Imagine. You are at the coffee shop buying a cup of coffee. You place your order, and the barista just stands there and stares at you. What do you do next? Do you put the money in the drawer yourself, and start pouring your own coffee? Do you stand there waiting forever? Do you leave and go to another coffee shop? Uncomfortable, right? That's what it's like when you don't ask for money. You're like that strange barista, just standing there staring, hoping that your customer can 'guess' the next step. Don't be a weird barista. Not asking for money clearly and with confidence, pushes the discomfort to your clients. It makes your issue, the client's issue. So how do you ask for money? Bring money up early in the conversation. Trust me, your clients expect to pay for your services, ... Continue Reading
How to Write a Kick-Butt Intro Email
Creating partnerships with complementary businesses can help promote and build both of your businesses. But breaking the ice, and telling them what you do without sounding salesy can be tricky. You know that you're a good fit, but in order to connect you need them to see it too. Here is a template that I use to help build my intro emails for collaborating with other businesses. How do I know them? How did I learn about their business? Include a compliment, and list some details so it's clear that you really are familiar with their work, and you're not just sending them a form email. I heard your interview on the Business Babes podcast, about your jewelry design business, and your opinion on stylish clothing was so right! I loved how you thought that great clothing can really improve ... Continue Reading
25 Free Ways to Market Your Business
Marketing on a shoe-string budget can be challenging. Check out this list of 25 free things you can do to market your business and jump-start your marketing efforts. Post a free Ad on your local online free classifieds website (Craigslist, Kijiji, etc...) Write a Blog Post and Share it on all of your social media pages. Be sure to include a compelling, and "shareable" image. Give new life to old content. Promote an old blog post on your social media pages, and new blog posts. Join and take part in Facebook groups relevant to your niche. Avoid straight-up advertising. Instead, focus on providing valuable content, and taking part in conversations. Create an info-graphic. Check out Canva if you need some help designing one. Build your list. Add an optin form to your website, and ... Continue Reading
My Favorite Free Business Tools
Starting, and running a business can get expensive. Finding a few free tools that work with your business can really help. These are a few of my favorite free business tools. Gmail Boomerang - Schedule your emails in Gmail. Docracy - Free resource for contracts. A great place to start planning for meeting with your lawyer. Pexels - The best free stock photos complied from around the web (be sure to check licensing on individual pics). You Can Book Me - Client booking calendar. Start with a free plan and work your way up as your business grows. Google Apps: Docs, Sheets, and Slides for Business documents. Google Hangouts for group calls. Google Drive for file sharing. Good Hangout on Air - Free Webinars. Skype for free video calls. Canva - Free graphic design ... Continue Reading
Reconciling Your Web Design Dreams With Your Budget
Budget. There, I've said it. The elephant in the room: money, clams, moola. I get it, you're just starting out, you have big dreams, and a small pocket-book. That's cool. No, really. Challenges like this help you to grow your business using creativity, flexibility and ingenuity. And that's great! But what to do when your "eyes are bigger than your stomach?" When you want ALL THE STUFF, but Don't have ALL THE MONEY? I'll tell you just what to do. 1. Dream - Create a Wish List You have an idea of what you want, features you dream about. You want a booking calendar, newsletter optin, estore, membership area, animations, blog, recipes area.......etc..... You might not be able to have everything, but these dreams and desires help you to figure out what it is that you truly want and need. They ... Continue Reading
How to Choose the Right Colors for Your Logo
One of the most important aspect of your brand is your Logo. It is the face of your business, and representation of what your business stands for, and color plays key role. Sometimes the color of the logo transcends the logo itself (think of Barbie, or McDonald's golden arches). So how do you choose the perfect colors out of almost limitless color combinations? Here are a few aspects to consider: Mood There is no question that colors evoke a certain mood. Choosing the right colors can tell your customers a lot about how you want your business perceived. Understanding the psychology behind colors can help you choose the right colors to tell your story. Red: Passion, energy, anger, love, aggressiveness, intensity Yellow: Joy, sunshine, happiness, energy, fresh, sunshine Blue: ... Continue Reading
How I Revamped my Web Design Workflow
When I started this business, I was pretty naive. I thought that I would be free to design until my hearts content, customers would just magically appear, and the business side of running my business would just sort itself out. I never expected how hard it would be to figure out how to approach and organize projects. Without a a clear step by step process, I was rebuilding my workflow for each and every client, my client experiences were inconsistent, and I was wasting so much time redoing every step. I decided that I needed a change, this is how I did it: 1) Evaluate my Current Workflow I wrote down every step I took, from first inquiry to launch date. I discovered that my workflow was not always consistent. I decided that in order to offer great customer experience, each step needed ... Continue Reading
Author & Book Websites: Q&A
Do I need a website? Yes. A lot of authors recommend using social media to promote their books, and this is great! Social media is an easy way to keep your readers updated, but it's not a great place to provide more in-depth information. Your website creates a "hub" where your reader can easily find more information about you, your works, and find all of your social media pages. A website is also a great place to start when sharing updates with your readers, there are many ways to take a blog post, for example, and share that post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc... making your social media marketing easier and more streamlined. What should I include on my website? An author bio Your latest or featured project A list of your works (and links on where to buy them) Contact ... Continue Reading
What Makes a Good Ebook Cover?
People say, "You can't judge a book by it's cover." But most people do. A quick look through Amazon Kindle's ebook store, or any of the popular ebook stores, and you will clearly see that an attractive ebook cover will certainly help. So what does that mean for self publishers? I means something great, that if your book is well written, an attractive cover can help you compete with the big dogs. This is exciting because an ebook cover that can compete, is not out of range. This something that's actually quite easy and not as costly as you might think. ... Continue Reading