Start & Run a Creative Services Business. Susan Kirkland

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СКАЧАТЬ light-duty laptops are dropping in price, so I store all working documents on my laptop so I can grab it and run,” says Brian Dooley, a well-established technical writer in New Zealand. “This keeps my work within arm’s reach no matter where I’m at.” You may also have to prepare slick comprehensives for client review, collate multipage publications, and execute other precise activities that require natural light plus a stable, clean work area. The laptop office will not suffice for these extra endeavors.

      2. Set Up an Efficient Home Office

      If you think you need more than a cyber office or fall into the “other creative endeavor” category, here are a few tips to keep in mind when setting up your home office.

      2.1 Dedicate your work space

      If you live alone, you can turn your entire living space into your office, though this is not recommended, for obvious reasons. Most people have family, pets, and surprise visitors to consider when they work at home, not to mention the need to tidy up before a client appears. The ideal home office is a dedicated room with a door that locks. Why would you need a lock in your own home? The first time Junior accidentally deletes work to make room on your hard drive for his new computer game, the reason will become eminently clear. When your spouse needs poster board for a yard sale sign, locking the door will protect your five-dollar-a-sheet, double-weight, plate illustration board in your absence. Plus, the expensive photo-quality laser jet paper you bought to print out your client’s color comprehensives will not be reallocated without your knowledge for the family reunion snapshots.

      To produce like a profesiional, your work space must be pared down to provide the necessary accoutrements for peak performance.

      For a truly dedicated work space, remove all items not related to your work. First, you don’t want to allow your office to become a pseudo storage space packed with clutter. If you’re going to produce like a professional, your work space must be pared down to provide the necessary accoutrements for peak performance. That means no distractions like that old black-and-white tv you’ve held onto since your college days. Give it to charity and take a tax deduction for the donation.

      Second, the tax department (aka the Internal Revenue Service or Canada Revenue Agency) will not allow you to write off a percentage of your monthly expenses on your income tax return if the space you call your office is also used as the laundry room or Little League equipment locker. It must be a dedicated space.

      Spend a few dollars on proper cable clamps and arrange all the electrical cables, computer connections, and surge protectors so they don’t interfere with your movement. (You do have surge protectors on your equipment to protect your investment, don’t you?) Be prepared for the unexpected: My new computer arrived and I was ready to work when curiosity almost killed the cat. Up he jumped, ever so gracefully knocking over a large glass of iced tea — right into the keyboard. No work for me that day. My new keyboard arrived the next day, and you can bet the cat was outdoors. I had learned the importance of a dedicated work space.

      2.2 Create a work-friendly ambiance

      The key to getting down to work is creating a work-friendly environment that will disappear into the background so you can concentrate on the project at hand. This includes excellent lighting. If you deal with colors, you will need both a yellow and a white bulb to mimic natural light. There’s a reason those green peppers look so very green in the grocery store, and you need to believe what you see when suggesting colors to clients. Poor lighting contributes to eye strain, and most creativity involves the use of vision, so take care. Direct your excellent lighting at the thing that needs illuminating, not at your eyes.

      There’s no greater challenge to turning out good work than an uncomfortable chair.

      Odors and stale air can be just as much of a distraction as the neighbor’s kid bouncing a ball off the side of your house, so plug in a few scent generators (or remove the ones your well-meaning spouse plugged in if scents are a distraction for you).

      Temperature is important, too, so a portable fan or small heater may offer comfort, depending on the season. You won’t be able to concentrate if your feet are cold. When you achieve homeostasis and your surroundings fade from your attention, your focus will be on your work, allowing your creativity and productivity to soar.

      2.3 Invest in a great chair

      If you spend 30 percent of your time seated in front of a computer, you certainly deserve an ergonomically correct chair that will support you during the long haul and late-night pushes to meet contract deadlines. If you need to convince yourself to invest the money, remember that it’s tax deductible, and if you spread out the expenditure over a couple of projects, you’ll find a good chair is not that expensive after all.

      There’s no greater challenge to turning out good work than an uncomfortable chair. Spending $1,000 on a well-designed chair pays off over time with fewer interruptions due to a stiff back and fewer painful distractions from the real reason you’re sitting there in the first place. Keep in mind that buying a chair is like buying a new mattress. You should sit in it before you buy it. My personal favorite is the Aeron Chair by Herman Miller. There are many chair designers in the marketplace, and the advent of online shopping provides some great deals on fine furniture that otherwise might prove cost-prohibitive. Go on, you deserve it. Think of it as an investment in your “well seated” success.

      2.4 Buy a good computer

      Whether you work on a laptop or prefer a massive tower and 22-inch monitor, remember you get what you pay for. Spend some time talking to other people in your field. Ask them why they chose their computer; how much downtime they’ve had due to hardware problems; how easy it was to get the equipment fixed when there was a problem; and if they ever used a backup system. Remember that running your own business involves taking care of your own problems. Your client will not care about why you missed his million-dollar deadline; he will only remember that you did. There are no excuses or second chances when you cost your client money.

      Buying the best equipment you can afford will save you a lot of potential grief. Like others, you may be afraid of buying equipment that will be out of date before it’s paid for. This is a common problem when technology moves as fast as it does today. Leasing is an excellent option for the short term. Just make sure you read the small print on the lease agreement.

      If you’re working by yourself and on a limited budget, look for reliability. In this regard, you can’t beat Macintosh. Contrary to popular myth, there are more than 3 million Apple users who swear by their machines, and I’m one of them. Information technology departments all over the country saved a few hundred dollars on corporate pc purchases but spent millions creating the technical-support teams required to keep their hardware up and running. Now that prices of the two operating systems are almost the same, it makes good sense to buy the one that’s the least time-consuming and troublesome to maintain. If you want to be self-sufficient, my advice is to buy a Mac.

      A few words about your Graphical User Interface (GUI): It was great news for pc owners when Windows was introduced, but it’s just a big piece of software that reproduces the inherent graphic interface of the Mac’s operating system. Windows takes longer to react to commands and requires more keystrokes, plus it takes up valuable drive space. None of this matters if you have the capital to fund an it department to install new software for you, work out bugs, and cater to all your hardware needs. If you want to be self-reliant, though, buy reliable equipment — buy a Mac.

      Macs are designed for people who use computers in СКАЧАТЬ