[00:00:49.440] - Gordon
Hello, my name's Gordon from Drayson Design.
[00:00:52.140] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.
[00:00:54.090] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon." So, been a busy week in lockdown again. If you've been watching previous episodes, you'll notice that we've got another new hairstyle, got a little beard and moustache growing this time. If you sort of look at all the past episodes and just look at me and Taylor, you'll see the variation in all the hair styles that we've been having.
[00:01:20.420] - Taylor
Unless you're listening to the podcast.
[00:01:22.800] - Gordon
If you're listening to the podcast, yes you'll have to go and watch the videos. That's exactly right. So let's just get straight on with it. This is Episode 7, and Taylor what have you been up to?
[00:01:34.290] - Taylor
So this week I've been setting up quite a few new development websites. So when I've started a new project, I set up a kind of 'dev' site, as they call it. Normally, I set up a dev site if it's an existing site, it's a redesign. So if the website already exists, I put 'dev.' So it means I can build the website, but, you know, it's not live yet. So I've been setting up quite a few of them for some new projects that I've started. And yeah, so it's you know, trying to keep track of all the different sites that I'm kind of working on, making sure.
[00:02:13.680] - Gordon
So you've had some new customers coming in?
[00:02:16.590] - Taylor
Yeah. So I've had a couple of new websites. So there's a new e-commerce shop website that I'm going to be setting up, hopefully. I'll set it up in the next couple of days or so and start working on that once I get the content, and also a sister company of one of my current clients, which is "TLR Dynamics" and "TLR Fitness" now, which is Alex Webb and Peter Webb's new company, kind of sister company to TLR Dynamics. And so I'm basically using the same style, but changing the content to fit the new kind of company scheme and what they kind of do in the new fitness sector.
[00:03:02.050] - Gordon
Ok, so your, you got that job because you did a good job on a previous thing.
[00:03:08.970] - Taylor
Yes.
[00:03:09.960] - Gordon
So what about the other websites? Where are you getting those contacts from?
[00:03:13.770] - Taylor
So quite a lot of my work at the moment comes from BNI, which is a networking group / organisation. And a lot of my work comes through referrals from other members in my group. And the way BNI works is you get one person from each industry, so you can only have one web designer; you can only have one plumber; one mechanic; one electrician. And what this does is, it means that when everyone else is doing their day to day stuff and out and they, if they hear someone or one of their friends goes, "Oh, I need a plumber," you go, "Oh, I know a plumber." And then you refer them to the plumber in your chapter.
[00:03:53.920] - Gordon
Ok.
[00:03:54.780] - Taylor
And the reason for only having one of each person is means you don't get any competition. So it means you don't have to...
[00:03:59.530] - Gordon
In each chapter.
[00:04:00.250] - Taylor
Yeah. You don't get any competition. And so I, quite a lot of my work recently has come from my BNI members and also their friends and family, I guess you could say. So that's been keeping me really busy.
[00:04:14.820] - Gordon
Ok, and I guess if if any of our viewers or listeners want to join BNI, then we can put a link on the page here.
[00:04:22.740] - Taylor
Yeah. We're currently doing them online. So normally it's face to face. They're normally quite early. They're about 6:30 in the morning.
[00:04:30.600] - Gordon
So their breakfast meetings, aren't they?
[00:04:32.820] - Taylor
Yeah. However, at the moment we're meeting online using Zoom because of the current situation, so.
[00:04:38.250] - Gordon
Very good. So some new development sites that are coming on for you. We look forward to hearing about any problems or successes you have with those sites. For me, I wanted to talk about something I touched on in an earlier episode, and that is, working as a self-employed person you tend to want to work all hours. So because it's your own business, you don't limit yourself to 9-5, Monday to Friday. You sort of do stuff as and when you want to and you feel like doing it. And if you've got a project and you're really involved in it, you might carry on into the late hours of the evening, sometimes into the early hours of the morning.
[00:05:25.080] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:05:25.830] - Gordon
We know several people who've done this. I've done it myself. Taylor, have you ever done that?
[00:05:31.570] - Taylor
So you used to do it?
[00:05:32.670] - Gordon
I used to do it a lot, because I used to get a lot of work done in those hours. The problem with working from home and working self-employed is there are lots of distractions and it takes a certain type of person to not get distracted by daytime TV or...
[00:05:51.060] - Taylor
People coming in.
[00:05:52.030] - Gordon
People coming in and sitting and chatting with them, or being able to go to the gym, or going and seeing your friends who also might be self-employed, and that is a real big temptation when you work from home because you're not going out to the office and you have set times and people around you, you just get distracted and you do find yourself working longer hours. You want to get something completed, you're on a roll, you're in the zone. You want to just finish off what you're doing. And it could be that you carry on doing it, and all of a sudden you look at your watch and it's three o'clock in the morning.
[00:06:28.230] - Taylor
Or 6am for me.
[00:06:30.150] - Gordon
Is that what happened to you?
[00:06:31.380] - Taylor
Yes.
[00:06:31.920] - Gordon
It's terrible see.
[00:06:32.940] - Taylor
6am I went to bed, and then 9 I think it was, I woke up.
[00:06:38.040] - Gordon
See, that's not the way to run a business. Now I've sort of got away from doing that a lot now by setting times when I think I want to work. They don't have to be 9-5. But you want to try and keep a limited amount of hours in a day. So you've still got time for fun; you've still got time for socialising; still got time for family even. But what I've tended to do now is give myself rewards. So I've looked at a job that needs doing and I know it needs doing and I know how long I think it's going to take. And I say to myself, "right, once I've done that, I will give myself a reward," and that reward will be different for different people. For me, it might be watching a "Winter Garten" video on YouTube, where he's making a marble machine to play music, which is great. But I don't want to just sit and watch that because I might then end up watching something else, and then something else after that, and all of a sudden the day's gone and I've absolutely done nothing. So what I do is I make sure I set myself a task and I set myself a reward, and only one reward, for when that task is done. And you'll find if you are a sort of a goal driven person, that that will actually work really well for you. Is this something that you've tried?
[00:08:03.210] - Taylor
So, yeah, I decide that I'll do a project, I'll say or I would say I need to do this task. And then once I've done that, I'll be like, "Ok, I want a bit of a break." So I'll go down and make coffee or something, just to give myself a break between the tasks and things.
[00:08:16.960] - Gordon
So there's your reward. Having a coffee.
[00:08:18.810] - Taylor
Yeah. Or I make a YouTube video or something. I watch a YouTube video or something, you know, something just to pass my time. Or I make lunch, that's one of the other things I do.
[00:08:27.300] - Gordon
Yeah. Always a good thing
[00:08:28.170] - Taylor
One thing I have seen is not related to kind of self-employed, but a lot of people when they're studying. I saw someone that needed to read a textbook, I think it was, and they bought loads of chocolate bars and they went through every five pages and stuffed the chocolate bar into the page so that when they got to that page, they got to eat the chocolate bar. And so only when they'd read up to that point could they then eat it, which I thought was quite a clever idea, which is...
[00:08:56.220] - Gordon
Yeah.
[00:08:56.640] - Taylor
Another motivator.
[00:08:57.300] - Gordon
As long as you don't read while sitting outside sunbathing because I've got a feeling the chocolate will be melted, yes. Not so good. Yeah, that's a nice idea. If you've got any ideas of how to stay on track with projects and things that you need to do, leave a comment and we will look at them and possibly give you a shout out in the next video. Working self-employed, on your own is always difficult. At least with an office and other people around you, you get motivated to do things because you don't want to be seen as the person just sitting around doing nothing because, well...
[00:09:38.280] - Taylor
I find that sometimes...
[00:09:39.600] - Gordon
You'd lose your job doing that.
[00:09:40.800] - Taylor
When I go to Starbucks, for example, it kind of, it makes me sit there and do work, because if I'm there sitting on YouTube, watching YouTube, people kind of look at you and go, "what's the point of being in a coffee shop if you're just going to sit on YouTube?" So it kind of, it makes you go, "Ok, I need to make sure I'm doing work pretty much all the time."
[00:09:56.190] - Gordon
Yeah.
[00:09:56.700] - Taylor
That's quite a nice thing that I like to do as well.
[00:09:59.400] - Gordon
So let us know your comments, if you have a tip or something and it works for you. Right, so you've got this new company that have come to you, TLR Fitness.
[00:10:11.550] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:10:12.630] - Gordon
And you're starting work on their site.
[00:10:15.280] - Taylor
Yes.
[00:10:15.780] - Gordon
Anything else that needs doing with them?
[00:10:17.290] - Taylor
So he wanted a graphic. He wanted me to create a graphics. So he had an idea and he gave me like an example, but he wanted it tweaked. And so I basically rebuilt and redesigned this like info graphic type thing for him to be able to use in his presentations, on his website and like copyright material, so that you know, he can copyright it for himself and things like that. And, you know, if it gets shared online and stuff, it will, it has the TLR Fitness logo and copyright so people know where it's from. So I was, I've been working on that and it's been interesting 'cos I don't do much graphic design work. You know...
[00:10:58.540] - Gordon
You used to do it a lot.
[00:10:59.470] - Taylor
Yeah, but I switched to web design and I prefer it now, it's kind of what I go to. You do more graphic design stuff, like Photoshop and things.
[00:11:07.000] - Gordon
Yeah, I do quite a few bits and pieces, both for my own business or businesses and also for customers. Whether it be a Facebook advert or print, poster. Yeah, I do lots of posters for local theatre companies and also photography is something I do a lot of. But I'll touch on that in a future episode because there's a few things happening with those at the moment, and I'll tell you all about them when they happen.
[00:11:37.540] - Taylor
But yeah, and then it's just been a case of going back and forth with the client to kind of send them screenshots saying, "what do you think of this?" And then he sends me the tweaks and things like that. And it's just, bit of that, it's nice. It switches up kind of what I've been doing a lot recently, which is web design. So it's a nice thing to do something a bit different.
[00:11:55.930] - Gordon
And getting feedback for graphics is really important. But sometimes you can end up going backwards and forwards a lot with, you know, little comments where you're not quite sure what they mean. And then you go back and ask them and they come back and they say, "yeah, the top left," and maybe they're looking at it on a different device or they're seeing something slightly different to what you're looking at. So we actually have a tool which allows us to upload a graphic, send the link to the customer and the customer can then physically click on the area where they want to make a comment and type in what their comment is. And this actually makes life a lot easier. I'm not sure if you're using this yet, but it makes life a lot easier and a lot quicker when you're doing artwork and graphic design for people, because they can just comment very quickly. And as soon as they made that comment, it appears straight in my email. So I can then go, "oh, got a new comment, right." And go and have a look at that. And it just speeds up the project from email tag, which is what you end up doing previously. So if you're not using that yet, Taylor, you should really start using it because it's a great little system.
[00:13:07.690] - Taylor
I use it on websites.
[00:13:09.610] - Gordon
Yeah, so the same system can be used on a website as well, which is even better, especially if you're doing different devices, because you can do a screenshot and they can show you what it is they're looking at. So whatever device they're on, it may be that what they're looking at is specific to that device.
[00:13:26.890] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:13:28.030] - Gordon
So therefore, being able to click on that particular part and leave a message or comment as to what they want to change or what is not working for them is really, really good. So if you ever have a project with myself or with The Creative Tinker look out for this. It's a feedback system that we're using, and we will probably ask you to use it so that we can speed up the process of creating your solution for you.
[00:13:57.610] - Taylor
Yeah. Any news this week?
[00:13:59.950] - Gordon
Yeah. Yeah, there's some big news actually. So a website building company called "MrSite" who had been going for quite a long time, it's a bit like "Wix," where you pay them to use their software to build your website basically, and it sort of locks you into their service. So for as long as you want the website that you've created with them, you have to stay with them. Anyway, this company got bought out by another company, a company called "TSO Host" back in 2018, in May, I think it was. And so for the last two years, TSO Host have been running MrSite. So if you had your MrSite site, then you just came to TSO, everything was exactly the same. It was just with a new company running it. And TSO Host is actually a company I'm very familiar with, because that was my previous hosting company. And I moved away from them because of several reasons. One is that the websites that I had with them just went down and up. The up time was terrible. It just, they would fluctuate whenever I contacted them, they would check the logs and say, "no, everything's fine." Even though I had proof that the sites had gone down. Their support was getting worse and worse. It started really good, and I was with them for many years, but they just started to go downhill. And the speed of sites was also an issue for me. We had several large-ish sites that would take ages to load and that was a concern to me. So we moved away. However, as of yesterday, no, wait, not yesterday, first of 1st of June, a few days ago now TSO Host sent everyone with a MrSite website an email. And this email said, "just to let you know, we're closing down MrSite at the end of June. So if you have a website with MrSite, you need to move it, or move to WordPress, by the 30th of June because that's when we're going to delete all of your sites and all your emails that go along with those sites."
[00:16:26.940] - Taylor
Crazy.
[00:16:27.570] - Gordon
I mean, 30 days notice. That's dreadful. I mean, the chances of people being away on holiday at the moment are very, very low because of lockdown. But, you know, giving people 30 days in which to move a website, if it's possible to move; some of the MrSite websites are not possible to move, you actually have to rebuild them. Or to rebuild the site completely from scratch in 30 days! I mean, we are talking about people who went to MrSite because they may not be technically au fait with how to build a website, and MrSite gave them an easy way to get a website up and running. It's just terrible what they've done. I can't believe that they've done that. What they have done is, they've said to people, "if you want a WordPress site, use this code and we'll give you one year's worth of hosting on WordPress for free." Ok, so that's nice of them to do. But it's turning people's worlds upside down when you're giving them 30 days to build a brand new website based on one that's already existing, without any knowledge of WordPress. They don't know WordPress because they're not using it. They're on MrSite. So this was a concern for a couple of entertainers that are on a Facebook group that I'm in. And so they both came to me and said, "can you help?" And in fact, I spoke to one of them today. And we have already moved their site over to a new hosting, and it's using the same site they had before. So the files that they had were movable, which was great because that made the job very easy. We're also moving their domain names as well, because the domain name was with TSO House. And obviously, if their site is going to be taken down, we don't want to leave the domain name with them as well because that can cause problems. So we're moving that over. That takes a few days to happen. And the other person, well their website is just not as easy to move. It's not a matter of going in, grabbing the files and moving them. They actually need to have their site rebuilt completely in WordPress. Now, this is going to be possible. It's going to take time. Currently, there's time to do it, as far as Drayson Design are concerned, just waiting for the customer to OK the quote, because obviously this is a bill they weren't expecting. They weren't expecting to have to pay money to have their website rebuilt so it looks exactly the same as it does currently. I mean, that's a lot of money for no gain, really, apart from the fact they're in a newer modern system, which will then allow them to grow in the future, and change it should they want to, easily. And it also takes away the control of one company for hosting their site. They're not now reliant, or they won't be reliant on MrSite and whatever whims MrSite or TSO Host decide for their service. You're using an open source software, which is WordPress, which will allow you to move your site anywhere you want, do pretty much anything you want with it any time you like. So there are advantages, but, you know, 30 days notice and all of the sudden these people have got a big bill to pay. Ah, it's just dreadful. I mean, if you have a MrSite website, you probably would have already received that email. Get in contact with draysondesign.com and, you know, I'll help you because I've got a bit of experience with it now. But it's funny how some companies don't seem to understand what their customers need. Giving them 30 days is just not long enough. Three months, ok, three months notice that's fine. What's even worse, and I think this is dreadful, is I went to the MrSite website today to see if I could sign up for a new account. And I could. I didn't, but I could sign up. There's nothing on the website that says don't sign up because we're going to take this service down in 30 days. And in fact, unless they've thought this through, you could have a customer that signs up for a new MrSite website, starts building their own website and then finds on the 30th of June, it just goes offline without them knowing, because they probably wouldn't have got the email saying, "just to let you know, we're taking it down." I mean, that's dreadful business.
[00:21:11.650] - Taylor
Yeah, lots of things this week.
[00:21:14.170] - Gordon
Yeah, I'm really annoyed because it's really bad customer experience and customer service and if I was to ever do that to my customers, I would hope they would come to me and say, "right, this is not on. This is not fair. You need to deal with this." And then I would obviously think it through and go, "oh, yeah, we made a mistake there." There's going to be such a big backlash with this company that, you know, lots of goodwill is going out the window. I suspect they're hoping that lots of people are going to stay with them and move to a more expensive hosting environment, even if they get it for a year for free. But I just think people are going to go, "no, I can't trust this company anymore. I'm going to move to somewhere else completely." And they've got that opportunity now. So that's it for me.
[00:22:03.790] - Taylor
And that's it from me.
[00:22:04.870] - Gordon
Right. Bit of a rant, bit of a sort of a thinking about how self employment works, some new customers, and some graphic design. That's your lot for today. If you'd like to get in touch with me, my name's Gordon and you can find me at draysondesign.com. You can also search for Drayson Design on the internet using Facebook, YouTube, etc, etc.
[00:22:34.390] - Taylor
And I can be found at thecreativetinker.com.
[00:22:38.230] - Gordon
And of course, This Week With, we have our own Facebook page and our own YouTube account and of course our brand new website so the details for all of those will be on the screen and in the show notes. Please like, subscribe and leave comments. We'd love to hear what you think of our little show. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next week at 1pm. Apologies for last week before I carry on, we were a little bit late with our episode last week due to some technical issues, but 1pm Friday is our aim. We'll see you next week. Until then, goodbye from Gordon.
[00:23:17.890] - Taylor
Goodbye from Taylor.
[00:23:19.330] - Gordon
Goodbye.
