Comments for Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt

Comment on Welcome to my office…Come on in! by 45 pounds in 45 days

45 pounds in 45 days — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:20 +0000

Great post glenda! I noticed your plants and I gotta say I just put a couple around my desk and I see such a difference in my mood. Not to mention an increase in clean air doesn’t hurt either!

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Mary McD

Mary McD — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:39:16 +0000

my question is: will you share the four questions you were comfortable asking? I’d love to learn them also as this is an area where many of us struggle, I think.

Yep, charge what you are worth, even if you are ‘afraid’ that they will balk. I recently stopped under-estimating on a job I had been requested to bid on – and they looked over the number and said, “OK, if that’s what you think it will take…” The only one who was ‘afraid’ of that big number was ME!

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:30:02 +0000

Some of these invisible walls are common to specific industries. “Call reluctance,” for example, is a common occupational hazard of sales people (especially those of us who have ever done cold-calling).

One way to deal with any particular ‘wall’ is to look at what built it, and see a place where you could interrupt the process or create a different subconscious expectation. For ‘call reluctance,’ for example, the cure is to go ahead and make one more call after the one that ends unpleasantly, so as to set the subconscious expectation that ‘the next person I call will be nice.’

I like the suggestion a previous commenter made, to do your own figuring for the purpose of estimating, but to bill for the work, not the time. Sure, some industries have to bill by the hour (lawyers, for example), but others bill by the task (doctors) or by the result (real estate agents). You can choose how to do your billing.

A refinement for strengthening your business would be if you kept track of your estimates and compared them with your actual investment. If you think the job for Customer A will take 3 hours, when you’ve actually completed it you might log whether it took 2.5 or 3.25 — and let your next estimate be guided by these results.

Your expertise is tremendously valuable — and so is your obvious talent for innovation. So don’t sell yourself short.

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:23:12 +0000

For me, sometimes I just have to learn the hard way.

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Glenda

Glenda — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:11:02 +0000

“Bill people for your entire expertise, not just the individual task.” Bingo! Thank you, Michele, that works.

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Ute-s

Ute-s — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:13:20 +0000

Let me answer your first question with a rephrased question: Why should you charge by the hour at all? When I do something for a client, for example create an Office template, I know I usually need x hours, I normally charge y Euro per hour. So I do the math in my head: x * y = fixed price of z Euro for the complete template. Whether I need an hour longer because I try out an additional idea or need an hour less because I can re-use an existing object is my own business risk. And how could the client see, how many hours I spent at my desk for him? Does your grocer charge you by hour? No. So why not have a (secret) price list?
Best,
Ute

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Gayle

Gayle — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:00:14 +0000

Hi Glenda,
I think we all pretty much get smacked by invisible walls. Why? If they were visible, we would be aware of them! It is often something we are unaware of that trips us up. Once we have gotten smacked, we are very aware of it so it is no longer invisible. Then we can start to sort it out. Everyone has these experiences, smart people learn from them and grow personally and professionally, although it can be painful as you experienced. Some people choose not to face them and are tripped up on them the rest of their life. Like you, I don’t enjoy smacking into them and I’d rather work them though and make changes to avoid running into them. It can seem hard at the time, but it is worth the effort and life usually goes better as a result of working through these things. Gayle

Comment on Why are There No Cautions Before Smacking Face First into Invisible Walls? by Michele Van Doozer

Michele Van Doozer — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:28:33 +0000

Glenda! You may take longer to do things, but you bring an expertise that nobody else has! Yes, I can type faster than others, but we each have an expertise that we are hired for. Maybe an individual task doesn’t require all of our knowledge, but when you are hired it’s for all that you know (or admit you don’t and you research to learn), but don’t dismiss things just because you may take longer to get it done.
I’ve been working in the accessibility area for 11 years now, but I have learned enough to know that I don’t know much. It’s an area that’s changing quickly and we need more of you and your expertise to help us all understand it. Your telling us in plain English how to do things helps. So don’t be bothered by how much “time” it takes to do things. Bill people for your entire expertise, not just the individual task.

Michele

Comment on Behind the Scenes of a Tweetchat with the Left Thumb Blogger by Summary transcript for 19 Jan 2012 #AWCchat: web accessibility « #AWCchat

Summary transcript for 19 Jan 2012 #AWCchat: web accessibility « #AWCchat — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:14:02 +0000

[...] Our guest host was Glenda Watson Hyatt; she is a web accessibility expert and is also known as the Left Thumb Blogger. Glenda has cerebral palsy but never lets that stop her from anything. We also enjoyed her blog post afterwards – Behind the Scenes of a Tweetchat. [...]

Comment on Amazon Kindle Sales Ranking Takes Off by Glenda

Glenda — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:11:18 +0000

Thank you, Paula! It did create an adrenaline rush. I’m heading to bed…perhaps someone could take the night shift of monitoring the sales ranking and tweeting any significant updates?