Archive:
May, 2011
Picture this: you begin making jewelry as a creative outlet to your mundane day job. Gradually your friends evangelize your beautiful designs and you sell enough to realize that this could be a viable business (yay)! In time you quit your day job and sell the jewelry through the online storefront Etsy, acquiring the huge responsibility of promotion, operations and production. You feel confident the extra strain is worth it to run an independent business. Until one day a friend emails you an exact replica of your necklace from a major retailer’s website. You discover that your design has been copied (design name and all) and is selling for half the price. Further, you’re not getting paid for it.
Chicago native, jewelry-maker and entrepreneur Stevie Koerner is the entrepreneur in this story, and Urban Outfitters, the retailer (who has since issued a response). The story began trending on Twitter last week and has led to mainstream media coverage by many of the national news outlets.
FreshBooks is committed to supporting people getting paid for the work they love to do, so it’s more than disheartening to see a hardworking entrepreneur being taken advantage of by profitable retailers; it’s shameful.
Have you ever run into a copyright issue? Leave us a comment about how you protect your creative work.
image credit to Stevie – see her Etsy shop Truche.
Get 'em while they're hot
Working solo means you enjoy the benefits of having total autonomy over where and how you work. Yet for some, being restricted to a home or remote office can also be accompanied by a lingering feeling of loneliness or that you’re insulated from where the main conversations about your industry are happening.
Enter the solution: coworking offices. These alternative workplaces are the best of both worlds. They offer a centrally-located office with a desk, an Internet connection plus convenient access to meeting rooms. Tenants benefit from sharing the expensive costs of office infrastructure plus gain extensive networking opportunities from being amidst a ton of folks also making a go of it on their own. If you love the flexibility of working for yourself but feel frustrated with the home office setup, joining a collective workplace might be a great way of raising your biz efficiency.
We chatted with folks at some of the most well known coworking locations in North America to learn what coworking offers. Read the rest of this entry »
Avoiding getting too tangled up in your network
Meeting new folks ranks high on everyone’s list (not just for dating reasons). However, knowing how to work a room is an oft-neglected skill. It takes practice, hard-work and maybe some uncomfortable conversations but the benefits of ramping up your charm and conversation skills are huge – there’s immeasurable value in growing that network of talented folks in your field who you can call on for help/advice or even new clients.
To get you moving, try out these tips for maximizing your conference experience plus our list of top design conferences to try out your new (and silky smooth) gift of the gab.
Prepare beforehand
Set goals for meeting people and networking before you attend the conference. Research names, read blogs, and follow the people you want to meet on Twitter. Define a list of topics you’d like to talk about–maybe on a notecard–and memorize them. Sam Davidson of Brazen Careerist recommends setting real benchmarks such as: try to meet 25 people, meet people from 10 different states, etc. And achieve them! Reflect after the conference and see if you’re were successful and what you’ll do differently in the future. When you work for yourself, find time to reflect is hard, but try it find it, perhaps on the journey home.
Know the jargon
Larry Chiang’s What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School, recommends “getting jiggy with jargon.” He says: “Leverage conference buzzwords to introduce attendees, speakers, and conference organizers. For example, mine Twitter, Google and surmise for the key conference terminology and nomenclature.” For designers – especially newer ones – this requires some study. See Smashing Magazine for a thoroughly-researched list of “Web Design Industry Jargon and Resources.”
Be a generous networker
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We’re super excited. Today Stuart MacDonald, entrepreneur and marketer, has joined the FreshBooks team as our new Chief Marketing Officer. He has a long history of making great companies greater. His history includes founding Expedia Canada (arguably Canada’s most successful online business) and working as the CMO of Expedia.com in Seattle, Washington. He has also worked with numerous other organizations as a consultant, advisor, investor and mentor in addition to co-founding the mesh Conference, now in its 6th year, with our CEO Mike McDerment and other partners.
What does this mean for FreshBooks? We can tell you that no one can rival Stuart’s love of customers. Taking care of customers is always a FreshBooks priority by helping them focus on what they love to do, not the paperwork. This new role will only increase that commitment. Stuart plans to build the category of online billing, helping people get paid for what they do quickly online, as he said in an interview with the Financial Post.
Stuart is also excited about joining the team and making a difference:
“What Mike and the FreshBooks.com team have accomplished so far is already remarkable, and taking that next growth step together will be tough but also fun. The team here loves what they do and loves their customers. It’s a pretty special thing to see in action and that attitude is infectious.”
If you want a little taste of who Stuart is, check out this quick video of him at the mesh Conference.
FreshBooks office is closed today, Monday, May 23rd, for what is officially known as the Victoria Day holiday here in Canada! Please send us an email and we’ll get back to you when normal hours resume!
A little bit of summer in the office
will always be known traditionally as a celebration for both Queen Victoria’s birthday as well as the current reigning Canadian sovereign’s official birthday. But for me, it has always been known as “kick off to summer” long weekend. After all, it is the last long weekend before the end of classes back in the high-school days, and usually when Toronto really starts to warm up (we’re really hoping it does this spring).
Apparently, I’m not alone! Lots of Canadians also call the holiday colloquially as May Two-Four, for both the date that the holiday usually falls on, and the slang for a case of twenty-four beers — Definitely the term to start the summer!
In fact, we added some summer into our office. A wall of greenery now colours the south side of the FreshBooks kitchen. Yup, FreshBooks has our very own plant wall oasis! We had our friends from Moore Park Plantscapes come and help us out with the project. The added plants promises to offer some much needed tranquility to our busy office. Hopefully this will mean more eureka moments when we brainstorm, now that we have more oxygen to be absorbed by the brain. Do you have plants in your (home) office?
With that, we wish you a fun and fulfilling summer!
Classic FreshBooks: A blog post from the FreshBooks archive.
Mike McDerment, FreshBooks CEO, wrote a great article about the many the similarities between entrepreneurs and artists (who are entrepreneurs in their own right) a few years ago, and it still holds true to day. In fact, Steve Blank wrote “Entrepreneurship is an Art not a Job” just two months ago. Here’s the post by Mike:
7 ways entrepreneurs are artists
Entrepreneurs are artists — their business is the canvas. Here are seven reasons:
Entrepreneurs create something out of nothing
That’s what entrepreneurs do. Instead of using canvas and paints as resources, entrepreneurs take people and capital and create product and culture. Their is no doubt their fingerprints are all over the output. Jeff Bezos at Amazon is customer focused; Amazon has great service. Steve Jobs is a design tyrant; Apple products beautiful products. See a trend here?
Iteration is a key to success
Often businesses start with no clear business model, or wind up backing into a business model they never expected. Look at Google. They were into search, and wound up a lead generation machine connecting businesses with the people searching for their wares. But how did they get there? They started out in one direction and they iterated their way into what they do today. The path may not be clear, but entrepreneurs move on and figure things out along the way — much as a sculptor takes a block and chips away at it bit by bit.
Continued…
FreshBooks just got simpler. The new People tab allows you to easily manage all the people you collaborate with. This includes your clients, staff and contractors. Now you’ll have less clutter (fewer tabs = good), and all your contacts will be in one place.
The tab includes four sub-tabs with all the same functionality that had previously existed in the former Clients and Team tabs:
- Clients: Add, edit and see all of your clients. From there, you can create invoices, projects, expenses and account statements for your clients. Not to mention add/edit credit (deposits) and see how long your clients take to pay you.
- Staff and Contractors: Add, edit and see all of your staff and contractors, even set their re-billable hourly rates for invoices.
- Assign Clients: Assign clients to your staff so they can only track time, assign expenses, and invoice those particular clients.
- Sent Emails: View any email you have sent to your “People”. Such as an invoice to a client, an invite to a contractor, or a reminder to your staff to track their time.
If you have any feedback about the update, please let us know below in the comments.
Remember the first time you were dumped behind the bleachers? Neither do we.
As a freelancer or consultant, it’s tempting to say yes to every project. After all, who knows when the next job will come along? Sure, it makes for some busy times – probably a few late nights, early mornings and weekend work – but it’s all worth it in the end, right?
Well, actually no, not always. There are many reasons why you’d want to turn down a project: the rate is too low; the timeline is too short; the request is morally or ethically questionable; you’re asked to take on more work when you’re already busy. Or it may be that you simply don’t like working for that particular customer, or you feel uncomfortable doing the type of work the client is asking for.
In those cases, you might want to take a pass. But in delivering the disappointing news, you’ll want to avoid inadvertently insulting the client or hurting the customer’s feelings. Let’s face it, no one likes rejection. You know you need to handle this conversation carefully – what’s the best way?
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If you need a warehouse to keep all your degrees, it might be time to stop.
Certifications are a great way to help you stay competitive in a changing market. Sure, if you have a lot of experience (or have been previously vetted by major industry players), you probably have enough leverage to contract higher-paying jobs. But if your networks aren’t yet developed or if you need a quick refresher, an added certification could be just what you need to get your foot in the door. Likewise, if your specialty is in a field that is always changing (like tech), then it helps to get certified in new programs as they become available.
Pursuing a certificate can also help you build out your specialty and can show how you are actively updating your expertise. Ultimately, it’s what you do with it that counts but a certification can help validate proficiency in a certain area and some sources suggest your salary could jump quite a bit by having one.
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Pondering how to thank your favorite client? Sure the standby favorites like a vintage bottle of wine or costly gift basket can seem like a safe bet but a well chosen, unique gift sends a stronger message that you appreciate the partnership. A handcrafted item can be just the thing to impress a client that has treated you well.
Aspire to give a gift that is a nice-to-have, something that your client might not buy for themselves but would enjoy having. A thoughtful gesture not only acknowledges a faithful supporter who made working together fun, but your gift will also help you remain top of mind for any upcoming contracts. Remember,
your next best client is your last best client.
Try these gift ideas, or some others from Etsy, to help you leave a lasting impression:
Illustrated prints
Ork Posters
Typography map art can please the most discerning eye. These gorgeous illustrations by Ork Posters lay out city names within the shape of the state or district, available in black and white or color silkscreened, choose from dozens of states including Chicago, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle and our own beloved hometown, Toronto!
A lithograph from Charley Harper’s collection of animal illustrations is also a definite favorite. We especially love the playful print of “visit my website” with all the critters all caught up in the web.
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helps invoice enough money to buy a 
