10 Tips to Invoice Your Freelance Clients Professionally

Let’s face it, while receiving money can be very addictive, invoicing is a total nightmare for freelancers, especially designers with artistic talent. However, the truth side about the freelance business is you not only need your design skill to succeed, but carefully and wisely managed invoicing to keep you business going smooth without troubles from the financial side, or frustration from the client side.

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We talk about professionalism, but in fact all you need is to do it right. Choosing the right invoicing software, implement the right policies and charge method, asking for a right payment method, manage the invoice record right, this article is all about sharing the right tips for you to do the right invoicing. So learn from the tips right, then you’re on the right way on doing the right and most importantly, professional invoicing. Full detail after jump!

1. Using Good Invoicing Software

The first thing you need to do when preparing invoices for your clients is to select good invoicing software. There are plenty of invoicing software on the market that will help you create convincing invoices, so you probably don’t need to worry about choosing the right one.

It is better to use an online invoicing software as it will help you easily track your clients and the amount of money you are owed. Some of the invoicing software are paid service while others are free. Regardless of the software you decide to use, make sure it meets all your needs with the features you required.
Below are some great recommendations:

• FreshBooks
• LessAccounting
• BlinkSale

Alternatively you can check out our detailed post – Top Invoice & Accounting services for Freelance Designers.

2. Come Up with Your Policies

It is normal to want to be paid after working for a client. However, in the real world not all clients pay on time. As a freelance graphic designer, you will come across stubborn clients who pay half the amount then disappears. Some of your clients will even refuse to pay you. To minimize the occurrences such cases, you need to come up with policies regarding payments.

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As part of your work policies, you should consider the following factors:

• What payment mode will you use – cash, checks or credit cards?
• How much should the client pay as a down payment?
• Will you begin the work without any payments?
• How many days you will wait before the client pays?
• Are you going to impose penalties for late payments?
• When will the client receives the final work – before or after making payments?

Keep in mind that these policies are not written in stone but only act as a guideline. There will be occasions where you will be forced to be flexible and make changes to your policies to accommodate a client.

3. Stick to Your Policies

Clients do not like surprises. Let the clients know about your policies, including your pricing structure. They should also be informed if any changes are made on the policies.

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Clients can refuse to pay or might be inclined to make late payments if they are surprised by any information on your invoices. As a freelance graphic designer, you need to develop a trust with your clients, thus making everything crystal clear on your policies will not only bring you more trust to clients, but also more jobs to you.

4. Think about Your Charges

You have heard the first rule of pricing is never to undercharge. This is so true. Your prices need to be in line with that of your competitors. Do not dare to quote lower prices in order to attract clients.

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The reason is if you underpriced your services, you are more likely to attract cheap clients who give you long and tedious jobs and then disappear without even paying a cent. Also decide your pricing method. Determine whether you will fix your pricing on the basis of the job done or per hour, inform the client so they have no doubt on how you charge.

5. Include Services and Charges

All of your invoices should clearly indicate the services rendered and the amount charged. This makes it easy for clients to understand what they are being asked to pay for. This will also help you and the client monitor what has already been paid and the amount outstanding, thus maintaining an up-to-date record of payments and completed tasks.

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Besides, note that majority of freelancer graphic designers prefer their clients to pay upfront before beginning project. Thus, when creating an invoice clearly indicate whether the payment is for the entire or part of the project.

6. Accepted Methods of Payments

It is important for clients to clearly what payment services have been rendered. Some of your clients may be comfortable paying cash, while others might be willing to write checks or make credit card payments. It’s okay as long as you choose a method that is acceptable to you and your clients.

Some of the options you can consider include:

• PayPal
• MoneyBookers
• AlertPay

For most designers PayPal is their favorite choice as it’s convenient, fast and secured. Here’s an article you might be interested in – 10 Most Asked Questions About PayPal.

7. When Are the Payments Due?

Many freelance graphic designers fail to receive payments for projects done since they do not inform their clients when payments are due. Make sure to include a due date on every invoice you send to reduce the occurrence of late payments.
Note that including due dates on invoice is helpful even if your clients always make their payments on time, talking about security.

8. Include Your Contact Details

When designing your invoice, do not forget to include your full names, address, telephone number and email. Some of the invoices you send will pass through several people before getting paid. It is much easier if the person receiving the invoice knows where it is from. In addition, they might need clarification on a few items and including your contact information makes it easier for them to reach you.

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Failure to include your contact information on the invoice might result in payment delays. Clients might also need your contact information as part of their record keeping policy.

9. Number your Invoices

As a freelancer, you will have to deal with many clients and in the process, you will send out lots of invoices. Thus, you need to come up with a way of monitoring and organizing your invoices.

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Most of the invoicing software mentioned above includes a numbering system, which you can use to keep track of payments. A good numbering system allows you to monitor payments and keep track of late payments or clients who have defaulted. It simply saves you time and effort searching here and there, or ended up invoicing clients who have already paid.

10. Keeping A Record of Invoices

Always remember that backup is the savior of all business troubles. It is so essential that if you fail to do it and you lost your record of invoices, there will be no way to track which clients have been billed, and which are not.

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Grow a habit, always do a backup of your invoice record. You can photocopy them, print them out or download them into your computer’s local storage, as long as you have a copy of them. Store any email and letter related with the invoice so when anything happens, you always have an extra reference, and you will thank yourselves for keeping them well.

Bonus: Make Follow Ups

Not all of your clients will respond to your invoices on time. As the due date approaches, politely enquire from the clients whether or not they have sent their payments. Yes, be polite when doing follow ups because while certain clients are willing to pay, they could have simply forgotten the payments.

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Lastly, you need to be systematic when dealing with invoicing issues raised by your clients. Responding in time to your client’s concerns portrays your professionalism and will increase the likelihood of them giving you more projects.

How To Run Blogs that I.N.S.P.I.R.E

When it comes to blogging, readers are the blogger’s customer base, because its very survival depends on a stable readership. Unless your blog only serves as a personal diary, you should aim to inspire others with your writings. You’ll be surprised how your words can lift others up, or given them a great inspiration or help in certain area they need.

(Image source: Smashing Magazine)

Yes, all you need to concern is not about how much advertising revenue you can gather, but how much value you can provide to your precious readers and keeps them coming back for more.
How do you provide values, or inspire readers with your blog? This subject is so broad that I don’t think I can draw conclusion if I quantify it to a list. However, I’ve identified 7 essential approaches to make your blog inspiring enough to sustain a fair amount of readership, under what I termed as I.N.S.P.I.R.E:

1. Independent

If you’re thinking of plagiarizing your entire entry from another source, don’t. First of all, it’s absolutely not right to copy-and-paste what others have taken the effort to write, even if you manage to paraphrase most of the sentences, think about branding and reputation.

Secondly, it won’t make your blog stand out from the large array of copycats out there on the net. If you want to distinguish your blog, you’ve got to offer your readers what other blogs couldn’t. By that, you got be original and independent. Be the pioneer.
Write what others didn’t think of. Offer something unique. Sure, you can get ideas by reading from other blogs, but don’t reproduce them. Digest what they have to say regarding a particular issue and come up with your own hypothesis, solution or whatever in your entry, as long as it’s your own words. You can even gain reputation mentioned above from being the blog that stands up to its own opinions or ways of writing.

2. Noteworthy

Ask yourself if the article that you are writing is noteworthy to the reader, or even to yourself. Is it something that many readers would be dying to read about and know, even bookmark, be it as a solution or an opinion-based entry?

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Simply put, unique is not enough, you have to write something attractive, and by attractive I mean the reader will even come back to read again when they need to, or they will introduce the article when someone is asking about the recommendation, that’s called noteworthy.
To put an example, you want to do a Photoshop tutorial which the methods discussed are seen everywhere but they are all difficult to follow. In this case, you can produce an easy-to-follow tutorial, with comprehensive explanation on the go. So whenever readers came across it and they want to do a Photoshop tutorial later, they will remember that there’s a detailed yet easy-to-follow tutorial in your blog. They will also introduce it to any Photoshop beginner asking for the kind of tutorial. Noteworthy achieved.

3. Specialized

It is advisable for you to set a target audience for your blog. This is to ensure that your entries would stay within the boundary of a selected few topics.

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For example, if your blog is about providing troubleshooting for common computer errors, then it would be common sense to input entries regarding the latest computer issue that is currently affecting many of your targeted readers.
Why such constraints? Think about it: If you as a reader wishes to find out more about a certain area of interest, would you prefer to go through the search engines and get bits and pieces of what you want, or would you rather have a one-stop website where you can browse through all the related topics and learn as you go? This is the best way to get readers to come back for more.

4. Personalized

This bears some similarity with being independent and original, except that this one is more to do with your style of writing.

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In order to differentiate from hundreds of bloggers like yourself who are writing about the same topic, other than inputting different contents, the only other way is to personalize your writing. Develop a personality for your entries, so to speak.
However, humans are also creatures of habits, in that they will feel comfortable when they sense consistency. Hence, once you get a steady base of loyal readers, make sure to stick to your style. You can deviate, but not too much. For further reading about the importance of consistency, I’ve written an entry earlier on improving blog traffic, which emphasizes about consistency.

5. Influential

The blog should be able to influence people with their words, which mean that it has to be persuasive in its writings. This is especially true for opinion or discussion blogs, where their primary business is to express a certain viewpoint and adopt a certain stance.

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This doesn’t mean that the entries have to persuade people to adopt their views; the priority should be on generating a buzz or creating a discussion topic among people. Get everyone to discuss and make the blog lively.
In fact, it’s hard to be very influential if you are pushing everyone to a certain perspective in this modern and informational age. Rather, strive to be influential by making your blog entries stimulating and invigorative enough to draw a crowd and make them stay. Influence people by making them take notice of what you say.

6. Relatable

This is especially crucial for blog entries that touch on everyday issues, such as my earlier entry on tackling the 10 most asked interview questions. Since such entries address commonly encountered problems, making them relatable to the reader will forge a connection between your friendly words of advice and the person seeking it.

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Even when your entry is of a more technical nature like troubleshooting, you can make it relatable to the readers by altering the tone of your writing a little. Crack a joke or complain a little about the error issue. Even posing a rhetorical question every now and then can set the reader into a more casual and relaxed reading mode.

7. Expertise

When it comes to the credibility of what the blogger has to say, nothing matters more than the expertise of the writer. How can a person who had never written a blog talk about, say, the qualities of a good blog? Be the top of your niche, as people only seek for expert’s advice.

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To make the blog more reliable, what the writer has to do is to incorporate elements of his experience and expertise in the topic. The writer can draw on his or her knowledge to impress the readers and develop a level of trust on the subsequent entries. Thereafter, the readers would use the site as a reference point when they wish to consult on the topic.

5 Steps to More Accurate and Efficient Google Search

Ever wondered how many websites are there in the world right now? According to Pingdom, it’s a whooping 255 million as of December 2010! A total of 21.4 million websites were created last year alone. Logically speaking, our search for websites should get exponentially tedious and difficult along with the years, especially at a time when access to information is more valuable than ever.

Surprisingly, we are still able to find the information we need most of the time, thanks to the effective and reliable search engine, Google. Nevertheless, with that much wealth of information out there online, it’s easy to lose ourselves and not get the optimal results we could have.
There are fortunately methods of searching to ensure that we are digging in the right holes, and below we will cover 5 essential steps that include tips & tricks to help you refine your search. Learn them all and get what you really want from the Google while not wasting your time flipping the result page!
More: You may also interested in – Gmail Advanced Search – Ultimate Guide

1. 5 – 7 Keywords

Keyword searching is most often the first step to your online search. A common mistake made is that people often key in less than five keywords. Given that the Internet has millions of sites out there, the search results become diluted if you only input a few words.

For those who may not know, normally search engines would return the results containing any of the keywords you typed in search form, regardless of the order they appear. Of course, Google, being a smart tool, would list the results in the manner where pages consisting of most of your keywords, or pages consisting of your keywords in closer proximity will be shown earlier. In other words, an intelligent ranked ordering for your results.
Ironically, if you want to narrow down your search to get more relevant websites, you got to expand on the number of keywords to about 5 to 7 keywords. That way, Google becomes clearer to what is it that you are looking for.

2. Using Truncation

Not sure of what keywords to use? You might consider using the simple * to expand on your search. What it does is that if you place that in the query, then you’ll get results for the word combination you’ve keyed in, with * as variant. For example, if you type in cartoon * tutorials, you will get sites with the phrase “Cartoon Character Illustration Tutorials”, “Cartoon Coloring Tutorial”, “Cartoon Animation Tutorial”, etc.

This would be beneficial to someone who is out there looking for ideas, but isn’t sure of what keywords to use. Let’s say you wish to research on the color of web design. You want to know what are the colors web designers or clients care about, thus you can try entering * color web design, and the results will show sites or its posts that are related with the query “color web design”, such as “Warm VS Cool Color Website Designs”, “Beautiful Purple Color Website Designs”, “Stunning Blue Color Website Designs”, etc.

3. Exact Phrases

Sometimes, you can narrow down your search by simply telling the Google to search websites with the exact order of the words. For instance, if you want to find out who quoted “The unexamined life is not worth living”, then it is preferable that you type the whole line rather than putting in keywords like “unexamined” or “living“.

Quotation marks, ” “, should ideally be used if you want the search engine to only look for sites with exact phrasing. But as I mentioned in #1, search engines are capable of sorting the results in a ranked manner in accordance to how close the words are next to each other. You would probably still get your results if the quote is well-known.
At other times, you might want to use a combination of exact phrases and keywords to enhance your search. For example, you might want to search for sites that provide useful tips on leveraging social media for your business. Rather than using three keywords: “social”, “media” and “business”, you can type in “social media” business in the form and get more accurate results.
How so? “social media” is an inseparable entity, which makes sure that all sites listed must have the exact phrasing of “social media”. This is more useful than searching for “social” and “media” individually. “business” and “social media” have now become keywords that will be searched in any order of the wordings.

4. The “OR” and “-”

OR operator already exists in Google. When you type in any keywords, websites that contains any of the keywords will be displayed in the results. The difference with the OR operator is that you can define keywords or phrases with quotation marks rather than have the search engine search for all the words you typed in. This means to say that if you put “social media” OR “business”, you will get sites that consists of either “social media” or “business”, and not any of the three words per se.

The minus sign,-, is useful if you wish to exclude a particular word or phrase in your search. This is valuable when you are searching for exception to what search results would typically produce.
Let’s say you wish to search for someone with the name “Bill Gates”, but not the chairman of Microsoft who we are all familiar with. You know that sites with the name “Bill Gates” would usually come with “Microsoft”, so using the - sign like “bill gates” -microsoft would bring you close to what you really want to find.

5. Search Within A Site

There comes a time when you know there is only one site which you need to search for something you want, but chances are the site has either a broken search function or a confusing search result. The worst case: the site has no search function at all. In these cases, Google prove to be very handy as it allows you to search within certain site, as long as the site is indexed by the Google.

To search within a site using the Google, all you need to do is input the search query into the Google with the domain name, such as photoshop tutorial site:hongkiat.com. Google will then return the results only from the site you mentioned, such as photoshop tutorials only from the Hongkiat.com. Note that the site: must be added before the domain name, else Google will search for other sites as well.

It’s All About Refining Your Search

The above five tips are great by itself, but if you want a really customized and precise search, you should link a few of these steps together in a single search. This will ensure that those results you do not want will be sieved out, thereby enhancing your findings.
To further refine your search with these slightly complicated tips, you have to really know about what you want to search. You need to identify your keywords and consider what kind of phrase, word order, or special feature you need to use.
Be sure to try out every tip and feature covered above before you apply them in your daily search, so you know what are the best for certain conditions, and remember to keep the search query as simple as possible!

Tips And Tricks For Writing Fast (And Professionally!)

So what do you do when you’re pressed for time, swamped under works and you still need to get some stuff written, and written well? Your nerves are tightened up so well that you can’t sleep, but you can’t squeeze even a sentence out of your mind. I know the feeling so well, but what I did then was, just start writing fast without even thinking, then a professional article was born with the time shorter than usual. Heck, it might be even more professional than my previous articles!

(Image Source: Fotolia)

The phenomena has nothing to do with the God I worship, or any supernatural phenomenon, it’s just how brain works: we write fast and professionally if we can just limit something, abandon certain habits, and put up some beneficial habits. That’s all, it’s really easy, and I’m going to explain them clearly in this article, so master them all and write like a ninja from today!
Articles you might be interested as well:

• Writing for the Web: Tips & Common Mistakes
• Writing for the Blog: Tips That I.N.S.P.I.R.E
• Freelance Writing: Tips & Guidelines

1. Freestyle Writing

To be honest, I hate this method. I’m one of those annoying writers who edits as I write. It just works better for me. I’m able to form better sentences, find my flow and generally write better if I take my time with it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for fast writing, and just because I hate free style writing, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work.

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If you’re pressed for time and really want get some writing done, open up a fresh Microsoft Word document, and start typing. Don’t worry about how it will sound, whether your sentences are grammatically correct or even if they make any sense. Don’t look at the clock. Get it all written.
Editing and cleaning up copy in 10 minutes is more than enough for you to produce a quality article. So you see, there’s really no magic here, you just let your brain has more freedom, and it rewards you a completed work. Fast and practical.

2. Set a Timer

I know a lot of people who don’t like setting a timer and writing till it goes off. However, I don’t know anyone for whom this hasn’t worked. So go ahead and try it. Set a timer for 10, 20 or 30 minutes, then sit in front of your computer and start writing. It’s okay if you can’t think of anything to write and you might be just staring at a blank screen. It’s totally fine.

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Chances are that as your timer starts to run out, your brain will jump-start and your fingers will start flying on their own. Like what I wrote earlier, it doesn’t have to be pretty and it doesn’t have to make sense. It just needs to be written! You can pretty it up later.
Once you timer is off, step away from your computer – even if you’re on a roll. Leave your brain wanting for more. If the timer proved ineffective in jump-starting your writing then take a break and come back to it later.
Your timer doesn’t have to be a clock. You can write after you’ve put a few cookies to bake in the oven and use that as your timer. Stop when the oven dings and treat yourself a cookie. After all, you deserve it! My personal favorite timer is the train. I write every time I use the metro and have no choice but to stop and take a break when the train arrived at the station. And let me tell you, my fingers fly as the train is about to reach the station. Suddenly I have so much to say!

3. Turning Off Spell Checker

One thing that really bugs me is seeing a red-underlined error while writing in Microsoft Word. I mean can’t it tell that this is my first draft? That it doesn’t need to be perfect right now? That right now, at this very moment, it just needs to be written?

Well, apparently it can’t. So if you’re one of those writers who get bugged by the spell checker, you need to turn it off. For Microsoft Word 2010, you can simply click on the dark blue tab on the top left side of the software, then click on the Option > Proofing, and uncheck “Check spelling as you type“.
You can also uncheck any other option that will interrupt your writing process, such as “Mark grammar errors as you type”. You can check all these errors later by click on the Review > Spelling & Grammar Check, which the options are existed on the top bar of the software. By doing this, you will find that your idea will flow more naturally and writing will be more comfortable.

4. Turning Off Backspace

Ever had one of those sentences which you typed, then you feel it’s bad, then you pressed backspace about a hundred times, just to delete it? Yeah, I had the similar experience. What’s worse is that after I’ve pressed the backspace key a hundred times, I realize that my original sentence was fine.

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To avoid pressing the backspace key for unnecessary changes, you need to make a determination to not touch the backspace key and stick to it. If you make a mistake, whether it’s a spelling mistake or a grammatical mistake, just move on.
If you manage to not hit the backspace key while writing, chances are you’re going to end up with some word combinations which have the potential to be composed into epic phrases that you might use after all.

5. Do Research Before Writing

One of the fastest ways to write is to stop the urge to check on your facts or refer to information for accuracy. Before you sit down to write, make sure you’ve done all your research and are well versed in it. This way all you have to do is write without stopping. Everything is already there in your head – you just need to put it down in writing to make sense of it all.

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Research before writing will also stop unnecessary actions like reading off-topic articles while you are writing. You might be even tempted to see certain Youtube video for “research” purpose and boom… another day well spent with nothing but procrastination completed. Surely we need inspiration from different kind of sources, but not for the time when you need to write fast.

6. Write Outline

This is absolutely my favorite tip for writing fast. Think about what you want to write, then outline it. If it’s an article, jot down the subheadings. If it’s a web copy, write down the points you want to cover. The process is pretty much the same for any writing you need to get done.
If you prefer, you can also write more detailed outline for easier writing later. Give some keywords to every topic or even paragraph in the article. Surprisingly this action will possibly spawn more ideas for you in the writing stage later. Most importantly, once you have the outline, writing will be a breeze and doesn’t take much time. Before you know it, the work is done!

7. Get a Writing Buddy

If nothing seems to be working, then teaming up with a writing buddy/partner is your best bet. A writing buddy holds you accountable, watches the clock for you and even writes with you.

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If you have a lot of writing to do or have a big project that needs to get done, partnering up with a writing buddy is going to keep you motivated and on track with your deadline.
Your writing buddy doesn’t necessarily need to be your friend. They just need to check in with you to see if you’re doing what you have decided to do. Set a few ground rules before starting. What time will you check in with each other? How will you compare notes? Will you exchange each other’s work and provide feedback?
For me, the best writing buddy is one who has to do some writing of his/her own. This way, it’s a two-way thing and I’m not just getting help but I’m helping someone too.

What About Writing Professionally?

Your writing can’t be professional if it’s not written at first. Concentrate on getting it written first, then spend a few minutes revising, editing and generally prettying it up. You’ll notice that there are really not much differences between the speed writing and the common writing, as you’ve done the research, wrote the outline, and edited the article to make it professional. You just took another approach which costs you less time.
So get it written first, then make it professional. Use these tips and tricks regularly and you’ll find yourself doing lesser editing with time, while enjoying more on writing great articles! Also do let us know your personal favorite tricks for writing fast and professionally!

Survive Office: 10 Tips For Moving Up Corporate Ladder

Ambitious employees always seek opportunities to climb up the corporate ladder. There is no dearth of individuals who are eager to climb the professional ladder of success, but what matters is whether they have the discipline and the positive intent to reach the desired level. Successful individuals always keep track of great principles, which will help them to reach the top.

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It is not always the bigger notions that get noticed but a combination of small principles and actions that eventually make the difference. To begin with, here are 10 significant tips for you to practice in your work to make an impact to your company and eventually make yourself rise to the top, have a read and master them all.
More suggested posts:

• How to Balance Your Work Life
• 10 Most-asked interview questions
• 7 Great Ways to Get Your Resume Noticed
• 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
• Land Your Dream Job With 25 Innovative Resume Ideas
• 5 Crucial Aspects to Consider Before Accepting the Job Offer

1. Always Dress Impeccably

Formal dressing is a must. A dress code tells a lot about an employee’s attitude. You will be judged on the basis of your dress, and in most situation, formal dress means you are serious at your work. It also indicates your commitment in the affairs of the company. A person who wears a casual dress is always considered to be less dedicated and not focused in his work.

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2. Take Initiative

You should be more involved in any difficulty your colleague or boss encounter. You should be ready to take any extra yet reasonable help and work, which may not necessarily be your share of work, and that’s what makes the difference between a leader and a common employee. A leader is the one who is eager to go beyond his domain and helps others when they needed help. A leader is a person who takes initiative, and who helps to solve things before others. You should always be ready to help.

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Bosses also take a close look at those who are willing to take initiative and offer a helping hand, as it just looks like you’re not only work for the company, but you belong to the company. You work like as this is the precious company you are willing to work for, and this is the kind of person that bosses want to get into the manager’s realm.

3. Always Be Prepared

Do you have the training and presentation modules ready for the staff meeting? Bosses look at your eagerness about your work, and they will notice it though your presentation and materials. They will look at the presentation charts and notes that you had used while presenting your points, and judge you based on those materials. Prepare them well to impress your bosses.

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A good preparation helps you to stay focused on your agenda. It also shows the bosses that you are serious about your work, and you take company’s meetings seriously. Avoid being careless at the meeting, with no preparation whatsoever. A good preparation gives a positive message to the employers, and might lead to promotion.

4. Be Responsible

A good employee is a responsible employee. Adding up responsibilities should be your forte. You take care of responsibilities seriously once they are assigned to you. You should also be ready to undertake more responsibilities if necessary.

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When you failed at certain task assigned to you, you should be the one standing up to admit your fault and ask for the apology. A boss is always on the lookout for such a person who is not only ready to shoulder any responsibilities, but willing to bear the consequences of his failure or irresponsibility.
Being responsible should not only be your work’s ethic, but also your life principle if you aim to strive for tremendous success in your life.

5. Never Postpone

Although it’s better for you to help others when they have certain difficulties at work, you should also finish your task on time. You ensure that the tasks must be completed before anything.

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Postponing of work is looked upon as less dedicated, and not focused. There are millions of employees who work their whole life as a common employee. They only work what is needed for them. Some even go to the extent of postponing their work to later hours. Such individuals will hardly rise to the top. Instead, they will find it even harder to remain in the payroll of the company.

6. Communicate Effectively

Proper communication is an essential tool to successful career. If you are able to put your thoughts and opinion across in an effective manner, you will get the most attention. Your communication skills will lead you to sit among bosses and managers. You will be asked to share your views in company’s meetings.

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Communicating with a better style is half the work done. Ask politely. State clearly. Say friendly. Share your opinion carefully. When you’re in anger, try to say slowly. That said, you have to be emotionally stable, as bosses only look for the person who communicates effectively while keeping his emotion stable in any situation.

7. Act Properly

An employee must use his common sense to try to act properly. Those employees who have a higher level of common sense are expected to reach higher in hierarchical standings. First of all, always follow the rules and regulations in the office. Though, there will be days when a situation might get worse, but always show the right temperament, and impress the boss with the right attitude.

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Using slang languages, laughing loudly, look for job opening in the office or even sleeping in the office will keep you in the blacklist of the bosses, thus ruining the chances of rising up the ladder of professional success. Ambitious employees who look for a rise in the company should ensure that they stick to certain levels of decency.

8. Avoid Being too Smart

There are a number of employees who try to act smart, they carry an attitude that they are not just smart but they can get away with doing silly things in the office, and still not get caught. You should not be one of those “smart” guys

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Remember, someone would get the word to the bosses. Acts like these will never help. Playing Facebook at work and try to hide it while boss passes by is unprofessional, and most bosses take these kinds of acts as violation of office rules. Boss just doesn’t like someone who challenges his rules, be it directly or indirectly.

9. Speak Highly of Bosses

It’s a fact that human loves to be praised, especially the boss. It is important to speak highly of a boss, but, beware, it depends on how the praises have been showered.

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Praising in front of the boss sounds really fake and intentional, so don’t do it unless you are sincere. Choose a suitable time, and speak about his good traits to someone who is closer to him. A friend or a close colleague might pass the word to him. Praising behind a boss will sound spontaneous.
A boss is likely to get impressed more because the showering of the praises has been done at his back, and he comes to know through someone else. Praising should be genuine. However, it’s a best practice to not go overboard and praise him for something he doesn’t deserve it. Such an act will do nothing good but more harm.

10. Learn to Say No

Learn to say no. Of course you should not offend your boss, manager and colleagues, but you should sound your disagreement and opinion wisely. A more polished way of saying ‘no’ will not harm your relationship and position in the company. Disagreements are bound to exist among colleagues, but what matters is the way it’s done.

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There are a host of polite ways to say no, but what’s universal is to apologize before you decline anything, as it will make the person to feel that you’re sincere. When you disagree a colleague’s opinion, you can say your appreciation before you share your own opinion. Be sincere. Be honest. A boss will likely to take you into the leadership as he wants someone who has his own standpoint, and dare to sound his opinion.

6 Simple & Effective Ways to Speed Up Your Mac

We are all impressed with the smooth running of the Apple Mac OS X as we compare with the contemporary Windows OS like Vista or Windows 7. However, there are times when your Mac might be slowing down as you put in more stuffs in your hard drive and work the system hard. That is perhaps a good time to evaluate where the bottleneck could be and clear it.

In this post I’ll be sharing tips I found useful in speeding up the Mac. While most of the tips do not cost you extra bucks, they also help you to clean up your Mac to not only make it run fast like cheetah, but also keep it as powerful as lion. So spend some time to get really well with these tips, then you’ll be smiling happily as you run your Mac smoothly!
If you are not only looking to optimize your Mac but also seeking to optimize your workflow in Mac, below we’ve got posts with 200 useful applications introduced to you!

• Mac: 100 Free Useful Applications (Part I)
• Mac: 100 More Useful Applications (Part II)

And you can discover more about Mac in Hongkiat!

1. Clearing Your Desktop

Your desktop plays a part in how long it takes for you to boot the system because it’s the first screen that it has to load up. As much as possible, try to keep it simple by minimizing the number of icons from the dock and clearing up the amount of files you can see. You can either delete them or put them into folders so that the operating system doesn’t have to waste additional resources to load them upon starting your computer.

Doing this will take the toil away from your memory, especially if you’re using an older Mac system. This will not only ensure that your boot time will be shortened, but also improve the performance of your Mac in general.

2. Managing Startup Items

When you install some applications, they automatically configured your startup setting such that these applications would be loaded up when you boot up your Mac. Depending on your usage, such a setting can either make it convenient for you (if the first thing you want to do when you boot up is to use that application), or slow down the booting time with no additional convenience for yourself.

Leaving such applications can also draw some valuable resources away from your Mac such that it slows down the system. As much as possible, try to remove those which you rarely use. For Mac OS X Lion’s user, all you need to do is go to System Preferences > System > Users & Groups > Login Items, and uncheck the application(s) you want off from the startup.

3. Cleaning Up the Hard Drive

Mac operating system actually utilizes whatever free space you have on your hard drive as ‘virtual memory’, which plays a significant role in the performance. In other words, the more data you have in your hard drive, the lesser the amount of memory you would have for the smooth running of your applications. The obvious solution to a slow-running Mac operating system is to free up hard drive space to make room for the ‘virtual memory’.

I’m sure you know where to begin when you’re cleaning up your hard drive, such as emptying your Trash, removing rarely used applications, etc. Alternatively, you can also remove languages that you don’t use through programs like Monolingual. This would save at least several hundred megabytes of disk space. It may not be much, but why waste resources?

4. Monitor Your Activity Monitor

Sometimes you wouldn’t know what’s taxing your memory and slowing down the system in the process. This is where the Apple’s Activity Monitor comes in handy. You get to see the CPU usage, Random Access Memory (RAM) and virtual memory usage from the monitor, which the info will help greatly in optimizing your Mac!

When you notice that there’s a spike when you use certain applications, you can infer that these are the ones which are draining away your memory and making your system sluggish. That way, you can either choose to minimize your usage on these applications or make room in your memory like closing down other applications when you’re going to use them.
On top of that, the monitor lists down in details all the applications which are currently in use. You can see how much each application is eating up your CPU, real & virtual memory. You may choose to quit those that are consuming an awful lot of your system’s resources to speed things up.
If you need more explanations on the Activity Monitor, do check out this comprehensive guide.

5. Embrace Cleaning Utility Tools

Perhaps the most straightforward way to optimize your system’s performance is to run multifunction utility tool like OnyX. What it basically does is that it conducts system maintenance and cleaning functions to smoothen the running of your system. Temporary files stored as caches are cleared so that they don’t ‘jam’ up the performance of your system.

If your goal is to sustain a top-notch performing Mac, then such utility tools can be programmed to run as scheduled routines. This way, unnecessary files and browser history or any other cache files are regularly removed from your system so that it will run at its best most of the time. In fact, it is highly recommended that all Mac users do such consistent maintenance.
If OnyX doesn’t seem to cater to your maintenance needs, you can also try out others like CleanMyMac and MacKeeper.

6. Getting Hardware Upgrade

Worse comes to worse, if the above tips didn’t significantly improve your Mac’s performance to your liking, you can always consider purchasing hardware that would more or less guarantee a speed boost. This would, however, require you to throw money to resolve the issue, as compared to the previous tips which are all free.
Upgrading your RAM is probably the simplest way to ensure a faster computer. As compared to upgrading your processor, it is also much cheaper. If you only have one piece of RAM attached in your Mac, consider getting another one.

At the very least, your Mac should have a 2 GB RAM minimum, and 4 GB RAM is recommended for web designer who run premium graphic editor like Adobe Photoshop which eats up a lot of memory and hard drive space. If you are using 2GB/4GB ram and still finds it running slow, consider getting an additional 2 GB RAM that would logically speed up the performance by 50%. Of course, this depends on how much memory your Mac can support, so ask the professionals before you proceed.
Another alternative is to get a faster hard drive or use a Solid State Drive (SSD), but they don’t come cheap. One way is to get the SSD to run only your operating system and other applications, while leaving the other data on your old hard disk. Here is a good site on how to set up a SSD drive.
That’s all from us! What’s your personal secret to speeding up your Mac?