2. • Married last year in Jamaica
• Work F/T @ Einstein Healthcare Network
• Charged $1000. for my 1st website in 1998
• Self-Taught HTML & CSS
• Use to be a Chemical Engineer
• This presentation is dedicated to Nikeeya James
About Me
5. “Everyone needs a side hustle”
Wendy Williams – Talk Show Host
@ericawebmaster
6. Moonlighting
• To have a 2nd job in addition to one’s regular
employment, usually after hours
• Moonlighting with a Web Design
Business!!!!!!!!! (on the side)
@ericawebmaster
11. @ericawebmaster
Lessons Learned
1. Get It In Writing
“Don't write so that you
can be understood,
write so that you can't
be misunderstood.”
William Howard Taft – 27th U.S.
President
Hi my name is Erica Sterling Bush
Show of hands,
Who has 1 job?
Who has 2 jobs or more?
Who is a freelancer?
Who is not working at all?
Work at EHN
Did not go to school for web design
Any background - not a graphic designer
IN SCHOOL FOR ENG BUT STUMBLED ON WEB DESIGN – due to the Drexel Shaft after coop – I had to get a job
Learn HTML & CSS
Research Project Assistant/ Special Project Coordinator
I was a chemical engineer major trying to finish my degree and I was hired to work fulltime at Drexel at the School of Biomed Eng,Science eng and health system
Mustafa Instanbul Turkey - web guru – taught me HTML
Became his assistant and fell in love
I worked here for 8 years in the BIOMED
Indentured servant, pay was little but DU tuition remission
Job paid low $7 per hr/Got paid once of month
Security
Hidden Benefit
Test out careers or business ideas
Stumble on your passion
Only made sense that web would be my moonlighting job
Book and website
Download the html and css files
Thank God for PANMA
Reed Gustow
Kyle Odum
Kelani Nichole
Use signed contracts, proposals and/or statement of work
Don’t give refunds, it must be stated
Gave money back – annoying client, micro manage the project, called everyday
Refuse to give money back - client asked for a website with no photos – newspaper.. I gave 3 different themes with limited text. She wanted her money back and I said no.. I am supposed to get paid for my work I gave you what you asked for.
Use client tracking tools – email minutes of meetings
Zoho.com
Track
Track time for hours worked on updates or revisions.
Manage your Customers Contact Information, Deposits and Balances, project management, email
Zoho.com
Freedcamp.com
Track – client logins/ ftp logins/deliverables
Obtain all of the details before you agree on price
# of photos, #videos, # of forms/questions
www.wufoo.com
Underselling..over selling
Get real specific
Obtain a 50% deposit before you start the project
Your project is not real to me unless I get a deposit
Time become more valuable
You basically have 2 jobs
This is serious
People are couting on you to complete their project in a timely fashion
Other factor to consider – paying subcontractors,
Take on too many projects –
Don’t Play yourself
Don’t greedy
This is serious
People are couting on you to complete their project in a timely fashion
Advantage- afford it
Outsource for skills that you do not have – State Rep – Graphic Design – collage Big feature
Don’t turn down a big job
Don’t be afraid
Travel agency
Say no 2 hell
Don’t rely on just one Graphic Designer – cherelle parker
Big Feature - Themeforest
Collage – Big Feature theme
Normal graphic designer – mac died
Luckily I knew other graphic designers
You work.. You can buy nice themes for your clients – investing in your business
I do not use free themes
Used some of these
Read the comments first
Read the instructions
Buy your own copy so that you can get updates, or request service or access on the forum.. Id code
Not worth it. - - advantage – afford to buy it
Don’t update to new version of Wordpress without testing it first.
Test your plugins
Don’t use Network solutions hosting – memory issues
Stomp and Clay site would not work on 3.9/ Hostgator restored the db
Use Online Storage for backups – (themes, db files, wp files content folders, client logins tc)
Keep a log for all Client Logins file
All hosting is not equal
Wpengine, site ground, hostgator,
Bluehost, godaddy, networ
Downtime
Memory Limit Error
Security Hacks
I told my client to not use network solutions hosting
php memory limit ini_set error
Malware attacks
Bad Seo
1 and 1 hosting – no 1 click install and they use old versions of WP