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Home > Business & Other > Soft Skills > Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career: 65 steps to becoming a better developer

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Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

I strongly recommend that you think about freelance techniques whether you're a freelance developer today or you are working with freelancers in some capacity. You'll gain insights into thinking and coding, whatever type of developer you are today.

Your career will be smarter if you're able to think—at least when it's a help—like a successful freelance developer. That's what this part of this guide is all about: thinking smartly and for yourself as a developer!

We'll begin by discussing how to organically grow a freelance business as a developer. When I say organically, I mean that these are strategies that should work while you sleep. For example, I have had some of my largest clients contact me out of the blue based on them coming across a blog post or GitHub project I published.

Having an organic marketing strategy is key for building...

If you're starting on your freelance journey, or still even considering it, the topic of this chapter may seem insane. However, I can ensure you that knowing when to fire a client is a critical component of building a successful freelance business. It can also sharpen up the same decision-making skills you use every day as a developer in general.

A few years ago, I was hired by a fast-rising startup. The company had skyrocketing growth, and I was hired to build their platform. After going through the interview process, I was hired. Soon after taking the client, I met with a developer who was leaving the organization.

After the developer walked me through the system he gave me a word of warning. He mentioned that the CEO of the company had a favorite word: urgent. I filed the information in the back of my mind and started working on the application. Within days, I learned why the previous developer...

Does the idea of a code library fulfilling a significant portion of a freelance project that you're contracted into, sound appealing? It's OK, you can be honest and say yes, whether you're an active freelance developer today, or will be in the future.

When I started out on my freelance journey, any time I came across a large feature request, the first thing I'd do was check to see if there was a code library that took care of the requirement. In the development world, code libraries like these are called silver bullets.

However, as appealing as it may sound for a plugin or library to take care of the lion's share of a project, it's been my experience that this approach ends up taking longer to implement than simply building the components from scratch.

Let's start off with a practical case study. A few years ago, I took on a fleet management project...

One issue that every freelancer comes across at some time or another is managing advanced features. And by advanced features I mean that a client asks you to build functionality that you've never built before when this happens to you.

Notice that I said when and not if? That's because every freelancer, no matter how experienced, has been asked to build something they've never created before.

Over the years, I've been asked to build a wide range of features. Some of them I had experience with, and others… not so much. A good example of this was a number of years ago when I was asked to build out a GPS tracking iPhone app. The client wanted to track their employees in the field and allow them to remotely submit tickets. Sounds like a great idea, right? I thought so too. There were just a couple of issues:

In this chapter, I interview a freelance developer that I have a tremendous amount of respect for, Derek Harrington. In fact, when I decided to launch DevCamp, I had to let go of a number of my freelance clients. And Derek was who I handed the majority of my clients to. Based on my experience with him over the years, I knew he would take great care of the clients and that they would be pleased with his expertise.

In this chapter, I ask Derek a few questions related to freelancing. Specifically, we discuss practical tips for taking over a legacy application.

Derek's tips can of course apply to any developer whether you're a freelancer or not in your current situation – which is why I recommend for any developer to learn from Derek's freelance approach to this common coding situation!

What is the first thing you do when you take over a legacy application?

Write tests...

Let`s continue discussing the topic of taking over a legacy application. It's one of the dirty little secrets in the freelance world that a high percentage of the projects that you'll be asked to work on are actually legacy applications, which means that you'll be taking over or working with other developers on pre-existing apps.

There have been a number of times where I've had great experiences taking over a legacy application. Notably I was hired a few years ago to work on a legacy app for Eventbrite, and I was very pleased to find a very well configured codebase. It only took me about a week to become familiar with the inner workings of the application, and I could start building new features right away, it was a great experience.

However, that rarely occurs, typically freelancers are taking over a legacy application because the previous developer was fired from the project or due to the app owner...

As a freelancer or as part of an organization, you will come across many times where you make a decision on starting over versus refactoring on a legacy project. Over the years I have come across this issue more times than I can count.

Typically, the situation sounds something like this. I'll get hired by a client who has a legacy application. The application is usually a few years old and has been managed by a number of developers. I've discovered that usually the code project started out small, and it grew from there.

Somewhere along the way the application lost its way. Instead of using a scalable application design approach, the previous developer patched new features on and the codebase devolved into a convoluted mess. Eventually, every new feature causes another component to break and the client gets so frustrated he decides to hire me.

Does this scenario sound familiar to...

When approaching a new freelance project, one of the first questions many developers and designers ask is:

Do you want it done fast… or properly?

In this chapter, I'm going to specifically discuss if you should use TDD on freelance projects. However, the concepts I'll discuss now apply to any type of quality control system. So, this is great advice for any developer.

There's an old software engineering rule that states that there are three options you have when building a project:

This diagram represents the principle as a Venn diagram. The elusive center is where you have a project that's built quickly, for a low price, and was created with industry-wide best practices. In my experience, it's rare for a project to reside inside of this sweet spot. Instead, I'll tell clients that they can pick two out of the three...

If you have limited freelancing experience, it may surprise you to discover that a significant portion of a developer's day is spent detailing the work performed for that day. In this chapter, I'm going to walk through automating client updates so that you can be as efficient as possible.

Before diving into how we can automate updates to clients, let's discuss what a proper update is and what it entails. An update is a message sent to a client, usually every day or at least every day that you're working on the client's project. The days are long gone where clients would hire a freelancer and the developer would disappear for a few months until they brought back a finished product.

Nowadays, clients want to have a transparent view of the work performed. This is especially true if a client is paying you on an hourly basis. This makes sense because if you hired someone...

Imagine for a minute that you're a freelance developer who was handed a new feature to build by a client. Then picture yourself building an elegant feature, all the code working perfectly. You follow best practices and ensure that all the potential edge case scenarios are covered.

Now imagine that you're demoing the bright and shiny new feature to the client. But instead of telling you that you're the best developer in the world and they're going to name their first child after you, they look at the application confused, because what you built didn't match what they had in their mind at all.

This is a scenario that is played out all too often in the freelance development world. And in many cases, it's due to a poor requirement elicitation process. The story I just mentioned is not a made-up parable, it happened to me recently. And when I say recently, I mean yesterday...

So, you have a freelance client and you're ready to show off your work, but how can you showcase a project when you work remotely? If the entire application is completed, you could simply send the client a link to test it out. However, it's been my experience that this approach is not a great idea. As the designer or developer, you know the inner workings of the app.

The client, on the other hand, especially if they're of the non-technical variety, will stumble through testing the application out. Even if you did a great job on the project, if the client doesn't know how to use the software they're not going to be happy with your work.

Over the years, I've discovered that well thought-out demonstrations are a key to successful projects. There are two main reasons for this:

  1. A proper demo will let you control the flow of the app. You can control the focus...

When it comes to freelancing, defining project success is a surprisingly challenging task.

Imagine that you're competing in a marathon. When do you know it's the right time to stop running? For me, it's when I cross the finish line. It seems borderline insane to picture running a race without knowing where the finish line is, so why do so many freelancers work on projects without a clear concept of completion? If you don't establish mutually agreed upon project completion criteria with a client, you may find yourself subject to scope creep.

Scope creep in a project is when a client asks for changes in the application that exceed the original set of features. Many times, the client doesn't do this on purpose. A normal progression is for a client to see the development progress and then realize that they forgot a "key" feature.

In this chapter, I'm going to discuss the top project management tools I've used on coding projects. In preparing for this chapter, I went through some directories that listed all the known project management software applications on the market.

To be 100% honest, I was a bit shocked. There are literally thousands of project management options available to freelancers. Thankfully, I've been able to work for a number of clients and worked with various project management apps over the years.

For this chapter, I want to give you a list of the top project management tools along with their respective strengths and weaknesses. With this knowledge, you can decide on which one is the best fit for your project and freelance business.

The following are six of the top project management tools that I've used. I've probably used around a dozen tools; however, I only wanted to list applications that:

In this chapter, I'm going to review the top freelance bookkeeping options. Keeping track of finances is probably one of my least favorite parts of being a freelancer. To properly manage a freelance business, you have to manage a wide range of accounting components:

I've used a number of bookkeeping solutions over the years, and the following are some of the ones that I've had the best experience with.

FreshBooks is the system that I use for my freelance business. As far as accounting software goes, it covers 100% of the requirements I have:

FreshBooks

Thankfully, it is also easy...

If you're wanting to start a freelance business, the most pressing challenges typically revolve around getting new clients. When I initially launched my freelance business, I struggled to acquire customers.

However, after a few months of trudging through the traditional channels I discovered a great solution that resulted in generating over $290,000 in revenue last year. And it's what I want to discuss in this chapter.

Let's begin by reviewing the list of options for where you can find new clients as a freelancer. I've read countless blog posts and a number of books on the subject, and the following were the most popular recommendations:

In this chapter, I'm going to discuss managing client conflicts. It's simply a matter of life and business that you will run into conflicts with clients. Some of the most common confrontations seem to be:

None of these are fun to work through, and most of them can be avoided if the proper care is taken at each stage of the project management process. However, I want to discuss what happens when conflicts occur and how to best manage them.

First and foremost, do not let emotions take over. This is probably one of the hardest ones for me because I love what I do and when bad things happen in a project my first response is to get defensive, which is one of the worst responses to have. So, when I see an...

In this chapter, I'm going to discuss examples of freelance portfolios that you can use to attract clients. Before deciding on the types of projects you want to include in your portfolio, it's important to answer a few key questions:

The first question is pretty standard; you need to know you your audience to ensure that your work will have its greatest impact. For example, if you want to attract small mom and pop businesses, it wouldn't make much sense to fill your portfolio with 3D Unity zombie game renderings.

The second question speaks to your passions as a developer. Too many coders create a portfolio full of generic projects that they don't truly love and it's apparent to potential employers and clients. Make sure that the projects you build fit your personality as a developer and that you are...

Let`s discuss the importance of test-driven development. First and foremost, if the terms TDD or BDD, which are short for test- and behavior-driven development, are foreign to you, they are the practice of building code tests for applications.

And even more specifically, TDD and BDD are software development processes in which you create a test that sets an expectation before implementing any code.

An example of using TDD to create a feature for returning a full name from a user class would be to:

  1. Create a test that calls a new method, such as full_name, that combines the first and last name of a user and returns a string combining the names into a single value:
    Importance of Test-Driven Development for Coders
  2. Then we'd run the test, knowing that it will fail:
    Importance of Test-Driven Development for Coders
  3. Then we would go and add a barebones implementation of the code:
    Importance of Test-Driven Development for Coders

    This will get the test passing:

    Importance of Test-Driven Development for Coders
  4. Then we'd go back and refactor the implementation to ensure it conforms to best practices and that the refactor...

If you build applications that users access on the web, you have most likely been asked by clients to provide an SEO-friendly website to help drive new customers to their site. You may also have realized that the world of SEO is so expansive that you could spend the rest of your career studying it and you still wouldn't have it mastered.

With that being said, I've found that if I follow a set of SEO best practices, the websites I create are search engine-friendly and clients are happy with the organic traffic sent their way. Search trends seem to change on a daily basis, and I personally don't have time to keep track of each Google search algorithm change. Instead, I focus on SEO best practices and they have worked well for me and they follow search engine white hat marketing practices so that I don't risk getting penalized by Google or Bing.

First and foremost, content is...

When I was originally building up my freelance business, I heard a common complaint from clients talking about previous developers that worked on their projects: poor communication and a lack of transparency.

As a developer, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of wanting to dive into the code and build a project. However, without proper client communication you'll run into the following issues:

When it comes to working on client projects, I've worked on applications ranging from apps that I could build in a few days to applications that have taken over a year of development time and involved over a dozen different developers. So, what the best way to work with outsource web developers?

Whenever I have a large project that requires a development team that I need to bring onboard, it presents a series of challenges, such as:

I could pretend that the outsource web developers I've worked with were managed properly for every project, but that would be not be telling you the truth. In fact, I decided to write this chapter based on the many times that I've had poor experiences managing...

Being able to give good estimates is one of the most critical tasks you can do as a freelancer. If you quote too low, you'll end up with an angry customer because even if you did great work, he's having to pay more than he budgeted. And if you bid too high, there's a good chance you won't get the job and the potential client will go to a competitor who gave a lower bid.

Over the years, I've been guilty of erring on both sides of the spectrum and I've had to deal with the consequences. Those consequences were not fun, which is why I've put together a formula for you in this chapter that I follow for building bids:

  1. Get a detailed drill down of the project requirements. Without this you won't be able to create an accurate bid no matter what else you do. Imagine if an architect had to give an estimate to a client who said, "I want a nice house with a cool fence." He wouldn't be...

In this chapter, I'm going to discuss some strategies that I've used successfully over the years for getting new clients. There have been three main ways that I've gotten new clients:

So, I'll now share some of the ways that I've had success in each one of those channels so that you can take on some of the experiences I've had and apply them to your own freelance career.

Freelance services such as Upwork are great for finding new clients. The keys to success are to constantly send out proposals, dozens per day, and be quick to communicate with potential clients.

If you're a US- or UK-based developer, make sure you understand that you'll be competing from developers from all over the world, which means that the bids that you'll be competing with could be...

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Key benefits

  • • Over 50 essays with practical advice on improving your programming career
  • • Practical focus gives solutions to common problems, and methods to become a better coder
  • • Includes advice for existing programmers and those wanting to begin a career in programming

Description

This is an all-purpose toolkit for your programming career. It has been built by Jordan Hudgens over a lifetime of coding and teaching coding. It helps you identify the key questions and stumbling blocks that programmers encounter, and gives you the answers to them! It is a comprehensive guide containing more than 50 insights that you can use to improve your work, and to give advice in your career. The book is split up into three topic areas: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, each containing a wealth of practical advice. Coder Skills contains advice for people starting out, or those who are already working in a programming role but want to improve their skills. It includes such subjects as: how to study and understand complex topics, and getting past skill plateaus when learning new languages. Freelancer Skills contains advice for developers working as freelancers or with freelancers. It includes such subjects as: knowing when to fire a client, and tips for taking over legacy applications. Career Skills contains advice for building a successful career as a developer. It includes such subjects as: how to improve your programming techniques, and interview guides and developer salary negotiation strategies.

Who is this book for?

This book is useful for programmers of any ability or discipline. It has advice for those thinking about beginning a career in programming, those already working as a fully employed programmer, and for those working as freelance developers.

What you will learn

  • • Improve your soft skills to become a better and happier coder
  • • Learn to be a better developer
  • • Grow your freelance development business
  • • Improve your development career
  • • Learn the best approaches to breaking down complex topics
  • • Have the confidence to charge what you re worth as a freelancer
  • • Succeed in developer job interviews
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Length: 302 pages
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Category :
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Concepts :
Soft Skills

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Table of Contents

4 Chapters
I. Coder Skills Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
I. Coder Skills
1. Discovering the Tipping Point for Developers
2. Are Developers Born or Made? – Debunking the Myth of Prodigies
3. Do You Have to Be a Genius to Be a Developer?
4. How to Study and Understand Complex Topics?
5. Effective Study Practices for Developers
6. Defining Deep Work and What It Means for Developers
7. Task Switching Costs for Developers
8. How to Use Willpower Limits Instead of Letting Them Use You?
9. Cramming Versus Consistent Study and a Study System that Works
10. Is Reading Important for Developers?
11. Learning How to Code – Getting Past Skill Plateaus
12. Developer Learning Curve – Why Learning How to Code Takes So Long
13. Slowing Down to Learn How to Code Faster
14. Mental Models for Learning How to Code and Improve as a Developer
15. A Developer's Guide for Hacking Procrastination to Achieve Success
16. The Problem with Procrastination for Developers
17. Practical Ways to Use the Pomodoro Technique as a Developer
18. The Power of Making Mistakes – Learning by Failing
19. Learn How to Code – The Guide to Memorization
20. A System for Learning a New Programming Language
21. Development Study Tips – Reverse Note-Taking
II. Freelancer Skills Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
II. Freelancer Skills
22. Tips for Organically Growing a Freelance Business
23. Freelancing Tips – Knowing When to Fire a Client
24. Dodging Silver Bullets for Scalable Freelance Projects
25. A Freelance Guide to Managing Advanced Features
26. Freelancer Interviews – Practical Tips for Taking Over a Legacy Application
27. Five Tips for Taking Over a Legacy Application
28. Guide to Freelancing – Starting Over Versus Refactoring
29. Should You Use TDD on Freelance Projects? – Comparing Quality Versus Speed
30. Automating Client Updates as a Freelance Developer
31. Freelance Requirement Elicitation – A Guide for Feature Development
32. How to Remotely Demo Work for Freelance Clients?
33. Defining Project Success as a Freelance Developer
34. Top Project Management Tools for Freelancers
35. Top Freelance Bookkeeping Options for Developers
36. Learning the Secret to Get New Clients as a Freelancer
37. Managing Client Conflicts as a Freelancer
38. Examples of Freelance Portfolios That Help Acquire New Clients
39. Importance of Test-Driven Development for Coders
40. SEO Best Practices and Strategies for Freelancers
41. Client Communication Freelancing Tips
42. Outsource Web Developers Properly with System-Based Processes
43. How to Create Accurate Freelance Bids?
44. Freelancer Tips – Three Ways to Get New Clients
III. Career Skills Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
III. Career Skills
45. Should I Learn to Code? – A Balanced Perspective on Programming
46. Following Your Passion – Good or Bad Advice for Developers?
47. How to Learn to Code from Scratch? – A Practical Strategy
48. How to Choose a Developer Specialty?
49. How to Choose Your Next Programming Language?
50. Developer Soft Skills – Learning How to Gain an Edge in the Marketplace
51. Developer Learning Options – A Practical Analysis
52. Is it Possible to Lose Your Coding Skills?
53. Is Writing Bad Code Immoral for Developers?
54. Inspirational Programming Advice from Howard Roark
55. Best Practices Versus Creativity as a Developer
56. A Practical Guide to Approaching Project Development
57. How to Practice Programming Techniques and Improve as a Developer?
58. What Does It Take to Become a Great Developer?
59. How to Stay Sharp as a Developer?
60. Developer Resume Tips – How to Create an Effective Resume?
61. Developer Salary Negotiation Strategies
62. Best Questions to Ask During a Job Interview
63. Answering in an Impossible Interview
64. Greatest Weakness Answers for Coding Interviews
65. Enterprise Software Job Strategy and Guide
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index

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Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
(2 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 0%
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Amazon Customer Aug 22, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a great resource for programmers of any ability or discipline. It goes beyond "learn how to code" books in the sense that it shows you how to get into the world of coding, how to pick a language, stay motivated when things get complicated, build a portfolio, find clients and what questions to ask during a job interview.The book counts 64 short chapters that are very well-written (a good coder knows how to structure information and don't repeat him/herself) and informative. There are three major parts: part 1 covers coder skills, explaining how to become a better coder after starting to code. Part 2 covers freelancer skills, whereas part 3 covers career skills, such as interview guides and how to practice programming techniques.I can recommend this book to anyone interested in how to become a better coder, whether you have coding experience or not. The book answered many questions I had after two years of self-studying various programming languages. The biggest advice was to take it slow and never stop learning.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
David Dec 24, 2023
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Some errors in the text of book, many part is repeat in the book. Please editing and correct this erros...
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About the author

Profile icon Jordan Hudgens
Jordan Hudgens
Jordan Hudgens is a full-stack developer and the founder of DevCamp and the Bottega Code School. As a developer for over the past 15 years, he specializes in Ruby on Rails, React, Vue.js, and TypeScript with a focus on API development. He has built applications for a wide variety of organizations, including Eventbrite and Quip. He has published and maintains multiple open-source NPM modules that help individuals automate the development process for JavaScript and TypeScript applications. Additionally, he has published over 30 courses, taught 42,000 students globally, and written several programming books.
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Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

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Please understand that Packt Publishing cannot provide refunds or cancel any order except for the cases described in our Return Policy (i.e. Packt Publishing agrees to replace your printed book because it arrives damaged or material defect in book), Packt Publishing will not accept returns.

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We want you to be happy with your purchase from Packtpub.com. We will not hassle you with returning print books to us. If the print book you receive from us is incorrect, damaged, doesn't work or is unacceptably late, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com with the order number and issue details as explained below:

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  2. Sadly, if your eBook or Video file is faulty or a fault occurs during the eBook or Video being made available to you, i.e. during download then you should contact Customer Relations Team within 14 days of purchase on customercare@packt.com who will be able to resolve this issue for you.
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On the off chance your printed book arrives damaged, with book material defect, contact our Customer Relation Team on customercare@packt.com within 14 days of receipt of the book with appropriate evidence of damage and we will work with you to secure a replacement copy, if necessary. Please note that each printed book you order from us is individually made by Packt's professional book-printing partner which is on a print-on-demand basis.

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What is the delivery time and cost of print books? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela