Resourceful Designer: Strategies for running a graphic design business

This episode is sponsored by Sticker Mule. Get 10 Custom Stickers for $1, plus free shipping. Visit stickermule.com/resourcefuldesigner It's well-established that it's easier to get a new design project from a past client than to land a project from a new client. You can run a successful design business with only a few good recurring clients. It's the 80/20 rule. 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients. Therefore you must keep as many clients as you can. For the first few years of my design business, I had less than a dozen clients, and less than a handful of those clients kept me busy on an ongoing basis. According to Invesp, the probability of existing clients giving you work in the future is 60-70%, while the likelihood of getting work from new clients is 5-20%. So it's easy to see why client retention is so necessary. Clients know a talented graphic or web designer when they find one. But it takes more than being an excellent designer to keep them returning. I've said this many times on the podcast before. Clients prefer to work with a good designer they like rather than an amazing designer they don't like. The best way to keep your clients happy and coming back is to ensure they like you. And you do that by providing excellent service and building relationships with them. It's best to do everything possible to ensure your clients feel valued, appreciated, and satisfied with your services. Here are nine tips for doing just that and keeping your clients returning. And you'll notice repetition as I go through them, as many of these tips play off each other. Here are nine ways to make clients love working with you again and again. 1) Be Proactive Make sure your clients understand what they should expect from working with you. Be proactive and set expectations upfront, so there aren't any surprises down the road. Being proactive shows your professionalism and positions you as a leader instead of an order-taker. Clients will appreciate this and quickly learn to trust you. Think about the entire relationship—you're trying to land a client, not just a design project. And if you can change your mentality and think of them as partners instead of clients, you'll find the relationship even easier to build. Don't fall into the trap of viewing client projects as transactional, one-off projects. Instead, think of them as long-term relationships. Being proactive may also mean learning about your client and their industry. Do some homework and learn a little about them and their industry before meeting with them. Clients will appreciate your effort and are more likely to trust you with their project. Don't forget to keep in touch after the current project ends, as I discussed a couple of weeks ago in episode 303 about following up with dormant clients. If you do a good job setting expectations at the start, many clients will return to you for future projects. 2) Be Honest It's easy to tell clients what they want to hear, but delivering on those promises is much more challenging. A good designer is honest with clients about their limitations and how they plan to work within those constraints. It's ok to tell a client you don't know something. It's even better to show the client how you'll overcome those shortcomings. A good designer should be reliable enough to stick to their commitments. However, If you encounter any issues or setbacks during a project, be honest and let the client know. Clients want to work with someone they can trust and who will be truthful with them. If you are not honest with your clients, they will not return. So be honest with them from the start. This means being upfront about your prices, services, policies, limitations and timelines. You should also be honest about any problems or concerns your clients may have. If you are honest with your clients, they will appreciate it and will be more likely to come back to you. After all, honesty is the best policy for running a successful business. 3) Be Timely If you're a freelancer, you know how important it is to be timely. Deadlines are critical; you will not get repeat clients if you're not meeting them. That's why ensuring you're always meeting your deadlines is vital. If you're consistently meeting your deadlines, then clients will take notice. They'll see that you're reliable and that they can count on you to get the job done. This will keep them coming back to you time after time. So if you want to keep your clients happy (and keep them coming back), ensure you're always meeting your deadlines. It's the best way to ensure their satisfaction and ensure that they keep coming back for more of your great work. 4) Be Flexible You need to be flexible with clients. If you're unwilling to adapt to their needs, you will lose them as a client. Yes, It's your business, and you set the ground rules for how clients deal with you. That's part of being a professional. But it's not worth holding your ground if it means possibly losing a good client. For example, if a client insists on using their project management software instead of yours, or the deal is off, you must decide if this is something worth taking a stand on or if you can be flexible to appease the client. In today's ever-changing world, designers must adapt to their client's needs, or they will quickly become outdated. Clients hire you for your expertise, but they expect input as well. If their contributions fall on deaf ears, they won't enjoy working with you. And you know the outcome when that happens. After all, you aren't as experienced in their field as they are. Learn from your clients by talking and listening to them. Being flexible and adaptable shows that you are a business willing to change and eager to meet your client's needs. This is key to keeping your clients happy and returning for more. 5) Be Organized For clients to keep coming back, you must be organized. It's easy to lose track of things when you work alone, but if you want to be successful, you must be organized. Here are a few tips to help you stay organized: Make a list of everything you need to do so nothing gets overlooked, and tackle one task at a time. Invest in a good physical or software planner to keep track of projects, tasks, deadlines, appointments, and other important dates. All your important dates and times should be viewable in one location. Keep your work area clean and clutter-free. It will help you focus and be more productive. I often struggle with this, even though a clean desk allows me to work better. Take breaks throughout the day to clear your head and relax. This will prevent burnout and help you stay fresh. Delegate tasks whenever possible, so you don't feel overwhelmed. The more organized you are, the more professional you'll appear to your clients, which will keep them coming back. 6) Be Professional I've already mentioned being professional several times so far. Maybe I should have moved this one closer to the top. As a business professional, and that's precisely what you are, you always want to ensure that you put your best foot forward. This means dressing appropriately and acting professionally at all times. If you are unsure what attire is appropriate, err on the side of caution and choose something more conservative. Remember that first impressions are important, so take the time to present yourself in the best light possible. In addition to dressing and acting the part, it is also essential that you provide a high level of service to your clients. This means being responsive to their needs, meeting deadlines, and following through on promises. If you consistently provide a positive experience for your clients, they will be more likely to come back to you. Lastly, be careful with jargon. Using industry words may make you feel more professional, but it could alienate your clients and create misunderstandings that may create a wedge between you. Dropping jargon allows you to communicate clearly and effectively with your clients by putting you on the same page. 7) Be Reliable Clients will come back again and again because they trust you. They know you won't let them down. And they know you'll deliver quality work on time. If you want your clients to keep coming back, they must know they can count on you. Whether it's showing up on time for appointments or completing the work you promised, being reliable is key to maintaining a good relationship with your clients. When your clients trust that you will do what you say, they are more likely to continue working with you. 8) Be Trustworthy One of the most important traits you can possess as a business owner is a trustworthiness. If your clients don't trust you, they won't come back. It's as simple as that. Here are a few ways to make sure you stay trustworthy in their eyes: Always be upfront about costs and fees. Don't try to hide anything from your clients – they'll appreciate your honesty, which will build trust between you. Follow through on your promises. If you tell your client you're going to do something, make sure you do it! This will show them that they can rely on you and trust what you say. Be transparent in your dealings. This means being honest about the quality of your products or services and providing accurate information about pricing and availability. Additionally, you should be clear about any deadlines or expectations for your clients. Being transparent in your dealings with clients will build trust and goodwill that will keep them returning. 9) Be Responsive When it comes to keeping clients, responsiveness is critical. If you want returning clients, you must be responsive to their needs. This means being available when they need you, within reason, of course, and being able to address their concerns promptly. You need to adapt to changing circumstances and respond quickly to new ideas. You should be willing to adjust your habits and designs as required. Please take advantage of your client's feedback and learn from their opinions. This will help you hone in on the areas that matter to them. Being responsive shows your clients that you value their business and are invested in their success. It builds trust and rapport, which are essential for any lasting business relationship. So if you want to keep your clients coming back, ensure you are always responsive to their needs. It might take some extra effort, but it will be worth it in the long run. Turning new clients into recurring clients shouldn't be complicated. Keeping clients coming back, again and again doesn't have to be complicated. Remember, clients, don't want to look for another designer. It's as much trouble for them as finding new clients is for you. They're hoping you're "the one" they can stick with for the long haul. So it's up to you to become that person. By following these nine simple tips, you'll create long-lasting relationships that will benefit you and your clients by providing them with excellent customer service, going the extra mile, and making them feel special. And you can ensure that your clients will be happy, satisfied, and loyal to you and your design business for years to come.

Google. Very few brands have transitioned beyond their original intent. But Google is one of them. What started in 1998 as a small company launched by two Stanford U students to promote their new search engine has grown to become one of the world's largest conglomerates. Not only that, but the name Google has evolved to become a noun, an adjective and a verb. Don't believe me? Google it for yourself. And even though Google now offers a wide gambit of technological solutions to improve people's life. At their core remains the search engine. Did you know that there are over two trillion Google searches every year? It's hard to fathom how big two trillion is, so let me put it in perspective. There are over 5 billion searches on Google every day. That's 228 million every hour, almost 4 million searches every minute. That's a lot of searching. With an entire planet using them to satisfy their curious minds, Google must ensure its platform is easy to use. Easy enough for young children and seniors alike. You type in what you're looking for in the search bar, and Google provides you with possible answers. It's that easy. Of course, Google's results aren't always what you're looking for. But they make it very easy to try again with another search. But what if I told you some simple tricks could help you get better results on the first try? Here are 16 search hacks to help you find things faster on Google. 1) Use quotation marks ("") in your search. Enclosing your search term in quotation marks will return results with that exact phrase. For example, searching for "How to start a graphic design business" will only show results with those words in that exact order. Using quotation marks in your search makes it easy to find precisely what you're looking for. NOTE: Using double quotations ("""") tells Google what's inside them MUST be in the search results. 2) Use a minus sign (-) to exclude words from your search. If your search produced nonrelevant results, try eliminating words by placing a minus sign in front of them. For example, if you want to know the top speed of a Jaguar, the cat, not the car. You could search for "jaguar speed -car" This will eliminate searches about the jaguar motor vehicle. 3) Use Site: only to show results from a specific website. Not every website has a search bar. But that doesn't matter if you know Google's site search function. Adding Site: followed by the website you want to search, along with your search term, will return results only from that website. For example, to find out how many computers you can install Photoshop on, you could search for "Site:adobe.com how many computers can I install Photoshop on?" The results will only give you answer from the Adobe website. 4) Use an Asterisk (*) as a wildcard in your search. An Asterisk is a star-looking character you get by pressing Shift-8 on your keyboard (*). Replace a word in your search with an Asterisk to see results with multiple possibilities. For example, if you're planning a trip to Disney land. Searching for "best * at Disney Land" will return results for the best food at Disney Land, the best rides at Disney Land, the best hotels at Disney Land, the best shows at Disney Land, etc. You get the idea. The Asterisk is very useful when combined with the Site: operator. For example, if you want to find results only from government websites, include site:*.gov in your search string, and you'll only get results from websites with a .gov extension. 5) use OR or AND in all-caps to find multiple results. Using OR or AND returns results from both sides of the operator. OR can be used to find multiple results. For example, you could search for "Christmas decorating ideas in blue OR Green." You'll get results showing blue ideas and results showing green ideas. AND can be similarly used to combine results. Searching for "Christmas decorating ideas in blue AND green" will show you results with ideas that combine blue and green. 6) Use Intitle: to find results from a web page's title. The Intitle: operator can be very useful in narrowing down your searches by only displaying results that include your search term in the web page's title. For example, if you search for intitle: "communicating with your design clients," Google will show you two results. Episode 284 of the Resourceful Designer podcast on https://resourcefuldesigner.com and the same podcast episode on YouTube. That's because no other web page in Google index has "communicating with your design clients" in the title. Intitle: is very useful for finding relevant pages specific to your search and not just mentioning your search term somewhere in the body. 7) Use Allinurl: to find results from a web page's URL. The Allinurl: operator is similar to the Intitle: operator, except this time, the search term is in the URL of the website instead of the title. For example, typing "Allinurl: Resourceful Designer niche" will return every web page containing the words Resourceful Designer and niche in the URL. 8) Use Filetype: to find specific files. This is one of my favourite Google hacks. Using Filetype: lets you find specific file types such as .doc, .png or .pdf. Say you want to find a user manual for something you bought second-hand, such as a treadmill. Searching for the treadmill's brand name and model number and including Filetype:pdf in your search query will show you results of PFD files of your treadmill's user manual. This is one of my favourite Google Hacks. I use it all the time to get vector logos from companies in combination with the site: operator I mentioned earlier. For example, say I'm designing a poster for a local event, and I need to include sponsor logos on it. Contacting each sponsor to find a vector version of their logo can be tedious. But if they're a well-established company, you can sometimes search their website for pdf files and extract the vector logo yourself. Just search for site:[the company's website] Filetype:pdf. This will show you a list of all the PDFs on that company's website. It's then easy to look through them and find one that has a logo you can extract. Filetype: has saved me countless hours over the years. 9) Use Related: to find similar websites. I find this one useful when doing research. By typing related: and entering a website URL, Google will show you websites it thinks are similar to the one you entered. For example, searching for related:shutterstock.com will show you websites Google believes are similar to Shutterstock. 10) Use Cache: to see a website's cached version. Cache: is helpful if the website you are trying to visit is down. Or if you want to buy a domain and see how it was used before. I used this recently after an Instagram ad and purchasing something from the resulting website. The item I received wasn't at all as described in the ad. And when I went back to the website, it was gone. Luckily, I found a cached version of the site using Cache: and the site's domain name and managed to find their contact information. After several back and forths, they agreed to return my money. 11) Use Link: to find pages that link to another page. This one is useful if you are interested in website backlinks and where they originate. Enter Link: followed by a URL; the search results will show you all the sites that link to that page. This is an excellent way of finding out who links to your website or a competitor's website. 12) Use the Plus Sign (+) to include specific websites or terms in your search results. You can use the Plus sign (+)similarly to the Site: operator. Searching niche+resourceful designer will show results containing both niche and Resourceful Designer. You can also use it as a quick way to narrow down a search. For example, you can search for "famous quote+Henry Ford," and you'll get results containing quotes from Henry Ford. 13) Us a Tilde (~) to find approximate words. The tilde is the wave-like line usually found on your keyboard's key to the left of the number 1. Press Shift to type it. Tilde is helpful if you are unsure of the spelling word's spelling or if there are multiple spellings of a word. For example, since I'm in Canada, I spell the word colour with a "u." But while searching for a new printer, I would get the best results by typing "best ~colour printer." This way, I'll get results showing the best COLOR printers and COLOUR printers. 14) Use brackets () in your search to isolate parts of your search string. Brackets allow you to combine multiple methods I've shared above in a single search string. Similar to a math problem, such as (2+3) x 2 = 10, where you solve what's in the brackets first and then the rest of the equation, adding brackets to your search string can help focus your search. Here's an example of a search combining multiple methods and using brackets to separate them. Site:aiga.org (conference OR workshop) AND (Photoshop OR Illustrator) 15) Search a range of numbers using two dots (..) If you want only to see results between a range of numbers, use two dots between the numbers. For example, typing "who won the Super Bowl 1996..1999" will show results containing the Super Bowl winners from 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. 16) Use @ to find something on social media If you're searching for something and only want results from social media, include @ and the social media platform. For example, "Taylor Swift @twitter" will return results containing "Taylor Swift" found on Twitter. Google can do so much more. There you have it, 16 hacks to improve your Google searching and help you find things faster. And that's only scratching the surface. Google has so many other uses as well. Need to figure out a math problem? Type it into Google search. Need to do a quick conversation from Fahrenheit to Celcius or miles to kilometres or convert anything else? Type it into Google search. Need to know how much your money is worth elsewhere? Do a quick currency conversion in Google search. Are you planning a trip? Search [City Name] to [City Name] to get flight costs from multiple airlines. Need to know what time it is anywhere in the world? Type "Time in [city]" to find out. Don't know what a word means, type define before the word to learn its definition. You can also type etymology before a word to find its origins. Google can also be used to translate languages, get stock prices, find weather forecasts, and so much more. It is a wonderful tool. And I hope that after reading this, you're now more proficient in using it.

Episode Sponsor: StickerMule How often do you follow up with dormant clients? I'm not talking dormant like they haven't replied to an email in a few days. However, following up is always a good idea when you don't receive an expected reply. I'm talking about following up with dormant clients months or even years after you've completed whatever project you did for them. In episode 72 of Resourceful Designer, I discussed getting new work from existing clients. It's proven that getting new work from existing clients is much easier than landing new clients. After all, you don't have to worry about the awkward introductory phase since you already know each other. You have a proven track record, so you and your client know what to expect. And yet, even though it's much easier to get new work from existing clients. Many designers don't actively seek out that work. Why is that? You may be thinking to yourself. "I don't want to bother them. The clients know me. If they have more work for me, they'll contact me." But that's not always the case. I'm not saying they won't contact you when they have more work. They probably will. The problem is clients don't always realize they have work for you. What? What are you talking about, Mark? No, it's true. It's a case of "out of sight, out of mind." Your dormant client isn't thinking about you; therefore, they aren't thinking of the work they could be sending you. I want to run an experiment with you right now. Last week I went to the dentist for a routine checkup. I'm happy to say they found nothing wrong with my teeth. I take dental hygiene seriously, so I scheduled a new appointment for a cleaning in 9 months. Now, let me ask you this. Did you think about your dentist and your next appointment? Chances are you did. Maybe you thought about an upcoming appointment. Or perhaps it made you think you should make an appointment if you don't already have one. Regardless, I'm pretty sure, even if only briefly, you thought about your teeth. Why is that? It's because of triggers. Triggers. Triggers, the verb, not the thing you squeeze to fire a gun, are something that can connect one event to another. The mention of my dental appointment triggered your thoughts about your dental hygiene. If I say I recently changed the tires on my car because they had worn-out threads. You probably just started wondering about the tires on your vehicle. If I say, I have no idea what I'm having for dinner tonight. Now you're probably thinking about your next meal. All of these are because of triggers. Our day is full of them. Most of the time, you don't even realize they're there. But triggers influence you in many ways. Triggers are often the correlation between one thing and another. Triggers and Dormant Clients. That brings me back to following up with dormant clients. Remember when I said the problem is clients don't always realize they have work for you? It's because they don't have anything with which to correlate that work. And that's very easy to fix. Just like me mentioning my dentist made you think of your dentist. Reconnecting with a client can trigger them to find new work for you. Remember, "out of sight, out of mind?" When the client isn't thinking of you, they're not thinking of projects you can do for them. The solution is to get them to think of you. You can do that by following up. Triggers in action. Resourceful Designer Community members are beta testing a weekly accountability group where we share long-term and short-term goals. We meet once per week for 10-15 minutes. Each person shares one thing they want to accomplish before our next meeting. This goal could be small, like adding a new case study to their website, creating social media posts, or getting organized for a presentation. The object is to share something to which you want to be held accountable. Because the following week, you have to share whether or not you completed that goal. My goal two weeks ago was to reach out and reconnect with four dormant clients. I ended up emailing six long-standing clients. Their dormancy ranged from six months to a couple of years since the last project I did for them. When I sent my email, I didn't ask them if they had any work for me. Instead, I asked them how they were doing, and in a couple of cases, I wondered if they were happy with the last project I did for them. Over the following few days, three of these dormant clients replied with new design projects for me. One wanted an update on a flyer I created for them a few years ago. Another asked me to refresh their website with updated text and photos. The third wants to meet next week to discuss a new project. All three thanked me for reaching out and said they wouldn't have thought of these projects if I had not sent them my email. But my message triggered an interest in these projects. Of the other three clients, two thanked me for reaching out and asked me to contact them in January at the beginning of their new fiscal year. And the last one said times were tough, and business wasn't going well. But that he appreciated me checking in. So, six emails, three new projects and possibly two others in the new year. Not a bad return for the few minutes I spend composing six emails. And it was all because of triggers. Receiving an email from me triggered something that made them realize there was work they could give me. Funny how that works. How do you follow up? As I said, when I reached out to these clients, I didn't ask them if they had any work for me. I made the email about them. Not about me. For one client, I asked how the website I designed worked out for them. Was it bringing in the business they hoped? They're very pleased with the site and happy I reached out. They asked me to make some changes to the site. One of the clients is a retail outlet affected by the pandemic. I asked them how things were going now. He said things are finally picking up. He's the one that wants to meet with me next week. Another is a local membership association. I hadn't talked to them in almost two years, so I inquired how the pandemic had affected them. They're the ones that want me to update their flyer. Clients appreciate it when you think about them. If you email them asking if they have work for you, they'll see right through that. It sounds pleading. But if you make your message about them without asking for anything in return. They'll genuinely appreciate the thought behind it. That's how you build relationships. And we all know those client relationships are essential in our business. That's how you get more work from dormant clients. It doesn't matter if it's been a couple of months or a few years. Reach out to old clients and ask them how they're doing. Show them you care. You might get some work out of it. Triggers. It's funny how they work. Now go and make that dental appointment.

Here's some valuable advice to help make you a more productive graphic or web designer. Stop wasting time on time management. I've been in the graphic design space for over 30 years. I've been running my own home-based design business since 2005. And I've been publishing the Resourceful Designer podcast since 2015. In all that time, I've had the opportunity to talk to many designers. Be it graphic designers, web designers, UI and UX Designers. I've spoken with generalists and specialists, such as those focusing on specific niches. I've talked to design strategists, consultants, directors, and even design influencers. Two answers come out on top whenever asked what their biggest struggle is. Finding new clients. And Time Management. It's that latter one I want to talk to you about today. What is Time Management? According to dictionary.com, time management is the analysis of how working hours are spent and the prioritization of tasks to maximize personal efficiency in the workplace. Sounds simple enough. You analyze how you spend your time and then prioritize what you need to do to maximize efficiency. But if time management is that simple, why do so many people struggle with it? I mean, if time management were so easy, there wouldn't be thousands of different "solutions" addressing it. A search on Amazon returns over 70,000 books covering the subject. YouTube has over half a million videos on Time Management. And Google has over 80 million search results. Time Management is such a popular topic because EVERYONE has problems with it. Let me share a revelation with you today. Time is impossible to manage. Contrary to confusing movies such as Tenet. Time moves in one direction at a steady pace. So you're not trying to manage time. You're trying to manage how you go about your day while time continues at its own pace, totally ignorant of your plight. If you're looking at your fellow designers and thinking, "They seem so organized. I don't know how they do it." I'll let you in on a little secret. They're thinking the same thing about you. Everybody wants tips, tricks and techniques to be able to get more things done. To do things faster, to be more productive, more efficient and to work better. But the truth is that stressing over these things makes you slower, less productive, and less efficient and impedes your work. In my opinion, the only people who succeed with Time Management, and I don't mean succeed AT time management, but WITH time management, are those with something to gain from it, which means the authors of all those books on Amazon. The creators of those YouTube videos. And the writers of all the articles found through Google. It's what they say. If you want to make money, find a solution to a widespread problem. That's what these people are doing—offering a solution in order to make money. But are they addressing the problem? I doubt it. Because if they did, then time management wouldn't be such a prevalent issue. And you know what? I guarantee you that the people who created these time management assets still struggle with time management. It's inevitable. Why is that? It's because of this little thing called LIFE. I'm sure you've experienced it. It's like the military saying, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." Similarly, no time management plan can survive contact with life. You can have the best laid-out plan. You have everything organized and scheduled down to the millisecond. And it all goes out the window when "life" happens. You're kid's school calls because they're feeling sick. You get a flat time on the way to a meeting. A storm knocks out your power. Your dog gets sprayed by a skunk. Your magic mouse dies in the middle of the day, and you can't work while it's charging. Why Apple, Why? Life has a way of interfering with your best plans. So you just have to learn to live with it. What to do about Time Management? So far, I've been pretty bleak. I haven't been very helpful if you started reading this because you're struggling with time management and were hoping for a solution. So let me talk a little bit about your options. First, there is no one solution to getting the most out of your time. Again, if there were, then time management wouldn't be an issue for most people. Every individual is different. And that includes you. You learn differently. You process information differently. You go about completing Your tasks differently than anyone else. That's why there's no Time Management system you can shoehorn to fit everyone. You have to figure out what works best for you, and the solution that ends up working for you may come from many different time management options. And believe me, the many different options and opinions regarding this topic can leave your head spinning. Just look at this list of popular time management solutions. Eisenhower Matrix Getting Things Done, or the GTD method Time Blocking Autofocus Iceberg Method Pomodoro Technique Agile Results Kanban System Bullet Journalling Time Tracking And this is just a tiny sampling of some of the more popular time management solutions people share. So, where do you start? Start small with baby steps and combine options. The best advice I can give you is to start small. Trying to jump in feet first and embrace any of these systems in their entirety rarely works. In most cases, the person who tries gets overwhelmed and gives up. You must tackle time management in baby steps over an extended period—even years. I'll even go as far as saying your time management strategy should be ever-evolving. So first. Find one thing you can implement into your routine and test it out. For example, you may create daily to-do lists of the tasks you want to complete. If you find this works for you, embrace it and move on to the next thing to build out your personalized time management plan. If it doesn't, then try something else. It's ok and even encouraged to mix and match strategies from different systems to find a plan that works for you. Perhaps you can try Time Blocking next. Time blocking is when you block certain times of the day to perform specific tasks. Such as saving all your invoicing for Friday mornings. After that, you may want to dabble with the Agile Results method, where you identify three tasks from your To-Do list as priorities for today. Or the Eisenhower Matric method that divides tasks based on their importance. It doesn't matter what you try. Keep experimenting until you find something you feel good sticking with. What you're essentially doing is building a system that works for you. And this process will take time, as it should. And don't be afraid to adjust and tweak your system as you go. Don't worry about what others are doing. Steal ideas from them if you want. But ultimately, you need to do what works for you. For years, I managed my client projects in a leather-bound notebook. I found it very efficient. The more organized I was, the better I could manage my time. Then one day, I tried Plutio, a client management system, and I found I liked it. Now it's what I use. My system evolved. When I set up my appointment scheduler, I had it open five days a week from 9 am to 5 pm. Those were my business hours, so those were the hours I should be available to meet with clients. Or so I thought. It didn't take me long to realize that having meetings scheduled every day of the week impeded my productivity, making it very hard to manage my time regarding projects. So I blocked off Mondays and Fridays. Allowing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as my possible meeting days. I set up my scheduling software with one-hour buffers between meetings. When someone selects a meeting time, the software blocks off the hour before and after that meeting so nobody can book an appointment that might overlap. Then one day, I found myself with meetings scheduled for 9:30 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2:30 pm, and 4 pm. It pretty much ruined my day for anything else. There wasn't enough time between meetings for me to get into the flow of designing. Any time management I had went out the window. So I tweaked my scheduling software again. I shortened the buffer to 30-minutes between meetings and the availability window to Tuesday afternoons, Wednesday mornings and from 9-11 am and 3-5 pm on Thursdays. This new option opened up my schedule for me to work on projects for more extended periods while still being able to meet with clients. Do what works for you, and keep adjusting it. A time management system should never be written in stone. It needs to be something flexible that you are constantly moulding. Is Time Management the solution? Let me ask one last thing. Why do you need to manage your time? Is it because you're feeling overwhelmed? Is it because you have trouble prioritizing the things you do? Is it because you feel stressed running your business? Do you believe managing your time better will help you with any of these? Maybe other things are affecting how you work besides time. Is that a possibility? Working by yourself from home can be isolating. And what could at first appear to be a time management issue may have to do with your mental health. If trying various methods doesn't seem to be helping, you may want to consult someone to see if there's an underlying issue affecting how your work. The stigma regarding mental health is not what it was 10-20 years ago. It's entirely ok to seek help should you need it. You're worth it. Never forget that. So as I said at the beginning. Everyone suffers from time management issues—even the so-called experts on the subject. Life sees to that. I've been in this business for over 30 years and time management still gets the better of me more often than naught. So don't feel inadequate if you're suffering from it as well. You're in good company.

Episode Sponsor: StickerMule I want to talk to you about your tools (software). But first, I want to tell you a story. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter invited her mother and me for dinner, and we arrived mid-afternoon. As is always the case, Mother and daughter had lots to do and talk about, which left me to my own devices. So I turned on the TV, launched Disney+ and started scrolling through the menu to find something to watch. I knew there was the possibility they might need my help with something, so I didn't want to choose a show that would require my full attention. After some time, I decided to watch the Pixar movie UP! I hadn't seen it since my kids were young, but I remember it as a fun, feel-good movie. Plus, I wasn't concerned about missing part of it for whatever reason. In UP!, there's a character named Dug. Perhaps you're familiar with him. Dug is a dog that the two main characters meet along their journey. Dug wears a special collar his master made that allows him to talk. Now, I don't want to spoil too much of the movie if you haven't seen it. But let's say that Dug, like most dogs, is easily distracted. This is evident in the film every time he sees a squirrel. He might be mid-sentence explaining something important when suddenly, SQUIRREL. He's distracted. If you've ever heard the term Squirrel Syndrome to describe someone who is easily distracted, it came from Dug. A close sister to Squirrel Syndrome is Shiny Object Syndrome. Shiny object syndrome (SOS) is a continual state of distraction brought on by an ongoing belief that there is something new worth pursuing. According to Wikipedia, Shiny object syndrome is a psychological concept where people focus on a new and fashionable idea, regardless of how valuable or helpful it may ultimately be. While at the moment, it seems to be something worth focusing one's attention upon, it is ultimately a distraction. People who face a fear of missing out are especially susceptible, as the distraction of shiny objects in themselves clouds judgment and focus. I have a confession to share with you. For a long time, I suffered from Shiny Object Syndrome regarding software. Any time I saw or heard of a new tool, especially software, that might somehow make my life easier, I wanted it. Even if I had no idea how or why I would use it, it was FOMO, the fear of missing out. The pitch, ad, or recommendation made the software sound so helpful and desirable that I just had to have it. Someone would mention, or I would read, how this new software was the be-all, end-all of software. Using it can save you 10 hours of work per day, and your clients will start mailing you envelopes full of cash for all the fantastic features you can offer them because of it. It sounds too good to be true. But what if it isn't? And if I act right now, for a limited time, I will only pay $99 instead of the regular price of $9,000. What a deal. How could I pass that up? Ok, you know I'm exaggerating. But you also know there's some truth to what I'm saying. Looking through my Applications folder, I see several tools, and BTW, I'm using the terms tools and software interchangeably. Still, I see several tools I bought and never used or used for a short time before consciously giving up on them, or sometimes, just forgetting about them because it was not as helpful as I thought. I fell for the hype. And that's not counting all the online tools, memberships, subscriptions and communities I paid for and never used. We work hard for the money we make as designers. And we must be careful not to waste that money on tools we don't need. Case in point. Have you ever heard of Doodly? It's a tool that lets you easily create whiteboard animation videos. You know, the kind where you see a hand with a marker that quickly draws the animation. They're great for explainer videos. A few years ago, I saw a Facebook ad promoting a lifetime license for Doodly. It usually costs $39/month. But for a one-time purchase of $67, I would have access to it for life. There's no arguing. That's a fantastic deal. The problem is, I've never used it. The ad pitch for Doodly made it so appealing. I thought to myself. This would be an excellent service to offer my clients. And they hooked me in. I never considered that in my 30+ years in the design space, I've never needed to create a whiteboard animation video. Not once did I ever think, "you know what? A whiteboard animation video is exactly what this client needs. I wish I knew how to make them." The possibility of this tool blinded me. But in the three years since I fell for this deal. The opportunity to create a whiteboard animation video has never come up. So even though it was a fantastic deal. It was a waste of my money. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with Doodly. I still think it's a great tool. It just isn't a tool I need. Sure, the lifetime deal means I have it should I ever need it. But why spend money on something you may or may not ever need? Nowadays, everywhere you look, there's some tool or software that can benefit you and your business. I'm a big fan of AppSumo. I'm even an affiliate of theirs. If you're not familiar with AppSumo, it's a website that offers software products at amazing deals. Often lifetime deals where you pay once and own the software forever. AppSumo does a fantastic job at making these deals seem irresistible. How owning them improves your life and streamlines the way you work. In other words, they're great at marketing the products they promote in a way that makes you want them. And AppSumo is just one site. PitchGround, MacHeist, MightyDeals and many other websites offer lifetime deals for great-sounding products. And if you buy something, A lifetime deal is the way to go. After all, why pay monthly for something if you can pay once and use it forever? I've bought many lifetime deals for software I still use daily. And they've saved me a ton of money. Plutio, my project management software, costs $39/per month. I paid $49 for a lifetime license. Billwaze, is my invoicing software, although when I bought it, it was called EZBilling360. The plan I have costs $99.99/month. I paid $59 for a lifetime license. SocialBee is what I use to schedule and recycle social media content. It costs $39/month. I paid $49 for a lifetime license. Book Like A Boss is my appointment scheduler. The plan I have costs $15.83/month. I paid $49 for a lifetime license. And that's just a few. So you can see how buying a lifetime license is worth it. But that's provided you use the software. I've also purchased many lifetime licenses on these sites and elsewhere for tools I don't use. I was a culprit of shiny object syndrome. My problem was I would buy a great-sounding tool without knowing why or how I would use it. And I wasted a lot of money because of it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the products sold on these sites are not good. Many of them are. And they do help a lot of people. But just because they help a lot of people doesn't mean they're going to help you. In fact, my AppSumo purchase history is four pages long and dates back to 2015. And you know what? Looking through those pages, I can see a pattern. Every piece of software I bought and still use today is something I bought because I needed it at the time. Equally, almost every piece of software I purchased but didn't have an immediate use for, I don't use anymore, if I ever did at all. Just because something might be helpful to you someday is not a good excuse to part with your hard-earned money today. Owning many different tools doesn't make you a better or more efficient designer if you don't or can't use them. Remember, you're what makes you a designer. It's not the tools you use. Just like a photographer is a photographer regardless of the camera or lenses they use. Just because they buy a new lens doesn't make them a better photographer. Sure, it might allow them to take photos they couldn't take before. But that only helps them if they take the kind of photos the lens is designed for. A portrait photographer doesn't need a high-power zoom lens. So buying one is a waste of money. As a design business owner, you must be careful about your purchase of tools. That's why, to help fight my shiny object syndrome, I started to apply filters and question every tool I'm considering buying. It helps me stop wasting money on tools I don't need. And you should do the same. Don't ask yourself whether or not a tool will be helpful because, in most cases, it could be helpful. Look at Doodly. It's a beneficial tool if you need to create whiteboard animation videos. Instead, ask yourself whether or not it's something you need right now or in the foreseeable future. Are you in a situation or know of an upcoming situation that could benefit from owning that tool? If you can't think of immediate use for it, don't buy it. Now, sometimes you feel tempted by a tool because you feel it will help fast-forward something that might be difficult you're trying to avoid or get through. Take a CMS, for example, a Client Management System. There are hundreds of options out there you could use to manage your clients and projects. And hearing how someone is successfully using a different system may make you question your current system. But buying a new CMS may not be the answer. Maybe your frustration comes from a lack of understanding of your current CMS. And buying a new one is an easy way to avoid dealing with it. How does that saying go? "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." Even though a tool is working well for someone else, it may not be the answer to your problem. New is not always better. Instead, embrace what you already have and make it work for you. I mentioned how I use Plutio to manage my projects. Is it the best tool for the job? I have no idea. It might not be. Many designers use other tools that work well for them. However, I invested in Plutio, so I'm making it work. And think of this. Tools that claim to make things easier or more efficient, or ones that say they'll save you time, may attract you because you don't want to do those things. You're looking for an easy way out. What sounds like a great deal may be nothing more than a bandaid covering up what you really should or could be doing on your own. I talked earlier about lifetime deals and how they can save you a lot of money, which is true. But be wary. The offer of a lifetime deal makes it easy to get roped into purchasing something you don't need. My AppSumo purchase history is evidence of that. It lists many lifetime deals I've purchased that I never used. I bought them because I thought the price was too good to pass up for something that may come in handy someday. In other words, they were a waste of money. I didn't apply my filters. I didn't have an immediate use for them, so I never should have bought them. But what about tools with monthly fees? How many tools do you have that you pay a monthly fee for? How many of them do you get your money's worth from? I had an aHrefs subscription for over a year. Ahrefs is a fantastic platform to help track, analyze and grow websites. It's excellent with keyword research. It enables you to analyze and monitor competition, track website backlinks, and much more. If you're trying to build and grow websites, aHrefs is the tool to have. But it comes at a cost. My subscription was $127 Canadian per month. And every month, when I saw that charge on my credit card statement, I questioned whether it was worth it. The tool is excellent, but I wasn't using it as much as when I first subscribed. Was I getting $127 per month worth out of it? When I concluded that the answer was no, I wasn't; I cancelled my subscription. Why pay $127 a month for a tool I only use occasionally, no matter how much I like it? If I find myself in a situation where I need it again, I can always re-subscribe. But in the meantime, that $127 can be used elsewhere. I recently did an audit of all my monthly subscriptions and cancelled several of them that I no longer felt I needed. In all, I'm now saving over $300 per month. These days, I apply a filter, as I mentioned earlier, whenever I consider a new tool if I see an ad for something interesting on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Or maybe a podcaster I trust or a colleague recommends something I could use. In the past, I might buy it, no questions asked. But now I try to disconnect myself from the idea that the tools are the answer that will take me to the next level. The tools are simply a way to become more efficient at something. The tools are a means to an end. They're there to support and help you with the things you are trying to do. Once again, you're who makes you a designer. Not the tools you use. In many cases, these tools become a distraction and pull us away from the things we're trying to do. And they cost money and can become dangerous for you because they're masked by the idea that they'll make your life easier. But you don't need all the tools. I want you to make an audit of all the tools you're currently using and figure out which ones are necessary. This can save you money. It can save you time. And it can bring you back to what's vital for you and your business. And stop paying for those tools that aren't necessary. Think back to the photographer analogy. A photographer who buys a new lens every time they want to take a different kind of photo will soon find themselves with a hefty camera bag, just like all the tools we have to deal with as designers. Imagine that photographer making decisions now. They have over a dozen lenses to choose from, and it will become harder and harder for them to decide which one to use. This works against them and makes them less efficient photographers because they don't have the time to master each lens. Be honest with yourself. The tools you have right now. Are you using them to the best of your ability? Are you maximizing the investment you put into them? Tools are not magic buttons. You can't just buy something and all your problems go away. That's not how it works. So do that audit. Figure out which tools are necessary for what you do. Next, figure out which would be great if you actually used them. Then decide if you want to commit to using them. If not, stop paying for them. Finally, determine what you don't use or need and eliminate them. Open up your wallet and mind for the tools you will use. I did this episode as much for me as it is for you. I've failed at this before, and I want to hold myself accountable to be better at it in the future. Every time I see a new tool come across my screen, I need to ask myself. Do I need this right now? Will this actually help me? Or is it just distracting me from what I know I need to do? More often than not, it turns out I don't need the tool, regardless of how good the deal seems.

I need to put the Resourceful Designer podcast on a short hiatus. Episodes will return on October 17th, 2022. In the meantime, if you watch the new The Rings Of Power television series on Amazon Prime Video, please check out my new podcast. The Rings Of Power Podcast - Tales From Middle Earth. http://theringsofpowerpodcast.com/

When first starting in graphic or web design, firing a client may seem like a foreign concept. After all, isn't the whole point of building a business to increase your number of clients, not reduce it? But money is money, and as long as clients pay, they're worth having. Right? If you're strapped for cash and don't have a choice, then I say, sure, get every client you can. But as your client list grows and things become more stable, you'll inevitably notice that some clients are easier to work with than others. Or maybe it's not the client. It might be that you enjoy working on specific client projects more than other client projects. Like many of us, it's also possible that you may find yourself dealing with clients who frustrate you for one reason or another. These are the clients that make you sigh or groan every time they contact you. Dealing with them is more complicated than with your other clients. You can put up with these clients for a while. But if something isn't done to resolve whatever issues you have with them, the solution may be to let them go. Not every reason to let a client go is a negative one. As you'll see from the situations described below, there are times when you may want to let a client go because it's the right time to do so. You'll grow over time, as a designer and as a business person. This growth may lead you to pivot your business and perhaps narrow down on a niche, making some existing clients no longer a good fit for you. Whatever the reason, you will be faced with walking away from a client at some point, hopefully, in a way that minimizes the impact on your business. Here are 11 signs that it's time to let a client go. The client has unreasonable demands or is abusive. If you ever feel like a client is mistreating you or is outright abusive, it's time to let them go. Some clients expect you to behave like an employee. They want you at their beck can call, doing their bidding whenever they want. Just because they are paying you does not give them the right to treat you unprofessionally. You're a business person just like them, not their employee. Any Abusive behaviour or verbal attacks against you or your business should never be tolerated, regardless of the cost of a design project. This may sound like common sense, but many designers put up with unreasonable and abusive clients because the money is good. Let them go. You'll find better clients to replace them. The client negatively impacts your bottom line. Some clients are notorious for expecting special favours. Maybe they want special rates or discounts or expect you to provide services above and beyond your typical offerings. If your relationship with these clients no longer feels like a good business decision, let them go. The client refused to work your way. Any client who refuses to follow your guidelines or work the way you outline should be a concern for you. If you cannot resolve the issue with them, it's a sign they are not a good fit for you. Let them go. The client asks you to do the same monotonous work over and over. Some design projects often become repetitive. I had a client years ago that wanted their product photos to be on a white background. So all I did for them was close crop photos. It was easy money initially, but the work became tedious after several months. I realized the client didn't require anything else from me other than this dead-end project. I let them go and devoted my time to other client projects. The client has payment issues. Having to deal with a client who is consistently late with payments or wants to negotiate on every project isn't fun. Hopefully, a well-written contract will alleviate these problems. But if not, it's probably in your best interest to let the client go. After they pay you, of course. The client is not someone you enjoy working with. Not everyone gets along. That goes for designers and their clients as well. It's not necessarily because the client is a difficult person. Sometimes personalities just don't mesh. If you find yourself in a situation where you don't enjoy working with a particular client, it might be time to let them go and find someone better suited to you. The client expects more than what you agreed upon. You can't blame a client for trying to get the most from their investment. However, if a client keeps requesting additional work beyond the original agreed-upon project, and isn't paying for your extra effort, then there's a problem. Scope creep is quite common in our industry. It's best to put a stop to it right away before things escalate. If the work you are doing for your client keeps increasing, but they are not compensating you for it, it may be time to let the client go. You've outgrown your client. At some point, you may decide that a client is no longer a good fit. Maybe your business grows to the point where you don't want to deal with smaller-budget clients. Perhaps you narrow your focus on your services, and existing clients no longer meet your criteria. Any time you outgrow a client, let them go and find new ones which suit you better. The client is inconsistent. Some designers prefer to work with clients who can guarantee consistent work. This is a perfect business model for retainer agreements which I've discussed in episodes 32 and 255 of the podcast. If a client only offers you the odd project here and there with no guarantee of steady work, you may consider letting them go and focusing your energy on clients with recurring projects. The client doesn't respect you as a professional. It's a fact that many people don't take designers seriously as business professionals. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't yourself. Suppose a client disrespects you by consistently cancelling, postponing or not showing up for meetings. Or if they take forever to reply to your emails or phone calls. Or if they disrespect you in any other way, let them go. As a business professional, you don't have time to deal with people who don't respect what you do. The client isn't paying your current rates. As time goes by, you will inevitably raise your rates as you grow your design business. You may start at $30/hr or $150 for a logo design, but you'll want more at some point. Raising your rates isn't hard to do. You decide what your new rate is and charge it. All new clients pay the new rate. But what about old clients who are used to paying your old rates? In my experience, most clients will understand and accept your new rate. I've never lost a client because of a rate hike. But, should a client not be able to or is unwilling to pay your new rates. Take it as a sign that it's time to part ways with them. Some clients can afford you, and some can't. That's Ok. It's the same for every business. There you have it, 11 signs that it's time to let a client go. As you can see, sometimes you should let a client go not because they are a lousy client but because you've evolved beyond them. Regardless of why you let a client go, it would be best if you did so in a professional manner. Whenever possible, try to come up with a solution that will prevent you from having to let a client go. But if it comes to parting ways, always try to leave on good terms. Leaving on good terms can strengthen your relationship with the departed client. There's no telling what the future holds. You never know. A client you let go of today might be in a different situation down the road and in need of someone with your talents. If you parted on good terms, you might be able to pick up and continue that relationship. Even a lousy client may one day see the light. So don't burn bridges if at all possible. I've talked on this show many times about how any design business's success is built on the relationships you form with your clients. Ending a relationship can be challenging, especially one you've had for a long time. Remember, you are running a business. As such, you need to do what is in the best interest of that business. Sometimes, that means letting clients go. They'll respect you for it.

Find something to distract your creative mind. Nobody tells you when you get into the design industry that regardless of whether you're doing this part-time or full-time or how many hours you devote to working each day, being a graphic or web designer is a 24/7 job. The curse of creativity. Let me know if this sounds familiar to you. You're out doing errands. Maybe it's grocery shopping or going to an appointment. It doesn't matter. Whatever you're doing has nothing to do with design work. And yet, for some reason, you find your mind churning away at design-related things. It starts contemplating a problem your having with a client website. Hmm, what's the best way to accomplish that? Or it starts generating ideas for that new logo you're designing. What if I play around with using an abstract star in the logo? It could be something as mundane as imagining colours. I like the blue on the cereal box. I wonder how this blue would look on that poster I'm designing? Even though you're "off-the-clock," your mind keeps designing. You may be watching TV and only half paying attention to what's playing because part of your brain is crunching away at some design problem. Or worse, you're lying in bed in the pitch dark, wanting to fall asleep, but your brain has other plans. Have you ever found yourself in any of these situations? Call it the curse of creativity. Those gifted with it know that creativity can pop up at the most inopportune times. Now, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love how my mind works and all the creative things it comes up with. However, I could do without the sleep deprivation. But even that's a small price for something I love doing. But even though I embrace this wild creativity we designers possess. Sometimes it would be nice not to have my mind wander towards some design problem when I'm not working. Because letting it do this over and over can lead to burnout. If all we think about is our jobs as designers, we may end up resenting what we do for a living. A creative solution. Now there are various solutions to this "problem." Some people practice meditation to clear their minds. And I'm sure it's beneficial for them, but meditation isn't my thing. Some people listen to music or podcast. But just like watching TV, I find your mind can still wander away from these intended distractions. I can't tell you how often I found myself listening to a podcast or audiobook only to realize my mind started wandering, and I have no idea what was said over the last several minutes. Some people turn to exercise, which is never a bad thing. But I'm not sure how effectively it curbs a wandering creative mind. It doesn't take a lot of brain power to count repetitions. I found that the best way to stop a creative mind from wandering is to give it another creative outlet. That's right, fight creativity with creativity. Now I'm far from being a brain expert. But I think many of these scenarios I've mentioned don't require a lot of brain processing power. Walking down a grocery ails and picking out a cereal box doesn't need your undivided attention. Nor does putting one foot in front of another while out running. This "brain idling" leaves a significant portion of your mind with nothing to do. And what do most sentient things do when they have nothing to do? They get bored, and they start to wander. And that's why creativity is the best weapon against wandering creativity. It's kind of like fighting fire with fire. Or maybe it's not. I don't know. The best way to stop thinking about your job as a designer is to occupy your mind with another creative task. Since creativity uses a lot of brain power, it's difficult for your mind to think of two creative things simultaneously. So it focuses on the more immediate one. The creative outlet you choose is irrelevant. Maybe, instead of listening to music, you create music. Maybe, instead of reading, you try writing. Perhaps you try a sport instead of going to a gym to exercise. After all, most sports require creative thinking. Or it could be knitting, sculpting, dancing, scrapbooking, or even basket weaving if that's your thing. It doesn't matter, as long as it requires creativity. When it comes to creative outlets, there are unlimited choices. My creative outlet. My favourite creative outlet is woodworking. I may have mentioned it before on the Resourceful Designer podcast, but I love woodworking. If I hadn't become a designer, I probably would have become a carpenter or something in the woodworking field. I even have battle scars to prove it. Last year, while building a plant stand for my wife, I caught the tips of two of my fingers on my table saw. Luckily the damage was minimal. A couple of tiny scars are the only evidence of the mishap. But the dangers of woodworking aside, I love taking raw pieces of wood and creating something new and unique out of them. This past weekend I created a food cage for our cat. Don't worry. It's not as sinister or cruel as it sounds. We recently got a new puppy, and we don't want him to eat the cat food that we leave out. Our cat is getting old, so making her jump up to areas that are out of the dog's reach wasn't a great idea. So I designed and built a cat food cage. It's a wooden cage with an opening on one side that we place over the cat's food bowl. We place the cat food cage in the corner of our bedroom, close enough to the wall so the cat can squeeze beside it and get in through the opening, but the dog can't. Problem solved. The cat can eat in peace whenever she wants, and all the dog can do is sit outside the cage and watch. It took me a weekend to design and build this cage. Not that it was difficult, but I had to give time for the wood glue to dry. Let me tell you, the entire time I was conceptualizing and working on this cage, I did not think about any of the websites, podcast artwork or other design projects I have on the go. And that felt great. It felt great not to be a graphic or web designer for that short period and instead be a woodworker. That's my creative outlet. Whenever I need to give my mind a break, I go to my workshop and build something. And I always feel refreshed and energized after doing so. It's as if taking a break from thinking about design makes me more eager and excited when I start back up. Woodworking recharges me. What creative outlet do you use to escape from being a designer? I firmly believe that having one, if not more than one, will make you a better designer. Think of it as exercising your creativity. Just like you don't do the same routine each time you go to the gym, changing up your creative outlets will make you a healthier and more rounded creative person. Your mind and your clients will thank you.

In episode 89 of Resourceful Designer, I discussed checklists and your design business. As a bonus to that episode, I offered my WordPress Website Setup Checklist. That was five years ago, and things have changed. In that time, I've grown and expanded as a web designer. The tools I use to create websites have also grown and expanded. Here is an up-to-date list of the tools I regularly use to design and build WordPress websites. Don't build in WordPress? Don't worry. I share a few things that may help you regardless of the platform where you design websites. Conceptualizing the website. Before I get down to designing and building a website, I want to know what I'm building. These are the tools that help me in the conceptual stage. Dynalist: Dynalist is a great outlining app that helps you get work done. I use Dynalist to outline the structure of every website I build. I like to know what pages a site will have and where they sit in the hierarchy. Dynalist helps me do this. Coolors.co Coolors.co is a super fast colour palette generator. I use it to choose colours for a website before the build starts. It's also convenient for finding great colours to go along with a client's existing brand colours. Setting up the website. SiteGround SiteGround I host all my and my client's websites at SiteGround. They're inexpensive, reliable, easy to work with and score well in web host comparisons. What more could a web designer ask for in a web host? Siteground has a very convenient one-click WordPress install feature that gets me up and designing quickly. Their installation registers me as the site admin using my email address instead of the default "Admin," usually generated by WordPress. If your web host doesn't have this feature, then I suggest the first thing you do upon installing WordPress is create a new Admin user and delete the default one named "Admin." During installations, Siteground installs two of its own plugins, SiteGround Optimizer and SiteGround Security. These are great plugins; however, I disable them until I finish building the site. Assets and tools I use on just about every website. Envato Elements Envato Elements is the first place I look for any stock images, icons or graphics I may need during a website build. Their low monthly subscription allows unlimited downloads, which comes in handy while experimenting. Depositphotos Depositphotos is another excellent resource for stock images and vector graphics. They're inexpensive, and their quality matches higher price stock image sites. Grammarly Grammarly ensures my website copy is error-free and written most effectively. I've been using it for years and won't compose anything without running it through Grammarly. Squoosh Squoosh.app is a handy website that does one thing very well, it optimizes images. Every image I upload to a website passes through Squoosh first. Screenflow Screenflow is only available on Mac (sorry, windows users). It's a screen recorder that makes it very easy to create tutorial videos explaining to clients how to use their new website. Screenflow is also a powerful video editor which I use any time I need to do minor edits to a video before uploading it to a website. Handbrake Handbrake is a free video conversion tool. It allows you to change the format of a video which is very useful in reducing a video's file size. Building the website. Divi Theme Divi by Elegant Themes is the world's most popular WordPress page builder and is trusted by hundreds of thousands of website creators. Divi takes WordPress to a new level by allowing you to build a website visually. With Divi, there's practically nothing you cannot create. Divi Marketplace The Divi Marketplace: is a one-stop shop for everything Divi, including layouts, child themes and extensions. If you need a website to do something special, chances are the solution can be found in the Divi Marketplace. Divi Booster Divi Booster allows you to customize Divi without adding extra code. This plugin adds 100s of new configuration options to Divi. Divi Express Divi Express is a vast library of Divi layouts, sections, headers & footers, sub-pages and more that you can import into your Divi website. Using Divi Express has drastically reduced my website design time. Divi Supreme Divi Supreme Is an All-in-One Divi Plugin that adds over 50 new Modules and eight extensions to Divi. Divi Supreme eliminates the need to customize things with a ton of CSS, saving you time. Divi Extended Divi Extended offers over 50 Divi Child Themes and 11 unique plugins. Their Divi Plus plugin adds over 50 new Modules to Divi. I love their Divi Blog Extra and Divi Blurb Extra plugins. Divi Life Divi Life also offers Layouts, Child Themes and Plugins. My favourite plugins from Divi Life are the Divi Overlays and Divi Bars plugins that I've used on several client websites. Divi Engine Divi Engine also offers plugins and extensions for Divi. However, it's their one plugin Divi Machine that excites me. With Divi Machine, you can create dynamic content with Div and Advanced Custom Fields. Learning about Divi Machine has changed the way I imagine websites. Plugins I use during the build. Gravity Forms Gravity Forms is the ultimate forms plugin as far as I'm concerned. Even though Divi has forms built in, the ease and versatility of Gravity Forms make it a must-install on every website I build. PrettyLinks PrettyLinks makes it easy to create prettier and easily sharable URL links for your pages directly from within WordPress. SEO Plugins Yoast and Rank Math are the two SEO Plugins I'm most familiar with. Yoast has been an industry leader in website SEO for years, but I've recently seen great results with Rank Math. Both are highly recommended, so research to see which one is best for you. Once the website is built. These are the plugins I install once I've completed a website build. These add functionality to protect and make the site more efficient. iThemes iThemes Security Pro: iThemes Security Pro is arguably the best WordPress Security Plugin available. I don't take chances with website security, and that's why I rely on the best. iThemes BackupBuddy makes it easy to create and store backups of a WordPress website. Over 1 million WordPress sites trust BackupBuddy, and so do I. iThemes Sync: I install this plugin on every website. iThemes Sync allows you to update and manage multiple websites from one location, making it very easy to perform weekly maintenance. SiteGround Optimizer and SiteGround Security: I deactivate these two plugins while building websites and reactivate them once the site is complete. SiteGround has created two great plugins that I've come to rely on. Google Analytics for WordPress by Monster Insights: This plugin makes it very easy to monitor your website traffic.

I have a confession to make. I'm not perfect. Even though I've released 297 episodes of the Resourceful Designer podcast, a show I created to share tips and strategies for running a graphic and web design business. I still don't have all the answers. And even though I consider myself a successful entrepreneur. After all, I've been running my home-based design business for 17 years. Plus, I started my niche side business, Podcast Branding, just over three years ago, and it's doing better than I ever imagined. And yet, I still struggle. I don't struggle much with finding clients or design projects. I've been fortunate in that aspect. What I find myself struggling with from time to time is motivation. Feeling lazy. Some days, no matter how many things are on my to-do list, I don't feel like working. I feel lazy. I'll sit at my computer in the morning with the best intentions, having thought of everything I wanted to work on that day. But at the end of my work day, I look back and realize I didn't accomplish any of them. Sure I answered some emails. I read a few business-related articles. I watched some tutorials on YouTube. But actual work, the thing that makes me money, not so much. Not enough to compensate for an 8-hour work day. Luckily, one of the perks of working for yourself is you don't have to answer to anyone. As long as you get the work done, it doesn't matter how or when you do it. And everything would be fine if this was a sporadic occurrence. But that's the problem. Sometimes it isn't. When I get in a rut like this, it could last days. I'll chastise myself at the end of the day for my lack of drive, my laziness. And tell myself I'll work twice as hard tomorrow. But then tomorrow rolls around, and, for some reason, it happens again. Sure I'll get some small things done. But not nearly enough to satisfy me. A few weeks ago, I needed to start a website project. I intended to begin it on Monday. It was a big project, and I planned to get ahead of the timeline. But for some reason, I found other things to do. A lot of them non-productive. So Monday went by, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and I still hadn't started the website. To me, Friday is never a good day to begin something new. So I told myself I would finally start it on Monday. A week later than I initially wanted. And you know what? I didn't start it on Monday either. It's as if I knew how much work was involved with designing and building the website, and the laziness that had overcome me wasn't motivated to get started. I don't know what depression feels like. And honestly, I don't think that's what was happening. I honestly believe I was feeling lazy. But whatever it was, I was in a rut. When you're in a rut. Rut, what a funny word. I just looked up its meaning. A Rut is a habit or pattern of behaviour that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change. That's exactly what I was going through. I had gotten into the behaviour of pushing off the big things on my to-do list because I was feeling lazy and unproductive. Maybe I should have called this post "Starting Is The Hardest Part." I know now, as I knew then, that everything would be fine once I started the website. Once I worked on it, I would find the motivation to keep going. Newton's first law of motion says, "An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion." There's more to Newton's law than that, but we're talking about laziness and work motivation here, not physics. However, the principle still applies. As long as I didn't start the website project, leaving it be was easier. But once I did start, I kept going and saw it threw to the end. Do you ever feel this way? Lazy, I mean? Do you ever stall or delay getting things started for no good reason? And I'm not talking about procrastination. I feel that procrastination is something different. I'm a notorious procrastinator. It used to drive my manager crazy when I worked at the print shop because I often waited until the last minute to start a project. But that was a conscious decision. And I still do that today. If I have a deadline in three weeks and know that it will only take me a couple of days to do the task, I'll often put it off until that third week and then plough through it. I like to think I work best under pressure. But these ruts I'm talking about are not the same. I'm not consciously deciding to put things off or procrastinate. It's the opposite; I want to start these projects. But somehow, I don't. At least until I don't have a choice because I'm running out of time. To me, that's a rut. And ruts come in spurts. I'll go months, if not years, where everything runs smoothly. And then, I find myself in a rut for no apparent reason. As I said earlier, I found myself in such a rut a few weeks ago. And what's worse is I knew I was in a rut, and it annoyed me. But being annoyed by my behaviour wasn't changing the fact that I felt lazy. I got so annoyed that I googled "How to get out of a rut." I found a good article on Forbes.com titled 6 Ways To Get Out Of A Rut. Here are the six steps the article recommends. 1) Acknowledge The Problem I had already done this, hence my google search. 2) Break Things Down Into Steps Which said to make a to-do list and chip away at it one task at a time. I already work with a to-do list, so this wasn't anything new to me. 3) Done is Better Than Perfect. Which talked about not getting hung up on perfectionism and that you should be satisfied with a project's completion, even if it's not perfect. This didn't apply to me since my issue wasn't finishing a project but starting one. 4) Get Some Fresh Air. I was already going outside when I should have been working. So this step didn't apply to me. 5) Get Some Exercise. This is a good idea for someone feeling stressed or anxious. But I wasn't feeling either of those. 6) Talk to Someone. This was good advice. And yet I didn't do it. I have a group of colleagues I could talk to in the Resourceful Designer Community, yet I didn't for some reason. Not because I was embarrassed or anything. I think it was because I felt it was something I should be able to overcome on my own. After all, I've been in ruts before, and they never last. I guess I failed on this last step. I should have opened up to someone. So even though this was a great article, It didn't help me. Or at least I didn't feel like it helped me at the time. I mean, after all, I am talking to someone about it. You. A bit after the fact, but I still think this counts. What got me out of my rut. Do you want to know what finally got me out of my rut? Believe it or not, it was a to-do list. And what's funny is I got this idea from a different article, not on getting out of a rut, but on productivity. Which I guess go hand in hand. The article's title that helped is The Counterintuitive Secret To Get More Done Every Day. In her article, the author explains that you should create a to-do list with two sections. In the top section, you write down one to three things you must accomplish that day. Then draw a line across the page. Below that line, write all the things you want to do that day but are not critical if you don't. The trick is not working on anything below the line until the item(s) above the line are complete. I know, it sounds silly. But I decided to give it a try, and it worked. The following day I wrote two things above the line. Set up WordPress for the new website and install Divi and starter plugins. Start designing the website header. Below the line, I wrote other items from my to-do list that I wanted to do that day. I wanted to do these things, but it wasn't crucial that I get them done that day. And you know what happened? As I began my work day, I received an email from a client asking for a small change to their website. Something that would take less than 5-minutes to complete. Most days, I might do it to get it out of the way. But I looked at my list and added it to the items below the line. And then I got to work starting the website. I did the same thing each morning until momentum picked up, and I no longer felt like I was in a rut. This happened a few weeks ago. That website is complete, and my client is pleased with what I made for them. I also made that small change to the other client's site, but only that afternoon after completing the above-the-line tasks. Everything is back to normal. I'm happy to report that things are going well right now, and I'm keeping on top of things. I'm no longer in a rut, and my business is again running like clockwork. Do I still use this to-do list hack? No. I've gone back to how I did things before I was in the rut. But I've been at this long enough to know there will be more ruts. They don't happen often, but they do. And when I notice I'm in the middle of the next one. I'll think of this little trick. And hopefully, like it did this time, it will help me out of my rut and get back on track much faster. I wanted to share this with you because I'm sure I'm not the only designer who experiences ruts like these. And I want you to know that you are not alone if this happens. Feeling lazy happens. It's normal, we all experience it, and it's ok. Providing it doesn't affect you long term. I mentioned how I brushed off the idea of depression because I'm confident that wasn't what was affecting me. However, depression is serious and not something you should be ashamed of if you think you may be depressed. If you feel lazy, in a rut, lul, or anything else that seems to be stealing your motivation to work and can't get out of it on your own, don't be afraid to talk to someone. You can contact me via email at feedback [at] resourcefuldesigner.com. You don't have to go through it alone.