Jul 27

Freelancer Friday: 13 Questions with Jonathan Snook

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Who

Jonathan Snook of Snook.ca is the first freelancer to be interviewed by Focus Minded for Freelancer Friday. He maintains a very popular blog and is involved in many personal projects. He is also 1/4 of Sidebar Creative, a collective of 4 very talented individuals.

Background

I have the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan on a fairly regular basis, usually to bug him for his opinion on a new design. However, I’ve been known to ask some questions about his freelancing business. These questions happen to strike the idea of interviewing those more successful than I to gain a greater insight into the business of web design and development. I have truly learned a lot from Jonathan and I hope you’ll enjoy and learn from his answers.

1. Can you briefly tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a freelance web designer/developer from Ottawa, Canada. I’ve been doing web development professionally since 1999 and as a hobby since 1995. I consider myself pretty lucky because I get to do what I enjoy and love every day. I couldn’t imagine doing something this much that I didn’t enjoy.

2. How long have you been 100% self-employed?

I went freelance full-time in January of 2006. A full year and a half into it and things have been hustling along nicely.

3. What did you do before you took the leap to full-time freelance?

I certainly didn’t put much of a game plan together. No business plan, no large pile of cash in case times got slow. But I had a contract lined up, something that extended out of a small project that led into a large (and subsequently even larger) project. The biggest thing I had to do was allay the fears of my wife. She was extremely reluctant, mostly due to the instability of freelance life. I just let her know that I could always go back to full time work if things didn’t work out.

4. Was it an easy transition and why?

Yes and no. It was easy in the sense that I wasn’t scrounging for work. I had a project right off the bat and plenty more that rolled in over the course of the first year. But adjusting to a new schedule and figuring out where and how I was going to get stuff accomplished has been much harder. In fact, I’d say it’s really only been within the past few months that I’ve really gotten comfortable with the working arrangements. It’s gotten to the point now where it’d be a difficult transition back into “working for the man”.

5. Can you briefly walk us through a typical work day for you?

Having a kid forces you into a certain schedule so work for me during the fall and winter doesn’t start until 9:30, after I drop him off for school. During the summer, though, my day starts at 8:30. I usually end up spending the first hour catching up on emails and feeds. I’ll check some site stats and then jump into the grind. I’ll get a couple hours done in the morning and then take a break for lunch. If I stay home, it’s usually a quick meal and another check on email and feeds. If it’s one of those rare days I go out for lunch to actually see sunlight for a change, it’ll usually get extended to an hour or two. If there’s one thing I like, it’s taking an extended lunch and not really worrying about it. After lunch, I’ll usually get another 2-3 hours of good productive work. Once 4:00 rolls around, things start to slow down. It’s at this point that I’ll try and attack some little stuff. I might work on a blog post or tackle more email before the end of the day or, of course, check on the feeds.

The evening is family time and I’ve been pleased that work hasn’t invaded that time. There’s been the odd occasion where there might be a quick conference call but it’s rare. Once my kid is in bed, I’ll often hop back online to tackle more stuff. It’s this chunk of time that I’d really like to reduce spending on client work and instead focus it on personal projects.

6. In a typical week, how many hours do you work on the following:

  • Client Work: 30
  • Personal Projects: 10
  • Blogging: 5
  • RSS reading: 10
  • Learning: 5
  • Other (describe)?:

It’s hard to break it down into specific hours but I’ve been surprised at how hard it is to actually hit 40 hours a week of client work. It just doesn’t happen. Likewise, I don’t have a normal 40 hour work week. I have a bad habit of taking on more work than I can handle and inevitably spend countless hours trying to get everything done. It’s definitely an area that I need to focus on. It can be tough to say no to a potential project.

7. For you, what do you think is the best way to attract new clients?

For me, it’s really been all about the blog. But the chances of just starting a blog and suddenly having it translate into business are slim. There are a number of ingredients that go into a successful site including content, design, branding and extending the blog outward. When I say extending the blog outward I mean that you contribute to other things that all point back to the blog. That might be commenting on other blog posts, that might be contributing articles to other sites, writing books, speaking, or doing interviews for other sites (wink). Each of these activities help draw people back into one place and help establish you as an expert.

8. If you had to list several industry ‘mentors’ or ‘heroes’ who would they be?

I don’t have any mentors that have been there to offer one-on-one advice to help me grow. I don’t have any heroes as I believe that we’re all capable of doing some very cool stuff. But I do find a great deal of inspiration from many people. I look to those that have been successful in what they do, look to how they’ve accomplished it, and then try and do the same. Shaun Inman, for example, has done what I’ve always wanted to do: build a web product that people love and pay money for. It can actually be overwhelming to see the abundance of talent and constantly finding yourself trying to “keep up with the Joneses” but it’s important to focus on yourself, focus on what your goals are and work towards that.

9. What is the biggest blunder you see other web design companies do?

The biggest mistake I’ve seen is fear. They fear competition. They fear being put out of business. They fear that trade secrets will become known and that the work will disappear. I’ve tried to advocate that with the web, it’s a community of abundance. There is no competition. We’re all in this together. We can continue to push each other and learn from each other. Doing so ultimately means that clients get solid results. Happy clients means more work.

10. What is the most under utilized web element/technology in your opinion?

I think it depends on the market. Some segments of the population just aren’t aware of the possibilities like RSS and other data syndication services. Web services in general offer up new ways to look at existing data.

11. On the flip side, what is the most over used web element/technology in your opinion?

Again, I think it depends on the market. Those in real estate overuse the personal photo shot. Those in print design overuse Helvetica Neue. Those on the bleeding edge of Web 2.0 are probably tired of seeing certain design styles like gradients and rounded fonts. I’ve also seen some heavily overused implementations of Ajax. Everything in moderation, I say.

12. Rapid-Fire Recommendations (URL and optional comment):

13. If there was one bit of advice would you have for those interested in creating or growing their web design business, what would it be?

You have to market yourself but that doesn’t mean you have to do it like everybody else. At the core, you’re trying to attract attention and convince people that you’re an expert at what you do. Good ways to do that are to get involved in your business community and specifically within your niche. That might seem slightly counter-intuitive since you wouldn’t normally think to schmooze your competition but they’re really not your competition.

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