Excuse Me, You're In My Office. Office Etiquette When You Have No Office.

So, I'm sitting in my favorite coffeeshop and it's one of those days when I'm trying to get something done and I'm totally distracted by two women sitting next to me having an honest to god conversation about how many grocery stores they shop at.  I'm not trying to be judgemental but in a moment of smugness I give them a look.  Which one of them catches.
"I'm sorry,  we're in your office aren't we?"  Instantly, I feel bad,  it's a coffeeshop!  I don't own this place, it's not my office, and they can talk as loud as they want about the merits of different grocery stores all day if they want.  I feel like some kind of hobbit protecting my rock from other, more relaxed, people. 
"ummm.... yeah.... sort of..... but it's ok."  They look very apologetic.  I go back to my computer and hope they stop looking at me.
It's weird to me that people are now very aware that any given place could be someone's office.  That it's mainstream enough for casual coffee drinkers to mix with a location independent's conference calls and that they try to be semi respectful of each other.  Some places are impossible to work (Starbucks, I love you but you have way too much going on in there) and others are just filled with location indie's (Barrique's thank you for embracing us) and everyone has their own limit for how much outside noise they like / can take.
Are there any etiquette rules you observe or have come up with for common spaces and working?
Mine are:
Phone calls - Don't do them in a common space.  Go in your car or go outside.  Your clients don't want to hear barista background noise, coffee grinding, people talking, etc.  There are plenty of people who are going to see this as really unprofessional.  Even short calls that are being done for business should not be held in a common space.
Tables - Don't hog up a huge table if the place is packed.  If you are working in a place that has natural busy times, offer to share your table if it gets full.  On the flip side, don't be afraid to ask another person who is working to scoot over if they are hogging a whole table.
Plugs - share them.  If you can't plug in you can't really work.  If you see someone looking for a plug offer them a half hour or so.
Don't Get Territorial - Seriously, I have seen people almost get into it over a chair or table that they "usually work in".  Don't be 'that guy'.  No one likes 'that guy'.
Talking - Some people want to talk to everyone and some people just want to work.  Try to be sensitive to what it seems like a person is doing.  I've had to leave a place before because "I have a really tight deadline" didn't stop a chatterbox.  Other days, I have plenty of time to chat and I think it's generally pretty obvious but it's kind of like airplanes.  Every once in a while you get someone who really wants to talk.   It's ok to move seats. 

Tips For Better Ideas.

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O'Sullivan and Simon Bruyn on Vimeo.
Isn't this such a good start to today?

Travel Much? A New Site For Small Products!

As I get ready for another round of travel (San Diego and SXSW) I've got my eye out for cool travel gear.  This site has travel sizes of really nice beauty products that all make it through security check points.   Guys, they have men's stuff as well.
This also works great for those of us who like to try a product before we buy a whole tub o' whatever.

Small Businesses, Creatives and Freelancers - How Much Do You Share In A Pitch?

This post is one I've been thinking about for a long time and now that some agencies are pushing to retain creative rights to their ideas throughout the process, it's doubly relevant.  I really suggest you read the article in Adage, it's clearly a growing problem. 
When you're a creative team or shop and you make your money by crafting and then executing ideas (designers, social media folks, artists, etc.) it's hard to know how much to give clients in order to show off how great you are and what to keep hidden so that you get the job. 
This is made much more difficult when there are people out there that want you to come up with ideas, pitch them on it, not hire the team, but still own the idea that you came up with for the pitch.  It's not a ton of people, but enough to make creatives a little nervous.
 I sell my ideas and analysis on how a brand should use social media and other new mediums of communication  so new clients always want to see some ideas and I don't blame them.  No one wants to simply "take your word for it" that you know what you're doing.

That said, know that it's ok to decline to provide a complete idea until you are working together.  I am not terribly comfortable coming in the door with a complete idea without having spoken fairly extensively with the client about resources, objectives, team experience, goals, and timeline.  Virtually every prospective client that I explain this to completely understands this and respects that I want to create something that might take some time to craft.  A free idea just might give you what you paid for it.... nothing.
In my opinion,  the pitch process itself is becoming a little outdated given our new mediums to spread messaging.  Back in the day when everything was about TV and print, crafting a great message could be done without as much planning.  An agency or freelancer could come up with a really great message or idea, blast it out on TV, and even develop the product itself around this great idea.  Now, your audience wants to know that your idea is based on making their lives easier and better.  Also, they don't want to hear it on TV, they'd like you to be on their medium of choice. 
It's almost impossible to do all of this on the front end and provide a slam dunk idea without having some serious discussions with your client.
Because ideas are becoming a lot of work to tailor to the needs of our changing consumers, the people who are coming up with them are getting more and more protective.  
To update your pitch process you'll need to explain to your clients that the communication landscape is changing.  They don't have one audience - for example Teens.  You have alternative teens, music loving teens, brainy teens, career oriented teens, rebel teens, and countless other groups that all spend time in different places with different messaging opportunities.  One idea targeting Teens is probably going to flop, or at least waste a lot of money missing the mark.
Show your prospective client how you might target one slice of the Teen audience so they can get an idea of your process and leave the rest until you have a formal contract.

Freelancers And Location Independents: How To Meet Like Minded People.

As a location independent I can work from wherever I want, which is great.  I can work from Tahiti, or Miami, or somewhere exotic like that but I usually work at one coffeeshop in Madison because I like this one particular chair there.  So most days I am slogging away with my breakfast sandwich and coffee and its great.
Except I don't get to talk to as many people as I'd like. 
In an office, there's a whole bunch of people right around the corner to complain to, laugh with, and have grocery store birthday cake with.  I really miss the birthday cake.
So I was looking around one day and I realized that probably over 50% of the people in the shop with me were there every day also.  I even started to play a game of "guess what that person's profession is" with myself based on their computer and working posture. I eventually met one of them and we became friends. 
Now I had a coworker of sorts and I was thrilled because my new friend was going through the same things I was.
Still, Christmas was coming up and we didn't have our own office party to go to.  I wanted to wear this dress that I hadn't worn in a while and I wanted to meet more of the people in the coffeeshop and I wanted to do it wearing my dress dammit.
So we started a group.
On Facebook.  It's called Because We Can, Afternoon Drinks For Cool Small Business Owners.  It took maybe 10 minutes.  We invited about 5 people since we didn't know that many location independent people.  We immediately set up a non office Christmas Party For People With No Office and decided that probably she and I would be the only ones there in our party dresses. 
But some people showed up. 
They were people from coffeeshops.  We said things to each other like "Which coffeeshop are you at? I'm at the Barriques on PD." and "Which site did you use for your billing?"  and "Is your December really slow or is it just me?" 
I was shocked that people actually came to be honest but I was really happy that I got to wear my dress. Then we got bold and had another one this week. We invited everyone that came last time plus a few more and discussed whether the impending "Ice Storm" that the weathermen were predicting would kill our event.  I was going to go anyway since I was really sick of the coffeeshop.
And more people came.
This time I knew even less people but we had a whole lot more conversations about working remotely.  A lot of them told me they were really happy we started our group because they were feeling lonely working from home and how it wasn't really enough just to "connect with people online" like so many people will suggest.  One woman looked at me and said "it just drives me crazy sometimes.  I love, love, love what I do.  It's my passion.  But this is the price." 
I knew how she felt. It drives me crazy sometimes too.

I am really surprised at the number of people out there that I sit next to all the time that are silently working on their dream job.  I'm planning social media strategy and they are designing websites, or crime scene clean-up, or someone's finances, or video game makers and I'm happy because now I know some of them.  Next event I'm bringing birthday cake. 

Here's what we did:
Start a group
pick somewhere to meet that has a good drink special (if you call beforehand most places will give you a special.  Make sure you tell them it might just be you in a party dress) 
Pick somewhere that's a good place to talk but cooler than where all the other networking events are.
Pick a topic for your event.  Feel free to not talk about it but you can bring it up if conversation gets slow.