3 Things About 5, Starting on the 1st

Posted October 13, 2009 @ 12:36 PM, by Marc, in Business, BWS — 6

While January 1^st is still a couple of months away, it’s been on my mind recently due to three important things that take place on that day, each of which has something to do, more or less, with the number 5:

Boston Web Studio turns five years old: I remember it like it was nearly five years ago; I spent the morning driving to City Hall, the bank, and the post office to fill out documents and convert ‘Boston Web Studio’ from an idea into a reality. BWS became a tiny business, occasionally hired by faithful clients, making websites at night and on the weekends while a day job kept the big bills paid. Then, after years of hard work, BWS became a full-time job on May 1^st, 2008 and I haven’t looked back since.
Every website BWS creates will be written in HTML5: Starting on January 1^st all websites that BWS creates will be written in HTML5. Initially, this may sound exciting and forward-thinking, but, for the time-being, I intend only to utilize the new DOCTYPE. I’ve kicked around the idea of immediately using the new elements introduced in HTML5, too, especially since the JavaScript HTML5 ‘shiv’ will force Internet Explorer to behave as desired, but I’ve decided that it’s just too early. Maybe on January 2nd…
No more five-day work-weeks: Well, sort of. I’ll be in the office working on websites five days a week, but only four of those days will be devoted to billable work for BWS’ many wonderful clients. The fifth day, which will be Wednesday, is going to be devoted to internal projects that help promote the business; items such as writing helpful blog entries, experimenting with new development techniques and technologies, the occasional pro-bono work for a worthwhile cause, advancing the current state of the Build Guild, and more.

Comments

You stole my “Wednesday’s off” idea, and more power to ya, it’s a snappy idea. Looking forward to hearing about how you allocate your internal tasks to Wednesday only. I’m horrible at that. Teach me! TEACH ME!

Jason Robb October 13, 2009 @ 12:58 PM
Glad to see you’re blogging more frequently, and planning on doing more of it come 2010. Taking time out for that and other side projects that help promote your actual business is something I feel most web shops should be doing more of. If I ever actually go solo, and maybe 2010 is the year, what you’ve done with BWS is definitely an inspiration. Start somewhere, build up clients, go full time and have fun. Awesome.

As far as HTML5 goes, I don’t feel it’s ready for primetime yet. I may stick with the approach Jeremy Keith mentioned at An Event Apart in Boston earlier this year, which is to stick with XHTML for now and give your div elements an ID that corresponds to the new HTML5 elements, such as “footer” and “aside.” That way you can adjust the markup once HTML5 is the norm by editing the div tags and replacing them with the HTML5 elements you’ve laid out already.

Patrick Haney October 13, 2009 @ 1:00 PM
Also, I’m thrilled to hear about your HTML5 approach. Use the doctype, wait to use the new elements. That’s my current plan for version 3 of Jason Robb.com.

Jason Robb October 13, 2009 @ 1:00 PM
Love the 5th day for internal projects idea. Why should it be limited to Google employees?

Matt Wiseley October 13, 2009 @ 1:00 PM
i think your math is off - taking one day a week off from client work for me would mean no more seven day work-weeks. :)

congrats marc, much success in the future!

mike October 13, 2009 @ 1:03 PM
Jason: I haven’t the foggiest idea if it’s going to work, so you may not want me as your teacher. No better way to find out than to try, right?

Patrick: Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad that the process I went through is an inspiration. I’m right there with you regarding HTML5; I’ll be using it for client projects, but little-to-nothing more than the DOCTYPE switch and, perhaps, Mr. Keith’s suggested ID/Class names based on the up-and-coming elements.

Mike: Your dedication to clients and the work itself is honorable, for sure. Just be sure to take a break every once in a while!

Marc October 14, 2009 @ 7:20 AM