1 Thank you thank you thank you

I’m not a Designer (God I wish I was … but I can juggle three rubber balls and I like hockey, so …).

I’m a developer. A code constructionist. A “head-down programmer for hire”. And I love it.

(And, I love the fact that despite high school teachers and college professors telling me ‘you should never start a sentence with the word “And”’, I still get away with it! HA!)

Anyhow, as you mention, it is, indeed, lucrative to write code for hire. But it’s not fulfilling nor does it create passive income.

Thank you thank you thank you for this nudge in the right direction. I’ve tons of ideas for “developer tools” and such-like and have mentally toyed with the idea of creating them. Thanks to you, I’m now inspired to start.

Again, thanks. Oh … and I’m faster than Jason, no matter he thinks wink.

posted at 09:26 am on August 23, 2005 by Don Schenck

2 Idea

You said in your article that you sold yourself short. Why not make an article about it so that others will learn?

I would love to read an article that would make people realize that they’re always selling themselves short, even to themselves. It is a dreadful fact and we sometimes do not realize that we do it all the time.

I think the first rule in advertising or marketing (even encompassing self-esteem issues) should be “You are your own worst client. Sell yourself to yourself. If you can’t, how can you expect others to buy your ideas/concepts?” Ideas of self-branding come to mind.

Anyway, this is just an idea. Maybe you can explore it and share it to the world.

posted at 10:23 am on August 23, 2005 by Don Villapando

4 Passion Is the Product

Thanks for the great article, Jim. Although focused on the business decisions surrounding the shift from a marketing studio to market-driven producer, your writing underscores another important quality your studio possesses: passion.

When I had the chance to meet briefly with you at your Chicago loft earlier this year, I was struck by your fervor for top-quality products and creativity above craft. (Jim literally jumped out of his chair to show me the new, glossier stock they had sourced for Jewelboxing, and he claimed he would rather hire people with taste than raw skills, because taste can’t be taught—I suspect his staff has both qualities, though.)

Like his loftmates at 37signals, Jim and the crew at Coudal Partners are extremely passionate about their work, whether it be Jewelboxing, LowercaseTees or the beautiful TheShow recordings. It’s that passion that brings folks to their blog, makes them take part in their silly contests, and creates a fanbase of excited customers and friends like me.

Thanks again for the great article and the good advice. Thanks in part to our meeting (an in line with the ideas expressed in this article), you encouraged us at Free the Slaves to start a blog and to market our passion as strongly as we do our cause.

posted at 12:20 pm on August 23, 2005 by Jacob Patton

5 Great article!

Being your own client is awesome. Every designer probably starts from there when he designs his own website. But not all of the designers come back to being their own clients after that. And in all the benefits described here i want to add one more – even if you’re not going to always be your own client, doing it once in a while helps to understand clients better and makes your life more rewarding and interesting.

posted at 03:31 pm on August 23, 2005 by Andrey Smagin

6 Untitled

Hi Jim,

like Don, thanks a lot for this fueling article.

“New tools and technology have made it much easier for small teams to run the manufacturing, financial and distribution side of things. The cost of entry for a new business can be calculated more often in hours of work than in sums of cash.”

As an industrial designer, I would be interested in hearing the differences you found between the development of a physical product like Jewelboxing and the development of a software product like Basecamp. Is it a misconception from my part to think that it’s easier to start a business with software products than with hardware ones, cost and marketing wise ? You can have lots of ideas regarding hardware products and be as passionate as one could be, but when it comes to try to bring them to reality, well, there’s a lot of money to put on the table before you can have the result between your hands. To me, the nature of the tools you need is the problem, not only the time you would spend to build. For software products, the result is accessible faster, as building and enjoying the results are almost seamless (but I might be wrong here, I never worked on software products but primitive websites) and are happening at the same place.

merci merci merci

posted at 03:44 pm on August 23, 2005 by Thibaut Sailly

8 Keeping the business name the same as the blog?

I wonder what everyones thoughts are about keeping the business name for a product the same as the blog or seperating into another company.

For example: Campaign Monitor and Coudal Partners.

or

My Blog and My Blog Store.

posted at 04:26 pm on August 23, 2005 by Matt Mikulla

9 Intrinsic Value

I totally agree with Jim on the charging what traffic will bear as a bunch of nonsense. Working in a small market in Ohio, by that standard I’d make more at the local Radio Shack. We as creatives shouldn’t need to justify what we charge but when we do, we need to make it a value added proposition rather than a simple expense. Have you seen what plumbers/electricians/contractors charge lately?

posted at 09:10 pm on August 23, 2005 by Patrick Larson

10 But if they're not coming...

I was rather hoping you were going to suggest some sort of deal or coalition to ensure fair pay for web designers, like the potato-muncher you mentioned.

Sigh.

posted at 03:03 pm on August 24, 2005 by Alan Hogan