The Guides

How to actually do it.
Written out, in full.

Twenty-three guides. Each one answers a question I have been asked in person, more than once, by somebody running a business or trying to get a job done — and each gives the whole answer, including the parts where you do not need to buy anything.

Where a free setting already does the job, the guide says so and shows you the setting. Where one of my tools does it better, that is at the bottom, after the answer, and you can ignore it.

What things actually cost

The arithmetic behind a price. What an hour of work really costs you, and why the number on the payslip is not it.

What Is Labor Burden — And Why Your Rate Is Probably Wrong
Quote off the number on the payslip and you are losing money on every hour you sell. It takes about a year to notice. The ratio that fixes it, and how to check yours in ten minutes.
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How Much Does an Employee Really Cost?
Ask three owners and you get three answers, all of them too low. This one walks a single hire from wage to true hourly figure, so you can do the same sum for your own team.
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How to Price a Job So You Actually Make Money
You won the job and lost money on it. That decision was made before you sent the price, not while you were doing the work. The checklist that stops it happening again.
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Tools that run on your own machine

Windows applications for the jobs a browser cannot do — keeping a machine awake, watching a competitor, and what monitoring software can and cannot see.

How to Stop Your PC Going to Sleep During Long Tasks
Long render, big upload, overnight backup — and the machine dozes off at minute forty. Two ways to stop it, one permanent and one you cannot forget to switch back.
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How to Track What Your Competitors Change on Their Site
They dropped a price on a Tuesday and you found out in October. Set up a watch once and let the change come to you instead.
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Can Employee Monitoring Software Be Fooled?
Half the internet sells a way around it. Almost all of it gets people sacked. What these tools genuinely record, and where the honest line sits.
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Getting the browser out of your way

Eight small problems you meet every day in Chrome, and the shortest honest fix for each — including what the built-in settings already do for free.

How to Block Ads in Chrome
Two minutes, one install, no settings to learn. Also worth knowing what still gets through afterwards, and why.
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How to Get Dark Mode on Any Website
It is eleven at night and the page is a white rectangle pointed at your face. Turn any site dark, and adjust the shade when the default looks wrong.
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How to Speed Up Any Video in Your Browser
Forty-five minutes of training video with nine minutes of content in it. A shortcut that works everywhere, and what it gives you back over a year.
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How to See Where Your Work Hours Actually Go
Everybody guesses their own week wrong, and always in the flattering direction. Measure it for seven days and read the result without turning it into a second job.
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How to Unsubscribe From Emails in Bulk
You never signed up for most of them, and deleting only buys you a week. Clear the whole backlog in one sitting instead.
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How to Record a Meeting So You Can Check It Later
Two weeks later somebody says they never agreed to that. Capture the call properly, stay on the right side of consent, and know what is worth keeping.
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How to Screenshot a Web Page and Mark It Up
You can see the fault. Getting a red arrow onto it usually costs ten minutes and three programs. A shorter route.
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How to Find the Exact Colour Used on Any Website
Nobody can name a shade by eye, and digging through page code takes too long. Grab the value in one click, then use it properly.
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The documents a business runs on

Invoices, quotes, contracts, decks, budgets. What belongs in each one, what gets left out, and what it costs you when it is missing.

How to Write an Invoice That Gets Paid
The person who pays you has never heard of the job. Everything they need in order to approve it without ringing you first.
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How to Write a Quote That Wins the Job and Keeps the Profit
A quote does two things at once: convinces the client, and protects your margin. Most manage one. How to lay out one that manages both.
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What Belongs in a Freelance Contract
Nobody reads it until something goes wrong, which is exactly why it has to be short. The clauses that earn their place, and the ones that only sound serious.
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How to Structure a Pitch Deck When You Are Not a Designer
Somebody will scan it in ninety seconds on a phone. Slide order, what each one carries, and why nobody ever rejected a deck over the font.
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How to Write a CV That Survives the First Seven Seconds
Seven seconds, one glance, and usually a filter before that. What gets a CV through both, from somebody who spent years on the reading side of the desk.
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How to Keep a Project on Track Without Project Software
Nothing fails on the deadline. It fails in week three, when nobody can say what is late. The smallest thing that keeps a job visible.
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How to Make a Chart People Actually Understand
Your boss asked what he was looking at. Which of the four charts to reach for, and what to delete before you send it.
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How to Track Business Expenses Without Losing Half of Them
An expense you did not write down is money handed to the tax office as a gift. Two minutes a week, including the ones with no receipt.
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How to Build a Personal Budget in One Sheet
You know what came in. You have no idea where it went. One sheet, your own machine, nothing plugged into your bank.
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The same thing, but as stories

The guides tell you what to do. The blog tells you what it cost me to find out — real jobs, real numbers, the parts that went wrong left in.

Read the stories →