, Technical Product Manager for Dreamweaver at Adobe about the joys, sorrows, challenges, and opportunities of a professional web career.

WebProfessional.org aims to promote the web professional by:

• defining and promoting the title
• providing resources that will assist Web professional to succeed
• serving as a bridge between practitioners and those that teach, governments and industry

Have a listen!

[tags]webdesign, webprofession, interviews, zeldman, webprofessional.org[/tags]

Filed under: business, Respect, The Profession, Web Design

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DOM whiz and loyal-opposition/web standards advocate Peter-Paul Koch has been working overtime preparing detailed findings on CSS and DOM compatibility in modern browsers, including:

• CSS in all new browsers
• W3C CSS Object Model in all new browsers
• DOM Events in Opera 10a and Chrome 1
• DOM CSS module in Opera 10a and Chrome 1
• DOM HTML module in Opera 10a and Chrome 1

A Compatibility Master Table provides a snapshot of the status and results of all testing; Mobile Compatibility Tests are also in development.

It’s a great resource from an expert who really cares, and who has the time and expertise to find things out for the rest of us. Thanks, PPK!

Filed under: Browsers, bugs, chrome, Code, Compatibility, CSS, Design, development, DOM, Web Design, Web Standards

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Spec = asking the world to have sex with you and promising a dinner date to one lucky winner.

(In case you missed my Tweet.)

Comments off. Feel free to respond on Twitter.

[tags]spec, design, business, clientservices, twitter[/tags]

Filed under: business, Design, Respect, spec, tweets, Working

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BigThink is a global online forum, conducting interviews with such folk as Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics, Princeton, and Columnist, The New York Times; Jimmy Wales, Co-Founder, Wikipedia; Richard Armitage, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Wes Boyd, Co-Founder, MoveOn.org; Gerry Adams President, Sinn Fein; Moby, Kurt Andersen, and so on.

By some tragic error of judgement, they will interview me today.

When the resulting video appears on the site, you’ll be the second to know.

[tags]bigthink, interviews, zeldman[/tags]

Filed under: engagement, events, film, Zeldman

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In Issue No. 280 of A List Apart, for people who make websites: Embrace imperfection in design; nurture great content through community building.

Coaching a Community

by LAURA BRUNOW MINER

A key to running successful “social networking sites” is to remember that they’re just communities. All communities, online or off, have one thing in common: members want to belong—to feel like part of something larger than themselves. Communicating effectively, setting clear and specific expectations, mentoring contributors, playing with trends, offering rewards, and praising liberally (but not excessively) can harness your members’ innate desires—and nurture great content in the process.

The Elegance of Imperfection

by DAVID SHERWIN

Asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of a natural process: these attributes of elegant design may seem relevant only to a project’s aesthetics. But the most successful web designs reflect these considerations at every stage, from idea to finished product. Bring heart to the experiences you create by infusing them with intelligence that transcends aesthetics and reflects the imperfection of the natural world.

[tags]alistapart, webdesign, community, social networking, design[/tags]

Filed under: Design

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Join me on Blog Talk Radio at 6:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday 1 April 2009.

We will interview best-selling author, designer, and web standards evangelist Jeffrey Zeldman will about his career, his books, and the future of the internet and social media.

Join us live. Bring your questions about web design, web standards, client services, independent publishing, blogging, book authoring, DWWS 3e, or anything else you’d like to talk about.

[tags]design, webdesign, zeldman, radio, interview[/tags]

Filed under: Design, industry, Interviews, Web Design, Web Standards, Zeldman, zeldman.com

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Seed Magazine has received a killer redesign courtesy of Mike Pick and Tim Murtaugh.

And, except for the custom Flash-based video players, it’s all web-standards-based. CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript were never so hawt. Click on STUDIO in the nav bar, then explore SALON or SAVED BY SCIENCE to experience the new hotness.

[tags]tim murtaugh, mike pick, seed, seedmagazine[/tags]

Filed under: Design, development, links, Web Design, Web Standards, Websites

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The great Douglas Bowman leaves Google:

Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such miniscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.

[tags]DouglasBowman, Google, design[/tags]

Filed under: business, Design, development, experience, people

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