Perhaps you’re a new business, wanting to start everything out right with your office painted, your sign out front and your website up and ready to go. Perhaps you’ve got a website, and it’s out of date. Perhaps you’re established everywhere else, and think it’s time for a web presence. Here are some questions that can help make sure we’re on the same page before I give you an estimate:

1. What do you have now (give the address)? If the answer isn’t “nothing”, what do you like best about your current site? Least?

2. What’s the one thing you need your site to do most? If you have a current site, does it do that? How well?

3. What’s the one thing you want your site to do most? This is more about what you think is cool, eye-catching or just plain nifty, rather than necessity.

4. What are some sites you use regularly? What do you like best about them? What don’t you like?

5. What are the impressions you want someone to get when they first visit your site? Professional, fun, cool, welcoming, homey, natural, creative, something else?

6. Do you already have logos and a color scheme for your business? Do you want your website to reflect them? Do you want to update your whole look as part of the site update?

7. What hosting do you have? When does your domain registration expire? Do you have the passwords for both? If the answer is “nothing”, then what do you need and will you need help setting it up? What about search engine optimization? Shopping cart systems?

8. Do you know what you want your site to say? Will you provide the text, or will you need a copy writer?

9. Make a list of all the things you want out of your website. This is the free-form question where you can fill in all the blanks left by all the rest of the questions, so don’t be afraid to be random, thorough, and a little rambling.

10. And finally, what sort of budget do you have? You don’t have to disclose this if you don’t want to, but it will help me to be able to tell you what corners can be snipped and what can’t, and how well your wants and needs fit inside your budget.

Recently I’ve started reading a number of business blogs — the sort that make money from their expertise, and rely on a reputation for being a source of information about their industries. The kind that are, by and large, written by professionals.

So why am I seeing so much apostrophe abuse?

Apostrophes have two purposes in life: to show possession (the cat’s whiskers), or to show that there are missing letters in a contraction (can’t). Apostrophes never show pluralism.

Really, no, I promise.

The plural of CD is CDs. The plural of radio is radios. The plural of story is stories. The plural of cat is cats. The plural of sheep is sheep…. OK, I just threw that last one in there to confuse you.

There is one exception to the rule of possession, and that’s the it’s/its rule, which confuses everyone. I always have to ask myself: it is or it owns? If the answer is “it is” then you get an apostrophe, it’s. But when it owns something, then the apostrophe is left out. That’s actually one less correct apostrophe in the world!

I think a lot of the confusion comes from a few misconceptions:

1. Pluralizing acronyms does not require an apostrophe. The acronym already implies the missing letters, so all you need to do is tack an “s” on the end. If you find that too confusing, spell out the acronym (i.e. televisions, not teevees).
2. The abbreviation for the years between 1980 and 1989 is ’80s. The apostrophe is there to show the missing “19”, not to show pluralism. How do I know this? Because apostrophes never show pluralism.
3. Everyone knows there are sometimes special rules for pluralizing words that end in vowels (or are imported from other languages, like Latin), but they can’t always remember what those rules are. So datum becomes data. Dice is already plural, and the singular is die (cheerful, huh?). Company becomes companies. One potato, many potatoes. But you should notice one thing that all of these exceptions have in common: no apostrophes.

You might be wondering, so what? Well, look at this way: a professional writer whose blog is full of errors casts doubt on both their expertise in the craft of writing, but on their expertise the subjects about which they’re writing as well. It’s hard to sound authoritative when you can’t spell “potatoes” — just look at Dan Quayle.

If you still need help remembering, may I suggest Bob the Angry Flower’s Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots?

The original reason I went into graphic design is because I had the skills, and the job was available. I’d taken some related classes in art school, I had some programming experience and a lot of computer savvy, and most importantly, I needed a job. As an artist, I have an eye for making things visually pleasing, balanced and attractive. As a former programmer, I learned how to think logically, and while html is a very simple language, it still helps.

The reason I’ve stuck with it is because I like to make things look good that might otherwise be plain, or just plain ugly. I think the world is a better place with the purple house in the middle of a street full of white, with gargoyles and decorative cornices on the otherwise boring banks, and beautiful earrings on power-suited businesswomen. I prefer to see, and create, a business card with a little bit of flare, a website whose form and function works for the eye as well as the mouse, or a book cover that has more than just the title and author name to offer.

Another thing that’s kept me in the web design business is my own internet addiction. I love the web, and I want everyone to be on it! I want all my favorite businesses and people to have sites where I can look up their info, so I can refer people to my dentist, do my banking online, or just help my friends find each other with just a few clicks of the mouse. A lot of small businesses think the web is out of reach, that it takes thousands of dollars that they don’t have, and I like to think one of my niches is helping small businesses find the web presence that works for them.

I enjoy the process of working to spec. I know that might sound strange, but it can be really enjoyable to have a client come to me with their fuzzy concepts, and give them back a sharp result that makes them say, “That’s just what I wanted,” — or my favorite, “That’s even better than I imagined.” When I can find a client that really clicks, the design experience becomes enjoyable, as well as profitable, for both of us.

Finally, I like the flexibility of freelancing. I like being able to plan vacations without asking my boss for the days off, to be able to wake up a little late, commute 10 feet and answer work emails before I’ve eaten breakfast. I think that the ability to work outside of a schedule — or in one, when I need to — can enhance the creative process. Not to mention giving me a chance to bake cookies in the middle of a slow Thursday afternoon, if that’s what I want to do.

So, why design? Because I like making attractive, functional things for other people. And this pays the bills better than freelance cookie baking.