Your Company...Are You Company?

Most of us work as professionals with a majority of us working in companies while others work as freelancers (with or without a company name). What ever may be the "employment" style, one thing is certain, we "are" a part of the job we do..
I say that we are a part of our job (for salaried people) AND Company itself towards its employees on the other hand on the basis of the following few things.
a] Company ethics and our adherence to them
b] Experience or knowledge which we would gather as we work and then its sharing..
c] The process/technical development we do becomes the "company" property. Do we contribute to this?
d] The impact of our services(good or bad)on the company's business,clients.
e] Work,process management skills...professionals know what I mean here.
f] Acceptance, by the company and by the employee too to proceed towards a primary objective i.e. further/future growth.
g] Delivery...of service by the employee and its matching in equal terms by the company...
A company, here means similar to the English word "accompany". When both the employee and the company become one then there are miracles,achievements,growth...

My first question again, Are we company? ... :)

Blog Writing Business or Fun !

Well this is a point on which most of us could talk for quite some time, some choosing money,some fun while some (like me) choosing both of them :)
The way you can be out here and make a presence is really interesting. I would bet with anyone out here on the impact and effective way one can make themselves exist out here on the "WWW".
I write for fun and the way people take interest and businesses make business from my writing gets me "some" business too !!
Yes, true that there comes a time when people tend to go more for the money part of it but this is really a short lived preposition. One cannot be a minting machine for too long. There would come a plateau when the "catchy" thing goes before the writer even realizes.
So for me, I am a fun loving business person, what about you guys? :)

Your job - your reputation

Offshore jobs means you get clients sitting thousands kilometers away giving their specifications, details, explanations and hoping they get what they expected.
It becomes even more intense when you have a fresh new client who could get more business for you if you hit it "correct" the first time.
We recently had a client giving us details and explanations and though he was not a fresh lead, we going by our policy worked till the last detail with him to get what he wanted. Can you guess what was his "last" specification?...well he wanted his site made all over again, new fresh and with changed themes and feel !!
Did this meant us redoing all the jobs all over again? well the question is the answer and believe me this was a "real" job we did within a record time but really we "earned" this client for a very long time to come :)
I know many people who give out jobs and after many delays, extended time lines and talks get the final output which is of no use to them. What a waste of time, effort and money for the client [and the client itself is lost at the service provider's end] !!!!
Boring, detailed enough to put your team to sleep and what not, each and every client specification and its implementation goes a long in securing your client base. A little offmark and a client could go to someone else !

Logo Design Essentials

Well, a really long time since I last wrote here but I am happy to be back after a few busy days :)
We all designers come across Logo Design jobs and I thought what better time could it be to look at this "basic" thing that we all do quite often...
The main idea around which one would design should be clear to the designer. I am sure most of us come have across people who have "something" to design but don't know or understand the Theme. For example, the theme of Web Design Company should depict designs, that of a Music Company should depict notes, flow etc. Simple part but even more easily missed out by people.
Second is the way you would depict your theme. Don't get car images for a car hire company, this is so "usual". One could for example get comfort, ease, economy depicted on this. Simply put, make this a design, not a "sentence".
Now the shades, color you would use goes a long way to tell who the designer is...yes I came directly to the designer (instead of the Company) as I know people understand what I mean here :)
Appearance of your logo is the ultimate idea behind good web designing. For example if you took light colors and shades despite knowing that it was going to be printed in vinyl billboards to be put out in the open during the summers, then forget that your designs would be recognizable after a week. It will evaporate into thin air..... Make your logo keeping in mind the places where it could possibly be put !!
Lastly, I strongly believe that it is not a complex or a simple design which makes a brand, it is the clarity of the same in the designer's mind which does the trick. Examples? well let me start, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Adidas, Nike, MacDonald's and the list goes on and on...
Designing logos is indeed a detailed task, and really interesting too ! With the designer in their own shoes when they start designing does the trick and who knows it could develop into a successful brand !!

Hey all you Freelancers !!

The word Freelancer sounds very interesting to most of us. We visualize freedom, space, enterprise, fame and sure the big motivator...money & loads of it !!! ;)
But really, is freelancing and the life of a freelancer so much attractive? Is it really so catchy?
People have many reasons and ways to favor the career of a freelancer. Job of interest, steady income, own timings, no boss over you and you could create what ever you ever wanted...
Well, this is true (rather could be made absolutely true) if one follows some basic guidelines soon [and for always] when they started on their own:
1] Work as if you were still an employee: This makes sure you don't get carried away in the freedom breeze to do what you liked and then getting back to your desk. This could prove to be a major time killing factor.Your output could get affected.
2] Dress just like you did for your office: It feels so cool to come in shorts and slippers and start working for the day.Sit easy on the sofa and chatting with a friend or tweeting and working,enjoying etc. but remember, the more comfort level you get into the more you get prone to miss out on your productive wits ! This is very true, believe me.
3] Set time lines: Give yourself limited time to complete your job. Do I need to elaborate more on this? I don't think so.. :)
4] Work Schedules: Just like point 3 above, set your "office" timings. Sure, easy working hours sound sooo comfy but you could soon find yourself working throughout the night and sleeping throughout the day and then feeling down when you woke up. This could lead to a vicious stress cycle !
5] Prioritize: Set your "to-do" list and follow it. This ensures that you got on your work schedule well on time and are heading towards productivity.
6] Keep watch on yourself !! You need to "treat" yourself as your own employee. Appreciate productivity,accomplishments and point out your shortfalls. Beware, you are more exposed when you go alone...
7] Keep yourself occupied, happy and focused: This makes sure you remain your boss :D
No matter how much we dislike our boss but they are a necessary factor making us walk on line (I am talking only about productivity right now).

Follow up and assess your performance,growth and future going solo...This is an important factor helping you stay,both: motivated and a successful Freelancer !!!

Google Foodle !

Yesterday I was with my friends on an outing and while having a really nice time on a long drive we just started getting hungry. One of my friends is a MacDonalds maniac while I prefer Pizza Hut,no wonder another friend preferred going only to Dominos.
We didn't knew the location so well and spotting MacD on the highway we stopped and got our stuff.
While having our munch someone gave the idea of having those "food outlets" maps of the places when we went out. To my surprise (and interest) another friend started telling us about the latest feature which would come really soon where your mobile phone would act as your shopping assistant !!
According to my friend, the businesses which get listed with Google come up on google searches. Now the new thing that is about to come is that the business (or your favorite retail,grocery store,food outlets) once listed would come on something like a shared platform (between Google and your mobile service company) where you could put your shopping (or anything) requirements as a reminder and your phone would not only remind you when you wanted but would also give you an entire list of the stores having the items you needed and that too those ones only which fall near your physical location (or option driven) at the time .
Now if you are on your way to the office in the morning and your wife tells you to get grocery in the evening (quite difficult to remember these things !!!),your mobile could turn out to be your savior. All you have to do is to first select your route back from office and then run (something like a search) for "grocery" and you would have all the grocery stores listed with Google with their addresses,locations,item details etc. which fall on the route you take back from office !!!.
Cool, isn't it? and I know this is in fact not a far thing. We do have google work for us when we need locations,find stores or businesses which we have to visit.

Just imagine what a simple google listing could do for your business.

Legality of your Blog.

My last writeup was on the basics on which one could frame their articles for effective results.
This time I would focus on the Google laws & the adherence or the lack of it could lead to an entire blog being banned by your favorite Search Engine.
A blog should echo your originality,freshness and your "physical" impact. This means that one should not copy material from other sites. I have come across some people who do this and they say that Google is too busy on the PR thing that they won't ever find out. I am sure that you guys too are aware of Copyscape :)
Also, in the race for revenue people end up getting so many advertisements on their blogs that it appears like an advertisement site ! Sure this makes the visitors form opinions about the content and loose interest (or in other words "when visitors loose their interest in a blog,the blog's relevance looses all its interest")
There are some blogs which place their hidden text (mainly keywords) in the same color as the blog background in small font sizes (to hide from human detection) for getting themselves as much "Keyword" satisfied as possible.
This is not a safe thing to do,Google has means and ways of getting such sites out from the crowd and then they might never include the blog in their listing. i.e. disqualification of the blog.
Keywords are good and effective on a blog but overdoing them works the opposite way.

Following the guardrails on the internet highway is an essential game or else instead of a blog inviting people,it could fast become it's creator's surprise !!!.