Freelancefolder

5 Simple Ways To Get Repeat Business

Posted November 15, 2007 in Business, How-To 8 Rockin' Comments »

Everytime you get a new client you probably want to prove him or her you can do the job, you want repeat business. And if you don’t have that feeling you’ll get business from a client again in the future, then there are some things you may need to work on.

#1- Be Committed

Being committed doesn’t mean that you have to leave everything else and cater to the needs of one client and forget about the others. It means showing the client that although your work has been appreciated by them and you delivered on time and everything is to their liking, you would like to offer a little more. Not necessarily go out of your way, but do what needs to be done, what you agreed on in the first place, in order to get repeat business from that client. [Click Here to Read More...]

Tricks For Dealing With Difficult Clients

Posted November 13, 2007 in Business, How-To 8 Rockin' Comments »

If you work as a freelancer difficult clients are as common as stars in a cloudless night. Okay, you shouldn’t take my poetic analogy too literally, but still once in a while you end up working for a client who you wish didn’t exist in the scheme of the universe.

But the sad reality is that there are all sorts of clients for whom you have to work because they are an integral part of your work and if you started avoiding clients just because they are “bad clients” or “difficult clients” then soon you would end up having no clients at all.

The definition of difficult clients may vary from client to client, on a case by case basis. But just for the sake of this blog post let us try to define a difficult client using the following characteristics: [Click Here to Read More...]

3 Painful Ways You Lose Money Every Month

Posted November 12, 2007 in Productivity 19 Rockin' Comments »

When you’re running your own business, you’re bound to be paying monthly fees for services that are supposed to be making you money.

But like so many gym memberships, the money’s just flowing out of your coffers without a whole lot of payoff. Read on and see if these three money mistakes are draining you dry (and find out how to stop the bleeding).

Mistake #1: Not using something you’re already paying for.

Just like those unused gym memberships, you may have services you’re paying a monthly fee on – but not even using. Or you may have forked out hundreds (thousands?) for a product that was supposed to turn your business around … but it’s still sitting on your shelf. And you most certainly have those books on your coffee table that were intended to teach you something profitable. You keep telling yourself you’ll “get around to using it,” but every month you’ve delayed, it’s just money down the drain. [Click Here to Read More...]

2007-11-11 Sunday Links Folder

Posted November 11, 2007 in Uncategorized 7 Rockin' Comments »

Hi folks I hope you had a great week and did all you had/wanted to do. Take a minute or two to check out these posts, I found them really interesting. You never know, you might learn something new, or simply enjoy taking a break. ;)

Before we go on with this weeks’ links, my friend Christine O’Kelly from SelfMadeChick just started a new business: Hybrid Media Marketing. Check it out!

Now on to the list:

• Turning Visitors Into Subscribers – The Contributing Factors
• Entrepreneurship: What To Do When You’re Scared Sh*tless
• 5 Reasons to Like Your Lazy, Annoying Colleagues
• Keeping Your Business Records in Order
• Advice For Managing Your Career: 50+ Resources For Programmers & Software Engineers
• How To Choose A Logo Designer
• So You Thought Quitting Your Job Was the Answer to Freeing Yourself? Think Again.
• Networking – the basis for your success
• Net Professionals: Do You Have a Work Contingency Plan?
• Using MySpace To Drive Traffic: A One Month Test

[Click Here to Read More...]

Is It Stupid (Or Crazy) Enough To Work?

Posted November 9, 2007 in Uncategorized 52 Rockin' Comments »

I used to work in sales and marketing for a big telecom company here in Montreal before I decided to go solo. It was a big building, 14 floors I think. On each floor you had a different department (or many).

I remember the 9th floor where all the creative people used to spend their days; designing the next version of the website, the colorful posters, writing kick-ass sales letters, thinking of a new logo and all.

I ended up working there for a couple of weeks (although they ‘needed‘ me in another department, and I eventually had to leave… damn-it!). And almost everyday we would see people coming in to give their resume. Most of them didn’t seem interested in the creative stuff and looked like they just needed a ‘job‘.

Well, one day this guy showed up with a red chair, and he wanted to meet the supervisor, he said he didn’t care about the HR guy, he wanted to see the immediate supervisor so he could talk to him for a sec.

So there he was with his red chair, he waited for about 15 minutes, then the supervisor went to meet him, and the guy said: [Click Here to Read More...]

In Need Of A Bigger Logo? Try MakeMyLogoBigger Cream

Posted November 7, 2007 in Uncategorized 7 Rockin' Comments »

About a week ago Miaken from Agency Fusion told me about this new ‘mock-u-mercial‘ they did. It’s called ‘Make-My-Logo-Bigger Cream‘. I thought this was just way too funny to not write about it.

Talk about a way to market your services and products! Humor is always good! ;)

What do you think of the video?

Dealing With Dark Moods Of Freelancing

Posted November 6, 2007 in Uncategorized 10 Rockin' Comments »

Dark moods of freelancing have got nothing to do with the times your work isn’t going great or when you don’t turn in even a single project on time.

You might be getting ten business inquiries per day (which for most, if not all, of us is a lot) and traffic to your website may be reaching new heights, dark moods can hit you just out of the blues; you suddenly lose interest in every work-related activity including checking the e-mails, replying to business inquiries, answering business calls, working on existing projects — you don’t even feel like communicating with your present clients.

You just want to watch the TV, read some books, listen to music, lie under the sun, play with the dog, letch at your neighbor’s wife (or husband), talk to someone incessantly, or do anything that is not work-related. It happens. [Click Here to Read More...]

Welcome To Daisho-BlackSmith – Our New Advertiser

Posted November 5, 2007 in News Add Comment »

“Software and Methodology. The Swords of the 21st Century” – I like the sound of that.

If you take a look at the sidebar, you’ll see we added a new 125×125px banner around the top. I would like to welcome our new advertiser, Daisho-Blacksmith, to the Freelance Folder family. (hello!)

Daisho-Blacksmith is a company based in Munich, Germany, and is run by Michael Gottschalk and Klaus Wiedemann (managing directors). Together they combine almost 40 years of experience in project management, sales, business development and many other fields. [Click Here to Read More...]

3 “Aren’t-I-Smart” Lies That Kill Your Profits

Posted November 5, 2007 in Productivity 36 Rockin' Comments »

When it comes to lying, there’s nobody more willing to believe us than… well, us. When we’re not doing the best things to move our business forward, we tell ourselves it’s okay, we’re doing great, it’s not that bad… but at the end of the day all that rationalization isn’t building revenue and bagging new customers.

Here’s how to recognize where we’re sweet-talking our way past out problems… and how to fix them for good. [Click Here to Read More...]