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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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IT maintenance affects SharePoint, Account Manager and more
Affected services:
Business Support Systems
Software
Wiki
Scheduled for Tuesday 13th November 2018 at 07:00am (London)
Schedule/description of work
Due to an upgrade, Sharepoint sites (solutions.bath.ac.uk, including Boards sites, SharePoint Team Sites and mysites.bath.ac.uk) will be unavailable. Due to quarterly security updates, Learning Material Filestore (LMF) will be unavailable, OpenCMS will be unavailable and the Wiki will also be unavailable. Due to an update, the Password Changer function in Account Manager will be unavailable from 7am until 7.30am.
Scheduled start time
November 13, 2018 07:00
Duration
2 hours
Status
Upcoming
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Source: https://status.bath.ac.uk/maintenance/e8aa04a8-ccd9-422b-9bcb-211968b84c43
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Prettier Photos Of 2-beds Small Bedroom Design
sylvia house – traditional 4 bedroom cottage design this traditional 4 bedroom cottage design or 5 bedrooms if you include the study is a very family & bud friendly home with all the charm of a single storey cottage with the 2 storey area contained wholly within the roof line this home is beautiful and homely and fits well into a street scape dominated by single storey homes 2 bed study nook house plan 60sbh australian modify this plan this plan can be customised send us your contact details and will call you to discuss it more please tell us which plan number you are after 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house plan 93 6 m2 1000 sq foot modify this plan this plan can be customised send us your contact details and will call you to discuss it more please tell us which plan number you are after double beds & frames bedroom furniture ikea choose from a huge range of fortable well designed double beds frames and mattresses we have lots of styles including beds with built in storage serene villas tropical garden villas in the heart of serene palm 3 bedroom these two 3 bedroom pool and garden villas are great for families or groups of friends wishing to holiday to her but still have privacy when needed
Home » bedroom » Prettier Photos Of 2-beds Small Bedroom Design
double beds & frames bedroom furniture ikea choose from a huge range of fortable well designed double beds frames and mattresses we have lots of styles including beds with built in storage serene villas tropical garden villas in the heart of serene palm 3 bedroom these two 3 bedroom pool and garden villas are great for families or groups of friends wishing to holiday to her but still have privacy when needed day bed guest bed guest beds day beds ikea day bed fort day and night sofa by day and bed at night most of our fy day beds even have built in drawers to store duvets and pillows many can turn into both single and double beds and you have a choice of mattress to the fort you prefer wel e to black lion estate agents black lion property classic turkish two bedroom detached house with a private terraced garden right conveniently located in the town centre reduced to £69 950 home plan 1439 echo jones on october 18th 2017 3 05pm hello thank you for the feedback we have a small collection of universal designs but any of our designs can be modified to fit your specific needs modern style house plan 2 beds 1 00 baths 800 sq ft plan a modern cottage plan where adventuresome playful design makes the most of a small space with private and public areas that connect elegantly to the outdoors
Small Bedroom Ideas Pinterest Beautiful Best Small Bedroom Tumblr Sundulqq Me, source: suttoncranehire.com
Gallery of Creative Small Bedroom Ideas Pinterest, source: suttoncranehire.com
childrens bedroom lighting ideas fresh brilliant bedroom lights for kids terranovaenergyltd of childrens bedroom lighting ideas, source: al-ola.com
Ideas Small Bedrooms Lovely Small Bedroom Ideas Luxury Media Cache Ec0 Pinimg 1200x 03 01 0d, source: al-ola.com
Ideas Small Bedrooms Lovely Small Bedroom Ideas Luxury Media Cache Ec0 Pinimg 1200x 03 01 0d, source: al-ola.com
A little boy s room with loft bed in Blue Green I like the idea of two different colored walls And then maybe a chalk wall if Jack s asthma can handle, source: pinterest.com
Fresh Plans for Homes Lovely Home Design Architectural Unique Drawing for Excellent Small House Design Architecture, source: qualifiedintermediary.net
7 Loft Bed Doubles Your Space f025f9b584db3aa1d56, source: thespruce.com
Two Master Bedroom Floor Plan Fresh Small House Plans With Two Master Bedrooms Lovely L Shaped Master, source: moscowbiennale.com
Getty 5a440ea87bb a98c93, source: thespruce.com
Starter Home Plan, source: pinterest.com
Interior Design Ideas Bedroom Beautiful Wall Decals for Bedroom Unique 1 Kirkland Wall Decor Home Design, source: al-ola.com
decorator bedroom fc23df78cc2e, source: thespruce.com
Floor Plans for Small Bedrooms Beautiful Small E Bedroom House Plans Free Floor Plans Unique Design, source: noordinaryhome.com
modern white bedroom minimal style 3d rendering image 5a933f5f8023b a8ea, source: thespruce.com
Interior Design Ideas Bedroom Unique Wall Decal Luxury 1 Kirkland Wall Decor Home Design 0d Outdoor, source: al-ola.com
small double bedroom decorating ideas small room design interior design ideas & home decorating inspiration inspirational interior design ideas for living room design bedroom design kitchen design and the entire home home designing blog magazine covering architecture cool products two twin beds in bedroom 25 best design ideas on two twin beds in bedroom bedroom with two beds – a relevant topic for the owners of small urban apartments especially when a family has two children and living space is not enough to equip each child their own room 17 small bedroom design ideas how to decorate a small cramped quarters can feel claustrophobic but a little strategic styling and creative organization will make your small space feel pretty close to palatial small master bedroom design ideas tips and s a small master bedroom doesn t have to be a problem here are some beautiful bedrooms filled with great ideas for making the most of a small space here are some beautiful bedrooms filled with great ideas for making the most of a small space Related Posts:
Source: https://blimeyoreilly.org/2-beds-small-bedroom-design/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Staycity opens 50-studio aparthotel on historic Dublin site
StayCity has announced it is to open its fourth aparthotel property in Dublin next week with the 50-apartment building on Chancery Lane. Chancery Lane offers 49 studio apartments sleeping up to two people and one two-bed apartment sleeping up to four. Facilities include a Staycafé, serving hot and cold drinks and snacks, guest laundry and 24-hour reception.
All staycity apartments are designed with air conditioning, high-speed broadband, flat screen TV, rainfall shower, Hypnos beds and a fully equipped kitchen with dishwasher, fridge, twin hob and combo microwave.
Helen Walsh head of design at Staycity said: “Chancery Lane has a much stronger, contemporary feel to it, signalling a dynamic, bolder look for our apartments that illustrates confidence and style. This modern, urban look will appeal to both leisure and corporate guests, particularly with the integrated storage space – great for tucking away bulky items such as suitcases, bags and shoes.”
Chancery Lane is the first of four additional properties Staycity will open in Dublin with apartments in Little Mary Street, Mark Street and Moss Street opening in 2020. The Dublin-based company already operates aparthotels in St Augustine Street, Christchurch and Millennium Walk as well as properties in a further nine cities across Europe.
Staycity Group, established up in 2004 by Tom Walsh and his brother Ger, now has 4,500 apartments in operation or pipeline across the Staycity Aparthotels and Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity brands.  
The first of the company’s premium Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity brand was opened earlier this year on London’s Strand, with further Wilde’s to follow in Edinburgh, Manchester and Berlin.
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Source: https://www.hotelowner.co.uk/18475-staycity-opens-49-studio-aparthotel-on-historic-dublin-site/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Yup I Got a Mac Mini, But I’m Not Excited
While the Mac Mini has been upgraded, I’m still not overly excited about the purchase I need to make.
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Source: https://curtismchale.ca/2019/04/15/yup-i-got-a-mac-mini-but-im-not-excited/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Prof Markandya delivers today's I-SEE seminar
I-SEE Seminar
Do health co-benefits compensate the economic costs of the Paris climate agreement?
Professor Anil Markandya
Director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change in the Basque Country, Spain and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bath
Abstract: While the co-benefits from addressing both climate change and air pollution related problems have been clearly recognized, there is not much evidence comparing the mitigation costs and economic benefits of air pollution reduction for alternative approaches for meeting greenhouse gas targets. This study analyses the extent to which health co-benefits would compensate the mitigation cost of achieving the targets of the Paris Agreement (2ºC and 1·5ºC) under different scenarios where the emissions abatement effort is shared between countries according to three established equity criteria.
Methods: An integrated assessment model (GCAM) was used to investigate the emission (greenhouse gases and air pollutants) pathways and abatement costs of a set of scenarios. The resulting emissions pathways were transferred to an air quality model (TM5-FASST) to estimate the concentrations of particulate matter (PM2·5) and ozone in the atmosphere and the associated premature deaths and levels of morbidity. These health impacts were then monetized and compared with the mitigation costs both global and regionally. The analysis looks forward to 2050 following the SSP2 socioeconomic narrative.
The health co-benefits significantly outweigh the policy cost of achieving the target for almost all the central scenarios analyzed. In some of the mitigation strategies, the co-benefits are double the costs at a global level. The ratio of health co-benefit to mitigation cost ranges from 1·4 to 2·45 depending on the scenario. At the regional level the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could be compensated with the health co-benefits alone for China and India, while in the European Union and USA the proportion they cover varies but can be significant (7-84% and 10-41%, respectively). A sensitivity analysis shows that, even when the analysis is developed taking the lower bound of the most influential variable (Value of Statistical Life, VSL), the health co-benefits are very close to the mitigation costs (covering 70 to 122%, depending on the scenario). Finally, the study shows that the extra effort of trying to pursue the 1·5ºC objective instead of the 2ºC would generate a substantial net benefit in India (3·28-8·4 trillion US$) and China (0 ·27-2 ·31 trillion US$).
There are significant gains for climate action, which are independent of any future reductions of damages from climate change. Some countries like China and India could justify stringent mitigation efforts just by including health co-benefits in the analysis. The results also indicate that the statement in the Paris Agreement to “pursue efforts” to limit temperature increase to 1·5ºC would make economic sense in some scenarios and countries if health co-benefits are considered.
Biography: Professor Anil Markandya graduated from the London School of Economics with a Master of Science in Econometrics in 1968 and was awarded his Ph.D. from the same institution on the Economics of the Environment in 1976. He has held academic positions at the universities of Princeton and Harvard in the US and at University College London and Bath University in the UK. He was a lead author for Chapters of the 3rd and 4th IPCC Assessment Reports on Climate Change, which were awarded a share of the Nobel Peace in 2007. He was a Lead Author for the 5th Assessment Report, the last published IPCC Report. In 2008 he was nominated by Cambridge University as one of the top 50 contributors to thinking on sustainability in the world. In 2012 he was elected the President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics and in 2013 he became a member of the Scientific Council of the European Environment Agency.
Professor Markandya has also acted as a consultant to a number of national and international organisations and served as Lead Economist at the World Bank.
Anil Markandya is Director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change in the Basque Country, Spain and honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Bath, UK
Afternoon tea will be served in the Wessex Restaurant 16:00-16:25
I-SEE SEMINARS ARE FREE AND OPEN FOR ALL TO ATTEND
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Source: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/do-health-co-benefits-compensate-the-economic-costs-of-the-paris-climate-agreement-tickets-50849164219
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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iOS Podcasting with Ferrite Recording Studio
If you’ve been looking for an awesome recording and editing app for podcasting, then you can end your search with Ferrite. Note, I didn’t even qualify it as an iOS app, because it’s just awesome all around. Much better and faster than what I was using on my Mac.
I covered it in more detail for The Sweet Setup:
Within a few editing sessions, Ferrite felt like a much newer and nicer home to edit audio. Ferrite is not a pared-down iOS audio editing application — rather, it’s a full-featured podcast production platform.
Do check out the whole piece.
Source: https://curtismchale.ca/2019/01/16/ios-podcasting-with-ferrite-recording-studio/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Lovely Stocks Of ashley Signature Strenton Bedroom Furniture
ashley signature design furniture at bedroom furniture discounts we are proud to carry a full line of ashley signature design furniture for every bedroom in your home we have beds dressers and nightstands in a variety of materials colors and price ranges these collections e in beautiful matching designs in shades from black to white and everything in between signature design by ashley furniture stores jcpenney signature design by ashley furniture this is no ordinary line of furniture when it es to premium quality recliners sofas sectionals and more there are few better names in the business than ashley furniture bedroom sets perfect for just moving in finish the final touches to your room from our selection of bedroom sets king queen and full bedroom sets from ashley furniture homestore for any bud ashley furniture homestore shop ashley furniture homestore online for great prices stylish furnishings and home decor free shipping on many items signature design by ashley dressers you ll love signature design by ashley dressers e in a series of types from the number of drawers to materials but it s easy to make a room match with the selections given just because they re made by the same brand doesn t mean they re all the same type
Home » bedroom » Lovely Stocks Of ashley Signature Strenton Bedroom Furniture
ashley furniture homestore shop ashley furniture homestore online for great prices stylish furnishings and home decor free shipping on many items signature design by ashley dressers you ll love signature design by ashley dressers e in a series of types from the number of drawers to materials but it s easy to make a room match with the selections given just because they re made by the same brand doesn t mean they re all the same type signature design by ashley beds shop hayneedle s best selection of signature design by ashley beds to reflect your style and inspire your home find furniture & decor you love for the place you love most ashley signature furniture find great deals on ebay for ashley signature furniture shop with confidence amazon ashley furniture signature collection ashley furniture signature design townser home fice desk contemporary 3 drawers pewter tone hardware grayish brown finish by signature design by ashley $296 22 $ 296 22 $363 04 prime 4 5 days ashley furniture bolanburg bedroom collection bolanburg collection by ashley signature design furniture made with acacia veneers and solids finished in a trendy textured antique white color dovetailed drawers feature fully finished drawer boxes and metal ball bearing side glides
ashley furniture white coffee table console trunk lift top piece set living room sets tags fabulous, source: mira-road.com
signature design ashley charrell piece round dining table set products color furniture end item number small, source: mira-road.com
leahlyn round dining room table signature design from ashley furniture end bissell little green proheat small, source: mira-road.com
pretty ashley furniture kitchen surprising tables table sets cool red interior accessories with coffee and end, source: mira-road.com
decorating ashley furniture coffee table signature sectional pit group sofa round end black walnut live edge, source: mira-road.com
signature design ashley glambrey round dining table and chair products color furniture end set item number, source: mira-road.com
top dandy ashley furniture recliners living room coffee table chairside signature design cocktail end tables and, source: mira-road.com
signature design ashley brindleton dining table furniture round end enclosed cat litter box black walnut live, source: mira-road.com
signature design ashley mestler brown rectangular cocktail table furniture coffee and end sets ikea cube shelf, source: mira-road.com
Sarah White Youth Upholstered Panel Bedroom Set from Standard Furniture, source: colemanfurniture.com
ashley signature furniture find great deals on ebay for ashley signature furniture shop with confidence signature design by ashley beds shop hayneedle s best selection of signature design by ashley beds to reflect your style and inspire your home find furniture & decor you love for the place you love most ashley furniture bolanburg bedroom collection bolanburg collection by ashley signature design furniture made with acacia veneers and solids finished in a trendy textured antique white color dovetailed drawers feature fully finished drawer boxes and metal ball bearing side glides bedroom sets perfect for just moving in finish the final touches to your room from our selection of bedroom sets king queen and full bedroom sets from ashley furniture homestore for any bud Related Posts:
Source: https://blimeyoreilly.org/ashley-signature-strenton-bedroom-furniture/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Admirable Figure Of Interior Design for 2 Bedroom Apartment In India
best 15 interior designers and decorators near you "after working with 2 previous interior designers i can honestly say that garrison and his team are cutting edge leaders in this industry after a referral from a friend we initially engaged garrison to update our master bedroom and bath amazon macrame wall hanging tapestry boho chic home macrame wall hanging tapestry boho chic home decorative interior wall decor bohemian ethnic apartment dorm room art decor living room bedroom decorations 13 0"w x 23 6"l home plan house design house plan home design in delhi plete architectural & interior solution for all types of buildingyou dream it we plan it gharplanner is india s one of the leading architecture and interior design pany roche bobois paris interior design & contemporary furniture french designer furniture pany roche bobois celebrates 50 years as the unparalleled international leader in high end design interior design origins of interior design origins of interior design the art of interior design en passes all of the fixed and movable ornamental objects that form an integral part of the inside of any human habitation
Home » bedroom » Admirable Figure Of Interior Design for 2 Bedroom Apartment In India
roche bobois paris interior design & contemporary furniture french designer furniture pany roche bobois celebrates 50 years as the unparalleled international leader in high end design interior design origins of interior design origins of interior design the art of interior design en passes all of the fixed and movable ornamental objects that form an integral part of the inside of any human habitation homify home decorating interior design bath & kitchen homify is an online platform featuring home ideas & inspiration interior design architecture diy projects and tips for every room home exterior design house interior design modern 2 storey modern house designs and floor plans philippines best modern home design magazine best modern house design blog contemporary home designs floor plans contemporary home designs floor plans australia contemporary home interior design ideas contemporary home interior design magazine contemporary home interior design photos interior designing nakshewala dealing in interior designing and based in delhi we can give your home well sounded magnificence in respect of works and living fort 3d interior design & rendering services 3d power offering high quality 3d interior design services such as live home 3d home interior design bungalow interior designs 3d interior renderings live interior 3d
homedesigning “ 2 Bedroom Modern Apartment Design Under 100 Square Meters 2 Great Examples ” Modern Interior, source: pinterest.com
Interior of a Luxury Apartment, source: pinterest.com
Although minimalistic studio apartment styles might seem easier to coordinate there s limit to the creativity that a constricted space can inspire, source: pinterest.com
2 Bedroom Flat Interior Decoration Inspirational New Furniture Ideas Wicker Outdoor sofa 0d Patio Chairs Sale, source: noordinaryhome.com
A cafe inspired small dining room for a refreshing break, source: pinterest.com
modern apartment design anton medvedev interiors 13 1 kindesign, source: pinterest.com
Architecture and interior design projects in India Apartment interiors amrish mandlik, source: pinterest.com
Homepolish interior design 5b896fbbc9e77c fde, source: thespruce.com
Bedroom Color Ideas India Inspirational Indian Interior Home Design Living Room Modern Style House Design, source: suttoncranehire.com
beach house interior paint colors gallery interior home decoration best furniture pampa furniture pampa furniture 0d, source: suttoncranehire.com
The Best Digital Interior Design Sites to Help You Create Your Dream Home Vogue, source: vogue.com
Bed Designs for Your fortable Bedroom Interior Design Ideas Wooden Double Bed Designs For Homes With Storage Bedroom Apartments 3 Bedroom Condos In, source: pinterest.com
LIVING & DINING JPG, source: zingyhomes.com
L shaped bedroom false ceiling Google Search, source: pinterest.com
site decoration d interieur deco interieur appartement of site decoration d interieur 5b cc9e77c a207a, source: thespruce.com
home exterior design house interior design modern 2 storey modern house designs and floor plans philippines best modern home design magazine best modern house design blog contemporary home designs floor plans contemporary home designs floor plans australia contemporary home interior design ideas contemporary home interior design magazine contemporary home interior design photos interior designing nakshewala dealing in interior designing and based in delhi we can give your home well sounded magnificence in respect of works and living fort 3d interior design & rendering services 3d power offering high quality 3d interior design services such as live home 3d home interior design bungalow interior designs 3d interior renderings live interior 3d 43 small bedroom design ideas decorating tips for small 43 small bedroom decorating ideas that will leave a major impression when a space has good style size doesn t matter Related Posts:
Source: https://blimeyoreilly.org/interior-design-for-2-bedroom-apartment-in-india/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Which App for Notes, and which one for Writing?
If you’ve been wondering what app works best for note-taking, writing and research then I’ve spent some time looking at that over at The Sweet Setup. I work through Ulysses, Apple Notes and Bear.
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Source: https://curtismchale.ca/2019/04/30/which-app-for-notes-and-which-one-for-writing/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Welcome to our doctoral community!
It was standing room only last Thursday afternoon as new doctoral researchers gathered together for The Doctoral College Welcome Reception.
The packed event provided a great opportunity for almost 200 researchers representing every Faculty and School to network with fellow students and staff while enjoying food, drinks and music.
The Reception opened with an interview with our Chancellor, His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex, which celebrated the wonderful research environment we have here at Bath. It was followed by a speech from Professor Jeremy Bradshaw, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International and Doctoral) who congratulated researchers on securing their place here, stressed the importance of the supervisor relationship and the need for self-care throughout doctoral study:
Welcome to the Doctoral College and to the University of Bath - you belong to the whole university and the whole university is yours. We hope you will enjoy reaping the benefits of the strong interdisciplinary research ethos that we have here. Doctoral study is a process and you will change: you may be in awe of your supervisor now, but by the end of your thesis you will have more expertise on your thesis topic than them. Writing a thesis is also one of the hardest things you will ever do. That's why one of the most important messages to take away today is to look after yourself throughout your study and ask for help when you need it. We are here to support you, just ask. I wish you every success in your research and look forward to meeting many of you over the coming months.
The Doctoral College's Welcome Team, a group of existing doctoral researchers, were on hand to answer questions throughout the event and share their own experiences. This included a session where new students were encouraged to explain the research question they were seeking to answer in one or two sentences. From understanding river flows, to personalities in politics and degree apprenticeships, the room was soon buzzing with ideas.
You can see some photos from the Welcome Reception here.
Source: https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/welcome-to-our-doctoral-community-doctoral-welcome-reception-11-october-2018/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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KBIS Primer - Viking TurboChef Double Oven
With KBIS just a couple of weeks away, it's time to finish up my appointment making and get my dance card filled up. With the combining of the International Builder's Show(IBS) and the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show(KBIS) in Las Vegas this year, many of the old brands that were mainstays at industry shows have picked back up and decided to join the party.
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Viking Range at KBIS.
Since the Viking restructure, new products have reappeared in the Viking catalog and it's not a moment too soon. The once mainstay had slipped the appliance ranks and with some new leadership, they're poised to make a run back to the top. The new Professional TurboChef Double Oven is just the beginning.
This is on my list of KBIS must-sees. 
According to Viking, this oven cooks FIFTEEN TIMES FASTER than a traditional oven. 15! I don't even know how to put that in to real life numbers.
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It's about time that the big boys in appliances come back and showcase what's new... It's super impressive when they show up and have something awesome to share. Viking is winning. 
I'll let you know how it looks... Think it will be bad if I show up with a meal ready to cook at the booth?
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Source: http://www.cupboardsonline.com/2014/01/kbis-primer-viking-turbochef-double-oven.html
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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basketcase
Not sure why I look so forlorn in this photo... it was the end of a long day, I suppose!  I love this top.  I think I bought it my second year of law school to go under sutis... something slightly more interesting than your typical silk shell.  I have since discovered it also looks great with white jeans for a casual summer night out.
Orange Basket-Weave Neckline Shell - Banana Republic 2007
Sterling "Jackie" Cardigan - J.Crew
Black Boy-Fit Pants - GAP
Silver Metallic Peep-Toe Wedges - Tory Burch
Gold Floral Earrings - J.Crew
White Ceramic Watch - Fossil
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Source: http://itakephotosinthebathroom.blogspot.com/2011/06/basketcase.html
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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27 Gallery Of Pfister Bathroom Faucets
Just like kitchen Faucets, the array of styles and finishes of 27 Gallery Of Pfister Bathroom Faucets can be dizzying. While shopping for your perfect 27 Gallery Of Pfister Bathroom Faucets, you should keep a couple concepts in your mind. Start with the handles you prefer, like single handle or two handle, think about your individual style and personality as an example. Ponder for a bit about the finish you desire and should it complement your existing bathroom accessories? Will the faucet you decide on integrate your existing bathroom sink or would you like to ought to engage a plumber or call your Uncle Bob to have this thing installed? Lastly, think about the quantity of George Washington's you desire to spend. Do your research and focus what you get inside box, some manufacturers package the lavatory faucet separately from your handles so you might need to purchase the faucet handles separately. Those sneaky manufacturers! Nothing like obtaining a nice gift by yourself to learn it's only two-thirds there.
The difference in price for many 27 Gallery Of Pfister Bathroom Faucets just isn't what you look like on the outside of, it's what's inside that counts that is certainly won't only go for faucets! Some faucets look fantastic at first but soon start leaking due to plastic parts on the interior. This means you'll ought to buck up and spend the money you should have spent inside first place over a quality faucet. Again, research your options and call the consumer care department as required to determine just what you're getting.
Now, I'll break up the most used styles to get a greater idea what's on the market. Oh, mind you or BTW for those young folks, the correct term for sink faucet is lavatory faucet. So while searching if you fail to find what you really are searching for under "sink faucet" try searching under "lavatory faucet".
Two Handle Lavatory Faucets are the most popular and are avalable inside a multitude of flavors. There's the traditional Centerset, the Mini-Widespread, the Widespread as well as the Wall Mount. They range between a traditional style just like the Moen Brantford Two Handle Widespread Lavatory Faucet on the contemporary side for example the American Standard Green Tea Faucet which can be discreetly disguised being a pull-out bathroom faucet, cool!
The next two are the Centerset Single-Handle as well as the Centerset Single-Hole. The single handle styles stretch from your 1980's with the plastic ob-longed shaped appear handle just like the Moen Chateau Single Handle Centerset Lavatory Faucet (I think this was within my house when I would be a kid!) on the super sleek Price Pfister Bernini Lavatory Faucet.
Lastly we have some nice faucets that are the epitome of relaxation. The Roman Tub and Clawfoot Tub Faucets. Roman tub faucets are a really nice piece for that drop-in, free-standing or whirlpool tub. The clawfoot tub faucets are nice if your style is very classic, like early 1900's and you have a great budget to experience with. These faucets look extremely elegant and therefore are intricately detailed, check out the Elizabethan Classics Telephone Tub Filler with Handshower for a good example.
Now that you have a greater notion of what you desire, let me offer you a set of available finishes. Not all of these are generally readily available for every faucet needless to say but it will assist you to limit your pursuit more. The finishes are: Chrome, Polished Chrome, Brushed Nickel, Satin Nickel, Polished Nickel, Polished Brass, Antique Brass, Bronze, Stainless Steel, Oil Rubbed Bronze, Platinum, Acrylic and Copper. And those are merely the key ones, sometimes manufactures constitute their own finish names simply to confuse us more.
This Pfister Bathroom Sink Drain wallpaper, is categorized within Faucet. Grab Pfister Bathroom Sink Drain picture with dimension 802×602 pixels (42.95kb) for your laptop or computer picture or check out on the photograph above to look all photographs of "Pfister Bathroom Sink Drain" by looking around through the thumbnails to view the total photograph's of "27 Gallery Of Pfister Bathroom Faucets". You will see a number of pictures in high definition resolution which are offered just for you. So, it's nice to see how you discover this website with a view to alter all of the look of yours into something attractive and wonderful. Take your time, learn each single put up on this weblog and inform me what you discover later.
My biggest and finest advice for you in this crazy arena of faucets is to purchase something that YOU like and buy a QUALITY 27 Gallery Of Pfister Bathroom Faucets. There are more than enough style's of quality faucets available to completely let your personality shine though inside your bathroom. This is your place of solace, a location of relaxation. You don't want to be hearing that god-awful leaky faucet you got "on sale" each time your attempt to relax inside bath can you? Until next time, happy bathing!
Source: http://pptranger.us/faucet/27-gallery-of-pfister-bathroom-faucets/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Reuters video: How the cat got its spots
These cats look like they've got the cream but how did they get their patchy fur? In fact the phenomenon is caused by a disease....albeit a benign one. Piebaldism is the result of mutation in a gene called Kit. It's seen in cats, dogs, horses, and cows. Occasionally human hair is affected. Melanocyte cells in the early embryo fail to migrate correctly, causing regions of the skin and hair to lack pigment. British mathematical biologist Dr Christian Yates led a study which challenges conventional thinking on why this happens. SOUNDBITE (English) DR CHRISTIAN YATES, MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGIST AT UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SAYING: "Traditionally people thought that cells didn't make it to the front of embryos to pigment the front of the belly because they just weren't migrating fast enough; and actually what we've been able to show through our studies is that actually, if anything, cells in piebald animals migrate faster but they're just not proliferating enough." In the study's first stage, biologists studied how mouse embryo cells were moving and dividing. Their biological hypothesis was then transferred to a mathematical model. SOUNDBITE (English) DR CHRISTIAN YATES, MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGIST AT UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SAYING: "What we've been able to tease out from the mathematical model is actually it's not necessarily that these cells are migrating in a directed way. Actually these cells are diffusing, there's no direction to their migration. So it's like when you put a drop of milk into a cup of coffee that you haven't stirred. Eventually that milk will be spread evenly throughout your coffee, and these cells are doing the same sort of thing - they're moving in an undirected manner and eventually, slowly, they manage to fully colonise this domain of this animal, so that they fully pattern the skin." Piebaldism is one of a group of defects called Neurocristopathies, some of which manifest themselves in deafness, heart problems, and cancer of the nervous system. The study, published in Nature Communications, could help scientists better understand such serious conditions......now they've told us how Kitty here got her spots.
Source: https://uk.reuters.com/video/2016/01/18/how-the-cat-got-its-spots?videoId=367075254&videoChannel=4000&channelName=Technology
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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Democratic Party pushes civil rights in the modern era — don’t be hoaxed
How Congress voted on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, broken down by party and with a few more details; chart by Kevin M. Kruse; from Kruse’s Twitter account.
Not sure if everybody got their Bogus History from Dinesh D’Souza, but a lot of people have the same wrong ideas about what party supported civil rights in the post-World War II era. These crappy distortions of history are showing up on Facebook and all over Twitter. Worse, people believe them.
The crappy claim is that Democrats are the party of racism and support for the Ku Klux Klan. Historically, that was once so; but it has not been so since 1948 as the two main parties in the U.S. switched positions, with Democrats taking on civil rights as a key cause for Democratic constituencies, and the Republican Party retreating from Abraham Lincoln’s work in the Civil War and immediate aftermath, and instead welcoming in racists fleeing the Democratic Party.
Think Strom Thurmond, vs. Mike Mansfield and Lyndon Johnson.
Kevin Kruse corrected D’Souza in a series of Tweets, and you ought to read them and follow the notes. Kruse is good, and better, he is armed with accurate information.
This is solid history, delivered by Kruse in a medium difficult for careful explanations longer than a bumper sticker.
I keep seeing this talking point in my mentions so, sure, let's address it.https://t.co/AxuVqDHwVq
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Mr. Kruse made a key point early in the thread.
First of all, the central point in the original tweet stands. If you have to go back to the 1860s or even the 1960s to claim the “party of civil rights” mantle — while ignoring legislative votes and executive actions taken in *this* decade — you’re clearly grasping at straws.
Anyone who reads newspapers would know that. Alas, one of the campaigns of conservatives over the past 40 years has been to kill off newspapers. They’ve been way too successful at it.
I’ll include mostly the Tweets for the rest of this post.
First of all, the central point in the original tweet stands.
If you have to go back to the 1860s or even the 1960s to claim the "party of civil rights" mantle — while ignoring legislative votes and executive actions taken in *this* decade — you're clearly grasping at straws.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Second, this fact — that GOP votes were needed to overcome the opposition of Southerners in Congress (Democrats *and* Republicans) — is weirdly trotted out as if it's a hidden secret and not, you know, a central part of historians' narrative of the civil rights era.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
This is a constant thing with D'Souza, by the way, claiming "historians won't tell you this" or "they don't lecture about that" when, in fact, we do constantly.
It's a fairly big tell that he hasn't read much in the field and probably never even took a class in US history.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
It’s a big tell. See my earlier posts on the 7 Warning Signs of Bogus History.
Anyway, let's dig in to the talking point.
Yes, a higher proportion of Republicans *did* vote for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Yes, their votes were crucial to passage of each.
But they were junior partners in the process, and soon marginalized in their party.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Worth remembering how Congress looked:
In 1964, Dems had nearly a 2-to-1 margin in the House (258 D, 176 R); in 1965, more than a 2-to-1 margin (295 D, 140 R).
In 1964, Dems had nearly a 2-to-1 margin in the Senate (64 D, 36 R); in 1965, more than a 2-to-1 margin (68 D, 32 R).
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Democrats were the dominant party, but had become increasingly divided over civil rights, with northern white liberals and African-Americans steadily gaining on the southern conservative segregationists who had long controlled the party.
Detailed here: https://t.co/hdMTfOswm1
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Because Democrats had such overwhelming margins in Congress but were divided internally on civil rights, the fight over the CRA and VRA were at heart fights *within* the Democratic Party.
Liberal Dems fought for these bills; conservative Dems worked to stop them.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Look at the history behind both bills, before the final votes.
Both were introduced by Democratic presidents, ushered through Congress by Democratic committee chairs and leaders, given more votes in the end by Democrats than the GOP, and then signed by Democratic president.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: proposed by JFK, passed by Democratic-led House (152 Dem votes for, 138 Rep votes for) and Democratic-led Senate (46 Dem votes for, 27 Rep votes for). LBJ signed it with MLK at his side.
Here's JFK calling for the bill: https://t.co/LgtnwnjDPq
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
The Voting Rights Act of 1965: advanced by LBJ and passed by Democratic-led House (221 Dem votes for, 112 Rep votes for) and Democratic-led Senate (49 Dem votes for, 30 Rep votes for), LBJ signed it.
Here's LBJ calling for the bill after Selma: https://t.co/5aOdCZdWo9
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
In comparison, Senator Barry Goldwater — the conservative GOP presidential candidate who ran against LBJ in 1964 — voted against the Civil Rights Act and campaigned on the vote.
Conservatives in both parties *hated* the civil rights bill, denounced as "socialist" in this ad: pic.twitter.com/uRg4rmEVi7
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Back up and look at those vote totals for the bills. You can see Democrats and Republicans on both sides.
Yes, Southern Democrats in the Senate filibustered the CRA. But the only Southern Republican senator filibustered too, and the filibuster's leader soon switched to the GOP.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
As I showed in great detail in this thread, the new Southern Republicans in the House and Senate in the 1960s were basically indistinguishable from old Southern Democrats on matters of civil rights and segregation: https://t.co/UD83C8BErw
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
On the flip side, yes, liberal and moderate Republicans did side with the majority of Democrats to pass the bills, after Dem leaders recruited them.
Again, though, the real distinction is region, not party. Southern conservatives in both parties resisted it. Here's the CRA vote: pic.twitter.com/4N9SlbrSVy
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
All right, now we get to the heart of the matter:
D'Souza and those like him point to the yes votes of liberal & moderate Republicans — deliberately ignoring the no votes of conservatives like Goldwater — to claim that today's *conservative* GOP is the party of civil rights.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
This is ludicrous.
At the time, conservatives were engaged in civil war with these liberals and moderates, trying to drive them out of the Republican Party.
At the 1964 RNC, Nelson Rockefeller called out extremists in the GOP and was roundly booed: https://t.co/292BtVZi87
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Moreover, as noted in this thread, National Review — which still has D'Souza on its masthead — led the charge against these liberal and moderate Republicans over the course of the 1960s.https://t.co/TIDUZT2a3F
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Over time, conservatives succeeded in cementing a new identity for the GOP, with civil rights increasingly becoming a major distinction.
This was evident in public polling at the time.
In 1964, only 7% saw the GOP as better on civil rights. SEVEN. PERCENT.
(from @edsall) pic.twitter.com/zgPVGCBzmD
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
The change was equally clear in the GOP platforms:
In 1960, a lengthy, detailed section on civil rights. In 1964, only a few lines. In 1968, not a *single* mention of civil rights
Here, read them yourself:https://t.co/2otHHpTUG2https://t.co/hZEohOIeyMhttps://t.co/tUidtS9vrI
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
So, no, the GOP was not "the party of civil rights" in the 1960s.
There were, to be sure, moderates in the GOP like Romney and Rockefeller who stood up for civil rights. But Goldwater Republicans fought them for control of the party and ultimately won: https://t.co/292BtVZi87
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
In the end, it's insane that conservatives now try to reach back to reclaim votes of moderate and liberal Republicans — whom conservatives *hated* at the time — to provide cover for today's conservative GOP.
Sorry, you didn't want them then. You don't get to claim them now.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
Also, this: https://t.co/CfnvX0VIji
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 27, 2018
You can view the entire thread in one unroll, which I find difficult to translate to this blog platform — but you may find it easier to disseminate:
Hi! please find the unroll here: Thread by @KevinMKruse: "I keep seeing this talking point in my mentions so, sure, let's address it. First of all, the central point in the origi […]" https://t.co/MRYiSGQ6xN Talk to you soon. 🤖
— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) July 27, 2018
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2018 at 4:13 am and is filed under Civil Rights, Democratic Party, History, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Source: https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/democratic-party-pushes-civil-rights-in-the-modern-era-dont-be-hoaxed/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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64 Admirable Models Of Bedroom Decor Ideas Diy Pinterest
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Home » bedroom » 64 Admirable Models Of Bedroom Decor Ideas Diy Pinterest
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glam latte as luxe as your jewelry by choose a few fall shades and add embellishment for an elegant manicure there was no shortage of creativity backstage at the nea fall 2017 shows this month diy home decor ideas spring decor the 36th avenue these beautiful diy home decor ideas are going to make your spring decor fabulous bring color into your home design while transforming your house into a beautiful home 25 delicate shabby chic bedroom decor ideas shelterness shabby chic decor is a perfect match for a bedroom because it s all about fort and sweet touches whitewashed walls and furniture make the room perfect bedroom paint ideas what s your color personality bedroom paint ideas and techniques painting your bedroom is an inexpensive way to elevate your bedroom’s style to give your room maximum design effect go beyond painting the wall a selected shade Related Posts:
62 Best Pics Of Condominium 1 Bedroom Interior Design
55 Beautiful Ideas Of Diy Girl Bedroom Decor
52 New Release Images Of Space Saving Bedroom Design Ideas
53 Cute Figure Of U Of L Bedroom Decor
52 Lovely Figure Of Selling Design Bedroom 2017
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46 Fresh Ideas Of Bedroom Design Bordo
Source: https://blimeyoreilly.org/bedroom-decor-ideas-diy-pinterest/
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mailspoon4-blog · 5 years
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On Baby Changing Areas in a Men’s Bathroom — Curtis McHale
When my oldest daughter started to read on her own it took so much concentration. Every single word involved 120% of her attention. She’d start to sound out a word, get close and guess and then ask me because it wasn’t quite right. I’d tell her what word she was searching for and she’d go off on the next bit. About half way through her first page she was fed up, not because of the effort of reading though.
Whoa, this is a long post. Did you know that Members get it in PDF, and other eBook formats? They also get to join me for discussion on how to improve their business monthly and finally a monthly book group. You should become a member. You can also purchase Getting Unstuck on Amazon.
Sure the work was hard, but the frustrating part for her was that the story didn’t make any sense. The writing wasn’t bad and the story wasn’t over her head. It was a decent kid’s book for a 6-year-old. The problem was that with all of her attention focused on figuring out which word she was looking at, she had no attention to spare to piece the whole sentence together at once.
She couldn’t grasp the flow of the story because she was just barely getting the individual words.
This is where you start with any endeavor. The simple fact of getting the basics done is overwhelming. When I started teaching myself web development while getting my Counselling Degree I could barely get a site up and launched. It was all held together with duct tape and promises.
I couldn’t spare any time to dig into what it took to run an awesome business. I was hanging on praying it didn’t all fall apart around me. I didn’t have a client vetting process, or know how to do great client communication. This is normal. In fact, one of the reasons I suggest you work for an agency or web firm before you head out on your own is so that you can learn a bunch of the lessons while getting paid by someone else.
Then you have less skin in the game. The risk is lower. Once you’re out and running your own business, the risk is all yours. If you make a mistake, you pay the price.
I remember sitting at my screen in my early development days with no one to ask for help. I sat debugging for 8 hours and at the end of the day I still didn’t even know the right questions to ask.
I cried.
You don’t have to do that if you work for someone else to start.
Many people get stuck focusing on the craft of code, or design. They want to sit walled off all day and do that work, but running a business is much more than the specific item you’re selling. Thinking that your business is only about the code is like my 6-year-old spending all her concentration on the words in front of her, with nothing to spare for the bigger picture.
If you’re running a web development shop, or a web design shop, or a freelance writing agency, you are not actually in the business of design, code, or writing.
You’re in the business of sales. You need to know how to figure out the value that the client wants if you want to earn well.
You can’t sit and focus all the time on code like a Maker. You have Manager tasks to do that no one can do but you. I manage these two different types of tasks with The Mullet Method for Deep Work.
With The Mullet Method, I work 6 am – 9 am on Maker tasks. I focus without distraction. Then I take an hour or two off work and get back to it for another three hours where I allow some distractions to be around.
If marketing and sales and managing client relationships all sound like a terrible idea, then keep your job. Stay where you are and do your Maker work, with little worry about sales and management and hiring and billing. Not everyone is cut out to run their own business.
Don’t idealize running a business. It’s a lot of pain and hard work.
photo credit: kwl cc
What You Need To Learn to Run a Successful Freelance Business
You don’t have to stay stuck though. In fact, I assume you’re tired of being stuck and you’re looking to learn to do more than write code. You’re ready to stop focusing on just the design or the writing, and dig into how to run a business that earns well and leaves time for a life outside of working.
You want to start being not only a financial force at home, you want to be a great dad as well. Someone who has the time to build Lego with the kids while not being stressed the whole time about ‘work’ and how it’s going to happen.
You’re in luck then, because we’re going to cover the big areas you need to have a handle on if you want to build an amazing business.
First, we’ll dig into marketing and sales to help make sure that you have a handle on what it’s going to take to handle those well.
Second, we’ll look at what it means to run client relationships well. This is the part where you follow up with prospects and former clients to keep your pipeline full.
Third, we’ll discuss what it means to run a great client project. The tools don’t matter as much as the methods you use to approach the client and keep them in the loop.
Finally, we’ll dig into what it means to be personally productive. When you are on your own it all comes down to you. There is no other team member to jump in and pull you out of the fire. You are either productive and get the work done, or you aren’t. The only person you can blame is yourself.
Now, let’s get started with marketing and sales for the freelancer.
photo credit: clement127 cc
Marketing and Sales for Your Freelance Business
The first place you’ll need to start is to figure out which niche you’re going to serve. I’ve already written a whole book called Finding Your Niche and Marketing which addresses the specifics, so this will be an overview of the high points you better have covered to even be playing the right game.
Why You Need to Niche
Deciding to go for a niche is scary. When you’re starting it feels like you’re going to be saying no to so many prospects that your revenue will dry up.
Your butthole tightens up so hard that it could be played as a snare drum.
I get it. When you’re starting it’s hard to say no to anyone with money because you’re trying to make it all work with duct tape and string. It’s okay to start here. I started there and I haven’t talked to anyone that didn’t. If you want to raise your rates and move out of the barely holding it together financially mindset, you need to start working into a niche.
The thing about a niche, any niche, is that it lets you start to target your marketing. If you decide that you’re going to work with rural farmers, you don’t bother with all the possibilities that market to New York business people. When you’re “for everyone” it’s much harder to make that decision about where to target your marketing.
You’re much more likely to make an inch of progress in 1000 directions and thus gain little traction.
My friend Philip specializes in helping businesses…specialize. He has often said that he’d rather have you pick a niche at random then market to everyone. He’s had clients do this and start earning way more money. They also find out that the random industry has interesting problems to solve. Far from being bored, Philip’s clients dive deeper and enjoy the work with that random niche.
While I agree with Philip that any niche is better than no niche, with a bit of work we can do next, you don’t have to have a random niche. You can be more intentional so your niche builds a freelance business you enjoy.
How to Find a Niche
Let’s start by thinking about what you like to do. What problems do you enjoy solving for clients? Do you love to dive deep into bad code and figure out why it’s terrible and what it should do being so that you can extract a stable system out of it for your client?
Do you love building a basic beautiful and functional site for small businesses?
Are you in love with eCommerce and making more sales?
Each of these is a valid option for a niche, but they’re not an ending point. While you can gain more traction by focusing on eCommerce, you still have to compete against everyone that does eCommerce for any business. It’s even better if you can look to a specific industry.
Do you have a background in farming, or compete in horse jumping? I spent a decade guiding outdoor trips, then 5 years selling canoes and kayaks. This experience puts me in a perfect position to market my eCommerce skills to the outdoor industry and become the leading choice for anyone with an outdoor shop wanting to move into online sales.
Now, it’s time to ask yourself, what provides the most value to prospects out of the things you like. It’s likely that building a basic site for someone is of less value than building them an online store, or increasing their conversions. You need to choose something to work on that has decent interest for you and high value for potential clients.
The final money question to ask yourself as you pick a niche for your beginning freelance business is, who has money to pay for your services.
It’s easy to default to “Fortune 100” companies, but the truth is that along with the high fees you can charge these companies is huge headaches. You get to charge lots because of those headaches.
Instead, think about what scale the business needs to have to pay for your services. You don’t need hundreds of clients a year to build a six-figure business. Five clients with an average project of $20k is a six-figure business. The Fortune 1-million has plenty of money for you and a much larger pool with less headaches. Deal with a niche inside that Fortune 1-million.
Building Persona’s
With your nice defined, it’s time to dig into exactly who you’ll talk to in that niche. Again, you can’t assume you’re going to talk to everyone if you want solid traction. You must pick specific people to talk to and then tailor your marketing to them.
A persona is a named ‘person’ with some basic characteristics defined that you can speak to. As I write this I’m thinking of my “Bob” persona.
Bob has been running a freelance business for a few years. He has had some success, but is ready to start taking the whole thing seriously. He needs to get better processes together around marketing and his own focus time. He’s tired of working 12 hour days. That worked when he didn’t have kids, but he does have kids now and he wants to be a great dad. Phoning it in at dinner while being stressed about the next payment is not what he ever dreamed of.
He dreamed of being around to build cool stuff with his kids. He wanted to roll around on the floor with them and take them sledding in the winter on a random Monday.
That means that as I write this and I’m stuck I can ask myself “what would Bob need to know about this so that he can be more successful.” That question clears up any content blocks right away.
photo credit: clement127 cc
How Do You Build a Persona
If you have any experience in your niche at all, then you have some idea of the people that are around. Start there. My first personas were nothing more than a customer I’d met. I even used their name on the persona and then some bullet points about where they were in business and what the big problems they struggled with were.
Just like any niche is better than no niche, any persona is better than none.
If you’re trying to enter an entirely new market, then you need to start digging into it. Find the blogs, podcasts, forums, and Facebook Groups that serve the industry. As you do this, you’ll see a bunch of the same names pop up. Dig into them and start building your personas off these people.
Look at who they serve as customers and build your persona off your best guess for the customer they serve.
As you’re building persona’s aim for three. I have Brian, the person with a job that wants more freedom to be an awesome parent and is trying to start a freelance business. Bob, has started one and is needing to move it to a business instead of a shoestring and love endeavour. Finally Dave, has been doing 6-Figures consistently, but wants to do more either by building better systems or a team. Dave wants to be able to walk away for a few weeks and still have money coming in.
Each piece of content, each book, each podcast, each guest blog, is aimed at one of these three personas. Some content may be aimed at all three, say something on how to negotiate work and home time with their spouse.
Use Persona’s to Guide Your Content
Now, you’ve got some persona’s which means it’s time to use them in your business. While I don’t claim to be a daily blogger, it pretty much turns out that way. My aim is to have something for each persona in a week.
When I pick the content I’m writing I look at the three persona’s and shape the content to suit them. If I look at a week and only have stuff for that person that wants to run their own business, but isn’t doing it yet, then I look around for other content so that I can hit my other two persona’s. I don’t look at my site content every day. A monthly check in to make sure I’m hitting content relevant to each persona is enough.
Every single piece of content you put out should have these persona’s in mind. Every conference you speak at, should be shaped by these persona’s.
If you’re doing it all in a haphazard way, then you might hit the mark sometimes, maybe. More likely, you’ll scatter your marketing so far and wide that you never reach anyone effectively.
How to Get Your Name Out There
With your persona’s in place, it’s time to get your name out there because it’s possible that your niche has no idea you exist. In fact, it’s almost 100% guaranteed that most of your niche has no idea you exist.
Sure, some of the people in a market have considered you (and even rejected you). But most of the people in the market have never even heard of you. The market doesn’t have just one mind. Different people in the market are seeking different things. – The Dip
The first thing you’re going to have to get over is your fear of selling yourself. If you’re not selling yourself then no one is. There is no freelance god that blesses a beginning freelance business with goodness from the benevolent “awesomeness” of the universe so that it succeeds.
If your plan uses the word “hope” then you’re relying on this god, that doesn’t exist. Hope is not a strategy that’s going to get your beginning freelance business to the next level. It’s going to keep you going at the same barely hanging on level you’re currently at.
Now, let’s look at some of the specific methods you can use to get yourself out there. I’ve written about them in more detail in Finding and Marketing Your Niche, if you need to go deeper.
Blogging
The first place to start is your own site, and blogging on it. This is the place that you control in the easiest manner. If you build a Facebook Group and then Facebook decides that they hate groups and are killing them, your whole following is dead.
While search engines are getting better at reading content that’s not plain words, words are what they’re best at dealing with. Blogging, and being focused in your blogging, will help you get found by your ideal clients.
Start by writing one item a week. If that sounds crazy because writing is hard, you’ll get better. Maybe you need to set aside an hour a week to write and then publish something every other week. The more high quality content you put out there, the faster you’ll see traction from it.
The more you write the faster you get. I can write upwards of 5000 words in two hours, but I have written 5 books and at least 1500 blog posts. Probably more because I have at least 3 old sites that had lots on them which no longer exist. You can get here, it’s going to take a while, but you can get here. All you have to do is start, and then publish.
Once you’ve got a handle on getting content on your site, it’s time to think about guest posting. Strategic guest posting can yield awesome returns. I had one guest post earn me over $50k in a year because people kept reading it and feeling I was the expert they needed. The next year it earned around the same. While I didn’t get paid for the guest post, it was obviously worth the investment of time.
Another great avenue for your content is Medium. I’ve found that republishing my content on Medium, and getting it in a publication, has been a huge driver of traffic to my site. If you’re scared of guest posting and the extra time commitment it may take then start by republishing your content on Medium and trying to get it into a publication.
Podcasting
Podcasting is another great way to get your voice out there. It can be better than blogging because podcasting is a higher trust method of communication. Podcasting is higher trust because people can hear your voice and your mannerisms and they are more likely to trust you. The closer you can get to shaking someone’s hand the better.
In fact, podcasting is so good that I’ve see amazing returns from my podcasting endeavours. Especially when I get one someone else’s podcast. It’s so good that no other method of ‘guesting’ is even in the same league.
I have noticed over the last year that it is getting harder to get on podcasts as a guest. As a podcaster and blogger, I think this is because so many of the requests to get on my site or show are terrible. They’re some generic email I’ve seen a many times. They tell me why whatever the person wants to talk about is perfect for my audience.
It almost always shows that they haven’t even listened to my show or looked at my audience or what I like to talk about with my guests. It’s marketing people trying to get their clients on podcasts.
If you want to start getting on podcasts, then start by finding the most obscure and niche shows possible.
For creators, it is typically easier to reach the smaller, better-defined group. If you reach the smaller group and wow them, there will be many opportunities to spread outward and upward. – Perennial Seller 
If you’ve got your niche defined, and some solid persona’s then you can find these podcasts. Listen to them and figure out who they love to talk to and what they love to talk about. Then armed with this information, send a personal pitch telling them why you think you might fit with their guests.
This is a much slower method than the pump and dump method where you fire off the same email to everyone, but you’re much more likely to hear yes.
Networking
As I said already, the closer you can get to shaking someone’s hand, the more trust you’re going to build. It’s far too easy to sit behind your computer screen, sending off emails, and think that you’re doing an awesome job marketing your business. The fastest way to getting clients will always be getting out and shaking hands.
Now, I’m not saying that you need to go out to every crap marketing event that’s out there. You should be picking any networking event in light of your niche and your persona’s. Only go to the ones that fit in with those two filters.
When you head out to a networking event, go in with a clear plan. If you can get your hands on the guest list, identify a few people that you want to talk to and do a bit of research on their business. Then, walk up to them and talk to them.
Introduce yourself and ask more questions about their business. They’ve been to a bunch of these events and they’re used to the terrible superficial questions, so go deeper and stand out.
These are not the only methods you can use to get your name out in your industry. They’re the ones I’ve seen my coaching clients do and have the most success with. In some cases, that’s been because the other even more effective methods like public speaking are so terrifying that you need a foundation of networking to even consider speaking in front of people.
How to Evaluate Your Marketing Channels
Now that you have some marketing channels going, it’s time to evaluate them. It’s no good to continue to spend time doing outreach when it’s not working. The only place you always keep going is with your own blog or podcast. This is your hub, and no matter how small the audience, it’s the place that you send everyone who interacts with you from your other marketing channels.
Establish Your Goal
The first thing you need to do is establish which channels are hitting your goals. Years ago when Stumbleupon was a thing I had clients asking how to get on it so they could get a bunch of traffic. At no point did I ever recommend wasting their time on Stumbleupon.
The thing with Stumbleupon was that it sent a bunch of traffic, that went away immediately. Sure the traffic numbers looked great, but no one made a purchase and few people converted to email subscribers. It was only a cost since it would use your server cycles and provide no benefit.
You need to think about which metric is the important one for you to measure. Do you want more traffic, or do you want more email subscribers? Are you targeting people to your video course? If you don’t know what metric is most important for your site, then you have no way to measure the success of the marketing channels you are using.
You’ll also need a way to identify users from the different channels. Say you’re on 4 podcasts. Two do little, one sends a bunch of users, but that fourth one sends you 10 solid leads who made a purchase. Which one is the most valuable one? Which one should you be looking at harder to see why it worked best and how to find that audience, or an audience like it again?
You can do this by providing a custom landing page for each audience or a coupon code to use with the purchase.
Which Channels are Hitting the Goals
Now that you have a way to figure out which channels are providing the best conversions on your important metrics, you need to look at the information. Not every day. Not every week. Don’t worry about it for at least six months.
You wait six months because it’s going to take you a while to get the ball rolling. If you’re on a podcast, it may not come out for 4 weeks so checking to see if it’s converting before it’s even out is a waste of your time.
When you look at your metrics you should be trying to figure out a few things. First, which mediums are converting the best? Is it podcasting, or blogging, or speaking, or…? Stick with the ones that convert the best and drop the others.
Second, which blogs or podcast convert best inside their medium. Try to identify their audiences so that you can find more people that might match up, but would listen to or read a different site. Then you can target that site and have some relevant “experience” inside the field to point to when you make a pitch to them.
There is more to marketing your business. This is a primer for those of you what are already freelancing, but need to turn it that beginning freelance business into something that supports you and the life you want to live.
There is a bunch more reading if you’re ready to dig in deep to the topic of marketing your business. If you’re ready for that, check out my reading list on Marketing Your Business.
photo credit: activars cc
Managing Client Relationships in Your Freelance Business
Once you get more than a few prospects on the go, you need a way to keep following up with them. While you may think you had a great discussion and that the prospect will remember you forever, they won’t. Most prospects end up going with the freelancer they most recently came across.
Sure, you’re sort of on the list, but for every month you let go by without reaching out to them you’re further down the list.
This section is going to walk you through what it takes to get on a client’s list and stay on it.
One of the big pitfalls with businesses looking at a CRM is that they start with the tool in mind. Almost every time, the tool doesn’t matter. I use a paper notebook now, but have used a number of digital CRM tools.
The issue you run into by starting with a tool is that you don’t have a process worked out yet. Instead of developing a process for yourself that works, you outsource that hard thinking to the tool and just do what it says assuming that it will work for you.
This may bring a little bit of benefit, but you’ll gain so much more benefit by testing a process first, then looking at the tools that will fit into your process.
How To Do Amazing Prospect Follow Up with Your Freelance Business?
Let’s start with the basic rule that you should be following up more than you think. If you don’t feel a bit uncomfortable with the frequency of the follow up, then you’re not following up enough. I’m not saying that instead of every 3 months you should follow up daily, but for most cases 3 months is way too long to wait. It’s so long that you won’t even be on the prospect’s list anymore.
When a prospect first reaches out to you, you’ll need to follow up with them more often. If a prospect emails me on a Wednesday and I reply I assume I’m emailing them again on Tuesday. In fact, if I’ve emailed a prospect in a week and they’re not on my long term follow up plan yet (we’ll talk about that in a minute) then I email them on Tuesday.
Yes, I might email you on Friday and then on Tuesday to check in. If I don’t hear back from a prospect, then I’ll follow up weekly for four or five weeks. I always send them one final email that goes something like this.
Hey $prospect, hope the day is going awesome. I wanted to touch base because I haven’t heard back from you recently. I’m going to assume that you’re no longer doing the project so I won’t bug you weekly anymore. If that changes, let me know. Have an awesome day! Curtis
Almost every time I send that email I get some response back. Sometimes the prospect opens the conversation back up, and I reset to the four or five week follow up scheme. Sometimes they agree that the project isn’t on the radar right now for some reason, and they give me a timeframe for when it will be on the radar again.
I write their name down for follow up in that window again.
Occasionally I hear nothing from them so I put them on my long term follow up plan.
There are a number of prospects or clients that will fall into the long term follow up schedule. The first one we’ll address is the prospect above. Assuming that nothing in the project seemed crazy, I’ll follow up with them every two months for a year. Even if I never hear back from them in the year, I still send them a check in email every two months for a year.
If I don’t hear back from them in any fashion, I drop them off my list of follow up. More often than not I do hear back in some fashion at some point. When I hear back from them I simply reset the two week counter. If they’ve indicated that they want to move forward with the project now, they go back on the weekly follow up for the four or five emails. Then they’d drop back into the long term follow up plan.
The second group of people that fall into the long term follow up strategy are awesome clients I’d love to work with again. They get an email every two months pretty much forever. Oh I’m sure that some awesome clients have dropped off my list for one reason or another, but I don’t intend for it to happen.
Over my 10-years in business, I’ve had a number of clients end up coming back for a big project because I emailed them. It’s been 5-years since we’ve had any interaction outside of my emails, and maybe the odd reply, but because I’ve been consistent they come right to me with work.
There is no one else even in the running for the work.
If you want a business that will run well and generate leads for you regularly, you need to stay on top of this follow up. I’ll say it again later, but the biggest issue I see when I talk to small business owners about their prospect and client follow up strategy, is that they don’t put aside time in their week to do it.
Make sure you put time aside.
What Should My Client Follow Up Look Like?
Now, what should your client follow up look like? First, you need to write your follow up in a way that suits you. I’m a bit looser than some, but it works for me. I use their possible issues with my terrible jokes in email as a way to filter out the prospects I don’t want to become clients.
A general email to a prospect I’m following up with on either the long term or weekly schedule would follow the format below.
Hey $prospect, hope the day is going awesome. (Maybe insert some banter here) I wanted to touch base to see what the status of the project is on your end. Are you ready to move forward with it? Is there something else that you’re planning on doing instead? Do you have any questions or issues around your site that I can help on? Have an awesome day! Curtis
That’s it, in fact the long term follow up email for great clients only has one addition to the format above, and you can see it. Since I’ve got to know them as clients over a while already I may insert some question about them and their family.
One client I have worked with off and on for 5 years is a triathlete. I always insert a question about his training. He’s also been interested in my outdoor adventures so I’ll tell him about what we’re doing and what I’m training for next. I did this for two years after our first project before he started the next one and then for three years before the last one I worked on with him.
The first project we worked on was $5k. The other two were in excess of $20k.
Yes the continual emails for five years has been worth it. I’m still emailing him every two months asking him how things are going.
Now take 30 minutes and work out your follow up process. Write down the email templates you’re going to use. If you need help with writing better emails to clients, I wrote a guide on how to do that called Effective Client Email. It covers more than just your client follow up emails though. It will give you the emails I’ve honed over 10-years to make sure that I’m weeding out the prospects I don’t want as clients.
What Should my CRM System Look Like?
You should have a prospect and client follow up process written down now, but how do you keep track of it? This section will introduce what I do for my analogue CRM system, and what you should be looking for in a digital tool.
What Does My Analogue CRM Look Like for a Freelance Business?
I’ve tried a bunch of digital tools and I keep coming back to an analogue system. If you keep track of my site, I’ll be writing a long piece about how I use an analogue productivity system for everything but client projects that require collaboration.
My analogue CRM is fairly close to a standard Bullet Journal system. When I have a prospect that needs to get a follow up, I stick their name on the monthly planning page that goes with the month.
If that means they fall out of the current month, I add their name to the future log with a date next to their name.
Beside the name I’ll put a number like 4/5 which means that this email I’m sending is the 4th email out of the five emails I send. That way I know which standard email to use when I send the communication.
For a prospect on long term follow up we drop the number of emails and a date goes there showing me when I stop emailing them. If they respond, then the date gets adjusted.
One thing to remember is that you need enough information beside that name so that you have the context required to find their email in your email application. When I used to outsource finding a prospect to a CRM, more often than not I’d have no idea who I was going to be emailing because I had barely glanced at them instead of needing to spend some brain power figuring out who this was and what we had talked about.
If it’s an awesome client on long term follow up, I just write the name down with the date so that I can find their information. Sometimes I’ve seen some extra information about them on social media which I’ll add beside their name so I can bring it up.
That’s it. It’s not fancy and it requires writing things over and over again, but I find that to be a benefit. It means that I become more familiar with the prospect as I have to expend a bit of mental energy. It also means that I only put the top prospects on the list to follow up with. I don’t bother with all the random low value people that send inquires my way until they jump the first bars in my client vetting process.
What Do I Look For in a Digital CRM for my Beginning Freelance Business?
If you’re not going with an analogue system then the place to start is your process. I’ve already said this, but you need to have a system down. You at least need to have an ‘ideal’ you’re aiming for with follow up. Then you need to look at the available tools and choose one that fits with your process.
If you don’t have a basic system ready, then stop looking and do the personal work first. Write down the problems you’re having and what you think the solutions may be.
Some good options for a digital CRM, all of which I’ve used at different times are:
• Contactually • Streak • Pipedrive
I know there are many others out there, but those are the three I’ve spend at least a few months with that I found valuable. I spent the most time with Contactually at first, but found the extra inbox to track too much overhead so I stopped checking it. Then I worked with Streak which was built directly into my email. For some reason I just never fully “got” their system and while it was checked and followed up lots I still felt like it was a bunch of extra work to stay inside Streak.
Hence my analogue system.
The Biggest Pitfalls in Using a CRM in Your Freelance Business
The biggest issue when using a CRM in your freelance business is using it. Most freelancers hear about the benefits of using a CRM and then get a software recommendation for one and go with it. They use it for a few weeks and then it drops of the radar.
They’re still paying a monthly fee, but not using the CRM they picked. It’s an expense, bringing no benefit.
You won’t use your CRM well, if you don’t have time set aside for it in your week. In a standard 40 hour week, have two hours set aside for following up with prospects. Stick to those two hours. Guard them with your life, because a good follow up system is one of the keys to building a freelance business that succeeds.
A second pitfall with CRM’s and not using them is that they’re often outside of your personal productivity system and your project management system. They fall into the category of “out of site out of mind”. You forget about them.
When you’re choosing a system you must choose something that will integrate into your current productivity workflow in a manner that ensures you will use it.
I’ve chosen to use my paper planner for this. As I described, I follow a mostly Bullet Journal system and move prospect names forward in the future log or on a monthly collection depending on when I want to follow up with them. This means that I always need enough information written down to identify a prospect so I have to understand them and know them.
When I used OmniFocus I would end up with links to emails as tasks and I would use that ease of finding the conversation as a crutch. It meant I rarely understood the client and was rarely invested in moving forward with them. They were simply a name that came up that needed a reply. I’d end up reading through a bunch of email again every time so that I had some context.
By moving to an entirely paper system I must understand the client better. I must decided if they’re worth following up with because it’s a pain to continue to move them forward in the system. I can’t simply bump a date forward, making a promise on my future time, I must evaluate their chances of becoming a paying client as I write down their information again.
This system has resulted in a much smaller list of people that I consider prospects and put time into following up with. My win rate on those prospects is much higher though so it’s a net positive.
You can go deeper on Managing Client Relationships with my resource page.
photo credit: clement127 cc
Project Management For A Beginning Freelance Business
The worst way to manage a project is via email. If there is more than a single task to get done, never manage a project in email. Email is almost always only a list of what others think is important for you to do in a week. It rarely matches up with what is actually important for your week.
The answer to “What is the ONE Thing I can do today that will make the rest of my business easier or irrelevant” is almost never contained in your inbox.
By moving your current projects out into a trusted system that’s not email, and that’s not your personal productivity system, you get to filter your incoming requests. You not longer see a client, who has a current agreement with you, and a prospect, who you have no obligation to, in the same interface.
Prospects have no sway on your time. They’re someone that might maybe have something you’re interested in doing if it’s perfect.
What Process Should You Use for Project Management?
You’ve taken the first step and your projects are no longer being managed in your inbox, but what system do you use?
Do you go old-school and stick with a waterfall method?
Do you get right “up with the times” and go for Scrum or Agile?
Does it matter which method you use?
I’m going to fall on the side of saying that it doesn’t matter so much what method you use. They all have benefits, and drawbacks. I use something close to Agile. I work in short sprints with clients on a fairly well defined set of tasks and we ship them.
Regardless of which methodology you adopt, there are a few thing that you need to get right if you want to ship winning projects.
Project Success Page
The first task that should go in your project management system with a client is for them. You should be giving them a link to your project success page with the instructions that they read it and then resolve the task. What…you don’t have a project success page? Well let’s talk about what that is.
First, the whole goal of the page is to communicate information to your client so that they can help you have a successful project. It’s not about berating them, it’s about giving them the information they need.
Many clients will have never seen a page like this. They’ll realize that they make projects harder, and the never knew it. It’s likely that whoever they worked with just made comments about it behind their back instead of addressing the issues like an adult.
In your project success page include any information the client will need to have a winning project. Inform them what a good task looks like. That a task which includes three different action items is one that will probably have something missed.
Tell them not to email you, and make sure you provide another link to whichever project management software you use.
Have them decide on the single point of contact, and any other people that need to be in the project management system. The fewer the better, and there always needs to be one person on their end that is responsible for making sure their team gets stuff done.
You can look at my Project Success Page if you need to see one in action. One I added this, and asked clients to read it, my problems in project management went way down.
photo credit: clement127 cc
Get Something Up As Fast As Possible
Next, get something up for your client to see as fast as possible. When I’m building a WordPress theme, I’ll have as much of the homepage as possible done as fast as possible. Usually within a day or two.
One of the biggest fears that clients have is that you’re going to take their deposits and then flake out. It’s happened to them before. You’ve probably taken way longer than you thought on a project before, so that means you did it as well.
By getting something up quickly for them to see, you build trust. Then you can keep plugging away on the work at a slower pace, so long as you have progress to show regularly and you meet the dates that you’ve agreed upon.
How Often Do We Communicate?
Something that developers are especially good at is going into “mole mode”. They get involved in a project and just keep focused on it for weeks and end. They barely come up for air, and are getting lots of work done.
I get it, code is a Maker task and Maker’s need lots of time to do their work without interruption. But your client isn’t a Maker. They can’t look over your shoulder every few days to see what’s up.
They figure you’ve flaked out on them unless you keep them up to date. Keeping them up to date starts with a weekly phone call. Yes, you’re going to pick one day a week and use part of it to talk to your current clients and give them an update. I use Tuesday as my day.
But that’s not all you’re going to do. You’re going to update them as a comment in whichever PM system you use on Friday and Monday. On Friday, you’re going to give them a recap of how the week went and remind them what’s on the list for next week.
On Monday, you’re going to remind them again what’s on the list for the week and when they’ve booked their weekly check in. If you need to see a format for this communication then check out Effective Client Email. I provide the templates I use there.
This communication is on top of anything you do to update the project management system as you complete tasks. The Monday/Friday email and the call are the bare minimum you should be doing to communicate with your clients. It’s the least they expect, and it will be about 10000% more than they got from their last freelancer.
Avoiding Scope Creep In your Beginning Freelance Business
The final thing that kills a project is scope creep. That list of things that sound like they’re awesome and just get added to the list. Yes, some of them are good ideas, but the longer that list gets the less likely it is that you’ll launch the project.
When I setup a project I have four lists in Trello. They’re labelled:
This Week
Tasks
Future
Questions/Other
‘This Week’ is updated every Friday and has all the tasks that are going to be done in the next week long cycle. That means on Friday you need to look at your ‘Tasks’ list and decide what can reasonably get done in a week. Only those items go on the list.
This is not a list of the hopes and dreams you have for a week. It’s a list of wha you know you can get done. I’d rather see a smaller list that gets done than a big list that you finish 50% of. When your client see that 50% done list, they’re going to loose faith in you and the project.
The second list is all of the tasks that are in the project. I usually have them organized in the order I think they’ll need to be done in. On Friday, I survey the list and move ever any items that I plan on doing the next week.
Those two lists comprise the whole project that was estimated on. The other two lists should contain nothing that was originally agreed upon.
Next, the “Questions/Other” list. This is where your client puts any questions they have on the project or any other stuff that they enter. In general, clients shouldn’t be updating any of the other lists at all unless they’re responding to something I’ve asked them about or approving and resolving a task.
From the “Questions/Other” list I may move something into the “Tasks” if it is something that is included in the project, but needs to be spelled out better for the client. Most of the stuff that comes up here though ends up in the “Future” list.
The “Future” list is for everything that’s a great idea, but isn’t part of the current project. It’s where all the crazy ideas and nice-to-have things end up. They stay there until you’ve shipped the original project and then produced and estimated and been paid for the new items you’re going to work on.
Even if there is something that sounds like an amazing idea, it doesn’t go in to the current project if it can be helped at all. The more items you move from “Future” into the current project the less likely it is that your project will ever see the light of day.
Your job is to ship a successful project for your client which means you need to help reign them in so that the project is indeed successful. It’s your fault if they run wild with extra items and the project never launches.
photo credit: clement127 cc
What Good Project Management Tools Look Like
Now that we know what the highlights of running a good project are, we need to look at what you should be looking for in a project management tool. As much as I love and use analogue productivity, I don’t use an analogue system when it comes to managing my projects.
The biggest weakness of analogue systems is that they offer no way to collaborate with your clients. You need to share screenshots, videos, links, and comments all around the tasks that need to get done for the project. We know email is a terrible way to do this, and that an analogue system like a notebook doesn’t allow for any sharing.
So we turn to software.
Easy to Use
The first stopping point is that you and your clients need to find the system easy to use. For some, that may mean that basic Github tickets can work, for others Github is going to be way to complex.
Since you’re going to be in the PM system regularly, it’s important to find one with a nice spread of keyboard shortcuts. Sticking with the keyboard navigation will save you little bits of time all over. That adds up over the year and turns into a large time savings.
Make sure that there are some training videos for your system as well. You’ll need to provide links to them for your clients to use so that they can wrap their head around the system. If your client finds it hard to use the PM system, they won’t use it and you’ll be getting a whole bunch of emails you don’t want to see.
Has Some Templates
Another key in a good project management system is it’s ability to provide you with project templates. You’re likely going to do similar projects and a bunch of the tasks are going to be the same.
You want a system that doesn’t force you to type every little piece in every time. If you have to type in every task for every project, you’re going to forget stuff. Even if you have your own list in a separate application, you’ll forget to move something at some point and then since it’s not written down, it might as well never have happened.
Link to Tickets
One of the crucial parts of your personal productivity (which we’ll cover in a bit) is pulling the tasks out of the tickets and into your own system. You do this so that client updates don’t derail you.
Remember, we pulled out of email into a PM system to make sure that we didn’t get distracted a whole bunch by the emails that come in and don’t relate to the project. The notification inbox of your PM system can turn into the same thing, especially if you have multiple projects running.
You may have your time set aside for Project A, but Project B keeps pinging you and that draws you into answering things for Project B while Project A languishes.
This is why I think that links to tickets is crucial. Then you can take the link and put it in OmniFocus or 2Do or … whatever and work on the single ticket out of your personal system. Then, when you’re done you can click the ticket link and update the single item. Now, close the browser and get to the next task.
Organizing this way will let you get work done as you had planned. It will allow you to focus on the tasks at hand instead of getting derailed constantly.
Wait, I just referenced OmniFocus which is a digital tool and I said I don’t use them. I realize that I’m an outlier here and you’re most likely using Todoist or 2Do or…something. I’ll talk about the specifics of what I do shortly.
Doesn’t Always Interrupt You
One of the best features that BaseCamp introduced was the idea that you can ‘snooze’ your notifications. They allow you to set hours where you won’t get any notifications of any kind. Your boss can’t even change that setting for the company. This means that you can set the no distraction hours up for the whole day even, and never get interrupted.
Which ever system you use, you need to make sure that it can be silenced. Some of that will come from how you work with it. If you use the system I described above, then it’s going to be hard for anything to distract you because you’ve pulled the tasks out for the day and are focusing on them instead of whatever happens to come up.
That also assumes that you silence your phone and tablet and Amazon Echo notifications. All the space you’re building is a waste if you allow other notifications to jump into your life.
How to Integrate Your Project Management System and Personal Productivity
I’ve already provided you a workflow for updating your tasks if you’re using a digital task management system like 2Do or Todoist, but I don’t use either. My personal system is a notebook and mostly follows Bullet Journal.
So, how do I use that system to stay focused on the tasks at hand and then update Trello, which is my PM system of choice.
It Starts with Planning
For about a year before I went with an analogue system I did use the methods above with OmniFocus. I would pull out the ticket link and put in the detail required in OmniFocus so that I could work on a task.
The problem was, I didn’t always get the right information. Somewhere in the back of my head I relied on the link to the ticket for the information I needed. I kept finding that I hadn’t thought through what the task would take before I committed to doing it. That left me with bigger tasks than expected and a day that felt like it was always off the rails.
I still take a task out of Trello and put it in my notebook, but I have to write down a quick sketch of the task, and any conversation that happened around it so that I’m sure I know where it’s at. If there are screenshots that may go with it, I pull them out of Trello and drop them in a folder in my Downloads folder. I label that folder the same as the task I’m working on so that I know they go together. That title matches the Trello card.
Then, I get down to work and when I’m done and need to update the task I open the Trello macOS application and search for the card to update it.
This does take a bit of discipline because I have to ignore the little red bell that Trello shows me when there are updates, but I don’t find that to be a problem. The advantages that have come from pulling out the task, and making sure I understand it the night before I’m going to work on it far outweigh the small friction that results from not being able to click a link directly to the ticket.
For the most up to date reading on Managing Projects for a Freelance Business, see my reading list.
photo credit: clement127 cc
Personal Productivity in Your Freelance Business
Another component to having an awesome freelance business is getting down to the nitty gritty of getting work done. You can have the best PM system, the best CRM workflow and the best marketing, but if you’re not shipping projects to clients your business will suck.
You won’t be getting any referrals because you’re late all the time.
This is where personal productivity comes in. You need to have a good system, and the discipline to use it so that you can get work done for clients on time and on budget.
The first question that most people ask is some variation of “Should I use Getting Thinks Done or…”. They’re worried about the specific system and tools that they should be using.
Tools almost don’t matter, what matters is you and the process. Does the process fit how you work? Are you going to do it? Most of the systems around provide you with everything you need, if you do the work.
Let’s start by looking at some key concepts in personal productivity so that you can start this journey from the right frame of mind.
I’ll be writing much more about personal productivity coming in February, like 50k words more.
Key Concepts in Personal Productivity for Freelancers
Before you can dive into your personal productivity system there are a few things you need to get straight first. I’ll be covering these key items in short here, as I’ll be covering them in great depth in February.
If you don’t have a handle on these things, then it doesn’t matter what system you use. It will always suck and you’ll never get good work done.
First, you need to embrace constraints. I’ve already talked about how using a paper based system has forced me to better understand the tasks I need to do. The constraint of paper has also stopped me from making a bunch of commitments for ‘future Curtis’ that I can’t meet right now.
Second, you need to be solving a problem if you’re going to change. Most times the issue with a productivity system is you. You change from Todoist to 2Do and feel relief because you have made a bunch of commitments in the form of lists in Todoist. When you change you feel free to abandon those commitments which you never should have made in the first place. The problem is you and the next task manager you use will feel the same way in a bit.
Third, nothing is going to solve every problem. There are things that I don’t love about my paper solution but it has so many benefits that I just deal with the things that it doesn’t do well. The freedom it gives me far outweighs any drawbacks. Give up on finding the perfect system.
Fourth, you have to be willing to make decisions. All those crappy lists you hate, just delete them. Stop pushing it off on the future. Admit you’re not going to do it and leave it there.
Fifth, you need to work based on priority. Ask yourself every day “What is the single thing I can do today that will make the rest of my job easier or irrelevant?”. Then do that thing and be okay with sucking at other things.
Sixth, plan to the now. Just because you started an internal project 6-months ago doesn’t mean it’s the thing to do now. Don’t fall for the sunk cost fallacy. When you look at your goals every quarter, just do the ones that provide the most value now.
Seventh, write it down or it didn’t happen. If you’re not tracking your tasks then it didn’t happen. You won’t remember it and that can be a good thing because so often we write down crap that sits on our back and stops us from getting something awesome done.
Eight, manage based on energy. Not all of your day is equal. Sometimes you have the energy for hard tasks and sometimes you don’t. Make sure you schedule your ‘hard’ work in to the times that you have lots of energy. Brent Hammond and I had a great discussion about tasks and energy. I’ve also written more about managing your tasks based on energy in a bigger series on deep work.
Ninth, make sure that your environment is set up for focus. If you have a bunch of crap distracting you all the time then you won’t be doing awesome work. Set your phone and tablet up for the tasks they’re meant for. Set your laptop up for no distractions. Make sure your work environment is clean and clear.
Now, if you’ve got a handle on these things, you’re ready to start digging into personal productivity. If you don’t have those things dealt with, then no system is going to work for you.
You have too much crap in the way of getting good creative work done.
Which Personal Productivity System is Right for You?
While you may be looking for a specific tool recommendation, you won’t find that here. In February, I’ll walk you through what I do, but even that may not work for you. Most of the time, looking for a new tool is a waste of your time.
For most people, the problem with your current system isn’t the tools it’s you. You don’t do your weekly planning or your daily planning or review all your projects. You maybe make a task list for the day, but maybe not. You might default to email and what it thinks is important for you.
Then you wonder why you feel overwhelmed all the time, but you shouldn’t. You do it to yourself and the next tool you choose will have the same issues.
As you think about your personal productivity here are a few more rules to think about.
photo credit: curtismchale cc
As Few Pieces as Possible
A great system has as few pieces as possible to be productive. My system has a pocket notebook for on the go notes. A Bullet Journal from Leuchtturm1917 for my planning and task management day to day and finally Trello for my project collaboration.
There is nothing else that deals with any of the tasks I have day today.
I don’t have a CRM tool that’s stand alone anymore because it was an inbox I never checked and thus wasn’t getting any value out of. I moved my CRM into my notebook along side all the other tasks that I need to get done in a day.
One item I didn’t mention here is my other notebook, the one that only handles my notes on books. This is outside of my Bullet Journal because it’s got it’s own function. The only thing that goes there are notes on books and ideas for writing that are sparked by the reading I’m doing.
I like analogue systems because it entirely breaks me out of the possibility of anyone dictating what’s important in my day. Yes it makes more work because I have to take detailed notes on what needs to get done so that I don’t have to dive back into Trello or email, but planning is key to having a day that accomplishes something worthwhile.
Adapt it
Your system must also suit how you work. You can’t import my system and figure it’s going to rock your world. Maybe it will but not in a good way. Look at the ideas that come from other people and use what works for you. Throw out the rest.
I don’t use the Bullet Journal system by the letter. I don’t use GTD either, or Kanban or stuff from the 12 Week Year. I use a mash up of all those systems that works for me.
As you journey through building out your own personal productivity system, make sure you refer to the key principles in the last section. Make sure that you write down the problems you have and as you go looking at what others are doing, you import what looks like it might fix your problems and toss the rest.
Keep piloting change in your system. Your personal productivity system is not stagnant. Your work will change. You will change. Your system should change with you.
Review and Planning is Key
Out of all the systems out there, I think that the one common required piece is a review process. A good weekly review of everything you have on your plate is crucial to success. A plan for the week ahead and a daily review and replan in a key element in getting things done.
You can’t wing it and hope to have a bunch of great output. Winging it will mean that you continue to be stuck in the weeds trying to find your way out as you drown in your work.
You Must Create Space In Your Day to be Productive
If you want to get things done, you need space in your day. With a day that’s planned down to the minute with must do tasks, you’re never going to feel like you’re getting enough done.
One of those tasks will go longer and then all the other commitments you just made to yourself will stack up until you’re working late again and still not getting everything done.
The maximum percentage of your day that should have must do items is 60%. Anymore than that and you’re planning yourself into problems.
One of the key reasons that this happens to people is because they allow distractions to creep into their day. All your planning should surround the need to get focused amazing work done. With four hours of focus, you can get more done than most people can in eight hours.
You have to cut all the distractions to get that focus though and to do that you need to be familiar with the two modes of work.
photo credit: clement127 cc
You’re a Maker and a Manager
You’re both a Maker and a Manager. Makers need large blocks of time to do focused work. That’s writing, design, thinking, coding, or anything creative.
If you’re running a business, you’re a Maker and you need to make sure you have time aside to focus on the tasks that are important.
But, you’re also a Manager. You probably have to have sales calls and meetings with clients. You need to answer and respond to email and maybe even jump on social media to update some profiles and such.
The problem comes because most people go Manager first and Maker second. This is a problem because Manager tasks easily overflow into Maker tasks. Email always takes longer than you think, and it always brings up random crap that others think is important.
Instead, go for Mullet Productivity, Maker in the morning and Manager in the afternoon. When you plan your day, make sure you have the details needed so you don’t have to dip into the manager spaces in your work. Give yourself at least three hours of focused time to do your Maker work.
Then be open to Manager work in the afternoons when your brain is tired and has less energy to dive deep into big thinking tasks. I do this and I plan in a 2 – 3 hour break in between my two modes of work so that I can recharge my brain and have the energy required to dive into more work later.
You can’t be on for eight hours thinking hard about your work. You progressively make worse decisions and you can’t afford that. Give yourself a planned break in the day and when you’re working only work. Ignore distractions and focus on the most important tasks at hand.
Plan Space
Outside of planning your tasks out for the day, there are other items that need to get in your week. First, you need unplanned time every day to deal with the extra stuff that gets tossed your way. Second, you need rest so that you can focus. Finally, you need at least three hours a week dedicated to self-improvement.
No day is ideal. In fact while you may have an idea day plan, it will almost never happen. Kids will get sick. A client will have a legitimate emergency that you need to deal with. Your computer will crash and you’ll have to figure out why. If you pack your day hour by hour with tasks, you have no flex to deal with these things. Make sure you have a working hour every day that has nothing officially planned for it. Leave it for overflow so you can deal with what life throws at you.
Second, you need rest every day so that you can focus. Your schedule may not suit three hour chunks of rest between working blocks like mine does, but it certainly can support a 20 minute walk. If it doesn’t, your business is broken. Admit it and start the hard work to restructure it so you can have that walk every day.
Finally, a solid business means you have three hours every week to improve yourself. If you’re a developer, that’s not just looking at new code, that’s learning to run an amazing business. Same goes for designers or writers. You must be reading and learning about marketing your business, planning better, how to write better proposals. If you don’t have time every week to do that, then you’re on a long slow death spiral. You won’t be getting ahead like dream without the hard work required to be better in the fields that aren’t directly your work.
If you can build in this space, and stick to the processes required to have awesome personal productivity, you can get the work done you need to without needing 12 hours a day.
photo credit: ummwho cc
Are You Going to Build a Viable Freelance Business?
Now ask yourself, who are you?
Are you someone that just wants to focus on the craft of code?
Do you want to write, and hate marketing?
Who are you going to partner with to do the stuff you don’t like? Who is perfectly suited to filling in your gaps?
Back at the beginning of this, I said that you needed to figure out who you are. Are you willing to do the work needed to build a business? Are you going to admit you’re in sales and must address marketing in your week?
Are you only interested in writing code day in day out and want to deal with clients as little as possible?
One other option we didn’t go into if you just want to do your craft, is that you can find a partner. Someone that loves the sales and that you trust to take care of the things you don’t like.
If you’re not sure who you can tap on the shoulder, then start looking for them. Look with intention. Find someone that loves the parts you hate.
If even that step sounds like work you don’t want to do, get ready to fail. If you hate the marketing and selling of your business, then no one will be doing it for you.
If you struggle with client relationships and getting projects done on time, then you’ll have a dry well of referrals. Why would anyone refer work to you if you’re over budget and late all the time?
If you want to run a successful business, you’re in sales. You must get into the marketing tasks. You must plan time every week to get better at the tasks that aren’t directly a part of the work you sell.
You must have a plan each week to be focused on doing awesome work and you must stick to it. You must say no to the distractions that are around so that you can get awesome work done.
If you’re not going to do these things, go find a job and stick to what you love. There is no shame in that. It’s the right choice for some people. It might be the right choice for you, if you’re not willing to do the hard work it takes to run that business you dream of.
Have an awesome day!
Curtis
PS: If you’re looking to start filling in some of your holes, you should join my 8 Week Business BootCamp. It will help you set goals and build the processes you need to have a kick ass freelance business.
first photo credit: elstruthio cc
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