Happy New Year everyone. Last time when it was still 2011 I was looking back at my failures for the year. But it’s not only a new day, it’s a new year, and it’s time to look ahead to the possibilities for 2012.
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As I usually do with the last post of the year, today I want to look back at some of the goals I set for my business in 2011 and how well I did or didn’t do in accomplishing them.
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Are you happy with your clients? Are they giving you projects you enjoy? Paying enough for your time? Hopefully you answered yes, but I often hear freelancers saying they’d like better clients. I thought I’d offer some ideas to help you build a better client list.
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When starting a freelance design business do you need to create a business plan? You can easily find opinions for and against. For me it comes down to how you define a business plan.
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When first starting a freelance business you usually have a lot of questions. You’ll likely turn to others for answers, including articles and posts offering advice. How important is it for you to follow their advice? Do you need to follow every tip offered or is it ok to do things how you think best?
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Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
—Confucius
Commonly offered advice when starting a business is to follow your passion. You find something you love and then figure out how to build a business around that love. The other side of the advice is to follow the money. Think first of existing and potential markets that offer the best chances of making a profit and build businesses around those markets.
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Many business reach points where they seem to be stuck. They’ve plateaued and the business has difficulty growing. No matter how much work is put in they seem to be held back by some arbitrary limit. Often the limit is us, the owners of these business. The limits are the ones we’ve imposed and if we can recognize how we’ve limited ourselves and our businesses we can break through the plateau and attain new levels of success.
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Over the last week an interesting conversation developed on my small business forum on the subject of collecting a deposit before beginning service based work like design. Standard practice is for web designers to collect a deposit for a project prior to starting work. There are some reasons why as well as a few issues associated with the practice.
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With every decision and action you take, with every message you communicate, you build your brand. Those decisions, actions, and messages will appeal to some more than others and in so doing will determine who your clients will be. Ultimately it’s your brand decisions that choose your clients.
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Search results for a phrase like “web design services” should quickly tell you there’s a lot of competition out there. Why should someone hire you instead of any of those other companies listed in the results? What is it that you offer that they don’t? What is it that you do better? How you answer is how you differentiate your business and stand out in a crowded market.
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