Like most freelancers, I wear a lot of hats around here. As a designer, I work on print, digital, and web. As a consultant, I help creatives with InDesign-based workflows and I’ve even done some formal classroom training. Curious about all that? Visit my business site.
I love all of it, but one of the things I enjoy the most is one-on-one interaction and teaching someone a better way of getting things done. I’ve usually done this in the framework of dealing with groups, but lately, I’ve been contacted more and more from individuals with InDesign-related questions. Most have reached out to me through private message on the Adobe user forums where I’ve been known to answer a question or two. If you’re among those that have contacted me that way, you’ve likely found your way here because I answered your email with a link to it.
Why? For starters, I’m getting too many private messages (I wish I could turn them off, but that’s not possible) and while I don’t mind helping out with a quick answer, most of the time it’s a bit too detailed for that and the individual doesn’t have the same budget as a corporate client. In the past, I’ve just referred folks back to the public Adobe and InDesign Secrets forums, Lynda.com, and YouTube, but there are times where only a personal back and forth will help.
In that regard, I believe I’ve come up with a win-win solution. I’m now offering one-on-one InDesign question and answer sessions via Skype at a cost of $60 for 30 minutes or $95 for an hour. You get your answers and I make a few bucks.
A few rules:
- Payment is in advance via Zelle or Venmo. No credit cards. No checks.
- It doesn’t matter if you’re employed with a big company or you’re a freelancer; this is between you and me. It’s not worth doing this if I have to deal with corporate red tape, so, please don’t ask me for an invoice. Use the Venmo or Zelle email as your receipt if you need to submit it for reimbursement with your employer.
- You ask the questions and I’ll do my very best to answer them as quickly and accurately as possible. I’m not going to do any prep for these sessions.
- Skype means Skype. It works. Don’t ask me to sign up for something else or install some other software.
If those rules don’t scare you away, visit the contact page to get started. For more details visit my business site. If you want to discuss more detailed training or consulting, let me know. I’ll be happy to discuss that.
Finally, I know a lot of you are already well-versed in how to use InDesign, but feel free to spread the word.
A wise decision.
It’s mentally rewarding to be the world-renowned “InDesign Guy”, but it’s a tremendous time-consuming task to help each and everyone with their smaller and sometimes bigger problems. Your professional curiosity makes you wanna dig right into such challenging matters, to find a solution or offer a good advice, for free. But it quickly gets out of hand…
Just one remark: “Skype means Skype” – oh, does it ?
I discovered that Skype consists of a whole set of tools !
Skype, plain vanilla
Skype for Business
Skype for Business Basic
Skype for Business Online
Skype for Business Web App
Skype Meetings, the (web) app
Skype Meetings App (an installer)
Skype for Business Web Scheduler…
At least those are the varied names I came across when trying to “Skype” with some one, recently… ;-)
Good Luck with the Business !
Peter
Hi Peter,
Good point about Skype. I’m just using plain old, installed with Windows 10 for free Skype. There’s an app for Mac as well. It gets a bad rap but it works great for these one-on-one type of things.
HI Peter,
Sometimes technology clutters the ability to get work done. Your comment about saying NO sometimes as well as making everything an interactive PDF hit home. Now that the pdf is created we are having to add special code to make the new window appear from a link. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.