Unique Selling Proposition as It Relates to Freelance Designers. A product’s Unique Selling Proposition (also known as Unique Selling Point or USP) is what makes it different from competing products, and more importantly, what leads customers to buy it. For those in marketing, USPs are extremely important because in order to sell more of a product you need to know what will motivate customers to buy your product instead of the competition’s product, and then you need to effectively communicate that USP. A large percentage of freelance designers struggle to land as much business as they would like. If this is the case for you, have you taken time to think about what makes you unique in comparison to other designers out there? Why will clients want to hire you instead of another designer?
It’s critical that you identify what it is that separates you from other designers, and you must be able to communicate that or make it apparent to potential clients. Why USPs are Important for Freelance Designers Lots of Competition Branding Specialization Price Location. 10 Essential Blogs for Creative Entrepreneurs. Creative entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to create remarkable things and meaningful relationships. They come in various types: Artists and creatives who make a living from their artworkEntrepreneurs who take a creative approach to their businessIndependent-minded individuals who want to create a unique lifestyle for themselves and their families. Creative entrepreneurs don’t necessarily follow the traditional entrepreneurial path – like Marla, many of them eschew VC funding and have no interest in scaling their business beyond themselves and a few co-conspirators (although they are very open to scaling it in terms of profitability and impact).
By definition, creative entrepreneurs think and act differently to most folks around them. 1. As the name The Art of Nonconformity suggests, Chris Guillebeau marches to a different drum. On his blog Chris writes about personal development, life design, entrepreneurship and international travel. 2. 3. 4. 5. The cartoons. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. A beginner's guide to freelancing. Some of this might only be relevant to coders or web designers, and some of the financial stuff will only be relevant to UK readers, but I hope there’s plenty interesting for anyone thinking of going freelance in any field. If I’ve missed something, either post in the comments or email me (phil [at] gyford [dot] com) and I’ll update the page.
Contents 1. When to start freelancing I was fortunate in that I was made redundant, stumbled into freelancing because I couldn’t think where to apply for a job, and it all worked out. If, like many potential freelancers, you’re in a job and unsure about whether to take the plunge, here’s what you should do first: Decide why you want to freelance. 2.
I hate the idea of marketing but as a freelancer you can’t avoid the fact that you must sell yourself to get work. You should have a website, or at least a page, even if your line of work is nothing to do with the internet. The second point of a website is to keep you visible. 3. No commuting. Working hours. Creative Choices. We believe in providing practical, useful information and advice, for those who want it. But we also think you have the answers for your own set of circumstances, and we’re just happy to listen and guide you if needed. We’re the glue between work and education and we want to see fair access for employees, so we work with partners on things like setting up entry to work programmes – like we did for Cultural Ambition – as well as with qualification development, support through training for CPD, being a connector through events and networking as well as championing and representing the needs of our sector and influencing policy.
Our sector doesn’t stand still and that’s ok. We’re here for change – it’s what we do. We won’t rest until careers in culture are understood and easy to get to – until everyone has a fair chance to work here. We’ll keep talking about the skills that are needed to move our sector forward. 7 Ways You Should Respond to Online Criticism. Talking Budget With Your Clients. Posted by: Andrew Fingerman Date: August 10, 2011 | 3 Comments Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing Mentor, where she helps creative professionals solve their business growth challenges. Ilise recently published a new book, The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money.
The book is filled with wisdom on a topic that many photographers find uncomfortable, confusing, and hard to manage. We grabbed a few minutes with Ilise to talk about a particularly sticky related issue – when and how to directly ask your clients about their budget while pitching for new business. Are we a good fit? A “teachable moment”Talking budget directly indicates your expectation is that they actually have a budget. In other cases, the client isn’t going to tell you their budget outright. This presents an opportunity to educate the client about the value of your services. Popping the question This really isn’t so hard. The Right Way to Negotiate with Clients. Negotiating with Clients Doesn't Have to Be Scary. Posted by: Grover Sanschagrin Date: August 1, 2011 | 1 Comment A majority of the photographers I know absolutely hate to negotiate with clients, and often find themselves suffering through an unfair arrangement as a result of their poor negotiations skills.
Negotiating your way to a win-win scenario can be a common experience if you’re prepared. Blake Discher is a Detroit-based freelance photographer, specializing in editorial, advertising, annual reports, and portraits. In his many years as an independent freelancer, he’s developed a system of processes and tactics for negotiating with his clients. When he talks to clients, he’s prepared – and this makes all the difference. Blake is a regular conference speaker. During the ASMP Strictly Business 3 traveling seminar, I attended his presentation about negotiating and estimating. I asked Blake if he would be willing to give a version of that presentation in the form of a PhotoShelter webinar, and he agreed. Untitled. How To Find Freelance Illustration Jobs. Many illustrators start out with a simple interest in drawing and painting and they may specialize at an early age in what they may be interested in creating and early on in their artistic life, family members may have said, I know they've often said to me that you could sell some of your art and that to me was a mystical thing that I used to dream of and thought I had no real art qualifications, so I thought I would fail, but I had the talent and there are many who do have the talent and do nothing with it, which is a shame.
Degrees or good qualifications aren't important in this field as it's more about the work you can show based on your art portfolio or art samples, this is what makes you viable for the job and indeed in the running for a chance at further work if not at the present time but also in the future. Some sites for freelancing work Guru.com - Guru is sort of like elance and is very uaseful to find new job leads too. 11 Radical Slogans That Will Change Your Business. When it comes to business mottos to live by, there's nothing wrong with being radical. August 05, 2011 You’ve probably never heard of Gershon Legman. He was the cultural critic who claimed to be the inventor of the famous phrase, “Make love, not war,” at a lecture given at Ohio University in the early 60s. And you’ve probably never heard of Penelope Rosemont, either. She was the radical activist who popularized Gershon’s phrase. The point is: I'm insanely jealous. 1. When you break a rule for somebody, you create an act of flexibility in a moment of need. 2.
Once on a weekend vacation, we stumbled into a charming art gallery. 3. During my cousin’s wedding ceremony, there was a traditional blessing over the wine. 4. Last month I designed a Brandtag Identity Collage for my client, Closeouts With Class. 5. If it doesn’t change the recipient, it’s not a gift. 6. Customers need you to bring humanity to the moment. 7. I give more than 50 presentations around the globe each year. 8. 9. 10. 11. 10 Most Asked Questions About PayPal. If you make funds transfer or payment via Internet, you should be familiar with the name PayPal. PayPal is one of the safest and most convenient ways to perform monetary transaction online.
But that being said, there are still a lot of users who have problems and questions using PayPal on a daily basis. It is important to understand how PayPal works; a person who knows how the service works will get their transactions done quickly and safely, but if you don’t, you may end up losing unnecessary transaction fees or facing unforeseen difficulties that requires the attention of PayPal Support. If you have trouble understanding some issues about PayPal, we hope this will help you clear some clouds. Shortcut to: 1. In a nutshell, there are three main types of PayPal accounts: Personal, Premier, Business.
Wondering which you should be getting? Student Account On top of Personal, Premier and Business account. Learn more about PayPal Student Account. [Back to top] 2. 3. 4. Withdraw to Bank Account 5. 7 Signs That Reveal You Are A Mature Freelancer. The freelance world is getting bigger and bigger and people from the online medium have started to pay increased attention to it. The Internet offer to us countless possibilities and one of these is to work and be paid by someone you have never seen. When it comes to freelancing, understanding the types of industries that are open to this work is important. Things such as writing or IT work are professions that come to mind. The freelance environment requires you to continually educate yourself. This could mean taking video based IT training to expand your knowledge in that field or going to writing workshops to sharpen your skills in that one.
Whatever freelance opportunities you choose, you will have to have the discipline to find work and complete it in a quality way. The economical crisis we just faced/still facing was/is a real booster of this kind of activity; outsourcing has become a common thing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Josh Kaufman Interview on The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business. Question The Rules —
99 interview tips that will actually help you get a job. We all have to make a living somehow — and most of the time that process starts with a job interview. The only problem is that most job interview tips are either so basic that they aren’t useful or so ridiculous that they are just a waste of time. That’s why Passive Panda has put together this comprehensive list of interview tips filled with the real essentials that you actually need to know. Focus on what really counts Yes, it’s true that you should polish your shoes before an interview. Sure, it’s a good idea to wear a noticeable accent on your clothing, so that you stick out in the recruiter’s mind. But let’s get real. Do you actually think that any of those tactics are going to win you the job? Maybe if it’s really really close. Instead of worrying about 10 little things that could be a tiebreaker, why not spend time thinking about the stuff that actually matters?
So with that said, here are 99 interview tips that will actually get you the job. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. I. OurGoods. 5 Clever Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media. Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0 and the founder of Millennial Branding, a full-service personal branding agency.
He’s spoken about personal branding at Google, Harvard, Time Warner, IBM, and CitiGroup. Read his Personal Branding Blog for more information. Social media is making it easier to find the right jobs, and for you to connect to the right people that can help you get those jobs. Many job seekers are still using traditional job search methods that are yielding poor results. The New York Post reported that one woman applied for more than one thousand jobs over 99 weeks, getting only two interviews.
Nearly one in three job seekers has been out of work for more than a year, and the average job seeker gives up after five months. But you don’t have to end up like these professionals! More and more companies are recruiting using social media, and 40% of young professionals are using social media to get jobs, reports Elance. 1. People get jobs through other people, not computers. Shapeshifters.net. 5 Ways To Successfully Pitch Ideas to Clients & Investors.
It doesn’t matter if you have the most creative and innovative idea, product or design known to man, if your pitch stinks chances are your clients and or investors won’t give you the time of day. Don’t let a stellar idea go to waste. To learn how to successfully pitch your creative idea, following these easy tips listed below. I only really scratch the surface in this post, but there is so much to say. I summarized the posts for easy following. 1. Explain the Concept First and foremost, you need to make sure that you can wrap up the premise of your idea in a nice, clear and concise “speech” to your clients. To explain the concept of your idea, you may even want to address how you came up with the idea in the first place as an introduction. 2. All too often clients are quick to point out all of the weakness of a person’s idea. You also need to be prepared to answer really tough “why” questions. 3. While you may think your idea is completely original, it may very well not be. 4. 5.
Fulcruum | Leverage the Power of You. Vind een freelancer op FreelanceMe ! Personal Portfolio Sites from Behance. AdamTroudart.com - Honest Internet Marketing. The Green Room: Resources for Artists of Every Kind. | Heidi Rettig – Arts Consultant and Producer. Ktong83's Channel. The Nine Best Story Lines for Marketing. Lois Kelly is the author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
This is her explanation of the top nine types of stories that people like to talk about. If you’re pitching your company to investors, customers, partners, journalists, vendors, or employees and you don’t use at least one of these story lines, you probably have a problem. And most likely you’re too close to what you’re doing, so you think that you’re uniquely “patent-pending, curve-jumping, and revolutionary.” :-) Aspirations and beliefs. More than any other topic, people like to hear about aspirations and beliefs.
(This may be why religion is the most popular word-of-mouth topic, ever.) Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy’s point of view about ending the digital divide is aspirational as is Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s views about how companies can grow by reducing pollution and creating more sustainable business strategies. 8 Ways to Improve Your Live Event With Social Media. Clay McDaniel is the principal and co-founder of social media marketing agency Spring Creek Group. Find him via @springcreekgrp on Twitter. Do you remember life before Evite, Facebook Events, and Eventbrite? Handwritten paper invitations and RSVP phone calls seem like relics of a forgotten age. The web has dramatically changed the way people plan special occasions.
Social media is making it easier than ever before to plan, promote, and execute a wide range of events from industry conferences, client events and partner symposiums, to large social gatherings and charity events. What’s more, social media allows you to solicit feedback and extend the life of your event by inviting attendees to connect via online communities before and afterward.
Whether you just want to generate a bit of buzz or instead have specific goals to increase ticket sales and attract top speakers and attendees, social media can make the planning process smoother by leveraging digital word-of-mouth. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 20 tips to increase rates and keep your clients.
9 common problems freelancers face and what to do about them. Thoughts from 8 experts on using freelancing to build a business empire. Side Hustle Stories: Everything you need to succeed. How 17 Internet experts are really making money online. Earn more – 55 lessons from the experts. 31 Internet leaders show you how to earn more. How to negotiate. Networking tips. Portfolio Submissions | Illustration Portfolios | Hire an illustrator!
The Design Community Offers Its Favorite Bits of Advice Design Informer. Build It With Me. Publishing. Newspaper Club | Helping people to make their own newspapers. Newspaper Club. We Are Words + Pictures. B-uncut - read, enjoy and buy art online. Writing and writing coaching. Building Wealth And Entrepreneurship When Your Wife Wants To Stay At Home With The Kids. Starting your own business and growing it to $1 million with Erica Douglass of erica.biz. Getting Creative Things Done: How To Fit Hard Thinking Into a Busy Schedule. Affiliate Marketing for Beginners. Axisofawesomeblog. How to Negotiate. How to Earn $100 per Month Writing Articles for the Intertubes — Happenchance.
6 Things Every Small Business Can Learn From Lady Gaga. Using WordPress for Magazine Publishing by Kate Kendall at WordCamp Melbourne. Jeffbullas. 10 Lessons from My First Million-Dollar Launch. Freelance Proposals and How to Make Them Effective. 16 Tips From Michael Bierut on How To Get Clients | Logo Talks. TeamLab - 30 Inherently Useful Tools for Freelancers. Welkom. Get it out there!
Mad Mimi Email Marketing : Create, send & track emails with Mad Mimi. Idea generators. What Designers Can Learn From Hackers. The Creative Finder Opens its Doors, Allows Facebook and Twitter Signup. 5 Tips for Handling Pricing Objections. Minimal Folio.