Hi Reader,

I went into business for myself in 2004. At first, it was just me on my laptop, sideways on the couch, working any and every hour. Then, in 2008, I was pregnant, and figured it would be hard to keep doing the whole business all by myself. I started hiring a team to replace me.

At first, my group was a scrappy team of freelancers. Eventually, I hired enough people that I needed more structure. For some crazy reason, I copied the corporate template. I structured our workweek the way I thought I was supposed to. Apart from some time zone differences, we generally fell into a 40-hour week, 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job.

In 2021, I was ready to rethink all that! I wanted to build a dream job for me, and also for my team. I got super curious about a flurry of news articles on businesses switching to a four day week. I read a couple of books on this topic. I started mentioning it to my team.

Guess what happened next? Spoiler alert: our workweek is four days now. If you're curious to know the logistics of how we made this happen and maybe start figuring it out yourself, I have some answers to most of the common questions I get about this, as well as a bunch of resources in my new blog post:

HOW TO DO A 4 DAY WEEK

I'd be glad to answer any questions you have after reading this!

Q&A

Here's a reader question about web fonts, as answered by Barbara Kowalski, Web Designer on our team:

Q: Can I use free fonts for my brand and website or should I go for paid fonts?

A: We always recommend avoiding the most popular fonts for your branding and websites. Using less common fonts ensures that you are creating a distinct and custom-branded feeling on your site and throughout your brand pieces. When visitors land on a site with the same font as many other sites they’ve seen, including less reputable ones, they may need extra convincing that you are a real, credible business. Using premium or less popular free fonts will help you to create a stronger, unique brand look.

Premium fonts from type foundries or font repositories like MyFonts or Fontspring are a great way to get quality fonts that are less likely to be commonly used. There’s also nothing wrong with using free fonts as long as they are well-crafted. Some type foundries offer free weights in some of their font families, or you can consult resources like Typewolf for ideas on where to find beautiful free fonts. When using Google Fonts try to stay away from the top results. A tip is to sort the list by “Most Popular” and scroll past the first 20-25 results before starting to consider any fonts.

Question: Answered

Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth and more. Email me back with your question! I'll consult one of our experts and share one response per week over email.

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