1. Learn by Example

Look at what others are doing and make it work for you. Do it better and soon you’ll be known. For example seek bloggers and see what they are doing to generate more traffic. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and follow it.

2. Social Networking

Get on with Social Media – enough said!

3. Learn to Say “No” and when to say it

Determine your work hours. If you respond to any inquiry with “I’ll work all night long and I’ll have it done for you by tomorrow morning” you’ll burn yourself out in no time. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, especially at the beginning of your freelance career. You’ll have to impress your clients and this is one of them – just don’t fall in the trap of jumping at every little request – you’ll end up losing other clients.

4. First Impression Counts

You are in business for yourself. You are your business and so is your website, business card, email etiquette, social media presence, your shoes and your hair style. You might think it’s cool to rebel against the establishment with a shaggy hair style but unless people are writing books about you, your perspective clients will not take you seriously if the image you project is not professional and expert like.

5. Money, money, money

It is very important how much you charge (per project or per hour). You’ll probably end up having a combination of the 2. Here’s how I do it: If I create a website for a client, I will charge per project, based on the number of pages, complexity of the site, forms to be attached, etc. Once the website is up and running I will begin charging per hour based on the type of changes/additions the client has. When you first start out, check out the prices in your area and start a bit under the market price just so you gain some experience and reputation. Once that is established (depending on how busy you are) start increasing the amount you charge so you level your dollar amount to the market prices.

6. Contracts

This is probably the most important element of your freelancing career. Pay attention to this and make sure you have strong contacts in place, as well as non-disclosure documents. Do not ever, ever agree to take on a project without a signature from the client and a clear description of the tasks to be performed. Make sure you include all the necessary and vital details you see fit. Mention the total amount and break down the work description in manageable chunks with the respective price attached for each section. In order to make sure the client is committed to the project I usually ask for a 50% retainer before I start the work.

If the client has changes or additions in the middle of the project, have them send you emails with all the necessary details and do not assume he or she assumes that the additional work to be performed is not included in the initial amount.

If things go sour, you can always go back to your contract and your written proofs of their approval for different items they requested.

7. Market Yourself

Find any type of website you can add your portfolio of work or you can list your website or blog. Look for directories and other sites that look professional and ask the owner(s) to include your URL on their site. Offer reciprocity with their URL on your site as well.

Don’t forget to create a PDF version of your portfolio with your best work. It comes in handy every time someone requests proof of your work, plus it’s something that a potential client can always carry with them or even print.

8. Know what you don’t know

You won’t be able to know everything. Recognize and know your limitations but always be prepared to learn new things. Constantly improve your talents and keep up with news in the industry by searching the web, participate at seminars, read books and publications.

If you don’t know something just be honest and admit it without promising things just so you can please the client. Often, I was asked to do things outside of my realm, based on the fact that I was the computer guy. I always told my clients that I do not know one thing or another but I will do the research and get back with them by a certain date. They loved the answer and appreciated my efforts. In fact, that’s how I gain some of my clients.

9. Get Organized NOW!

The majority of creative people are not CPA’s because they are..well…creative. Unless your brain is perfectly balanced an can reconcile checks as easily as drawing a new logo, chances are you lack the tedious work ethic and organizational skills of the bean counters. That might hurt you when taxation time comes so be prepared at least with some form of tracking your expenses either in Excel or QuickBooks. Keep track of daily expenses, bills, invoices and other fun stuff the IRS is so fond of. A shoebox for all your receipts can come in very handy.

10. Network, network and then network again

Start with your friends and family and put the word out. Make friends on Facebook and signup for LinkedIn. Look for professional seminars in your area and attend. Take a stack of business cards with you and hand them out. Call old high school or college buddies and tell them what you do and ask for their help. You’ll be surprised how many connections you can make. Search for organizations in your area where you can participate or volunteer. Pick a cause, any of them and offer your services for free. I donated a website for an organization working with autistic kids and you cannot even imagine the exposure I got from that. So – network. Network a lot.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 12 Secrets of a Successful Email Campaign (defactomind.com)
• It’s All About The Customer (defactomind.com)

We often forget, in our efforts to conquer the world, about the backyard of our own company. More and more people are looking to boost their local economy and your company should have a prominent place in these local web listings. Are you on them?

Local Web Listing

• Google Local
• Yahoo Local
• Live Local
• Ask City
• CitySearch (data on this site also feeds Ask.com and Live)
• Yelp (data on this site also feeds Yahoo)

Don’t wait – get listed immediately. This will help your ranking too and who doesn’t need that?

Keep & Attract Clients

Marketing never stops or your company stops. It is amazing to me when I ask people “So what’s your company do right now in terms of marketing?” and they respond “Nothing really…we’re trying to figure out our next step. The economy is pretty bad and we’re exploring options”.

Here are 10 ways you can continue to improve your marketing no matter what the economy looks like, because remember – only the ones who put the effort in, especially during these times, are the ones who will emerge victorious when this is all over with.

1. Make working with you effortless
   People are looking for solutions and if your creativity is up to pa this is your time to shine and provide them rapidly and without remorse. Provide them as effortlessly as you can, without showing distress. Your client will rely on you and will be glad they have chosen a company like yours who doesn’t look like it’s struggling what-so-ever.
2. Never underestimate the power of a contact
   Always, always follow up with the most insignificant contact that comes across your desk. You never know who he/she is married to, knows, congregates or networks with. The more connections you have, the better your chances to be recommended. And let’s be honest – can you really afford passing any type of connection, no matter how little might be?
3. Make prospective employees love you
   You’d be surprised how many CEOs rely on their assistants when making decisions, including the selection of vendors. Treat everyone with respect; treat everyone with professionalism, because you never know when you might get that call from the friend of the director’s assistant working for another company just across the street from your main client.
4. Keep only ideal people in your circle. Get rid of toxic clients and people who do not help your company’s image
   No matter how successful you are you’ll always have some clients here and there who want everything for nothing. Keep it professional but in the same time recognize the fact that you’ll never make everyone happy. Eliminate the ones who waste your time, do not know what they want, even after you presented several plans or solutions. Addressing their issues will take time and effort away from your other clients.
5. Make your receptionist a Marketing machine
   This is the first person your prospective clients will see. Hire a professional who is personable, nice and prompt; one that is adaptable, handles pressure well and is receptive to change and new technology.
6. Impress your customers with what you can do for them not what you can do for yourself
   You might impress some clients with your new Zen reception area and lavish conference rooms but not for long. Usually they will like to see what you can do for them because eventually they are looking at you to see how you can help them have the Zen reception area and the lavish conference rooms.
7. Be prompt, be punctual and keep your word
   Do not let your customer wait; not in your lobby, not on the phone or at lunch. This is not a power trip showing them you are busy. It actually shows lack of respect and the fact that you don’t care about their time. Always show that your word is stronger than any contract you might have with them. People will respect that more than a piece of paper. When you promised to deliver by a certain date, do whatever possible and deliver. I cannot even begin to tell you how many clients come back to me for new services just because when I promise something, I always deliver even if I have to burn the midnight oil.
8. Develop common answers to common questions
   Inevitably you’ll get some common questions from prospective clients. Be prepared with answers and adjust them as new information becomes available; new improvements or new services or products are being created.
9. Be ready to present your company and/or what you do in 30 seconds or less
   You know that elevator speech where you suppose to present what you do in about 30 seconds or less? That’s the one you should perfect, memorize and adjust again and again according to new developments within your company. Never get caught with a loss of words or inventing something in the brink of the moment. You’ll look unprepared and not very in touch with your company.
10. Give your customers something to remember you by
    No matter if you visit the client or vice-versa, always leave something with your client (a promotional item, a “Thank You” note, etc. Use something that will make a long lasting impression on your client; please do something else than your business card, unless there is something very impressive about that. I use it because my business card looks like a credit card and I throw a joke saying that this might help them in these times. I get a smile and a WOW look across their face. It pays in the long run.

Follow and implement these ways; do one at a time and you should see improvements in your client base almost immediately.

Marketing Partners

As a business owner you are probably very good at what you are doing. One thing you should probably let the experts do is marketing – especially online marketing.

Why especially that? Because the image of your business is present in front of your customers even when you are sleeping. Because that’s where the trend is and you need to adapt to survive the market.

Without trying to emphasize the obvious let’s just all agree that in order for any business to succeed you HAVE TO BE ON THE WEB.

As a small business owner you have 2 choices:

1. Do it all Yourself (email marketing, web design, blog participation)
2. Partner up with a reputable company that can do all that for you without crippling your marketing budget. (visit my Web Design & Marketing Company that fits these requirements)

Let’s review one by one:

1. Do it Yourself
This requires that you learn all the skills necessary for you to create a powerful online marketing plan. As mentioned in the article “3 Marketing Must haves for Businesses”, they are: email, website, blog. You probably are proficient in email and maybe in doing some snazzy little graphics to insert into your emails. What about the website? How about the blog?

Here’s what you would need to cover the last 2 items:

• HTML editor
• CSS knowledge
• FTP – File Transfer Software
• Graphics Editor
• Statistics Reporting Software
• eCommerce software (if you are planning to sell anything on your web site)

Let’s say you have all of the above. My guess is that you are a web design & SEO company. No? Well – when do you have the time to do all this then?

2. Partner with a web design & marketing company
Your other option is to build a strong relationship with a company that can do all that for you. After all – time is money and you need to concentrate on your own business (unless you are running a web shop, and in which case disregard this option).

Wouldn’t you rather spend your time coding and twittering or working to grow your business?

If you are in need of surgery you don’t learn how to do it. You just go to a specialist. Find your specialist in marketing and stick with him/her until you see results in your business. Of course that doesn’t mean you have to be stuck with one person or one company but remember that you also have to give some time until all works well.

Marketing is not a “build it and they will come” idea. There are millions of other businesses trying to do better than you and they compete with a strong marketing plan backed by a strong marketing team. Ca you, by yourself compete with that?

Conclusion:

• Create your marketing plan, including a budget and stick with it
• Make a list of things you can do without cutting too much in your time spent on your own business
• Calculate the ratio of lost time doing it yourself vs. paying someone else to do it
• Find a good design and SEO company that can relate to your needs
• Pick their brain and listen if they bring new ideas that can enhance your profits

3 Marketing Spices Every Business Should Have

For small businesses internet marketing has become much easier and affordable in the last couple of years. The number of applications to do just that has increased dramatically and the small business owner is sometimes overwhelmed by so many choices. There are so many marketing challenges and expenses for small business but this should not be one of them. 

Business owners should have no reason why in this day and age they wouldn’t be able to have a presence on the internet.  A strong one – I might add. Technology and increase in demand has made internet marketing for small business not only attainable but necessary to achieve continued growth in the global marketplace. 

Here are the bare minimum for a fairly strong web presence:

Email

Emails are the number one feature used by most people.  Emails and email newsletters are still the best way to reach your viewers.  Email marketing for small business is one of the most effective ways of winning repeat business from your existing customers and converting prospects.

Email layouts make this entire process easier, more efficient, and hopefully more effective.  Email sign-up web pages have often been overlooked when businesses are looking for ways to improve their interaction with customers and prospects.  Email marketing has been found to be a solid business marketing tactic for this as it is extremely low-cost to market to contacts already in a business database.

Due to increased ADD on the market, it seems that more and more people are inclined towards Twitter but this is a subject for another discussion. See the article on “Social Media Presence on Steroids” to understand why.

Website

If you own a company or try to sell your services or products a website is a definite must. Without it – you are missing on at least 90% of the population. Plus – who know-a-days doesn’t have one.
For a great design company who can also perform other services like: banner design, logo and corporate ID, brochures, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), please visit Design by Satori.

Of course your site needs to be optimized. Why? SO you can rank high in search engines. Why is this important? Because 84% of web surfers looking for your company will quit after page 2 in Google. So – make sure you are talking to the right people. In the fight for a top position on the results page of a search engine, the appropriate optimization of a website along with a well-structured content can make a difference.  You really need to be thinking about marketing your website online in order for it to perform well in the search engines and to do this you need to make some headway finding out about Web Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. Just because you have a web site doesn’t really mean too much today.

Blog

Begin to blog about your expertise–what you have to offer, how you got to be good at this one area, and focus on how you can help others.  From your website to your social media networking, to your blog posts, repeat your brand look everywhere so people recognize you right-away.  With a Blog not only are you helping out your customers or prospects, but you’re creating content that can help drive more prospects to your blog and thus your web site, and of course more cash in your bank.

There are plenty of tools at your disposal as a small business owner to accomplish this, including search engine optimization, email marketing and blogging to name a few.  Sure, you can blog and build websites, but at some point you need to capture names and e-mail addresses so you can stay in touch and build a relationship with that list. That’s why you need to have a very good plan in terms of Email Marketing

Conclusion
Internet marketing for small business owners can be a little overwhelming but you need to know you are not alone.  Growing a small business is hard no matter what, but taking advantage of internet marketing for small business is smart and will help to keep your business relevant and up to date. 

Internet marketing for small business can take you to new heights and a degree of success you have only dreamed of.  Online marketing for small business can change your business in so many ways you will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. Just make sure you are hooking up with a reliable company that will have every interest in helping you achieve your business goals.