Noam Web Design Blog | Web Design & Development Blog by Certified Experts

It’s obvious than having the right tools at your disposal can make all the difference in your work. You’ll be more productive but as you are able to focus more on what you do (rather than how to do it) you’ll create the right context for your creativity to thrive!

I decided to start a new series of posts on this blog dedicated to the tools I use every day that transformed the way I work and made it possible for me to achieve better results and produce more work, while spending less time in front of my computer!

For some of work that I do, file comparison and folder comparison is absolutely essential. I use Beyond Compare every day. In fact, it’s probably the single software I use the most when working on any web design or web development task. I even often prefer it to the operating system default functions when copying files, creating backups, etc. I highly recommend giving it a try!

Here at Noam Design, we’re big fans of keeping teams small and hiring “managers of one“. Here is a fun short slideshow that can help understand how and why many companies grow big teams:

If you’re wondering why we suddenly slowed down posting awesome posts on our blog, it’s because things have been particularly hectic here and the company is going through a lot of great changes! I’ll make sure to post about our evolution, the lessons learned, etc… But for now I thought it’d be appropriate to share a great tool that makes blogging super easy!

Posterous is a dead simple way to blog. When you’re particularly swamped with work or other things, that doesn’t mean you should stop your company’s social networking efforts! All you have to do is email - check it out

When you’re planning your work instead of actually working – you’re procrastinating. One of the most common examples is when you “set up a time to talk about the project”.

Every time you’re considering working with anyone on a project, ask yourself “why would this person work for cheap?” It is particularly true when it comes to web design and web development and this is something I tell pretty much anyone that inquires about working with us.

You’ll be able to find cheaper companies to work with. But you won’t be able to get the same value. Every dollar you invest here at Noam Design will yield an unbeatable value for your project.

You have a limited budget? Reduce the project’s scope. But don’t try to get everything done under your budget because in the end that’s the more costly road! Instead, reduce the project’s features and be more flexible about the creative process. Brainstorm with your project manager on what can be achieved within your budget. But don’t shop around for the team that’d give you everything on earth within the smallest budget.

Where you can save costs is being smart about using resources. That’s why we created Template Action – you can download a template and setup an award winning website at a ridiculous price. And you can get such a great value because we don’t have to deal with pre-sales discussions, back and forth emails and phone calls during the creative process, time spent in meetings, etc. We created great websites you can easily manage and edit – if you like one of them you can purchase it for less than what a single consultation would cost you. It’s that simple.

People plan. When it comes to planning a business startup or a website, often months pass by and they’re still planning. Planning how much money they’ll spend, how much they’ll make, how long it will take, what their customers will do, how things will happen, etc.

When you realize that planning really is guessing, you start doing more and talking about doing less. You’ll start creating, achieving, launching, testing, trying – all but postponing. Realizing that you can’t plan too much is a huge milestone for any project. Your approach suddenly changes. You focus on reality and loose the illusion that you know what you’re doing.

When I started up Noam Design back a couple of years ago, raising funds wasn’t an option. All I had was my dedication, 10 thousand dollars in my girlfriend’s bank account, and 3 months of hard work. Down the road, as the company grew stronger, it became very attractive to venture capital firms and potential investors, especially during particularly steep growth periods. But I was always way too busy developing the business to ever have the time to consider the offers I got to raise funds. I think this actually helped our company grow stronger faster, and innovate in our market. (more…)

This is a very powerful insight from the creators of Basecamp:

“” What’s that mean? A manager of one is someone who comes up with their own goals and executes them. They don’t need heavy direction. They don’t need daily check-ins. They do what a manager would do — set the tone, assign items, determine what needs to get done, etc. — but they do it by themselves and for themselves.

These people free you from oversight. They set their own direction. When you leave them alone, they surprise you with how much they’ve gotten done. They don’t need a lot of handholding or supervision.

How can you spot these people? (more…)

With 2009 coming to an end, I wanted to spend a few minutes looking back at some of the things that had a positive impact on our company this year. Scaling down ended up at the very top of my list.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made developing our company and growing the business is scaling up for the sake of scaling up. In the beginning of the year, we had a team of more than 15 people working on countless projects, both client projects and internal projects. There was a lot of activity, a lot of business, and in general a lot of things happening. It certainly meant bigger revenues, but definitely not bigger profits or better results. A lot of time, energy, and resources were wasted in management, administrative duties, meetings, supervision, client relations etc. (more…)