comments

I am a website designer and really liked your Q and A's. I am often asked the same questions and always like to hear how others in the industry are answering. I don't often get asked about hiring a professional copywriter thought I think many clients should. I like your answer and am going to adapt to start the conversation with my clients.

I agree with all of the points both as a former retail employee and a current small business owner. At the core of Dick's message, is the importance of customer service. For a long time, business have moved away from making customer service a priority and we are seeing the results of that move. Consumers want to be treated well and business owner need to make customer service their top priority. With that in mind, we should approach every business decision from the perspective of the customer and their experience as a result of our choices.

Hey Aaron,

I am curious to hear your presentation. I am a graphic and web designer but always like to hear about what others are doing. And to learn about trends that others see on the horizon.

Jasmine

Thank you for this article, Jen. I have been feeling very overwhelmed by my work schedule over the past few months and have been toying with tracking my time to better manage it. After reading your article, I know it is something that I must do to better manage my time. Those invisible items are killing me!

I had not thought of this but will give it a try and see what happens. Seems like a totally obvious but super clever way to promote yourself and improve rankings.

This article touches on a topic that I recently encountered. I was at a seminar a couple of weeks ago that had a lot of audience participation and one of the attendees stuttered when she spoke. Despite the stutter, she contributed several insightful comments and questions to the presentation. Though it took her a little longer than the rest of us to say her piece, she showed no hesitation in participating along with the rest of us. I was impressed by her courage and also glad that she spoke up. Her thoughts added to strength of the seminar. Thank you, Nikihil for helping to educate me on a subject that I did not really understand. You article helped me to better understand the importance my own experience.

Hi Cathy,

Tip #2 really jumped out at me. I am a website designer and I have client who I have been working with to increase his newsletter sign up. I think the freebie could be key to greater success. I was wondering if you could offer a few examples of what you consider to be an irresistible freebie? Thanks for a great article.

After reading this article, I immediately started working on my list of promises. Having the list will help me to clarify my priorities (which can be hard when there are a million things be done) and feel justified in what I ask to be paid. If I am doing what it takes to meet those goals, then I know my price is worth it.

Thanks for the exercise. I think it will really help me to understand my commitment to my client's and my own "worth" to them.

I agree completely with Joel on this subject. Coming from a corporate world, I have had to work really hard to stop using senseless jargon and start speaking English again. The whole web 2.0 phenomena has seemed to spawn a whole new generation of these types of words and phrases. To make matters worse, it seems like a lot of these ideas are so new that no one really agrees on exactly what they mean.

Along those same lines, I think customers throw out these terms to us without really thinking about what they mean and what it is they want. I had a customer tell me they wanted a site that used "Health 2.0" but I could not find a single definitive answer as to what that is.

My point is that both service providers and clients should ban these types of words from their vocabulary and concentrate on saying exactly what we mean. I think we would all be much happier and less confused!

Great analogy! Building a strong website really is a lot like building a house. People sometimes forget that the structure is as important as the "look."

Kaya, I love this idea of offering a free report and your article makes it seem so easy. I have been thinking about writing something to post on my site for some time now but was overwhelmed by the vastness of the task. Now I realize that the quality of my message is so much more important than the quantity. Your article has inspired me to start on this project right away. Thanks for the easy to follow advice.

Thanks for the great tips. I am a web designer and am always having to tell my clients why a website is important. And beyond that why they should be actively updating and enhancing their site. I think it is key to success in business to push your site beyond an "online brochure."

I plan to save this article and share it with clients who need incentive to build their web presence. Your points are clear, concise, and straight to the point. I could not explain this material any better than you have!

I am bookmarking this article to have this list of tools to refer to in the future. I have been looking at email newsletter services and am excited to check out Graphicmail.

On a side note, I wanted to expand on your reference to Wordpress a bit. I am a website designer and often suggest Wordpress as a cheaper alternative to a website when a business is first starting out. You can use it to build a free blog site that can function as your web presence until you can afford the real deal.

If you have a little extra cash, I recommend hiring a professional to create a customized header for your Wordpress site to make it more professional and give it personality. The investment will be a fraction of the cost of a complete site and can give you a great starting point.

Thank you for a great article, Dan. SEO is a subject that I think of more as a dark art than anything else. Your FAQ's helped to lift the veil and give me the basic low-down. I recently listened to a speaker talking about web optimization and realized how powerful working with an expert can be. Your comment that SEO can be your best advertising investment reinforces that thought. Finding the right person to do the job is another matter!

George, thank you for a great article full of attainable, common sense advice. As a web designer, I was already aware of some of the tips but I especially liked your section on defining goals. This is one step many of my clients overlook and I feel it is critical to project success. I am going use your article to help me better articulate this point with potential clients!

First off, your article is great! I have been learning to perfect the art of estimating throughout my first year of business. I had never thought about adding padding to a project but I do see the value in it. I also like your advice of adding on a stage basis adjusting for the complexity of the task. Coming in too high on a bid is job suicide but your method seems like the perfect compromise between the two.

About time tracking, I am a firm believer in tracking time on every project you work on because the historical data is key to creating better estimates in the future. I know it can be a tedious process but it can be simplified by using as software. Then time tracking is a matter of hitting a start and stop button—the software does the work for you.

Thanks for a great article. I am going to implement your tips today as I work on my latest proposal.

This article is great for someone new to the press release game. I am forwarding this article to a prospective client that I have been talking to about creating an online press room. I hope your tips will give him a strong starting point!

All of the tips are great and can be used in combination with one another which makes them even more effective. As a graphic and web designer, I think that almost any small business owner can benefit from having a blog to promote themselves. I am always encouraging my clients to consider starting one. The key to success with a blog is to have something meaningful to say and to keep it updated. If you are truly passionate about your business and field, then it should be easy to come up with good content.

Another great point about blogs, they can help raise your search engine rankings. By posting to other blogs and leaving your URL and having others link to your blog, you immediately improve the "quality" of your site in the eyes of search engines. It is a great way to get your business to the top of a large list of competitors in a Google search.

And now for a little shameless promotion: Visit www.910west.com if you would like to learn more about my business and how I can help you increase your business.

My plans have changed for Friday and I can't make it! I hope you all have a great time! I am definitely interested in attending a future event.

This article hit the nail on the head for me. I just launched my business website after laboring on it for a year. My biggest issue was the messaging. I started out with text that made my company sound like this big juggernaut studio—lots of corporate speak and totally overblown features. I was really unhappy with the overall tone. It did not match my personality and the image I wanted to project with my business.

After letting it sit a while, and taking a marketing class, I re-did the layout and copy to reflect the true nature of my company. I proudly shared the fact that the company is me (and my husband in the evenings and on weekends). My target is other small businesses and I think they appreciate the more personal and friendly nature of my site. They understand that I, as a fellow small business owner, understand their issues.

I did still use a few big company terms like "we" because I would like to a grow a little but I feel that corporate downsizing on my site will help my credibility with my target clients not hurt it. This is great advice for anyone struggling with how to present their business.

I struggle with getting fair pay on jobs too. You should read the article on creating a Unique Selling Proposition by Stacy Karacostas. You have to figure out what makes you special and then determine what that matters to your customer. That difference will be the reason that they pay you more and respect you more too!

For the creatives out there struggling with making a living, I suggest the How magazine webinar series "Growing your design business from your desktop." The segment on pricing was revolutionary for me though I learned a lot from every segment. One of the presenters is a Biznik member and she really knows her stuff. Check out details at http://www.howdesign.com/webinars

I am also going to post a tip about this for those who may have missed this article because pricing is such a hot topic. I think this webinar will help a lot of people.

Nicole,

Thank you for planning an event—I am excited to get together with other business people in the Phoenix area. A get together is long overdue!

Jasmine

I just took a marketing class and was really impressed with the USP concept. When I tried to create my own, I hit a wall. Just like your chiropractor, the things that I thought set me apart were really the same "benefits" that my competitors offered. I have since started working with my marketing teacher to develop my USP and feel that I am on the right track.

Your article is right on—the steps are achievable, easy, and best of all FREE. Creating a USP is crucial to success in business—especially small businesses. They usually can't compete on price or convenience so they must find (or create) something that will set them apart from the competition.

One point I would add, is to make sure that the USP is customer driven. It is great to tell your customers why you are different but more importantly you must tell them why it matters to them. When creating a USP, think benefits rather than features.

I agree that this model might not work for every profession. I think it really depends on your "product." (I put "product" in quotes because the product is really services.) For creative work, pay should be about the final result rather than the work process.

Creatives who charge by the hour are really selling themselves short—I know I was a sucker for the hourly fee for a long time. After switching from hourly to flat-fees, I no longer fear sending an invoice worrying whether the client will be upset with the final cost. With a flat-fee set up front, we both know what to expect when it comes time to pay. I still track my time on every project to make sure my estimates are accurate but I don't spend the whole project wondering if I am spending too much time and client money to get the project "just right."