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Hi, and thanks for stopping by! We've made some big changes to the blog - including shutting it down! With social networking and micro-blogging these days, there's no need for us to blog. So check out the latest on our homepage, and thanks for visiting.

I’ll be speaking at BarCamp Buffalo next week Tuesday at the Pearl Street Brewery sometime between 7:30 and 10:30pm. I haven’t presented in nearly 4 years… this time I’m quickly summarizing my thoughts on how to estimate a programming job. The audience should be mostly IT people, so hopefully this will help freelancers and 9-5ers alike.

First ever Barcamp in Buffalo is at Pearl Street Grill on Tuesday March 3rd at 7:30pm. The idea is to create ongoing events for people involved in new technology and web related development to connect and learn from one another.

If you’re in the WNY area, RSVP for the 1st BarCamp Buffalo! If all goes well, maybe I’ll speak about something interesting at BarCamp #2

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Business, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

A while ago, Steve hired a programmer, who then contacted me about the job. See, it was his first freelance gig, and he didn’t know how to estimate the time to complete. Here’s what I sent him, minus the specifics of the job:

If you’ve never done an estimate of hours before, think in terms of HOW you work. For example, if you work 4 hours / night, and this will take 3 full nights to do, then it’s 12 hours. Most things are at least 1 hr; nothing is under 1/2 hour. Then double that number, and that’s what you should estimate. This will also double your time to complete the project, but never miss a deadline that you set. Spell out exactly what’s included – anything not written down is not included. Make this a bullet-list.

Then track your time and what you’re doing; again, anything beyond what you quoted is additional. When you bill, however, bill actual time, as long as it’s not over your quote. So if you quote 24 hours, but you do it in 14, bill 14. You’ll have happy clients that way.

I’d estimate this project like (everything within ()’s has been replaced with generic terms):

Research (some web 2.0 service) API – 1 hr
Research (another service) API – 1 hr
Database design – 1 hr
Import (set of data) & (other data) – 2 hr
(Data reader) – 1 hr
Cron to (do work) via (service) – 3 hr
(Output page) – 1 hr
Admin tool to manage (some data in the database) – 1.5 hr
Admin tool to manage (more data in the database) – 2 hr

This totals 13.5 hours, so my estimate would be 27 hours. When you’re asked to do something that’s above this estimate, tell the client you can do that, but its beyond the original estimate and would be an additional x hours. Even if it’s small (1/2 hr), bill them extra for it. They’ll respect you and won’t take advantage of asking for free things.

Depending on the size of the project, get 1/2 up front and 1/2 upon delivery. Some projects I do 1/3 1/3 and 1/3.

I used this method for years and always have more than enough work to do; if you’re good at what you do, and you’re fair about it, people will come back to you.

So if you’re just starting to take on freelance programming jobs, I hope this post helps you accurately quote your jobs, retain your current clients, and earn more from the referrals that’ll come in.

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 11:30 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

As I said earlier, some companies cannot be beaten by anyone but themselves. I used eBay as the example, but this was reaffirmed recently by Silicon Alley Insider:

Don’t you know you can’t beat Google — it can only beat itself

The author was referencing some joke @ Yahoo who said his job was to beat Google. Yahoo can’t beat Google. Yahoo / Micro$oft can’t beat Google. Only Google can beat Google.

As a service, I believe Google is beating themselves by straying away from their motto, “do no evil”. As a company, the shareholders are feeling some pain now that Wall Street’s golden child is showing some signs of slowing down.

What does Google need to do, in order to keep from beating themselves up? Is it time for some new leadership? Or was Google’s ideals too Utopian, and their finances too optimistic? Is this just a natural correction?

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

All the buzz lately has been about the Yahoo-Microsoft talks, which apparently aren’t going to happen now. Whatever – their alliance still won’t topple Google. Toppling Google would be like toppling eBay. There’s only 1 company that can topple eBay, and that’s…. eBay.

I’ve been reading about eBay’s new seller fees and how big-time sellers are all upset over it. There’s even this video on YouTube:

Could eBay’s recent changes be the beginning of the end to eBay? Is this the opportunity the competition is looking for?

I’m joining in on the eBay strike – I will not browse, bid, buy or sell on eBay February 18th through the 25th (while I’m in Disney ).

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Steve has ideas… lots of them. Too many, in fact. The worst part is he thinks each idea is a good one. “The one” as he calls them. “The one” that’ll let him retire early & rich. However, his ideas typically are based on the same, underlying concept, which I don’t believe in. Build up lots of members, make the service ad-supported, and sell it to someone who wants the user-base.

First, getting “lots of users” is hard. Think of an auction site, like eBay. What comes first, the buyers, or the sellers? Why would a seller pay to list their items if there’s no buyers looking for them, and why would buyers look at the site, if nobody is selling anything? Steve’s last big venture had the same problem… advertisers & users. Users wouldn’t learn how to use the system if there are no advertisers, and advertisers wouldn’t pay to advertise on the system, if there were no users. It was a flop.

Steve isn’t happy with a hit, or even a homerun. He’s looking for a lead-off grand-slam (hard to do, right?). I keep telling him, “baby steps”, but he never listens.

Until now.

Steve has an idea that can be launched with only 1 user, and begin earning him revenue right away. Of course, 1 user may only earn him a few bucks per day, but the point is the system does not need 10,000 users to be successful.

When he first pitched the idea to me, it took about 35 minutes and I was very, very confused when he was done. He went back, simplified it, and told me again. This time, it took under 10 minutes, and I saw potential. The other night, he came over, we chatted for a couple hours, and broke the idea down into phases that could be launched over time. Phase 1 is very, very simple but still beneficial to the users, and Steve can make money. Phase 1 can be “sold” to potential users in under 2 minutes. Sign-up is a breeze, and users can start using the system in under 10 minutes, seeing results right away.

Is Phase 1 the whole thing? No. But why build the entire system if users don’t even embrace the Phase 1 elements? It’s still going to take quite a bit to get Phase 1 off the ground, but when he does, I think this project is going to keep him very busy and motivated for some time.

Good job on an idea I support, Steve! First one in 15 years

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

What do you do when half of your business is being threatened with a major lawsuit? Split the business in two, to protect the other half. That’s exactly what EchoStar is doing now in loom of Tivo’s current court battle over DVR technology.

EchoStar says it could split its set-top box and manufacturing divisions from its DISH Network business.

As a Tivo shareholder, I’m a bit pissed. EchoStar knows they’re going to loose this one.

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 9:02 am and is filed under Business, Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.