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We want to introduce you to Ernie DelleDonne, founder of Xperience.  Ernie isn’t from the web design industry but from the business world.  Ernie has had a successful career in business as a senior executive.  Today, Ernie shares his knowledge as a business consultant and workshop/training provider. Although this article is not web design or development focused, the principals here are universal to all businesses.  If you are thinking of embarking on a freelancing career we think you’ll find this information will help you to be better prepared.

1. Why do most new businesses fail?

About 90% of all new businesses fail within a relatively short time for many reasons. Some of the primary ones include:

• Not enough start up or working working capital
• Failure to prepare and execute a solid business plan
• Owner does not have the skill set required
• Often pay more attention to what they know versus what they need
• Not recognizing the need for change and not adapting quickly to market conditions
• Not practicing “continual” management
• Taking advice from the wrong people

2. What skill set is required as an owner or manager of a new business?

Most businesses require someone with broad skills at least until they can afford to hire skilled employees. Skills required for most businesses include sales, marketing, financial, logistics, operations. management and the “courage” to learn what you don’t know.

3. How long should it take to become profitable?

Historically most new company’s planned on being profitable after 1 year. In today’s competitive markets and with financial institutions in crisis the need for profitability or at least break even is more like 6-8 months. This increases the need for adequate capital and a solid business plan.

4. What tips do you have for new businesses?

Plan for the worst……..and hope for the best?
Build a solid foundation for your business from the very beginning. This will provide the platform to grow your business from. It is easier and more cost effective to build it right the first time and not have to rebuild down the road. Employ a plan that allows practical and affordable growth. Don’t let the market you are in dictate growth…..you should only grow when you can afford to do so. The most important thing you can do is practice “Continual Management. That simply means never take your eye off the ball, never get complacent especially when business is good and always
run your company as lean and mean as possible.

5. What is the main reason why businesses lose customers?

One word….INCONSISTENCY!
Customers hate not knowing what to expect, when to expect it, how much its going to cost, what it will look like or taste like. It drives customers crazy….think about your favorite pizza place….you know what it will look like, taste like and how long it will take to deliver it. If it was sometimes square instead of round, cold instead of hot or was sometimes delivered in 15 minutes and other times 60 minutes you would quickly find a new more consistent and dependable pizza place. Your business must deliver consistent service and consistent quality to retain customers. Surveys have shown that 49% of lost customers leave for this reason.

If you have any business questions you would like to have answered,
feel free to click here and “Ask Ernie”. Whether you are in a management position, self-employed, starting fresh, planning for your exit, Ernie can share his incite and assist you in making the right changes and decisions.

If you visit inspiration websites you’ve probably seen Elliot’s work! Each website seems to contain an element of surprise. Some noteable clients would include EMI Records, The Beatles and Trojan Records. Elliot was extremely generous in allowing us to interview him. We hope you enjoy this edition of 5 Questions.

1. Your speaking engagements seem to be filling up your 2009 calendar. In the last year or two you’ve been doing more and more . What is it about these events that keep you flying all over the world?

Well, getting flown around the world for free is always a good motivation! But seriously: I love being able to meet so many people working on the web, but in a real-world setting. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we’re all real people and not just email addresses or Twitter aliases! Our industry is a global one, and it’s great to talk to designers and developers with such a range of experiences and specialisms. Getting on stage and talking about subjects I believe in, and finding that other people feel just as passionately as me… well, there’s a lot of gratification in that.

2. You left Carsonified 1 year ago to embark on this freelance journey. What was the most surprising thing you had to learn quickly in order to stay on top of things now that you are your own boss?

Probably that so much of my time would be taken up with project management! Even though it’s usually just me working on a project, I underestimated how much of my time would have to be spent in iCal, Things, and Mail, booking things in and rearranging project schedules. I think I’ve got it sorted now, and actually it takes very little time at all, but it’s something that caught me unawares when I first started.

3. What one piece of advice could you give to a new web designer or developer that might help them in their new freelance career?

Try and plan ahead, and use your calendar wisely. I’m usually booked for about three or four months in advance, and if anything changes, I can see it from a long way off and re-shuffle work where necessary. Of course, being booked far in advance has its downsides too, but it’s far better to be turning away work than not being able to get enough in the first place.

4. We all know you’re a big music lover since you’re working on a new EP and blogging about it, so how important is music while you’re designing or coding? Will it affect your mood thus the design?

If you’d asked me that a few years ago I would’ve said music has a huge effect on the kind of design I do, but that’s not so much the case now, and rightfully so, I believe. I listen to what I love, but if a certain genre made me design a certain way, that’d be bad, since I’d only be responding to my own feelings and not the brief the client gave me!

I will say, though, that my slightly more obscure musical tastes are indeed reflected in my sometimes obscure approach to design. Ultimately, music was responsible for getting me into design in a big way, since my first proper designs were for my own CDs. With this new EP, I’m just as excited about the design of the packaging as I am about the creation of the music, so nothing’s changed!

5. Elliot your portfolio is full of gorgeous designs. Since all must be a labor of love, can you select your favorite and tell us why it’s your favorite?

Thank you – that’s very kind of you to say. Not all were labours of love, though! But it’s definitely true to say that the better projects were the ones that I enjoyed the most. One of my favourites was the site for Massive Attack’s ‘Collected’ album – working with one of my all-time favourite bands was a great experience, and I’m still really proud of that site, even though it’s over 3 years old.

Bonus Question – PC or Mac?

Mac all the way!

Jonathan is a prolific author, who writes regularly at his popular blog snook.ca, his column at Digital Web Magazine and for other technical publications, such as Sitepoint. He’s also coauthored two acclaimed books: Accelerated DOM Scripting with Ajax, APIs, and Libraries, and the approachable, widely-read The Art and Science of CSS.

We hope you enjoy our new series!

1 – With your redesign hitting the web the week of Jan 19, 2009, we’d like to know how you came up with the design. Where did you get the inspiration for it?

I touched on my inspiration a bit in my launch post. It started with a design I had put together for my Twitter app, Snitter, but going back even further, my inspiration came from seeing all the retro sites coming out. I took the idea and ran with it. It still took a few iterations to get where it is. My designs tend to be very simple in the beginning and then I slowly build texture into it. This was more evident in the last design with more visual flourish that existed within the design. The current design still needs some work and I’ve already been tweaking things when I have time. The header has more depth, the portfolio page has been revamped, and then I need to get the comments up to snuff. Design is an evolution as you see things that work and don’t work. My site is an evolution.

2 – What three pieces of software do you use most on an everyday basis?

Mail.app, Firefox and Textmate. I’d expand on those but that seems self-explanatory.

3 – What does a day in the life of Johnathan Snook look like? And how many hours a week would you estimate you work?

My days are a blend of different tasks, some of it on personal work, some of it on professional work. That makes it hard to determine how many hours I actually “work” as a freelancer. Suffice it to say, I’m in front of the computer more often than I’m not. I should probably get out more!

4 – Do you get a lot of offers from big companies to work for them (as in, as employee)?

Not specifically. I’ve certainly gotten requests from recruiters over the years but they’re usually turned down before the interview process has even begun. Since freelance has been going reasonably well, it’d have to be a heck of an offer for me to even begin to think about leaving the world of freelance.

5 – What piece of advice could you give to someone just beginning their career in web design/development that may help them succeed in this industry?

It’s all about passion and wanting to learn. I don’t believe that it comes naturally. I’m sure it does for some, but it doesn’t for me. I’m self-taught and I’ve learned all that I have over a long period of time. I learn it because it helps me understand all the pieces to the puzzle. I’ll poke around code, try and duplicate a feature in another language, I’ll do anything to get something to work or I’ll learn trying. It’s not about money, it’s not about fame. In the end, I’m just happy to get to do what I do.

Bonus Question – This is an easy one. PC or Mac?

I’m all about the best tool for the job. I had been a Windows user since Windows 95 but after seeing the new MacBook Pros launch late last year, the pricing was right and I decided to take the leap. I’ve been very satisfied as it has really helped me simplify my workflow into a single machine. I run multiple domains locally for development, have access to Subversion or Git, can run multiple versions of Windows using VMware Fusion for testing. I like having everything all on one machine. There are also plenty of usable features on this machine that has made it more enjoyable to use than my old Toshiba but that has more to do with the quality of laptop design than it does the operating system. So, all that to say: Mac. Definitely, Mac.