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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A few weeks ago Amber Weinberg wrote a post for Freelance Folder on Learning How to Freelance without Clients. It’s a topic that’s frequently on my mind and it’s the post that inspired me to write this series about running a freelance business.
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Last week I offered some thoughts about getting started as a freelancer. Today I want to talk a little about growing your business once you’ve managed to get things running. Two main things we’ll talk about are cultivating a client list and how to price your services.
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One of the questions I’m often asked is how I got started working for myself. How did I pick up clients early on. It’s something I’ve written about in the past, but also something I know people are interested in learning. Recently I was asked the question again by David of prova.fm who’s a reader here as well as a member of my small business forum.
I thought I’d share what I said to David and add a few more thoughts about my own story getting started in the hopes they can help someone just starting out on the road to a freelancing business.
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Yesterday I talked about the importance of setting goals and walked through the successes and failures of the goals I set for 2009. I promised I’d give you a look into the goals I’m setting for 2010 and I’d also like to add some more thoughts about breaking down large projects into smaller tasks so you keep moving forward and complete those projects
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I’ve never cared much for resolutions. Within a few weeks you’ve generally given up on them and as the days get further from the New Year an excuse excuse seems to exist for waiting until next year. In the end little changes and you are the person you were in the moments before the calendar changed.
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A few weeks ago a client approached me about designing a new site. I asked the usual questions. What are the goals of the site? How many pages? What will those pages include? Who’s the market for the site? etc. As happens too often there were no answers forthcoming. How does one go about designing a site without any indication of what that site will be about or what it’s purpose will be?
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Last week Boston University student, Joel Tenenbaum was ordered to pay a total of $675,000 to 4 record labels for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. Two years ago a similar case cost Jammie Thomas $222,000 over 24 songs. In April of this year 4 men were convicted by a Swedish court over copyright infringement due to their connection with The Pirate Bay file sharing site. They were also ordered to pay $36 million in damages to several entertainment companies.
Of course each will be replaced by new names in the coming years. The RIAA may have won some battles, but in the long war over DRM they will surely lose as there are laws that will always supersede the laws of the court, namely the laws of reality. DRM is failure.
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