Google - The Starving Artist's Virtual Office

Every nickel you save is money you don't have to pay taxes on. 

You can deduct rent and office programs from your taxes, but that doesn't save you money. It's just less money your government screws you out of. A Starving Artist can't afford this bullshit. Google provides everything you need to run your business efficiently and reliably. And you can access it from anywhere.

All the work I do as an illustrator is from contacts I find on the internet. I almost never do business locally anymore. My computers have not only been my tool for creating the illustrations I sell, they're the tools by which I advertise my trade and seek out new clients on a daily basis.

Aside from the fact I'm writing this blog on Google's 'Blogger' (which permits me to limit my readers to select students), I'm finding some really intricate ways to integrate Google's services into my business. So I thought I'd show you exactly how and maybe it'll spark your imagination into finding similar ways it can help you in your business. These are only summaries, and eventually I'll go into some detail on each. For this Lesson, I'll just describe the tools you have, and their benefits.

It's Online

Have you ever had your computer crash on you? Totally wipe out all your information? Maybe your house burns down and your entire business along with it? Maybe an invoice is due but a storm short circuits your computer, or a virus crashes it, or it just shuts off your electricity and the only way you can access your data is to tear apart your entire PC, take it to an understanding friend's house, set it all back up and work from there til your power comes back on. I recall one winter where an ice storm knocked my power out for 5 days. 

I read online once that a long-term goal of the internet is to put all your programs and documents on the internet (the cloud) that can be accessed from anywhere with a simple username and password, thus eliminating the need to constantly buy more memory or programs for your computer, and eventually allowing you to work from anywhere using a simple internet browser, either on a laptop or blackberry, or a public PC.

This gave me an idea as to how to protect my constantly changing data from getting lost.

Google Docs 

Google Docs not only allows you to create and store documents, spreadsheets, forms and presentations on the web, it lets you publish them on your website. I have certain clients that I work with on a regular basis who are perfectionists and extremely specific about the artwork they commission, because if it isn't perfect, it doesn't sell. I've found with these customers that an hourly wage combined with royalties on the sales works best. So I create a spreadsheet that's basically a timesheet, which at the end of a pay period or project, I create a screenshot of it and send it as an invoice.

But occasionally my client has a budget and doesn't want to exceed a certain dollar amount on a job. It would be helpful for him to have  access to a running tab so he can make decisions about cutting cost. With Google Docs, I can share his timesheet so he can see in real time what I'm working on, when I'm working on it, for how long I'm working on it, and how much it's costing him. (I'll post another blog on the formulas I use so you can get an understanding of how to use the spreadsheet for your own business.)

I used to use Excel. Now I keep my books on a Google Docs Spreadsheet and never have to worry about my computer crashing and losing my financial records. I even have a sheet that uses m Income and Expenses info to pre-fill out my 1040. Also, I can update them from any PC - protected by my password. I also keep a list of art for my regular customers so they can stay updated on the last revision dates, sizes, pattern numbers, etc -- all protected from hard-drive failure. 

Gmail

 Gmail's been awesome lately. It's always adding improvements and upgrades - and it's FREE! It just came out with the Priority Inbox, which really makes my job easier. I get emails from all over, usually working several jobs at once. As I work on one job, I send an update to one client, then wait, sometimes a few days, for a response for approval to proceed or a correction on an illustration. In the mean time, I work on 5 other jobs, all sending updates, all requiring that I wait for a response before I can proceed.

Keeping track of that can be a nightmare in my email programs. I tried Opera and Thunderbird, creating separate folders for each customer, apart from my normal emails, each with a filter and alert option, only to end up with stacks of folders that leave me scrolling up and down looking for new emails from specific clients.

Gmail's Priority Inbox allows me to separate my regular emails from my current jobs from my "emails on hold". Any client that I get work from gets marked as important - so any email coming from them drops into my Priority Inbox. Any email I have that carries current instructions or concerns a current phase of an job gets starred, so it stays in the Starred section of the inbox. The rest drop into my general inbox. As I work the instructions in a starred email, once completed, I un-star them and they drop into the regular inbox. If I need to research a specific job, I simply do a search. Any emails with information I need to keep permanently, like for passwords or links to FTP folders for specific companies, all get moved into my "Save for Info" folder for easy access.

Notice on the bottom right in the above illustration the Task List. As I read my instructions from any particular email, I can click on "More Actions" then "Add to Tasks" and a link to that email with the instructions in it will drop into my Tasks under the subject heading of the email. Click on the task and it'll pull up the email bearing the instructions. So at a glance, from anywhere, I can see exactly what I need to get done. I can even assign a task a deadline date. This helps me keep my starred section cleared off and helps keep me on track.

To the left are handy links to my Docs, and a chat program for instant communication with my clients. There's nothing that says "professional" to your clients like being right there when they need you. Any client with a gmail account can see me online working and if they have a question, all they have to do is type it and they can have an immediate response. Sometimes that can be the difference between making a sale. 

There are also times when I need to ask my client something about a job I'm working on. If I can see them online and ask that question right away, and get an immediate answer, that saves me a lot of waiting and speeds up the progress of the job tremendously, especially when response time can be as long as a week in some cases.

My Contacts list to the left of my Gmail inbox can also include addresses and phone numbers and even images of my customers. And I can call my customers anywhere in the US for free using my Google Talk and a headset. The Quick Links link under the Google Chat lets me store links from clients pertaining to a specific job I'm working on with them at the time. This keeps me from clogging up my bookmarks with temporary links, provides quick and easy access without fumbling through my bookmarks folders, and allows me to view those bookmarks from any other computer.

Go Here to get detailed info on using Gmail most efficiently

Google Reader

Well - I had a section on this up until Google killed their Reader, so now I use The Old Reader the same way. I'll add a link to details on that when I post it.

Google Calendar

My memory is horrible - anyone who knows me will tell you that. My brain works differently than most folks'. I focus on multiple jobs at hand, then move on to the next job, oblivious to anything that doesn't pertain to the jobs or mental projects I'm working on at the time. I'm always asking what day it is, because the date has nothing to do with my work, so I don't keep track of it. I actually usually end up losing a day every week, wondering what happened to it.

So when it comes to remembering appointments, I'm terrible. Google Calendar not only lets me know what day it is, it also lets me post reminders to myself - and - get this - it can send the reminders to my cell phone!  Wherever I am I can get my reminder(s) - and I can get more than one reminder for the same event - warning me that the time is getting closer - a day in advance, a few hours in advance to get ready, and a few minutes in advance to get off my butt and go. It also syncs with my Android Phone (the only phone a Starving Artist should have)

There's also a feature where, if I need to be in a particular place at a particular time, if I key the address into the "where" box, it'll link to Google Maps (which I also have in my phone) and tell me how to find the place. Since I've been living in the boonies the past 10 years, the city has changed, and I've only recently been going downtown to do the artshows and hang with the art crowd.

Now - being able to utilize all this great stuff is one thing, but sometimes, having all these screens up at once can take over your entire web experience. Not to worry - there is a way to not only organize all these great features, you get added bonuses along with it ----- meet ----

iGoogle

(sorry - also defunct. I left the Lesson because there are alternatives - like igHome)

iGoogle igHome is like your own personal homepage where you can organize all the features above, either on one page, or on several pages all within the same browser window. It's like having iframes all through your homepage that shows you your email, Reader, Calendar, all at once. But it doesn't stop there. It gives you a gazillion widgets to see things like the latest news, weather, search tools like phone lookups and currency converters. There are even sections that will show you your Facebook and Myspace (if anyone still uses it)  updates without having to go to the websites. You can store bookmarks in one gadget, so you'll have access to your favorite sites from anywhere. Your Chat program is in there, too. Making this your home page will give you easy access to all your Google tools. There's even a gadget to access all the Google services.

Picasa 

One more service Google has that I've recently discovered as handy - Picasa is a program you can download from Google that can not only keep track of your images, it can syncronize specific folders inside your computer with folders on the web, so you don't have to upload individual photos to your Picasa account manually. It'll do it as soon as you open the program and move the images into the folder that's synced with the online photo album.

How does this come in handy for my business? I use it in two ways. 

A Picasa photo album can be synched with a folder on my computer. As I move an image to the folder it synchs to my Picasa Albums (it automatically uploads the image to that Picasa album). If I wanted to show a slideshow of my work on my website, simply moving a new image to that folder automatically adds it to my website's slideshow. Update made - little time/effort involved, I just gave myself another raise.

Youtube

Plain and Simple

Everything I've learned about using my illustration programs came from Youtube. 

Never get a student loan to go to college!!!!

You'll be in debt the rest of your life.

Youtube is the Starving Artist's College!

Google Maps

The poor man's GPS system. Handy if you get your work locally.

Read Me First

I'm a full-time freelance digital illustrator and I'm so up to my ass in work that I can afford to share all my secrets.

Way back when I first got on the internet I joined Myspace and thought I'd check out some alumnists from Columbus College of Árt and Design and see how other artists are fairing in this business.

Was I surprised!

Almost every post I read was some poor sap crying about how they have paid all this money and studied all these years at one of the top art colleges in the country and when they got out of school there were no jobs for artists anywhere.

At this point, I had been working a part-time telemarketing job and shipping color xerox prints of my fantasy paintings (as signs, numbered prints) to gaming convention art shows all over the country, halfway to being a full-time freelance artist.

It occurred to me that traditional methods like going to college and using that degree to find a job don't necessarily work in the art/illustration world like they do in other fields. There really aren't that many jobs waiting for art-college grads, which sort of made me glad I never fell for the student loan trap.

Being poor, like most artists who put the honing of their skills before making money, I had the foresight to know that I'd most likely never be able to afford to pay back a student loan, even with the college education. To me, that was a gamble, and I just never liked gambling. I figured I could do this without the college education.

Also, my interests were leaning towards sci-fi/fantasy art and realism. CCAD didn't teach that. So I decided to find my own way.

After all, what exactly does college do? I went to one year of CCAD on a scholarahip from my high school. After that one frustrating year of feeling like no one was teaching me anything, that one year of professors who tell you to paint, then tell you that you did it all wrong, without ever really explaining what exactly I should do, I came to this conclusion.

You pay a shitload of money to a big corporation-funded institution who hires people to give you a book, tell you to read the book, then when you come to class they explain what's in the book, then test you to see if you understand the book and if you don;'t, you fail and have to give them more money to do it all again and if you do you get a piece of paper saying you read the book and passed the test.

Why not just read the book?

So I figure I'll take the information I learned from experience and write my own book. I'd give it away but I have to give up a lot of my creative time to write it so I want something for my time, even if it's only a few buck a month. 

So if you want to learn, send me an email and I'll send you lesson 1 for free. if you want more, you can subscribe to my lessons for $4/month. You pay as you go. If you want to pay $4 and study your ass off for one month and wait a few to order another month you can do that. I'll update the Lessons as I learn new things. Mostly links to good tutorials. 

While you're subscribed you can leave comments on the lessons and if they are questions I'll answer them. They'll be public so you can read other member questions and answers.

Stop your subscription any time, or continue by paying each month, whatever you want to do or can afford.

Feel free to email me here

daleziemianski@gmail.com