brassblogs

I’ve noticed, over the last couple of years, how people tend to slow down in their careers. They get into a groove (which is good, that means you’re efficient and have a system that works for you), but they never seem to deviate from it.

When it comes to web design, one thing I’ve noticed – usually by clients who come to me to take the place of an old designer who “disappeared” – is that people get into a “groove” with the internet, and never deviate from it. A case in point: I’m “cleaning” a site right now for a client (whose old designer “disappeared”) who’s running WordPress 2.0.4. I won’t go into all of the hairy details right now, but I tell ya, it’s fun!

Not too long ago, I went in to a rare sit-down, face-to-face interview with a potential client. (Most of my clients are from out-of-state, or even the country, so an actual face-to-face doesn’t happen often.) It was a great conversation. It was a local small radio station, and I was actually recommended to them by their previous designer (who was basically getting a lot of business, and couldn’t handle their site anymore, so he referred them to me). One thing they were very concerned about (and yeah, they were concerned) was my price quote. They told me that the services I quoted for the project were a lot less than the other two design firms they were interviewing. As in, the other guys quoted about 4 times more than I did.

I loved how they were straightforward with me. So I was straightforward right back. I told them I couldn’t comment on the other companies, or how they did business, or how they figured out how much to charge. I just know what I do, and how I came about my pricing. They also mentioned that I wasn’t charging them for the CMS platform I planned to build the site on (which was WordPress) – to which I told them that I couldn’t charge for that even if I wanted to, as it was open-source (i.e. “free”) software, and it was against the license terms to charge for it – that all they were paying me to do was bend WordPress to their will.

They were satisfied with that, and I asked – just out of curiosity – what the other companies were planning to use for their site. One company was going to build a CMS platform for them from the ground up on ASP, and then submit their sites to hundreds of search engines, put in very rich keywords in their meta tags, and some other SEO stuff that was straight out of 1999. The other was – like me – a one-woman show, and was going to build the site in Word, and both companies would let them edit it with Contribute (which the client had to pay for), and also offered the same SEO services. *

This is where the title of this post comes from. You CAN always do better. I wish I’d had those other people in the interview room with me, so I could tell them how their practices were outdated, and could possibly harm this company in the end. Using ASP is fine, I have no problem with that. But the practices they were using were just amazing to me.

In the past, I’ve had people call me “genius”, “guru” and “expert,” to which I shake my head (and maybe blush a little) because I’m not. At least, I don’t see myself in that light. I can name about 50 other people who know a lot more than I do, and when I grow up, I wanna be like them. I read all kinds of web-related magazines, I belong to a fantastic mailing list of a group of extremely knowledgeable women in this business, and Twitter has been a Godsend for reaping amazing information by the industry leaders that I follow. I try my best to stay on top of things. So when a client argues with me using outdated information, I just sigh, and wonder when other companies will pull the wagon wheel out of the rut, and try and learn something new.

I don’t know everything. I always strive to be better, I always strive to top myself over the last time. I always try and learn something I didn’t know before, every single day. it’s not easy, but I believe it is what makes me stand out a bit. I’m never satisfied with myself.

In any industry – especially one as ever-changing and liquid as the web – you must stay on top of things. You must read and learn and watch “trends”, or you’ll fall behind. It’s important to do this. Some people look at is “unnecessary” or something you “get around to” in your leisure time – but I truly believe this is in integral part of becoming – and staying – a successful business. It must be worked into your schedule.

I know I can always do better. So can you.

*For the record, I didn’t get the job. I think it was because they insisted I go back and double-check my numbers because either I was “lowballing”, and really couldn’t deliver on what I was saying I could do, or (as the lady said) I didn’t know my own value. I didn’t choose to argue with her, because I knew neither situation was correct. But I did go back and double-check my numbers, because she’d asked me to. (My husband said I should have jacked up my price, because she was flat-out giving me permission to do so.) I sent her the same number – I just couldn’t do that. What I charge is what I charge, and I’m not hiking my rates just because someone else costs a lot more than I do. Sad to say, I never heard from them again. Which is too bad, because it really would have been a fun project to take on.