Good article, and great advice for getting away from making your work a commodity.

Obviously, this is not for all professions.

For many creative service firms, these points will help you elevate the quality of your work and your clients.

Hi Sarah ::

I feel your pain. Quickbooks is a dog on the Mac, and I'm not much of a fan of MYOB either.

I use two tools to manage time/money issues at my office. I use Quicken to keep track of cashflow and banking info. If you do your own taxes, or work with an accountant, Quicken can generate reports you need to hand-off to your accountant.

To manage time and job functions, I use StudioCzar Pro http://www.studioczar.com/

The single user price is below the C-Note mark that you indicate, and its a very professional tool for tracking time, estimates, job-related expenses, and to do studio billing.

Cheers.

Hi Leila ::

Working with family/friends does not have to be a nightmare proposition. However, I think one critical mistake happens when we work with people close to us, we stop communicating. We each think we know what the other is thinking.

I find, in these cases, that it's more critical to document the parameters of the project, and to also agree on the goal.

The discernment comment above is very astute, and I think this is really a comment about professionalism. There's no reason to operate with any less professionalism than you would for other business.

Cheers!