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.
Read MoreSeveral 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.
Read MoreAll 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.
Read MoreI want to share with you a story. The story is of two designers.
Both designers make roughly $6,000 per month.
Yet there is one massive difference between these two designers.
One designer is working 60+ hours per week while juggling a ton of clients.
The second designer is working 20-25 hours per week while handling just a few clients.
Both designers are similar, but one works significantly more than the other.
How does this happen?
The difference is in the pricing.
Read MoreFor 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.
Read MoreDirect 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.
Read MoreConsumption is easy.
It is easier to read a book than to write one.
It is easier to watch a move than create a short film.
It is easier to look at other peoples art, than it is to create your own.
Creation is a challenge.
Read MoreIf 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.
Read MoreOne 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.
Read MoreWhen 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.
Read MoreOne 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.
Read MoreThere 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.
Read MoreIf 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.
Read MoreWhen 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.
Read MoreWhen I tell people about my successful web design business, I often get the same response.
“Why don’t you hire employees so you don’t have to do as much of the work?”
My hopes are that this article can serve as a warning sign to those who are considering hiring employees your creative business.
Read MoreOne of the biggest questions I get from aspiring creative freelancers is that they don't know where they should be focusing their time.
My goal with this post is to share with you how you should be spending your time and what you should be focusing on when starting up a new freelancing career.
Read MoreOne of the biggest struggles for many freelancers is building a steady income. There is always this constant fear of not knowing wear the next job is coming from, and that drives many freelancers either crazy or bankrupt.
It doesn't have to be that way.
In this post I will give you some simple strategies and tactics that can help you build a steady pipeline of clients and flow of income for your freelance business.
Read MoreThe first place that creatives should look for sales when getting started or when thing slow down is their existing network.
Your friends, coworkers, past employers and acquaintances can all be great sources of freelance projects and quick wins.
But if you don't handle these project properly, it is easy to ruin a once great friendship.
My goal with this blog post is to teach you how to work with friends and acquaintances and keep those relationships strong throughout the process.
Read MoreOne of the biggest problems for creatives is figuring out how much do I charge?
In this post I am going to break down the traditional guidance about pricing and teach you a non-conventional pricing strategy that will rock your bank account.
Read MoreA few months ago I adopted a new proposal system and I have been astonished by the results.
I am closing twice as many clients and at higher budgets than ever before.
In this post I outlined the proposal process in it's entiretey and also include an example proposal for reference
Read More
