Dave Carlson

I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. I think as designers we love the challenge of using our creative talents to solve business problems. So about 11 years ago, I wanted the challenge of running an agency vs. just freelancing. I freelanced for about 4 years before I started my agency and hired my first employee. Then it became serious, because now I am not only responsible for my own salary, I had to find enough business to cover my employee too, which I did and took on that challenge whole-heartedly. So much so, that two years later, I began hiring my third and fourth, fifth, six, etc employees. Then I entered a whole new ball game and for a creative guy who never went to college (design or business school) this just became my entry into the school of Hard Knocks.

So before you jump right in with exciting dreams of building a big, famous, kick butt design agency, maybe you should ask yourself these soul searching questions:

Your personality

1. Are you patient with people you rely on?
2. Are you able to work through emotions (yours and your potential staffs’)?
3. Can you stay focused on your long-term agency goals?
4. Are you ok not designing as much or not at all?
5. Do you enjoy the challenge of finding and closing new business?

Your finances

1. Are you good at managing your money today?
2. Do you have someone more qualified to manage the accounting of your agency?
3. Do you have enough current business or cash reserves to weather the slow months?
4. What would your initial business start-up needs be? Then what would your costs be for each?
5. Would you enjoy managing the business and expenses to make a profit every month?

Your location

1. Are you in a good location where you could acquire more business than you currently have today?
2. Are there networks, groups or organizations that you can attend to introduce your new agency to.
3. Are you working from home or do you need to lease an office?
4. Are you looking for space to grow in? Then assume 250 sq ft per employee+recepetion+conference room.
5. Where do you want to be located one year from now?

Your target client

1. Do you know what type of work you want your agency to do or focus on?
2. What projects or industries are you most passionate about?
3. Will your passion for working certain projects or in specific industries bring enough business to match your personality, financial needs, and location?
4. Do you know where to find the right clients?
5. Do you know where to find talent with similar passions?

Dave Carlson | The Agency Route
The Vyant Group | DegreesInc | Team Author

Well, as you can see, it has been quite a while since my last post and this has a lot to do with many different factors which have inspired the topics that I will be writing about in my upcoming posts.

In April and May, I spent a good portion of my time working on the renovation of our offices as well as running a business and designing for multiple clients. (Pretty soon we’ll have some photos of our space which is now complete up on our site.) Trying to manage all of those things at once was quite a lesson in time management and taught me not to spread myself out too thin. I was probably working 8 or 9 hours on various projects then I would get my hands dirty for another 6 or 7 hours in the evening working on the demolition, reconstruction and beautification of the space. This wore pretty heavily on me physically and mentally after a few weeks in a row of this same kind of schedule. Needless to say, the next time we do any kind of renovation, I will hire someone to handle all of the renovation instead of getting in on the action.

While all of this was going on, I was also trying to manage a little pickle I had gotten us into financially. (Which will be the topic of another post.) Even though it was manageable, it put me and my staff in an uncomfortable position that made me realize that we needed to come out of this stronger than we went into it. Giving up was not the answer. Of course, being a young business owner, I am learning where I need to mature and realize that I am only human and mistakes will come with the territory. But, I also have to learn from the mistakes so I don’t make them again. Fortunately, the way we are managing our books now and dealing with our receivables and payables will help us make it through this relatively unscathed but much smarter and more prepared.

All in all, the last few months have been revealing. They have showed me where my weaknesses are and what I need to improve on. They have also spurred on a new zeal for generating new leads and creating a niche for ourselves. During the down time, we were actually finding ourselves doing a substantial amount of work for churches and found we were becoming pretty good at developing creative materials that can help churches grow. We were also really enjoying the work we were doing for them. Not only were we allowed to be creative, but we were helping organizations spread their message so they could help more people. We began to consider becoming a more “human impact” oriented design firm because there is such a lack of really good church, mission organization and not-for-profit communications, especially in Indiana, that we needed to become that firm that they could turn to in order to revitalize their own marketing efforts.

One particular project that we created early on has become the best marketing piece we have ever had and has generated more work than anything we have done to market ourselves to date. (See the project we did for Vineyard Community Church) Pretty much all we have had to do is either set up a meeting with the decision makers at the local churches or drop off one of these stunning packages at a church we wanted to work with and it will begin to get their wheels spinning. This strategy has actually led us to work with numerous new churches in our area.

All in all, we have been blessed to have found this niche in the midst of a period of events that could have sent me running for the hills, but if you stick with it, like I have, even in the bad times, negatives can lead to positives.

Stefan Bean | President/Creative Director
Pulse Creative Partners, Inc. | BoDo Author | Bean’s Biz

I came across David via his blog, aptly named David Stiller’s blog. His well written articles prompted me to ask the question, “So, just who IS this David Stiller?”

What I found was pretty impressive.

David has worked with NASA, Adobe and more. Now a partner, at Community MXhe gives expert advice on Flash, ActionScript, JSFL, Dreamweaver, JavaScript, Regular Expressions, Photoshop and Premiere. He’s also a community expert at Adobe. For fun, David’s a photographer, a blogger, a caring husband and father of one, and more.

And now he’s a businessman, running Quip.net full time.

What I found was indeed impressive. And although I’d love to ask about the unicycle habit, I’m sure readers would rather hear David talk about his personal experiences with running a design business.

So, getting to those questions …

What were the main deciding factors in leaving an in-house position to take on the responsibilities of running a business?

Family first. Without a moment’s hesitation, I can say that time with my wife and daughter was the number one reason to give it a shot. Two years prior, we had managed financially to allow my wife to stay at home full time with our newborn. For us, that was a real accomplishment on many levels. In the months that followed, I can remember thinking to myself, in a superficial sense, “Well, we did it for one of us. Can we do it for both?”

There was more to it than that, though, certainly. I had been freelancing for maybe eight years by that point. Nothing substantial, but enough to pay for the occasional home improvement or new furniture. When Dawn quit her job as a full time helpdesk supervisor, the extra income from my side business helped considerably, so I started taking on larger projects, and more of them. I liked the variety of freelance, and those gigs simply tended to be more fun, because I only agreed to projects that interested me.

Things were fine at my “real job,” by the way. I had settled into a comfortable position as a multimedia developer in a tiny division of a small local business. We were the research and development crew and got to build prototype software for clients like NASA and other government agencies It was a good job with good people, but I did worry sometimes about hitting an income ceiling. I didn’t enjoy having to “sell myself” each year — who does? — to managers who already knew my value. I wanted to be responsible for my income in a very direct way, without having to dip into office politics.

Awhile ago you wrote about noticing opportunity everywhere you turned. The opportunities were: becoming a partner with Community MX, co-authoring on a Flash reference book, even running into a former acquaintance with a potential fit. As mentioned in the comments of the post, it tied nicely in with your blog’s tagline, “Luck is the residue of good design.” As none of those opportunities could have come about without first putting in the hours to attain the skills necessary, it could also be taken as, “Luck is the residue of hard work”.

On the subject of hard work, when you made the decision to start out on your own, what other skills did you put into place?

Mainly, I found myself in a position to exercise the skills I already had; only, now it was concurrent rather than sequential. I was suddenly all the more a designer, developer, and problem solver — all day long and into the weekends. It may be that in looking at the world with new eyes, so to speak, I spotted opportunity more often than I might have before, when work was freely handed to me by a manager. One skill I did have to develop — because I certainly don’t have a knack for it — was to purposefully stop worrying. Outside of that, I can only be thankful that my wife is a proficient bookkeeper.

Learning how to run a design company is time-consuming. Not only do you need to keep up with design skills, you need to take on book keeping (to a point), get realistic about scheduling projects, find time for networking and keep up with marketing. A given, to keep the pressure off (especially in the first year of starting up a business), friends and family need to take a back seat.

The question is this, as you’ve settled into running your business, what methods have you (or are you), putting into place to make sure your job doesn’t eat into quality time with friends and family?

This question comes at a pertinent time, because I just finished co-authoring my last chapter of Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers, to be published this summer (2007) by friends of ED. Near the end of December (2006) when writing began, I knew what my New Year’s resolution would be: stop the work day at 5 PM, period. As it turned out, I had to redefine that goal. What I stopped doing at 5, daily, was any work that involved billable hours. I would save my open documents, head to the kitchen to participate in dinner preparation, eat as a family, play with my daughter until her bedtime … then grimly sit in front of the computer again until midnight or 2 AM. For months.

Completing the book was a tacit exception to my resolution, a time investment Dawn and I were prepared to make … we just didn’t realize it would take nearly so long! Given our daughter’s age, I simply make time for her. Unfinished work is always there in the morning, and she shouldn’t have to “pay” for my decision to take my career home.

Now that respite is on the horizon, Dawn and I are making plans to hire the babysitter for evening getaways a lot more often! We’ve also taken to geocaching on the weekends as a family. Not only is it good to get out of the house, but the family cooperation — holding hands over rugged terrain, speculating aloud where the treasure might be — keeps us grounded.

Because working from home can be lonely, I’ve started to actually plan lunches with friends into my schedule. To give myself something to look forward to every few weeks, I’ve also been writing a childhood friend in Canada once a month. We’ve known each other for almost 30 years, and catching up has been an emotional boost.

I’ve had to make conscious decisions to stop talking about myself in conversations with friends. Their goings-on are just as important as mine, and pausing to truly listen has worked wonders.

After a year of working on your own, what advice would you give to others mulling over the decision to start their own design business?

For me, it was all about preparation and hedging my bets. I had a long history of freelance; I certainly wasn’t trying something new, so much as I was gearing up for the already familiar. No bridges were burned. My boss said to me on more than one occasion, “David, seriously, if you need to come back — just pick up the phone.” That meant a lot, and I took him at his word.

My first gig came by way of a placement agency. It was a three month contract. At my new rate — over double my old salary, per hour — that commitment paid for quite a bit of time to look for the next project. That was a good safety net, because I learned very quickly that many hours go un-billed, and that health coverage and taxes take a daunting bite out of incoming checks.

Advice? I would say this: be honest. Be honest with yourself and with your customers. Don’t make yourself into more than you actually are. That said, thanks to the Internet, your services are a nationwide, if not global, commodity. Look beyond your immediate locale to determine what the market will bear for your fees. When you raise your rates, do so with confidence. Set specific, cumulative goals, but don’t kill yourself when (not if!) you occasionally fall short of them.

Brace yourself for disappointment, sometimes severe, from family and friends who miss “the old you.” Assuming you trust these folks going in, take care to listen to their input, accept your lumps with grace, then gently remind them (and yourself) that your endeavors are, after all, finite. You will reach the tunnel’s end.

Get your name out there. For me, that meant writing articles for Adobe.com’s Developer Center, blogging, and continuing to participate in support forums. These encounters often bring in customers.

Don’t forget to breathe.

This last question comes from me personally …

I’m well acquainted with the term ‘multiple streams of income’, but how in the world did you juggle a new business and young family while co-authoring a book, partnering with Community MX as well as continuing to give advice on your blog and at Adobe?

It was, and continues to be, a matter of sheer determination. I have literally stayed awake for 24+ hours in order to mark things off my to-do list. I don’t think that’s a healthy practice, mentally or physically, but I’ve done it. Often. Priorities certainly come into play. I’ve been late on a few Community MX articles; my blogging and forum presence occasionally takes a dive. There are days I decide to not even launch my instant messenger client. When I can’t make more time, I “buy” it by adjusting my rates.

A recurrent theme that keeps me going — it’s practically a mantra — is simply the fact that none of this is permanent. These efforts are all in preparation for a career at home. A year in, I’m still in preparation mode. The book is an important milestone. I have a few speaking engagements lined up in the coming months for marketing purposes. Those will also be milestones. In another six months, I may see the true “beginning” of my work-from-home experience, and my aim is to return to a 40-hour work week.

Geocaching actually makes a pretty good metaphor for this whole business. In the woods, maybe in a park somewhere, you look at the GPS device in your hand. The arrow cursor indicates, as the crow flies, that a Tupperware container rests, hidden, a mere 200 feet ahead of you. This container probably holds a couple finger puppets, some stickers, maybe a coloring book … definitely worth the hike to your bright, almost-three-year-old companion. Unfortunately, no one in your group is a crow, so there won’t be any flying. To cross that brook in your path, you’ll have to actually turn away from the goal to find a bridge, or an area where the water isn’t so deep. Sometimes, you’ll wander quite a distance, and it will feel counter-productive. But if you don’t lose site of your goal — even if it’s only a blinking pixel on an LCD screen — you’ll eventually get there.

Thanks David!

until the next
You’ve Been BoDo’d
cat

Out of the Bedroom. Okay, okay. I know some of you – if not most – were hoping for some porn…or at least a little spice. Well, I can’t promise you either (but I will leave the door cracked, just in case ;-) What I can promise is an honest and in-depth look at the challenges faced by a real-life mother/wife/designer/businesswoman as I focus my energies on reaching my professional (and personal) goals.

That being said, let’s get started, shall we?

“When are you gonna get a real job?”
“You’ll go back to work when your kid starts school, right?”
“It must be fun working from home.”
“But you can do whatever you want – you work for yourself!”

Yup. I’ve heard ‘em all. Funny thing though – when business was great, and I was the main income provider, no one asked if I was going to get a “real job,” no one thought it was “fun working from home,” or that I could do whatever I wanted. Everyone just thought I worked hard and made good money. And they were right.

Fast forward to today. A lot has happened over the past few years to throw a monkey wrench into my plans of working hard and making good money. I had a baby…and while he was a good baby from day one, feeding him, changing him and just getting to know this new little person sort of took priority. I figured my clients would understand. Some did, some didn’t.

Then we moved. And not just a little move, but a big, pack-up-and-sell-the-house-
drive-across-the-country-with-a-dog-and-a-20-month-old-in-tow move. Good times. Again, I figured my clients would understand, and again, some did, some didn’t.

And then, a little more than a year after the BIG move, we moved again. This time it was within city limits, but it was a major downsizing. Which brings me to my current location – the bedroom. Granted it is the largest room in the place (which really isn’t saying much), but my God – I spend a good 20 hours a day in this ONE ROOM! Frankly, I need to get Out of the Bedroom!

So yeah, I could pack it all in and go get a “real job.” Believe me, I’ve thought about it…a lot. But the thing I just cannot get out of my head is that I did it once before. I was, in fact, a successful graphic designer, earning a more-than-comfortable living, and had a pretty solid reputation. If I did it once, then I can do it again, right? Right!

So now I’ve made the decision not only to rebuild my business and reclaim some of my former success, but to document it as well – for all to see. Please don’t let my calm demeanor and charming banter fool you – I’m TERRIFIED!

I’m terrified of actually putting my goals down on paper (real or virtual), as doing so seems to give them life, rather than just allowing them to remain thoughts in my head. And I’m terrified – and more than a little exhilarated – because by my committing to write this column for BoDo, I’ve committed to being accountable – not only to myself, but to the BoDo team, and anyone reading this.

To quote Ace Merrill (as played by Kiefer Sutherland) in Stand By Me, “This is big time, baby.” It’s time for me to put up, or shut up.

Join me next time, as I continue my journey Out of the Bedroom,
Tamar Wallace | Principal, TAMAR Graphics

This week we’ve had talk of money (accounting, book keeping, having and not), location and equipment. Picking the easiest, I’ll take the money and run.

For starters, the UK has the Better Payment Practice Campaign. Check out their code “The Better Payment Practice Group was established to promote a better payment culture within the UK and urges all firms to adopt a responsible attitude to paying on time.” Novel concept.

Money Articles

In the coming posts we’ll be discussing the subject of money. Often. While you’re waiting, here’s a few we found.

DiVITA Speaks!!: Budget for a Business

Lifehacker: Geek to Live: Automate your finances
Everyone has their own money personality and systems they use to keep their dollars and cents in order, but I thought I’d share some of the methods I’ve developed over the years.

Simplify This: Who needs a bookkeeper?
Most small businesses of a certain size can certainly benefit from a fulltime bookkeeper, however not all of them require one, especially the smallest of businesses.

Online Book Keeping Assistance

There are a ton of online payment, book keeping, accounting sites on the internet. I don’t have an opinion of any, so if you do, feel free to respond.

Blinksale (free account)
The easiest way to send invoices online. Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice clients for services or products sold. Blinksale is an excellent choice for attorneys, accountants, designers, IT professionals, software developers, journalists, contractors, engineers, architects, videographers, and more. Basically, if you need to send invoices, Blinksale can work for you.

FreshBooks (limited free account)
The Fastest Way to Invoice Your Clients. FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking service that saves you time.

TechCrunch Article: FreshBooks pushes the envelope in online billing

SimplifyThis (invitation only beta)
SimplifyThis is an intuitive web-based service to easily invoice your customers and get paid faster online. No more forgotten invoices, no software to install and no help manuals to read. Use this from home, from the library, or from any other computer on the internet.

Side Job Track (free)
Web-based job tracking, invoicing, reporting & project management software for the part-time independent contractor.

Wesabe: Take Control of Your Money
Take control of your money, find the best values in your area, and reach your financial goals by joining the Wesabe community.

What Are You Worth?

On every design forum the same question gets asked, “how much should I charge?” In the equation, it’s always useful to get a ballpark on how much they’re worth (taking into account where they are, their experience level, how fast they work, etc).

Ask Dr. Salary
Salary is a mysterious topic but it doesn’t need to be. I’ve started this blog to simplify salary in ways that can help both employees and hiring managers to understand and communicate about compensation with grace and ease.

CBSalary.com | Salary Calculator

Indeed.com | Salary Search
Search salaries from over 50 million jobs in the past year

Monster | Salary Center

PayScale
Salary Survey, Salaries, Wages, Compensation Information and Analysis. Get accurate, real-time salary reports based on your job title, location, education, skills and experience.

Salary.com
Job salaries - Performance reviews - Compensation software

SalaryScout.com
Negotiate with knowledge

WageExchange.com
Salary Survey, Wages, Compensation data

Taxes

When it comes to money, taxes can’t be denied.

Australian Tax Office | Business

Australian Government website | Tax matters
List of government websites relating to different aspects of taxation.

Taxpayers Australia
Aims to educate taxpayers via the media, educational publications and seminars on issues relating to *tax* and superannuation.

Tax Returns Australia
The safe, simple way to submit your personal tax return online.

Business Link (UK) | Taxes, returns & payroll

IRS (US) Small Business/Self-Employed Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop
This extensive workshop is designed to help new and existing small business owners understand and meet their federal tax obligations.

If you have resources to suggest, go ahead and send them over. Depending, I’ll add them to our resources and BoDo’s del.icio.us.

Until the next
Resourceful Friday,
cat

WHEW! We made it to the end of the Starting Out and Setting Up Series. You’re ready skill-wise, taking it personally, honey has the money, and the clients, oh my! Location has been decided, you’re equipped and accounting for your actions. Right?

If that’s so, on with the hat tipping

What’s ‘hat tipping’ you ask? It’s where we review a series in its entirety, while thanking those who took the time to get back to us. It’s also where we acknowledge that it takes time to respond to requests such as ours.

If you’d like to take the time for a future series, contact Cat. There’s always a series in the works she can attach to you.

Starting at the beginning …

First up was the Series Introduction where Mark McGuinness opened with a quote.

In Are You Ready? Tammy Lenski had a comment to share. We then went over to Daniel Schutzsmith’s Graphic Define for even more.

On the experience side of Are You Ready?, we asked the question, was Jay ready? We found out how Leslie was ready, Neil made ready, Alina’s ready, Stefan was ready and Cat wasn’t.

In Taking it Personally, we borrowed Seth Godin’s point, which we followed with Ten Traits of Successful Business Owners.

On the experience side of Taking it Personally, Stefan’s determined, Leslie’s been practicing, Neil’s backpacking, Alina’s evolving, Danita has no regrets, Jay bites, and Cat’s bossy and barks.

In Alina’s In-sights, Alina took it further with Corporate Grinding.

In Clients, Oh My! we discussed the feasibility of starting out with none, one, four or more.

On the experience side of Clients, Oh My! we found that Leslie was covered, Neil was covered too, Stefan had it made, Jay’s been lucky and Cat’s been roaming about.

In keeping in the spirit of the series, Ask jay settled on five quick tips for getting new clients.

In Where’s the Money, Honey? it dipped into serious talk.

On the experience side of Where’s the Money, Honey? Chris discussed his money management, Stefan and Leslie did too. But Neil, he had no money, honey.

In Location, Location, Location we mulled over the pros and cons of working in or out. Writer ME “Liz” Strauss shared her location of choice, with a reminder that “it’s supposed to be fun.”

On the experience side of Location, Location, Location, Abhijit was happy at home, Leslie was dedicated, Neil was located, Jay’s domainly SOHO and Cat’s now online.

So, How Equipped Are You? By opening doors, cupboards, and drawers, we scrambled to put together a new business wish list.

On the experience side of How Equipped Are You?, Neil was equipped, Leslie was steady, Jay started out with loads of tools and Cat didn’t need as much.

We went back to the money issue with Who’s (ac)Counting now? This is where we put together another list. We’ve been told lists are good.

On the experience side of Who’s (ac)Counting Now? Neil’s into numbers, Stefan’s into services, Leslie recommends accountants and Jay minds her own business. Then there’s Cat, with a box.

On a roll, Ask jay came in with Seven ways to get organised.

We ended with the results of the Niblets Series poll, announced in the beginning.

In the coming months we’ll enlarge on each of the issues touched on in the Starting Out and Setting Up Series. Until we do, in alphabetical order, we’d like to thank those who helped make this series a success.

Abhijit Nadgouda | Freelance Software Professional
iface Consulting

Alina Hagen | Visual Communication Designer
Alina Design | Creative Latitude | BoDo Author | Alina’s In-sights

Chris Tomlinson | Visual Communication Designer
Gonik Design & Print | Gonik Blog

Danita Reynolds | Principle/Creative Director
Creative Expertise | NO!SPEC

Dr. Tammy Lenski |
I Can’t Say That! | Lenski Strategic | BoDo Author | Creative Conversations

Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua | Creative/Marketing Consultant & Coach
Burns Auto Parts–Consultants | Burns Auto Parts blog | Podcast | Book

Mark McGuinness | Coaching Creative Professionals
Wishful Thinking | BoDo Author | Creative Coaching

ME “Liz” Strauss | Business Writing
Successful Blog | Letting Liz Be | Liz Strauss.com | The Blog Herald | Performancing.com | BoDo Author | Write with ME

Stefan Bean | President/Creative Director
Pulse Creative Partners, Inc. | BoDo Author | Bean’s Biz

Thomas (Tom) Stephan | Director of Something Clever
BoDo Author | Dyer Straits

An lastly,
The BoDo Team
cat - nt - jay

Back in the beginning we posted a poll to find out about our readers. In part because we’re nosy. In part because we’d like to target future posts.

With 113 people participating in the poll, the results are …

• Self taught, four plus years in the business = 27%
• Design grad, four plus years in the business = 20%
• Design grad, two to four years in the business = 17%
• Self taught, two to four years in the business = 11%
• Self taught, one to two years in the business = 6%
• In-house designer thinking about taking the leap = 6%
• Design grad, one to two years in the business = 4%
• Basic photoshop, illustrator, etc., skills = 3%
• Enrolled full time or part time in a design school = 3%
• Design grad, some professional experience = 2%
• A few design courses under the belt = 2%

Thanks for joining in,
The BoDo Team
cat - nt - jay

Dear jay,

I started working with my first client last year, and I have been so overwhelmed with projects they have given me, that whatever little record keeping I was doing, started sliding very quickly. I’ve got to the point where I’m depending on my client’s bookkeeper to alert me about outstanding invoices. Just last week, I got an overdue bill from a printer I have not paid as well. Then the next day, my client tells me I have double-billed them, and I’ve already spent the money!

Help! How do I get control of my finances?

Well, well, well … we are in a fine pickle aren’t we? As a designer you no doubt have all your design practices in place: Job bags/cards, backups , etc. As a business owner you also must have your administration processes in order, or as you have found, things get very messy, very easily.

1. Consult your accountant

No matter what country you live in, you must be able to explain your business transactions to your tax man. You’re required to keep records relating to income, expenditure and taxes. Being a sole trader will mean you have different obligations, than if you are a partnership, LLC or Pty Ltd company. Your accountant will advise on what records you need to keep as well as any other legal obligations you may have. Using accountants as book keepers, however, can be very costly for you and frankly, a waste of their time. So hand over organised records, not a shoebox!

2. Set up your procedure

Sit down with a pencil and paper and think about all the interactions you have with a client and other bodies that might generate a financial transaction: Invoicing and receiving payments from a client, recording bills and making payments for other services and transactions.

Are you going to bill clients monthly and/or ad hoc? How are you going to accept payments? How often are you going to visit the bank to deposit cheques? How often do you have to pay utilities? How are you going to pay them?

How do invoices relate to your job ticketing system? Is the invoice number going to be same as the job number? If it is, how do you identify part payments (eg deposits)?

Make a list of each of your weekly and monthly tasks and how long you think you will need to perform each one. Make sure you allow yourself time to complete each task, so that you are only dealing with paperwork once. For example, if you receive a client’s payment, you need to go get your copy of the invoice, enter the payment into your recording system, and file your invoice away: Not just scribble something on an envelope and chuck it in a drawer.

Make sure you set up a schedule that you know you can maintain. The aim here is to develop good habits while you are not too busy designing, so that once you are, you have a system in place. Consider hiring the services of a bookkeeper for a couple of hours to help you set up: Ask your accountant for a recommendation.

3. Get a diary

Now you know what you are going to do and when, set up your diary to record appointments, payment dates, document lodgement dates, etc. Backtrack and add reminders if there is work that you have to do to prior to any of your dates. Don’t forget to add in your personal appointments!

Whether it is a soft cover bound book or a PDA, you will need to take it with you everywhere, so get something portable.

Before giving a client a timetable for a project, look at your diary and make sure you are also taking into account your administration schedule. Clients will not be offended if you tell them that you will not be able to start on their project till a given date and time. You do not have to tell them that you have to do your banking!

4. Choose your system

Now that you have your schedule worked out, you can decide on your recording system. If you only need to calculate and lodge a tax return once a year, then you will probably find a simple cash transaction system will suit you just fine.

You could use a cash book with pages marked out for income and expenditure, an Excel worksheet or simple software like MS Money or Quicken. Make it as simple as possible, but make sure you are recording all the information about each transaction that your accountant has advised.

As your business grows, you may need more extensive software, such as QuickBooks or MYOB. These will also be appropriate if you find you want to track your receivables (money owed to you), payables (money you owe) or projected cash flows.

If you find that you really cannot (or do not want to) keep up, then consider hiring a book keeper. If you already have a system in place, they will find their job quicker and easier and therefore, less costly for you. Depending on the number of your transactions, you may only have to hire them for a few hours a month.

5. Visit your bank

Make an appointment to talk to an Accounts Manager at your bank regarding the kinds of accounts and services they offer to small businesses. Do not forget to ask about online and automatic banking systems. These can be real time savers and usually worth the small charges.

6. Keep an eye on changes

As a business owner, you need to stay abreast of changes in business laws and regulations: Ignorance is rarely accepted as an excuse. You do not have to become an expert or read all the business journals available at your book store. It could be as simple as glancing through the headlines of your local paper’s business section once a week or setting up a feed to their online version.

If you have any real concerns about an effect on your business, do not be afraid to contact your appropriate professional advisor.

7. Check out your tax man’s website

Believe it or not, you will find lots of helpful information in the small business section of your tax man’s website: Some examples USA: IRS, UK: IR or AUS: ATO. Great time savers are online lodgement and payment services: Your tax man should have a range of options from which to choose. Don’t forget to also check out the Money Matters sections in our Resources under M - N.

Good luck!

Until the next
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