Ajarn Mark Caldwell Blog

Bringing Business Sense to the IT World…

BATNA

Eric Sink, known for writing about the Business of Software and principal of SourceGear has a great post about The ONE Key Thing to Know About Negotation, and he hit the nail right on the head. Read more →

Management Thinking Reset

Several days ago I was talking with my boss about some management concepts. As you can imagine (and may have read about here) being self-employed for quite a few years, I developed some strong opinions about how things should be done. Read more →

Getting What You Want

Whether you are a Development Manager, Project/Program Manager, Independent Consultant, or the client, somewhere along the line, you will run into the conflict of getting or producing what was asked for, but not what was really wanted. Read more →

Full Disclosure: New Job

I have been writing a series of posts here under the heading of Doing Business. I have received great feedback on this series and have enjoyed writing it very much. I expect that I will continue to post on this subject since I have been self-employed since 1992 and consider it one of the greatest things anyone can do. Read more →

Parsons' 16 Rules

I was catching up on some blog reading tonight and ran across a post by Bob Parsons (formerly of Parsons Technology, now CEO of GoDaddy Software) where he lists his 16 Rules to Live By. Read more →

Organizing Your Business - Getting Paid

As we rapidly approach the end of the first month of 2005, let's talk about fixing some of those Top 15 Business Mistakes I listed a while back. The first two mistakes on our list are 1) Forgetting to bill the client; and 2) Losing track of unpaid invoices. Read more →

More Contracting Tips

In my Self Employment 101 post, I emphasized the need to have a lawyer look over contracts before you sign them. Scott points to a post by Dave Taylor that brings this point home clearly with examples. Read more →

This is an outrage!

Rob (a.k.a. dotRob), Please explain to me why you have copied and posted my article on your site as if it were your own. If you like the article, that is great, but you should instead post your own comment on your site encouraging others to read it and then provide a link to my site so they can read the original. Read more →

Dog Food vs. Prime Rib

Salespeople should beware of using trendy lingo. A couple of years ago, I am sitting in on a series of group presentations for web content management systems. I don't want to mention any names here, but we're talking the initial bids were coming in around $1 Million. Read more →

Top 15 Business Mistakes Consultants Make

Ever since I started the Doing Business series, I have thought that I should put together a Top 10 list of mistakes people make. Well, I finally did, but it turned out 10 wasn't enough, so here are the Top 15 Business Mistakes Consultants Make. Read more →

Microsoft Webcasts

I spent my lunch time today watching a Microsoft webcast that was shown live back on April 7 (today is May 20). I'm impressed and appreciative that Microsoft has put energy into making these available “after-the-fact”. Read more →

Networking - The Business Kind

One of the most common questions I get when someone finds out that I've been self-employed for 12 years is, “How do you get new business?” Before I answer that, let's see if we can agree on a couple of things. Read more →

Tonight at the Blogger Meetup

Went to another Blogger Meetup tonight. Couldn't stay very long, but it was good to re-connect with Anita, Jake, and Eric. Eric is getting a taste of the joys of being a freelance computer guy, including the thrills associated with the client making radical changes to the project over the weekend. Read more →

No Sick Leave, Either

Closely related to my Unpaid Vacation / Holiday Time post is the fact that when you're self employed, you don't get paid sick leave either. I am normally very healthy, but I was abruptly reminded of this subject last weekend when I got sick for 5 days, and I'm talking about the kind where you only have enough energy to roll over in bed, forget about sitting in front of a computer! Read more →