Why you should steal your business ideas from others

Since starting up Lead Cookie I have had multiple people tell me “This is such a brilliant idea for a business.”

I always laugh because I have to tell them, “I didn’t think up any of this. I literally stole the concepts from others.”

No joke, almost everything about Lead Cookie is stolen.

But the truth is, that is why this business has succeeded while almost every business I have had before has failed.

In this article, I am going to share what I mean by the “stolen ideas” and give you a framework on how you can steal effectively and ethically.

Lessons learned from a year of evolution

Many of my long time followers will notice that I haven’t blogged lately. In fact it has been almost two months since my last post.

For almost a year and a half I blogged weekly with not exceptions.

That worked well, for a while…

And then I started my year of evolution.

My goal with this post is to share with you some of the drastic changes in my business over the past 8 months, and the lessons I learned along the way.

Blog, Business Development, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, Outbound MarketingJake JorgovanSeptember 3, 2015

On launching something new

When you are launching something new, there are two mindsets on how to approach it.

The key is to find a balance somewhere in the middle.
In the middle is a place where you ship, but you still ship something you are proud of.
You set a realistic deadline, you do the best you can, and then you launch.

Blog, Business Development, Creative Work, Launch your CareerJake JorgovanJuly 7, 2015

How to handle projects with an unclear scope

You know the situation.

A prospect comes to you with a project and the scope is just unclear.

So how to we handle these situations when a client comes to us and the scope is unclear?

How do we proceed forward and not commit ourselves to something we later regret?

My goal with this post is to outline a method to handle these situations and also get paid for your time.

Blog, Business Development, Consulting, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your CareerJake JorgovanApril 21, 2015

How to start a business as a first time entrerpeneur

One of the biggest questions that I get is from people who are seeking to start their own business for the first time.

They have spent their whole life working in jobs for someone else, and thus the idea of starting a business seems scary and overwhelming.

My goal with this post is to share with you my biggest recommendations for first time entrepreneurs.

How to conduct a personal quarterly review + My Q1 review & Q2 goals

One of the fastest ways for any individual to make positive change in their life is to set goals, and then work at achieving them.

Every quarter, I do a quarterly review where I review my previous quarter and set goals for the upcoming quarter.

Below you will see a list of my quarterly goals I set for Q1 with the actual outcomes for each of those goals. Then I also dive into detail about what went well, and what didn't.

I encourage you to take this format and apply it to your own life and do your own Quarterly review.

The freelancer pitch framework - Stop overcomplicating what you do

There is a recurring trend I see among nearly all creative professional who are considering starting their own business or are in the early phases.

They overcomplicate what they do.

Learning to easily communicate what you do is one of the most important things every creative professional must learn.

LEAN Marketing

Several years ago Eric Ries published an popular business book called The Lean Startup.

The core principle of the book is that you shouldn't invest large amounts of time, money and energy into a new business up front without knowing if it will work.

That same principle is true for marketing your creative services.

The most powerful way to differentiate your creative business

All of us that do creative work face a similar challenge.

Despite our best efforts to be unique, at times we can feel like a commodity.

While we may have our own unique style, there are hundreds of other creatives out there with their unique style as well.

So it begs the question, ‘How do I differentiate myself in the creative field?’

My goal with this post is to share with you the single most powerful way to differentiate your creative business.

How to make the jump to freelancing full time

One of the biggest questions I regularly get through my site is from creatives who are wanting to quit their jobs and freelance full time.

They know they want to do it, but they are afraid to make the jump.

In this post, I will share with you two strategies for making the jump and stories of freelancers who have done it.

The art of perception

Early in my career, a mentor shared with me a piece of advice that would change me forever.

"Perception becomes reality"

Those three simple words changed how I approached business, and my personal life.

Instead of being the floundering kid with a mediocre business, I began to change how the world perceived me.

Blog, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, MarketingJake JorgovanJanuary 19, 2015

Why you should have 'a list of people you like'

For years, I have used a strategy that has both improved my quality of life and generated a large amount of income.

The strategy has never cost me a single dollar, and I enjoy executing it.

Its not complicated, and it is something anyone can do.

I keep a list of people I like.

The most underutilized method of acquiring new clients

Direct outreach includes e-mail prospecting, sending letters in the mail, etc.

Many don't believe direct outreach works. They are inundated with spammy requests all day and thus, they think all direct outreach is spammy.

But the truth is, direct outreach is an effective method of acquiring new work and it doesn't have to be spammy.

Personally, direct outreach has lead to 30% of my income this year.

My goal with this post is to share with you a few methods on utilizing direct outreach to grow your freelancing business.

It's time to rethink networking

If you are like most people, you hate networking.

The idea of walking into a room and schmoozing a bunch of people hoping to find an ideal prospect probably sounds horrible.

But networking doesn't have to be that way.

My goal in this post is to share with you just a few ways to expand your network without feeling sleazy about it.

The art of client communication : How to win clients and keep them happy

One of the biggest areas of freelancing that many people fail to even think about is client communication.

Client communication may be one of the single most important factors in building your business.

How you connect with clients has the ability to turn one off jobs into repeat clients, referrals, and raving testimonials.

My goal with this post is to teach you some of the basic concepts of client communication.

‘Doing what you love’ vs ‘Doing what you like'

When people start their freelance career and try to figure out what services they are going to offer, there is this difficult question of if they should focus on doing what they love.

To be honest, there is no perfect answer to this question.

My goal with this post is to walk you through two different ways of looking at your freelance career.

Blog, Creative Guides, Creative Projects, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your CareerJake JorgovanOctober 20, 2014

16 ways to win new freelance clients

One of the most common questions I get from aspiring freelancers is “How do you get your clients?”

When asked this question, I never quite have a perfect answer because the truth is that my work comes from many different places.

There are tons of ways to get new clients, although below I have included a list of 16 tactics that have landed me clients.

The 9 steps of selling a creative project

There is one question that I get over and over again from creatives.

How do you handle the sales process of a creative project?

Sales is scary when it is foreign to you. Yet a strong understanding of how a sale flows from beginning to end will make it much easier to handle.

My goal with this post is to walk you through the entire sales process from beginning to end.

How to handle growth in your creative career

If you do good work and find yourself consistently getting booked with more, bigger and better projects, then you will no doubt be faced with the challenge of growth.

Do you hire a team?
Do you try to take it all on?
Do you raise your rates?

My goal with this post is to not give you the answers, but instead challenge you to think about growth in a different way.

Blog, Creative Guides, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, Personal DevelopmentJake JorgovanSeptember 28, 2014

How to learn any creative craft extremely fast

When many creatives are getting started, one of their biggest obstacles is not the business side, but instead the creative side.

They meander along putting out average work and thus they get average clients paying average rates.

My goal with this post is to share with you some methods on how to improve the quality of your work extremely fast.

Blog, Creative Guides, Creative Projects, Creative Work, Launch your Career, FreelancingJake JorgovanSeptember 21, 2014

Articles

Thoughts on B2B, Entrepreneurship, & Thinking Different…