There is a barbershop in Thailand...
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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 MoreCreativity. There are few sellable goods or services that have such a wide range of pricing as creative work.
Why is it that one painting can cost millions of dollars, while another can't even be sold?
Why is that one designer can charge 10x what another designer charges for the exact same service?
My goal with this post is to share with you two examples of creative pricing in action, and then explain to you why they are priced the way they are.
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 MoreOne 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.
Read MoreEarly 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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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One 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.
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One 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.
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For many creatives, sales can feel sleazy.
For others, they simply don't know what to do and botch every potential sale they come across.
In this post, I am going to cover a sales technique that is extremely easy to learn and that will help you turn sales from something intimidating, to something fun.
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In the first seven months of my freelance career, I managed to close $12,030 of business from a few batches of cold e-mails.
In my past creative ventures, I have landed deals with Fortune 500 clients that have stemmed from cold e-mails.
My goal with this post is to share with you the methods and tactics behind how to actually land clients through cold e-mailing.
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Over the course of my career I have started companies, left them, and failed at others. I have invested time, energy and money into each of those with little to nothing to show for them years later.
All of the time, money and energy that I put into those companies yielded me little to no long term gain.
But there is one investment that has been worth every penny and every second. ...
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Over the past six months I have several huge mistakes with the marketing, niching and positioning of my consulting practice.
While I made these mistakes early on, recently I struck gold.
My goal with this post is to share three massive mistakes I made in the past six months while launching my consulting practice in hopes that you won’t make the same.
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Even if you don’t have a company, everyone is a marketer. You are at minimum, a marketer of themselves.
My goal with this post is to explain the importance of marketing and help redefine it in your mind.
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