Tagged: tips RSS

  • Jay 1:45 pm on January 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: marketing, tips, video   

    Use videos to highlight your product.. but make it short.

    says http://wistia.com/blog/does-length-matter-it-does-for-video/

     
  • Jay 4:15 am on September 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: office, tips   

    hunting office space: some experiences in kathmandu 

    Hunting for office space is tricky but here are some common issues to think of while choosing an office space in Kathmandu.

    a) Ask how the water supply is in and if they have a underground water pumping equipment or not. ask neighbours how the water supply is in the area.

    b) Again, be aware a lot of good areas in kathmandu are now plagued with traffic jams and noise pollutions. Posh place might not be the best place any longer. (specially for a lot of IT companies who need a quiet, conducive atmosphere to work).

    c) Make sure, you ask why the previous tenant left. Usually reveals a lot about the house owner from the past experiences. Less hassles if the house owner is considerate.

    d) Think about the “perception” of the central location of your office. Perception counts. Some places take a long time to travel for clients/employees but because the perception is that place is in a central place, people don’t feel tensed up to travel. Hence choose a place that is “percieved” to be in acceptable location, however far it may be from the actual centre of Kathmandu.

    e) make sure the place is close to different “Micro bus” stops which are the lifeblood of a lot of your employees who come from all corners of kathmandu. This is the closest kathmandites will get to a metro train system :)

    f) Make sure you talk about house tax details with owner before hand. Most owners don’t want to pay any house taxes to the government.

    bring on your suggestions on office hunting experiences …

    Ujw

     
    • amit 2:04 pm on October 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Hi, It seems you went to find new place for the office, is it ? The words are interesting.

  • Jay 8:44 am on June 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: business, project management, tips   

    kevin boss writes: 5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer 

    Kevin boss writes this and it is an insightful experience which our small firm itself has gone through and learnt in the process.
    Link to Kevin Boss’s wonderful article

    5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer

    June 9th, 2008

    Doing Business, The Internet, Web Design

    A few years ago I started offering web design services to those in need of a web site. Ever since, It’s been a constant learning experience. When I advanced from website coding to directly interacting with clients, I was taking a pretty big step. It was hard enough trying to understand this crazy markup language, and now I had to learn how to interact with clients? Sheesh. Thanks to trial and error, I’ve come to understand a few things about establishing and maintaining the best possible relationship with my clients.

    My clients shared the same technical background: they had no idea how the Internet works, how websites work and what exactly it is I did. As far as they were concerned I waved my magical wand and poof, a site is born. Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately that isn’t how it’s done (well for me at least). Because of my inexperience, I set myself up for a few nasty headaches. But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons.

    The Never-Ending Design
    “Hi Kevin, you know i see where that link is and well, can you make it blue instead of black?” Sounds innocent enough right? When you have a backseat designer who is continually revising the design, it can be a little frustrating. Especially when they liked your markups, then had a change of heart after you already coded everything. Getting calls a dozen times a day is also pretty tiring. You’d think your client would have the common sense to not call this often. Think again. When you don’t set guidelines and establish a clear work-flow, you’re just asking for trouble. Have your client sign off on the final mockup before moving to the next step. Define how you want to go back and forth regarding revisions.

    The Midnight Caller
    “How’s development going on the site? What? Of course I’m awake why wouldn’t I be? You were sleeping?” We don’t all keep the same schedule, and this is especially true if you’re dealing with someone that lives in another part of the world. Then again even when my clients lived 10 minutes away I was still getting calls at the strangest hours. Your client is paying you to get something done, and if you don’t state otherwise, expect them to need to talk to you at the most inconvenient times. If you give out your contact info, make sure you explicitly state how to contact you, and what time(s) are acceptable.

    The Chatty Sally
    “Hi Kevin, how are you doing? How’s the weather? Are you wearing shorts? I called to ask a quick question about the site and I’ll keep you on the phone for a while talking about general stuff not relating to the project at all” Having a good relationship with your client is important, but remember to keep it professional. Your working on their website, not becoming their new best friend. Socializing with a client isn’t bad, but it can become an issue if you don’t set clear ground rules. When you’re socializing, you’re either not working or at the least, distracted. If you have a time-sensitive project this can become a major issue. Make sure you clearly establish the purpose of your communications, and keep them on track. I’m not suggesting that clients and developers should avoid a social and professional relationship. I’m saying if you don’t set some ground rules it can get out of hand.

    The Project that Doesn’t End
    “The site looks great, but can you add an image gallery to it? I forgot that I wanted that before” Clients are notorious for wanting more work done than originally anticipated. I can’t remember a single project where the client didn’t want something new added as the project came to a conclusion. It’s natural – if something rattles around in your brain it’ll eventually spit out some new ideas. Since I agreed to make the client a website, I guess I agreed to add whatever they wanted right? Wrong. I failed to outline a specific scope, and as a result got stuck in a loop of additional work. Clearly define the scope of the project and what requirements need to be satisfied to complete the project. If they want to add more work after the fact, simply tell them that it’s not in the contract. Offer them the option of revising the project with added labor and a later completion date.

    Hosting Woes
    “Help the site is down!!! You suck at hosting!!!” I used to host my clients and charge them a few bucks for it. I figured hey why drive business elsewhere when I can offer a complete solution? Well that worked out well until my host started flaking. The site would be down once every week or so, and the people who I hosted weren’t too happy with it. I couldn’t blame them. I was angry at my host too. I’d constantly get calls about the site being down, call my host, and either get a machine or no answer at all. Now the obvious problem here is that my host sucked, but for a few dollars a month I was also being held responsible for something not in my control. I decided the profit wasn’t worth my reputation. I did explain that the hosting problems were beyond my control, but that didn’t make their site magically work. If you host your clients make sure you’re ready to accept the responsibility when something goes wrong. I do think hosts, for the most part, are more reliable now than 3 years ago. They are also cheaper now too. I refer my clients to the web host I use. I think it’s mutually beneficial that my clients deal with their host directly.

    I never completed a project for a client without doing everything I could to completely satisfy them, but I sure did have some tough situations. Most of my work comes from word of mouth, so I place a lot of value on each individual client I have. These aren’t all my adverse situations, but they are my most memorable. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to read about them.

    Oh, and not every single client can be satisfied – some people are just unhappy. There are other ways of dealing with them.

    enjoy reading it ?

     
  • Jay 11:26 pm on June 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Bookmarks, correspondence, tips   

    Email Checklists : how to correspond better. 

    Seth Godin emphasizes on the importance of email checklist that makes us better communicators.

    Communication is everything specially while emailing.

    He teaches us ways to communicate properly when you are using Emails.

    Here are his checklists ..
    http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/email-checklist.html

    here are some of his points.

    –>Am I angry? (If so, save as draft and come back to the note in one hour).
    Could I do this note better with a phone call?

    –>Am I blind-ccing my boss? If so, what will happen if the recipient finds out?

    –>Is there anything in this email I don’t want the attorney general, the media or my boss seeing? (If so, hit delete).

    –>Is any portion of the email in all caps? (If so, consider changing it.)

    Enjoy reading it folks , tis a valuable piece of advice going on here…

     
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