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For those of us unlucky enough to be stuck on a Windows PC :) you can now at least make it LOOK like you are on a mac. It's called the Mac OSX Transformation Pack, and I gotta say it's great.

I've seen a few of these StyleXP things that allow you to transform your theme to something else, but they usually require the use of regedit and other "technical" things. This doesn't. You download an exe file, click it, and it does everything for you. It gives you a customized boot screen, logon screen, and desktop style. And it looks almost as good as Mac OSX.



The only problem I had with it was that the wallpaper it came with (that cool mac wallpaper) was only 1024x768, but my resolution is 1280x1024 (actually, its 2560x1024 b/c I have two monitors, but that doesn't affect the background image). So I had to go find an image that fit my monitor. Other than that, it's great.

If you wanna get this theme for your computer (you'll need XP), go here: Mac OSX Transformation Pack

If you run a small business, you know how difficult it can be to get all the day-to-day tasks completed. You've had to become a "jack of all trades" and you NEED to be involved in every task or it just doesn't get done right. You can't even think of expanding because you can barely handle all the work as it is.

If this summarizes your take on your business, you definately need to start developing systems. But let me first define what I mean by systems for you:
A system is a business device that allows anyone in the company to complete a necessary task; its basically a script for your employee (or yourself) to get something done.

Let's say you own a web design business and you are the only one able to complete the first meeting project assessment with clients. This can lead to problems: if you are sick or unable to meet with a client, what do you do? You could leave it up to your employee and hope he asks the right questions. Or you could have developed a system for assessing projects. In this example, a list of the questions that must be answered in a meeting would suffice, along with an outline of what you must say at the end of the meeting (ask if he has any questions, schedule the next meeting...).

Developing systems for all aspects of your business allow you to leverage your time. If you are the only one able to assess a project, then you can't be out making the next sale. By developing an easy system for any of your employess to use, you can have someone else do it, someone whose time isn't worth as much as yours.

When you own a small business, you work both ON your business and IN your business. Your goal should be to do the least amount of work possible IN your business, and that is done by developing systems (which is one way of working ON your business).

Working On Your Business
Working on your business consists of doing work that doesn't directly generate a profit, but is usually necessary and, if done right, can lead to huge profits in the future. Things like marketing, hiring, and developing systems are ways you work on your business. Do you think Ray Kroc worked the register at McDonald's? Of course not! He developed great systems so that they could hire high school kids and immigrants with no business experience to run one of the most successful businesses in America.

If you close a deal with a client and make the sale, you are working in your business. If you develop a system that allows any of your employees to close a deal and make the sale, you are working on your business. If you stick to the former, your income potential is limited due to time constraints. If you go with the latter, your income potential is infinite because you aren't using your time, you are using other people's time. If you need more people to sell, you can hire more people.

Infinite time and income potential is the true power of systems.
Every successful business is built on systems. It is how they are able to expand easily without overloading the owner with work. You must focus on working ON your business, not IN your business.

If you want to see a system in action, just go to McDonald's and order something. You will most likely be asked "Would you like fries with that?"

http://www.aestheticstudios.com/flash.php

Basically I took a recent redesign I did (changing William Pear's flash site to a hybrid, not live yet - don't get me started) and turned it into a white paper. Here's the little description from the articles page:

Flash can be a great addition to a website, but it can also lead to a site's downfall. This white paper addresses a few of the problems caused by flash on William Pear International's website and explains how we fixed these in the website's redesign. Many of these problems are common to all flash sites, so it's important to be aware of them before having a website developed in flash.

Also be sure to check out the screenshot page to see some before and after shots and summaries of why it made the site better:
http://www.aestheticstudios.com/beforeafter.php

If you have been doing web development for a while, you will have had a few "experiences" with clients that you wish you could have prevented. I'd like to share some advice that I have learned through experience.

Always have a contract. This is probably the most important document in the whole web development process. With a strong contract, you can prevent scope creep (adding more to the project once it has already started), not getting paid and many other misunderstandings between you and the client. Some key ingredients that you should have in your contract are:

• A summary of exactly what you will do and how much you will be paid. If you have a detailed proposal, include "see attached proposal for details."
• State when payments must be made, the amount, and what happens if they don't pay.
• State exactly what it is that the client will get on completion of the project (does he get just the final files like jpg's and swf's, or does he get source files like psd's and fla's).

You can find a great sample contract at Scott Manning's Website. But remember that you should always have a contract customized by a lawyer to ensure it will work.

Always have a downpayment. At Aesthetic Studios we require 50% upfront and then 50% on completion (they don't get the site until we receive the last payment). 2Advanced Studios requires 50% upfront, 40% in the middle and 10% on completion. Whatever payment plan you have, make sure you get paid at least some before finishing the project.

Have the client sign off on each part of the project. If you look at Our Process, you'll see the actual design and development is divided into three different parts: Concept Design, Comprehensive Design and Prototype Development. After each stage, we require the client to sign off on it, stating that it is done and that if at a later date the client wants to go back to the previous stage and change it, it will cost extra. This saves us from a lot of work.

Imagine we are working on a flash website. We do the concepts - the client loves them. We get to comprehensives with a storyboard of what the site will look like as the flash progresses - the client loves them. Finally we get the prototype done and the client wants the design completely changed. If he had asked for this when we were doing the concepts it would be easy, but now we need to redo concepts, comprehensives AND prototype. THIS is a form of scope creep.

Don't just offer web design. Clients don't know that just having a website won't get a lot of visitors to come - you need to market. Inform the client about how marketing is necessary to a website's success and offer to include it in your quote. What you don't want to happen is the site to be up for a month and the client not receive any visitors, then blame you with designing a bad website and demanding a refund. If you tell him at that point that you need to market and it will cost $XX more, he will be furious.



You will have many client experiences that aren't great, but you learn from them and improve your process for the next client. Some lessons are a little more expensive than others.