Podcast Episode #12: Mike Hostetler and Jonathan Sharp of appendTo

 

In this episode of my podcast I interviewed Jonathan Sharp and Mike Hostetler of appendTo, a JQuery development shop that was founded by the two in 2009.

They took the time to talk about the growth of their organization, how they go about getting clients, being a small business that works with big clients, and the point at which they turn business down.

We also talked quite a bit about pricing, managing teams that are geographically dispersed, and the benefits and challenges that come with working from home or in a small office.

Mike and Jonathan are really nice guys, and I'm very thankful they took the time to sit down with me to talk about their business, how they run it, and how they're going about growing the company.  Thanks again guys.

As always, you can listen to the podcast right here in the post, or you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Thanks for the intro and exit music this time around goes to Peter, Bjorn and John.  The Swedish band makes a bunch of their music available to podcasters at Music Alley.

Cash flow and the posture of your business

One of the many things I've learned over the past few years is the importance of cash flow, (h/t Ryan)  and that understanding how it affects your business can have a dramatic affect on it's health.

It used to be that when I would hear about or think about cash flow, I simply thought it meant having money in a bank account.  And since I knew having money in my business account was good, I felt like the concept of "cashflow" was synonymous with "having money in the bank".

I realize now that I completely misunderstood the concept of cashflow, and my guess is that a lot of other small businesses and freelancers do as well.

Instead of thinking about cashflow in terms of the amount of money coming into your business, and how frequently it's coming in; you have to think about it in terms of when that money comes in - pinned to a moment in time, and an activity that you will be doing for that money.

Before I understood how important cash flow was to a business, whenever I was engaged on a project I would do the work, and then get paid for doing the work.  I'd do this whether I was running a project, building a website, making an app, or pretty much anything else.

The problem with this is that you're constantly flat footed because you're always loaning something out (usually your time) before you get something in return.

Instead, I now charge 50% up front for fixed bid work, and then bill the remaining 50% when it's completed.  This of course is not unique and a lot of folks do this - but I never fully understood how big of an impact it can have until I saw the affect on my business.

Likewise, for ongoing services, I now try as much as possible to get paid before the service is provided - instead of after.

Billing this way allows you to invest customer payments into your business more quickly, and it can set you up so that if you bring on additional help - you already have money in the bank to pay for them.

Compare this with putting money into hiring someone before a customer pays you and you start to see the ramifications pretty quickly.

The result of getting paid at least something up front is a very forward leaning posture that allows you to grow and invest in your business in ways that you can't do if you only get paid once the work is completed.  There are also a host of other positive affects such as knowing who is serious, working with people that have shown they can pay on time, etc.

Essentially, it's a way to pre-screen potential clients.

Those of us that work in service businesses are often eager to help people, and tend to be quite generous with our time.  For anyone that's currently billing only once your work is entirely complete, I'd encourage you to start billing a bit up front.

You'll find you have better customers, more money in the bank, and a posture that allows you to invest more time and money into your own business.

New design for Ideal Project Group

I've been wanting to redesign the Ideal Project Group website for a while, but between client work and SignalKit, I hadn't made it a priority.  I finally got to the redesign this week, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Here's a screenshot:

There were a few key things I wanted to address with the site, and also some areas where I wanted to practice.

Reflecting where my business is right now

First, I needed to make the site a more honest representation of who I am, what Ideal Project Group is, and how it and I relate.  In other words, I am Ideal Project Group, and Ideal Project Group is me, and it was time for my website to reflect this reality.

I wrote a month or two ago about the lesson Maile taught me about accepting where you are, and I really wanted to make a site that didn't portray where I hoped to be in a few years - but showed where I was at right now.  I think I got it right this time.

Easy to update portfolio

The other thing I needed to do was have an easy way to update my portfolio.  I was really slacking on keeping my site up to date with my latest client work, and I needed to fix that.  The site is entirely hand written by me, but I plugged in Perch - the really little content management system I learned about from Ryan Singer.  They have an awesome (no, seriously, it's amazing) portfolio app that allows you to add an image gallery, light boxes, and some other goodies.

Now, when I want to update my portfolio, I simply go to the Perch admin section, write a paragraph, upload a photo, and I'm done.

Attention to Typography

Something I've been practicing with more lately is typography, and choosing fonts that work well together and portray the right message.  I've been using TypeKit lately, and I love it.  I used Georgia and Garamond throughout the site, and in the left sidebar where I call out the things I create, I used the Angie STD sans-serif font.

I'll probably keep playing with the sidebar font, but overall I'm very happy with how things turned out.

Quickly showing products and publications

One thing I liked about my blog that I wanted my site to replicate was showing all my info on one page. Now, right on the landing page, I outline what I do, who I do it for, what my products are, and what my latest blog posts and podcasts were.

It's a challenge to show this much information without it being overwhelming, but I think I've managed to list it all without the site looking too busy.

Pricing

The last thing I wanted to do was make my pricing clear and easy to understand.  Instead of listing out products, services, and pricing though, I took a slightly different approach.  Where I describe my services, I outline my typical fees under the description.  Then, in the portfolio section, I say what a similar website build would cost.

This allows new visitors to get a decent understanding of my pricing model, and to see if I'm right for their budget.

Let's see what happens

Of course, I don't know how this new site will perform yet.  But, I think it's a unique site with a bit of personality, that definitely stands out - especially when compared to many of the other sites that show up in the same search queries as mine.

I'm definitely open to feedback and curious to hear peoples thoughts, so if you have any you'd like to share - I'd love to hear what you have to say.

How the Patriot Act affects my small business and makes me racist

For almost the past five years, I've been running my little software company.  Sometimes employing people, sometimes sending along work to independent contractors, working to build wealth with software, and feeding my kids and paying my mortgage with the skills that I've acquired.

In short, I'm a small business, and a productive member of the economy of the United States.

I've realized though that there's something terribly wrong.

I'm worried that the government is listening in on my phone calls, reading my emails, and looking into my bank accounts.

Why?

A few weeks back I was contacted by another small business person who wanted a website built for their company.  They found me via my ad on Sortfolio, and they were looking to get the first version of a website built.

Perfect.  It's one of the things I do.

The only thing different about this client from a host of others is that they're based out of the United Arab Emirates.  We do live in a global economy now, and it's wonderful that someone in the UAE can have me, in Chicago, build a website for them.

So what's the problem?

The problem is that according to US law, since I've now been having Skype phone calls with someone outside our borders, and I've been sent money via PayPal, (from the Middle East no less) the government can basically look, listen, and investigate anything they want without any warrant or oversight.

This, of course, is horse shit.

And I bring it up and write about it because everyone seems to think that the Patriot Act is some far off - "doesn't really affect me" kind of thing.  But it's not.  It affects you, your friends, and people you work with.

And maybe your kids.

And the kicker is, that this is happening all while Obama is supposedly trying to "reset" the relationships that Americans have with Arabs.  So essentially, Americans are being told to remember that not everyone from the Middle East is a terrorist, that we have a lot of shared values, etc.

Oh, but if you talk to any of them, we're going listen to your phone calls.  And if you do business with them, we're going to look into your bank accounts.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that is exhibited in abusive relationships.

And so what happens is we start asking ourselves, "do I want to do business with this person because they live in xyz part of the world?" or because their name is unfamiliar, or because they have an accent.

And that behavior; of judging someone before you know them, questioning whether they're safe to do business with for no reason other than their name, or the part of the world they live in, or the color of their skin - that's racist.

And so that's what the Patriot Act really does.  It increases paranoia, makes people afraid, and promotes racism.

The stark reality is that we live in a country where a small business person has to worry about the government listening in on their phone calls, and digging into their finances for doing nothing more than making a website.

Osama Bin Laden may be buried at sea somewhere, but if the American government can listen to my phone calls simply because I made a website for someone.....

Then guess what?

He won.

A new app for SignalKit

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Over the weekend we launched a new app for SignalKit called 37,000ft.  SignalKit, as you may know, is a suite of web apps I'm working on that adds tiny bits of functionality to the 37signals products.

If you've been reading my blog for more than a few weeks, you know I rave constantly about the software made by the Chicago based software company, and I use Basecamp to manage my projects, and Highrise to keep track of my business and the people I work with.

37,000ft takes all the tasks assigned to someone across all their projects, and Highrise, and lays them out on one page.  You can read all about the application on the SignalKit blog post announcing the app.  If you use the products made by 37signals, I hope you check it out.