The Freelancers' Show

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Discussion Accountants QuickBooks Online GnuCash Outright DNS Simple 1&1 Namecheap Hover WHOIS (command) DNS Made Easy Harvest Freshbooks SlimTimer BubbleTimer chiliproject_clocking Pivotal Tracker Trello JIRA "Use what works best for you." ZTD Omnifocus Sparrow Thunderbird Mac Mail iCal Facebook App Hootsuite Tweetdeck lowers your heating bill Buffer Tweetbot app.net Command Line Tweet Picks Byword (Eric) Keydown (Eric) LG Tone (Evan) Fujitsu ScanSnap Mobile Scanner (Chuck) The Strangest Secret Audio, Text (Chuck) Quality Sleep - Sleep Study, CPAP if recommended (Evan)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Discussion Have 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund. Manage Expenses Evaluating Purchases Place large purchases on a wishlist, wait before purchasing. Deposit to emergency fund to cover large costs that are on the horizon. Personal Finance Management Give yourself an allowance. Retirement Investing Dave Ramsey Put away a small amount each month for taxes. Determining the size of your emergency fund. Writing off business expenses when there is personal activity included (check with your tax accountant). Picks Scared Shitless - Merlin Mann, Webstock 2011 (Eric) Air Compressor (Chuck) Hydraulic Jack and Jack Stands (Chuck)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Discussion PDFpen for signing contracts OpenOffice Git Repositories Amazon S3 Time Machine Mozy Dropbox Scope Changes/Contract Addendum Pivotal Tracker Client Communications Source Code Github Code Ownership Code Licensing Assembla ChiliProject Hard Drive Encryption Remote Wipe Vulnerability Important Client Info SSH Keys Salesforce CRM Chatroom/Skype/IRC Area Wiki Documents Virtual Machines Status Snapshots Evernote Final Documentation Picks Guerilla Freelancing - 7 Items Freelancers Should Back Up (Eric) Are You As Busy As You Think? (Eric) PartyChat (Chuck) HuBot (Chuck)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Work, Leisure, Sleep - Time Tracking Things that are business related, but not done in a business fashion. Pre-experiment Estimates Seasonal and Holiday Variance Breaking marketing time out for specific tracking. How often do we do regular time tracking. PO Boxes Earth Class Mail UPS Store Self/Professional Improvement Time "Janitorial Thought Work" Picks Weekly Tech Learning - (Eric) Around 'Hello World' in 30 Days (Eric) Brakeman Open Source Vulnerability Scanner (Eric) Lookout Test Engineer (Evan) Kerbal Space Program (Evan) Space Pirates and Zombies (Evan) Rescue Time (Jeff) Starbase Orion (Jeff) Jing (Chuck) Skype Screen Sharing (Chuck)  

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Get Clients Now! by CJ Hayden Strategies and Stages Daily Worksheets Cookbook-Style Approach "It made marketing click for me." See what you're doing/what you're not. The 28-Day Marketing Plan Repetition One Person Marketing Plan Weely cycles start on Saturday. No reusable templates. Not a lot of fluff. Book Yourself Solid Success Ingredients Properly using your human resources. Quara - Is There A Good Invoicing Plugin for Redmine Picks Duct Tape Marketing (Jeff) Business Model You (Eric) Speed Dial 2 (Chuck)  

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Working in teams Client interaction Trying new techniques "Hurry up and wait" Freelance development is an experiment. Influence on/working parallel with development teams. "Agile is not really defined" Adaptation to change Pivotal Tracker Showing regular progress Use a staging server Be more agile than "Agile" "Picture of two people shaking hands" How much of the Agile process do you expose to the client? Try to adapt to the client's process and tools. Point vs. Time Based Estimation Keep features under control Discovery Process Basecamp ChiliProject Campfire Propane for Campfire Skype Google+ Hangouts Skitch Jing Cloudapp Dropbox Picks Mr. Reader - iPad (Jeff) Instapaper (Eric) Vimux (Evan) Sinjimoru Sync and Charge Dock for iPhone  (Eric) Agile Ruined My Life (Eric) The Chaos Model (Eric) Salesforce (Chuck) P90X

Panel C. J. Hayden (twitter getclientsnow.com) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Following Up Keeping the Pipeline Full Use the book as a coach. Work with the book. Advantages of one-on-one coaching. Benevolent Peer Pressure Getting Things Done by David Allen Socratic Questioning Evoking Interest > Telling What to Do How do you find a coach? Not all coaches are a good fit. Many Tactics, 6 Strategies Direct Contact and Followup Networking and Referral Building Public Speaking Writing and Publicity Promotional Events Advertising Effective self promotion comes from a place of passion. Scale, to prevent burnout. Getting Referral Sources Using CRM Effectively Referring people to articles/blog posts Picks Marketing Monday (Eric) The Busy Trap (Evan) TweetBot (Evan) Yahoo Voice Hacked - Change Your Passwords (Jeff) Twitter Bootstrap (Jef

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Businesses need a brand Easier to talk about, than to build How to name your business vs. building a brand "Real words and interesting" "Not-real words and compelling" Igor Naming Guide Dictionaries of uncommon words SEO Phonetic ambiguity Individual proprietor vs. teams Selling out, business vs. personal name Gary Vaynerchuk/Wine Library/VaynerMedia Rebranding Selling product vs. selling service Start a personal brand, grow into a company Talk to an attorney Tumble Log Give value to your customers RailsTutorial.org - Book Refactoring Redmine Redmine Tips Blogs (posts) add credibility to your brand Feeding time Open source software to build your brand through added value FasterCSV thoughtbot Rick Olson Form a business entity at least within the tax year of starting freelance work. Picks Stash Tea - Gunpowder Green, Silver Needle White (Eric) WWDC

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Blogging Write a Case Study for your client projects Startups Company Benefits Startups attract developers with "new shiny" Lifestyle Starting a Business Sacrifice Silicon Valley Learning from your clients' mistakes Negotiating tactics Kill fees How do you balance between two projects when one pays the bills and one is your passion? Picks Due app (Eric) The perfect smoothie formula (Eric) FreelanceSwitch - Freelance Freedom (Jeff) Freelance Radio (Chuck) Google Reader (Chuck) Instapaper  - iTunes (Chuck) Feeddler (Chuck)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Subcontracting programming Assistants Subcontracting design Communication breakdowns oDesk Screening Processes CSS Mac App Development Chop-chop Pair programming Subcontractors talking directly to the clients Desired attributes of a subcontractors Can work remotely without supervision Reliability People you already know Great communication skills Problems that can crop up with delivery You are responsible for your subcontractors' work (including the screw ups) Have a contract Communicating with subcontractors Chiliproject Skitch Skype Email CloudApp Pivotal Tracker Dropbox Balsamiq Mockups AIM/iChat TeamViewer Join.me Screenflow Tracking Subcontracting Time Harvest Freshbooks Billing for the subcontractor's time Hourly with a rate markup Hourly with no markup Hourly under a fixed bid project Passing along

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Spare bedroom L-desk Standing desk Ergonomics Get an external monitor and peripherals if a laptop is your primary workstation Mouse and keyboard Monitor stand iCurve by Griffin iMac Open space is nice Geekdesk 30" cinema display apple keyboard apple mouse aeron chair windows in the room 11" macbook air Bose QuietComfort 15 iPhone Tax deduction for having your own space for work Corner desk 4 24" monitors on a mac pro 13" macbook air 8' whiteboard CXO chair by Nightingale Blue Snowball mic on a boom arm iPod on 2x cubicle showerboard whiteboard Mind-mapping Metrics iPad scratch paper monitor arms tax writeoffs for equipment purchases Office Depot document holder Bluetooth full size keyboard Spaces iTerm tmux vim Picks Avery Peel and Stick Dry Erase stickers (Eric) Weekly desk cleaning (Eric) SimplyNoise (Evan) Bose

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Charge for almost everything Sometimes the estimate - if you negotiate that Coding Meetings on the phone Are you adding value? Learning new technologies doesn't count unless the client specified that technology Try to only do one risky thing at a time Do the risky stuff first You can discount time if it wasn't well spent Tell your client that you discount time Tell them about time you saved Should we bill for time managing subcontractors? If the task requires a team, then bill for the additional time managing people If the task is delegated to a subcontractor when you would be able to do it all yourself, then don't bill the client Make sure the client understands the terms of hiring you and having subcontractors Don't violate client expectations Do you bill for travel time? Look for opportunities to make the client's

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Elance Odesk Start local Be involved in the community User Groups Subcontracting Go to conferences RailsConf Get involved in Open Source projects Screencasts Ruby DCamp Join Mailing List Speaking at Conferences Write an ebook Freelance Switch Blogging Comment on other People's sites Join and participate in forums Podcast List everyone you know and tell them you're freelance Referrals John Jantz - The Referral Engine Michael Port - Book Yourself Solid Build systems around your marketing Set the expectation at the beginning that they will give you referrals Do a retrospective or review Survey your client and if they're happy then ask for referrals Deliver underbudget and early Ask for referrals on milestones 33 touches (Real Estate) Be specific BNI Project Rescue Communicate well Set accurate expectations The quality of

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Developers playing Systems Administrators Automated scripting Chef Puppet Heroku Moonshine Phusion Passenger Apache HTTP server Nginx Server Setup Ongoing Maintenance Engine Yard Chef Recipes CouchDB PuppetLabs Ubuntu Debian apt apt-get CentOS LTS Releases Rails 3.x RailsMachine Rails 4.x is ditching plugins Why are you doing DevOps? Stores your Operational changes in git. Saves you time on more than one server. Copy up a script and then script the login and script run. Puppet in Solo mode Bootstrapping your server Vagrant Testing configuration Nagios Virtualbox Staging - should mirror production Chirk Slicehost Linode Rackspace Cloud Make the client pay for hosting and do the systems administration yourself Amazon EC2 & S3 Memcached Deploy with git Scaling Load Balancers Provisioning a VM PostgreSQL VPS - Virtual

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion All you need is a client Business entity Startups for the Rest of Us Business Insurance iamindependent.com LegalZoom Get a Contract Health Insurance Dave Ramsey ELP's Aflac Group policies for companies SERP 401k Find a CPA and talk to them INGDirect Pay Down Debt Get some savings Disability Insurance The Freelancer's Guide to Money Bob Walsh The Total Money Makeover Financial Peace The Richest Man in Babylon Marketing Start a Blog Pay it Forward Don't oversell your abilities Take a reduced rate if you're not experienced Subcontract to someone who is more experienced Chad Fowler Explain that they'll have to pay for you to learn to do the work Contribute to Open Source Experiment with the code StackOverflow rubypair.com Picks Pick an Open Source project, find a feature request, and build it and give it to the project

Panel E. Scott Sweeney, CPA (email 801-756-3394) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Why you want a CPA? Accurate Returns Tax Savings Understanding of Tax Code You'll likely wind up paying taxes rather than getting a return. Home Office Deductions Itemizing Your Return Likelihood of getting audited Keep your receipts on every expediture Mileage - Begin odometer reading and ending odometer reading The IRS cannot audit you back 4 year Statute of limitations on fraud is 7 years Tax deadline for 2012 is April 17. Failure to pay penalty Filing an extension avoids the failure to file penalties Officer's salary in an S-Corp or a guaranteed payment in an LLC Wages and salary vs draws and dividends Self employment tax is 13.3% Picks Robbie McDonnell talk on goals (Eric) Freelancing Weekly (Jeff) iOS Biz Weekly (Jeff) Paleo Weekly (Jeff) Freelance Funnel (Jeff) Hootsuite (Chuck) Scott Sweeney CP

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Ruby Java .NET JavaScript Ruby on Rails Rescue Projects Redmine Chili Project Legacy Code Sinatra Rack Spree Ryan Bigg Radiant rails_admin Padrino Plugins attachment_fu Upgrading around customized plugins acts_as_commentable_with_threading Twitter API Facebook API Email LDAP authentication Single Signon authentication "Ruby is the glue that doesn't set" Facebook Connect ACH gateway OmniAuth Facebook Graph API Minitest Minitest-spec RSpec Cucumber Spinach Coulda "I want something like <insert social network here> except it does <insert unique selling proposition>." Big Rewrites Nagios Picks Vagrant (Eric) Rookies in the Bike Shed by DHH (Eric) ActiveAdmin (Jeff) VeeWee (Jeff) The Power of Habit (Jeff) OO vs Functional Design (Evan) Pry (Evan) Mass Effect 3 (Evan) Scrivener (Chuck) railstutorial.org (Chuc

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion 30x500 by Amy Hoy See Project Run Refactoring Redmine Redmine Tips Authoring Ebooks Chirk SAAS Freelance Funnel Newsletters iPhone Apps BDDCasts Rails Beginning course Evan's iPad app Scratch your own itch Marketing works well over time Batch up work Scheduling blog posts Bufferapp.com Budgeting time to do product development Marketing takes up the most time microconf Micropreneur Academy Why are you building what you're building? Project vs Product Momentum Marketing to build momentum 4 Hour Work Week Lean Startup How do you find a product to make that your market wants to buy from you? Yes, 50 scientific whatever,.... Product focused business - The product is the most powerful Market focused business - The market is the most powerful Opportunity cost of product development Time and location freedom Picks Seth God

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Wordpress Templates Designers Branding and Design Referrals from Clients Referrals from your network Client supplied designers Designers in the family ThemeForest WooThemes oDesk eLance iPhone App design 99designs Rails Rumble Requires a ton of feedback API interviews Use a subcontractor Accountability Photoshop PSD files PDF files HTML & CSS jQuery Animations Have a designer break it up into assets Using existing design (Redmine, Chiliproject) Twitter Bootstrap UI/UX designers User testing A/B testing Should you manage designers? Website layouts Logo nerds oswd.org medialoot.com micropreneur academy elegant themes Picks Eon (Jeff) Freshbooks (Jeff) How Designers can help Developers by Matt Gemmell (Jeff) How Developers can help Designers by Matt Gemmell (Jeff) Freelancing Weekly (Jeff) Chop Chop (Jeff) Compass