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Susan Kirkland. Start & Run a Creative Services Business
START & RUN A CREATIVE SERVICES BUSINESS
Preface
1. Getting Started
1. Advantages to Self-Employment
2. Launch Your Business Effectively
3. Income Adventures and Other Paths
4. Find Your Professional Edge
4.1 Distinguish yourself from the competition
4.2 Showcase your abilities honestly
4.3 Know your client’s business
4.4 Strive to build long-term relationships
4.5 Share your resourcefulness and problem-solving skills
4.6 Stay in close contact during a project
4.7 Treat everyone respectfully
4.8 Join professional organizations
4.9 Keep boasting to yourself
4.10 Sell clients only what they need
4.11 Remember, it’s the little things
4.12 Be businesslike in all your dealings
2. Creating Your Work Environment
1. Pros and Cons of a Portable Desktop
2. Set Up an Efficient Home Office
2.1 Dedicate your work space
2.2 Create a work-friendly ambiance
2.3 Invest in a great chair
2.4 Buy a good computer
2.5 Own the right equipment for the job
2.6 Upgrade your software frequently
2.6a Know the difference between programs
2.6b Choose software that suits the work you do
2.7 Establish good work habits
2.8 Upgrade phone lines and Internet access
2.9 Create a business image
3. Supplying Your Own Employee Benefits. Health Insurance for Freelancers
3. Take A Personal And Portfolio Inventory
1. Know Your Skills and Resources
2. Welcome Variety and Challenge the Competition
3. Leverage Your Freelance Advantage
4. Promote Services via Your Portfolio
5. Guidelines for Building a Strong Portfolio
5.1 Select ten pieces of your best work
5.2 Show pieces that promote specific skills
5.3 Mount pieces so viewers can see each page
5.4 Substitute alternates for special presentations
5.5 Choose pieces that show off your creativity
5.6 Start with an attention-getter
5.7 End with your best piece
5.8 Include a few business cards
6. Cultivate a Sense of Humor
4. Capturing Repeat Customers
1. Provide Client-Centered Service
1.1 Learn how advertising works
1.2 Become a typography expert
1.3 Use appropriate language
2. Decide Where to Position Yourself
2.1 Pass on cost savings
2.2 Take the ethical high road
2.3 Focus on your best clients
2.4 Know who you’re working for
3. Learn All You Can about Printing
4. Select Your Partners with Care
5. Keep in Touch with Clients
6. Recognize and Avoid Problem Accounts
6.1 Clients you can live without
6.2 It’s all about standards
7. Seek Honest Feedback
8. Be Flexible but Not a Doormat
9. Get Creative with Your Marketing
10. Treat Your Clients Royally
5. Identifying And Targeting Your Market
1. Marketing Using the 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion
1.1 Product
1.2 Price
1.3 Place
1.4 Promotion
1.5 The 4Ps extended to 7 to Include the Service Sector
1.6 People
1.7 Process
1.8 Physical Evidence
2. Take Advantage of Today’s Opportunities
2.1 Get high-speed Internet access
2.2 Design an impressive business website
2.3 Make your website searchable
2.4 Get up to speed with technology
3. Create a Digital Portfolio
3.1 Protect Your Work: The Laws of Authorship
3.2 Put samples of your work on a website
3.2a What’s yours to put in your portfolio?
3.2b US Copyright
3.2c Canadian Copyright
3.3 Create a PDF portfolio
3.3a Send an introductory email
3.3b Make sure the recipient has adequate IP service
3.3c Always thank the recipients for their time
3.3d Attach a compelling jpeg sample
3.3e Use online directories to target clients
3.3f Go where the work is — without leaving home
3.3g Hook your client with the perfect subject line
3.3h Follow up with interested prospects
4. Register for Government Contracts
4.1 US government contracts
4.2 Canadian government contracts
6. Strategic Alliances
1. PDF — How It Reconfigured Sales Support
2. Opportunities for Strategic Alliances
2.1 Find a printer to partner with
2.2 Team up with professional peers
2.3 Perseverance pays
7. Cold Calling For New Business
1. Defrosting Those Icy Cold Calls
2. Get to Know Your Competition
3. Avoid Naysayers at All Costs
4. Know the Many Meanings of No
5. Show Respect and Expect It in Return
6. See the Potential in Every Contact
8. Negotiating With Vendors
1. Choose a Reputable Printer
2. Steer Clear of Print Brokers
3. Watch Out for Tricks of the Trade
4. Pay for Quality Printing
5. Learn to Talk Like a Printer
5.1 Use the Jargon of Your Trade
6. Get the Best Deal for Your Client
7. Collect Your Sales Commission
9. Nine Sure Signs You’re Not Getting Paid
1. Delay — “The Check Is in the Mail”
1.1 Act fast in the case of bankruptcy
1.2 Late payment can be intentional
1.3 Protect yourself with a retainer
2. The Ties That Bind
3. The Ignored Invoice
4. Rush to Project Completion
5. Triangulation
6. Reasoning Plus Excuses
7. The Bold-Faced Lie
8. Price Is No Object
9. The Empty Promise of Future Work
9.1 Be up front about payment details
9.2 Keep your client well informed
10. Fees And What To Do When The Client Doesn’t Do The Right Thing
1. Dealing with Subcontractors and Clients
1.1 Dealing with abusive or demanding clients
1.2 Your client’s bills: To carry or not to carry
1.3 Let the printer carry the risk
2. How to Handle Nonpayment of an Invoice
2.1 Exercise empathy, especially in a bad economy
2.2 Don’t forget cause and effect
2.3 Avoid the final solution: The lawyer
2.3a Example 1: The enemy ups the ante
2.3b Example 2: Appearances can be deceiving
2.3c Example 3: Pursuing a debtor to court
3. Tried-and-True Tips to Protect Yourself
11. Scoundrels And Scalawags, Piranhas And Barracudas
1. No One Escapes Unscathed
2. Politics Makes Things Sticky
3. Bottom Dwellers of the Worst Kind
3.1 A few words about noncompete agreements
3.2 “Work for hire” is a creative rights waiver
3.3 Your client relationship: Sacrosanct under the law
12. Sage Advice From A Veteran
1. Step into the Future
1.1 Create your own network
1.2 Subcontract when necessary
1.3 Read some business classics
2. Artistic Respect and Freedom
3. Cherish Creative Integrity
Appendix: Life Rafts For The Drowning
1. Strategies for Surviving Difficult Times
1.1 Talk to your creditors
1.2 Suggest a payment plan
1.3 Ask for a loan
1.4 Look for alternative solutions
1.5 Pass that burden to the printer
1.6 Temporary bad patches
2. Dealing with Creditors and Collectors
2.1 Know your rights under the law
2.2 Consider a debt counselor
3. Bankruptcy — Your Clean Slate
3.1 Filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the US
3.2 Filing Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in the US
3.3 Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act
4. Protection from Others’ Oversights
5. Working Through Hard Times: What to Do When You Find Yourself in a Depressed Economy
5.1 When the chips are down
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Epigraph
About the Author
Other Titles in the Start & Run Series
Notice
Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook
Contents
