I came across this story in the September 2009 issue of .net magazine on pricing, in an article titled, Be the boss: deciding how much to charge by Mark Boulton:

Legend has it that the artist Pablo Picasso was once sketching in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw her portrait. Of course, she was going to pay him, so after agreeing they sat down and- after a few moments of study- Picasso used a single pencil stroke to capture the woman’s likeness.

“It’s perfect,” she said. “You’ve managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank You so much. How much do I owe you?”
“Five thousand dollars,” Picasso replied.
“What? But it only took you five minutes!” she sputtered.
“Madame, it took me my entire life,” he answered.

It’s a great story, and a nice reminder that when a freelancer prices, it should take into account our experiences, not just the amount of time we spend on a project.

Tags: .netmag, articles, experience, price, rates, tips | Posted in Advice, Lessons, Stories | Comments Off

I wrote a post on my personal blog titled, “What Developers can Learn from Home Improvement” (the TV show). It was a fun little post that I thought about while watching the show, and how programmers and web developers can learn a few valuable lessons from the show. Check it out!

(link to post)Visit Lessons from Home Improvement

Smashing Magazine has a nice little list of how freelancers can increase their productivity. While all of the tips are very good, I find Making a Plan really helps, and I need to limit the amount of time surfing the web. Seriously, I do that entirely too much. It’s a good list that is definitely worth checking out!

(link to post)Visit 6 Ways Freelancers Can Increase Productivity

Photo by L. Marie

As a software developer, we focused on process a lot in school, learning about serveral different types of processes from more traditional to agile. No matter what your profession is, it’s likely that you have your own process for a project. The process is important because it helps you more quickly get into a comfort zone for the project, making you more productive. Today we are going to take a look at mine.

Tags: articles, clients, process, side projects, tips, tools | Posted in Advice | 1 Comment »

As a freelancer, chances are you spend most of your days working from home. This makes a comfortable home office crucial. Unplggd has 8 great tips to make your home office the best it can be, not the least of which being:

A Great Chair: In our many years of computer usage, we’ve discovered one thing is true. You can have the best job in the world, but if your chair is uncomfortable, you spend your day slightly annoyed, frustrated and achy! Office chairs can range from high to low, but no matter what the price point, all that matters is that you can sit in it for more than an hour or two. We’ve had some well loved Steelcase chairs and some higher end chairs that have worked beautifully, it really depends on the person, how they’re built, and how they’ll be using the space. But comfort, hands down, starts here.

So check it out; and if you some inspirtation, LifeHacker has some cool home office resources.

(h/t: @freelancesw)

(link to post)Visit 8 Ways to Make Your Home Office Comfortable

As per usual, FreelanceSwitch has published a great article, this time regarding college freelancers. As someone who up until a couple of weeks ago has been exclusively a student freelancer, this stuff really rings true. Especially this little number:

Try to keep your student status out of it

Words cannot describe how frustrating a client can be pre-contract when they find out you’re a student. I do feel however, that once you’ve developed a rapport it’s ok to mention- my clients have been very understanding, especially when it came to crunch time in the semester.

So go ahead and check out the other 4 tips. All really great adivce if you’re a student looking to freelance.

(link to post)Visit 5 Tips for College Freelancers