Working the market and the opportunities as a self-employed individual

My business runs on Macs. Period. Therefore I’m always excited when there’s a Mac conference coming up, because as we all know thats where Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces new producs for us fans.

The WWDC is only a couple of days away, so if I could decide, which products Jobs should introduce, here’s my wishlist:

The iPhone in a 3G version and with at least a 3,2 megapixel camera in it. The current model makes no sense to me with the EDGE network support and a crappy camera (I use my camera phone a lot). This looks likely to happen, and I’m super excited about that.

A MacBook Tablet Edition. I had a tablet PC while I was at Microsoft, and unlike a lot of other people, I actually loved it. Today I often find myself missing the opportunity to use my laptop as a whiteboard for projecting onto the big screen while drawing doodlines, lines, squares etc to illustrate my point. Therefore having a MacBook Tablet would be a dream for me. However that doesn’t look to likely to happen anytime soon.

NB: I’m not talking about an oversize iPhone here. I really need to have the full keyboard and the drive, so I’m not just adding yet another device to my collection.

One of the big risks of being self-employed is to become complacent and embroiled in ones own little world. A world where everything is fantastic, opportunities are endless and the idiots are all the people, who don’t understand how brillant you are.

That’s exactly why it is so important to have an outside perspective on things. Not only on the more personal matters but also on work. Where you are going with what you’re doing and why?

Pat Thornton of The Journalism Iconoclast says it’s “good to have non-wired friends”. And I agree totally. Because amid the passion and excitement it’s always good to have someone asking the hard questions.

To me these are my wife and to a lesser extend my mother. They are really good at it. And I’m profoundly grateful that they do it.

Finding new talent is hard. Its a cumbersome proces, and after reading Valeria Maltonis suggestions about job search evolving, I thought I wanted to offer my two cents on the subject.

As I see it there are a number of issues with recruitment today. The worst is the pain of having to advertise a position, wait for people to see the ad, apply and then come by for interviews before you can ultimately pick the person, you pray is going to be right for the job. It’s time consuming, stressful - and yes, a lot of pain.

At the very same time you have people being hired through friends or the friends of friends based on the merits of what they have achieved so far in their careers and (often) a personality that fits into the new org.

Well, why not look towards combining the two? Why not turn the process around and let people advertise themselves not only towards their network and networks network but to anyone looking for raw talent? Let them use Facebook, Twitter or whatever tool to hawk their qualifications, personality and drive. And think of an alert mechanism that will trigger these companies looking for talent into identifying people, who might fit the profile. It should all be well and possible.

The other day a survey showed that about half of all people employed by various companies put up and act, when they go to work in order to fit in with the people, the culture, the tasks etc.

I was a bit surprised, and it got me thinking about how little surprising it is that there are so many bad managers around, when they are in effect dealing with people who are not portraying themselves in a true way.

Then I started thinking about that if on top of this you add all the people who would go to great lenghts to further their own career opportunities at the expense of others by being dishonest, backstapping, illoyal etc., the corporate environment can be a really toxic one.

I am not saying that all corporate environments are like this. Not at all. I’m just happy to be self-employed and thus not having to deal with this.

One of the hardest things to come up with as a self-employed individual is the elevator pitch. At least if you’re anything like me.

Its not that I don’t have a profound idea about the value I bring to clients. I do. But I just have a real hard time boiling it down to something tangible enough for use in the elevator.

I have been thinking a great deal about this, and maybe it’s because the idea or the image of the elevator is to weird for me. Are we talking a two storey building or a 50 storey building going all the way from the top way down to the lobby. I don’t know about you but that makes a big difference to me.

For the same reason I was quiet thankful when Stowe Boyd came up with the idea of the TwitPitch - the micropitch fit for Twitter. Because 140 letters/numbers - or the equivalent of a SMS - is something I can relate to.

I have still not completed my own TwitPitch, but I’m more positive than ever that I can.

Funnily enough there continues to be debate about employees surfing the internet during office hours. And there are still a lot of companies out there actively blocking employees from using various services on the internet from the company network.

Some claim that having such policies in place have an adverse effect on recruitment. I don’t agree. I think the bigger problem here is that by blocking behaviourial patterns, companies send a signal to their employees saying to them that the latter are not to be trusted. And THAT to me is a big problem.

Furthermore I am missing the debate on the quid pro quo here. So if a company bans me using some sites while at work, can I ban them asking me to do a tele conf in the evening or refuse to bring my Blackberry on vacation? Just asking.

Funnily enough companies are all for invading our privacies and blur the lines between work and spare time. But the other way? Noooo.

It’s an ancient attitude. Let them surf!

A lot of what I do is to try to be one step ahead of everybody in developing new media habbits. It’s a tough job, but to sell my knowledge, insights and expertise to clients can be even tougher. Because a lot of the time they just simply don’t understand what I’m talking about.

This is why I immediately fell in love with the following quote, I spotted on ConversationAgent:

“Nothing succeeds like mediocrity because everybody understands it so well.”

Look at it and think about it. Because it’s just so true.

What I can’t really decide upon is whether I love it, because it gives me faith that I’m doing the right thing and just waiting for the clients to catch up, or because I’m trying to find a passifier for when the going gets tough? Or maybe I’m just trying to realign myself to new expectations?

Nah….

Late yesterday I got an email from somebody I have never met in real life but who I’m indirectly working on a project with. I had never really heard from him before, and we have never been formally introduced. Yet he seized the opportunity to completely criticize some work I had done in a tone that just struck me like a lightning.

I was amazed because I knew my work to be good enough, so it had to be him having a bad day or just being that kind of person. I was totally put off.

This highlights one of the most important and critical aspects of being self-employed: Dealing with customers, clients and partners - even when you don’t want to.

I am going to finish this product on as reasonable terms as can be imagined. But after that I will do, what good people like Stowe Boyd have always advised: Skip that person and never work with him again. It’s just not worth it, and there are plenty of other and better fish in the sea anyway.

One of the hardest things of managing everything yourself, is that you’re ultimately the one holding yourself accountable for everything. You cannot assign that role to some boss, who will be standing by your desk at the end of a long day unless you’re really productive.

It’s all about not getting distracted doing the things that takes time but doesn’t really contribute towards your business making money or just progress for that matter. And it’s hard.

According to Mike Smith from the Bootstrapping Blog it’s about thinking in black and white: If what you’re doing gets you somewhere with your business, do it. If not, don’t. I specially enjoyed this quote, which says it all:

Do what you need to, when you need to. Do what you want to, when you have time.

Easier said than done. But nonetheless really valuable advice.

Two things today made me think about whether its time to be getting an iPhone.

First of all I saw the news about Apple releasing the 3G version of the iPhone on June 9. That’s practically the only thing I have been waiting for (oh, and a decent built-in camera). Then I spotted a lady across from me in the train going home. She could be around my mothers age, and not only did she carry an iPod Nano Product(RED) like the one, I have - she was also very ably using an iPhone…

I’m going to the States in mid-June. Perhaps I should pay the local Apple store a visit, while I’m there.