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professionals are those who know how to leverage their own personal skills and talents and find others who can fill in any skill gaps. Specializing in what you’re good at and aligning yourself with others who share your work philosophies enables you to build long-term relationships with those who can work with you to get the job done — whether you go it alone or are part of a team. This chapter covers both scenarios to help you decide which route is the best for you.
    Flying Solo: Skills You Need to Go It Alone
    You need many skills to single-handedly undertake a Web design project. Some of these skills are tangible; for example, you must know some HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) skills as well as how to effectively use Photoshop and other graphics programs. Other skills are intangible: You must be able to provide good service while managing the project and your time and keeping the budget under control. This section lists and describes some of the necessary skills you need to fly solo on a Web-design project.
    Managing the project
    If you’re doing most or all of the work yourself, you must be able to work on several aspects of the project simultaneously — requiring your project, time, and money-management skills — in addition to communicating all that to your client. You can make these tasks easier by
    â€¢ Keeping notes: Get a notebook and write down what you’ve done, why you have done it, and what you’ll do next.
    â€¢ Making a special e-mail folder for project-related e-mails: If you can, set up your e-mail to direct all mail pertaining to the project to that folder. (Many e-mail programs, including Microsoft Outlook, Entourage, and Lotus Notes, have this capability.)
    â€¢ Drawing up a budget: Your budget should include your fees for doing the work (Hourly Rate x Time = Cost of Work), fees for any contractors you hire, and also fees for project management. You should also include fees for extra services (say, image scanning or writing content) if you want to make those available to the client. Another possible thing to add is special software or equipment. If your client requires that you buy something, build the cost of it into the budget.
    â€¢ Establishing a timeline: Clients often don’t understand how much work and time a Web project requires — they just know that you make it look simple and easy. Developing a quality site isn’t quick, but creating a to-do list for each week (or day) and also marking deadlines on a calendar helps you track what you need to do and when.
    â€¢ Devising a troubleshooting plan: Technological issues are inevitable. For instance, multimedia elements sometimes don’t download fast enough, certain functions don’t work as expected, or layouts have CSS issues. These sorts of problems can take some time to troubleshoot and fix. Your plan for the troubleshooting process should include staying task oriented and not participating in finger-pointing. During troubleshooting, work with the server administrators and others who are involved with the project to find a solution. Communicate with your client; explain the problem and what you’re doing to fix it. Stay calm and confident so that your client feels reassured that you are in control and dealing fairly with them. If you need to bring in help, tell your client who you’re bringing in and why.
    The bottom line here is that if you don’t figure out how much time you have to complete the project and how much money is in the budget very early in the process — and communicate that to your client — you could end up wasting a lot of time and energy planning a project only to find out that the client is unrealistic in her expectations.
    Serving your customer
    Part of a Web project manager’s job is customer service. Providing good customer service can help ensure that your clients are happy, and that can help you build a solid reputation. The following