A friend and former coworker of mine is venturing into business for himself: a “have IA – will travel” enterprise, if you will. He’s enjoyed my past entries about freelance and has mentioned (more than once) that we should talk more over drinks sometime – code for “I want to pick your brain” – as he ventures into sole proprietorship. Since my upkeep in this blog has been less than exemplary, I thought his search for knowledge would be as good a time as any to post what (and what not) to do in business.
I should preface this entry by stating a) I’ve learned these lessons first-hand and b) you shouldn’t take what I say as gospel truth. Obviously, mileage will vary depending on how you choose to work. Without further adieu!
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One of the best things about living in Seattle is the Vietnamese culture. Unlike Americanized “Chinese” food, Vietnamese dishes rely heavily on fresh vegetables and herbs. One of my favorite Vietnamese classics is bánh mì, a baguette sammich filled with fried tofu, sliced jalapeño peppers, spears of cucumber and pickled daikon radish & carrots, and fresh cilantro. What makes this sammich even better is the cost: $1.75 at my favorite Vietnamese deli. Cheaper than a taco truck and much more filling.
Making tofu bánh mì at home is easier than you think. The most time-intensive part of this recipe is making the pickled daikon and carrot. Everything else comes together quickly if you have all your ingredients prep’d.
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Fun facts about vegetable proteins!
- Protein sources for veg*ns come from a variety of sources, the most obvious being tofu which is a cake made from coagulated soy milk.
- Tempeh is the whole soybean which is fermented and pressed into a cake form.
Soybeans and other legumes provide a lot of protein which, when combined with whole grains and rice, become complete proteins and provide veg*ns with essential amino acids.
Another source of protein for veg*ns is wheat gluten, otherwise known as its macrobiotic title seitan. Veg*n restaurants may use seitan to create all sorts of fake meat dishes but it’s almost a little too eerie how well the texture of meat is replicated. I enjoy the versatility of seitan in vegan dishes, and making it at home is not at that complicated. You can follow the time-intensive process of washing vital wheat gluten flour for three days or you can follow this recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen.
You’ll have some mighty large batches of seitan to work with when this recipe is complete. To store the seitan in your refrigerator, make sure you place some of the broth from the stockpot into whatever container you use to store the seitan.
This seitan is not as firm as what you would find in grocery stores but it works well with a variety of recipes.
- Cut the seitan into medallions, dredge in flour, and fry in olive oil.
- Cut the seitan into strips and stir-fry with crushed garlic and a dash of soy sauce.
- Crumble the seitan into small pieces for use as taco meat.
Tonight we are pairing seitan with soba noodles and a spicy peanut sauce. Throw red pepper, green onions, black sesame seeds and mung bean sprouts into the dish and you’ve got yourself a kick-ass dinner!
Last night’s dinner was one of those impromptu meals where you have leftovers in the refrigerator you’d hate to see go to waste: roasted spaghetti squash with plenty left after our initial meal; carrots from the farmer’s market in the crisper drawer; and a large bag of onions. I decided that the best fate for these vegetables was to make patties—a homemade Gardenburger® if you will. Carrots can be spiced in any number of ways but I find that squash has its limits. Thankfully, curry works well with both carrots and squash. With a little ingenuity, and a lot of stuff in the cupboard, I put together the following recipe for curry patties.
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Last Saturday evening I received an e-mail from a friend:
I wonder if you have already developed, from lots and lots of years of cohorts asking you stuff like this, a primer à la So You’re Thinking of Freelance Web Design for Weensy Could Be Micromanager Clients! laying around.
As it just so happens… no. Mostly, my friends/cohorts ask questions about contract language or how much should they charge for their services. Project management is one of the many hats a freelance designer must wear whilst working but, to date, no one ever asked me how to manage a project. I had to think about my friend’s request: I have an approach to project management but nothing officially captured in a formal process. So I sat at my desk and typed a response to my friend—and a mutual friend who works in print for her advice.
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The biggest mistake any designer can make is committing to work without a written agreement between oneself and the client. A verbal agreement provides little to no protection in a business transaction since physical proof of what terms were mutually agreed upon by all interested parties cannot be verified or upheld in court. The best protection for everyone is a written agreement that states the services which will be provided by the designer to the client in exchange for compensation and promotional use.
Seems easy enough: a contract with outlined terms of the project and signatures from all vested parties. That couldn’t be more than 1-2 pages, right?
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