Staying busy during the holidays

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Holiday ReceptionistYup it’s that time again. Time to get the fireplace ready, decorate the house with lights, and set your travel plans. All is good though if this is your slow season and you look forward to it. However, it’s also the perfect time to set things up to hit the ground running as soon as the new year kicks off.

Most businesses start ramping down efforts at the end of the year. Closing out books, updating bookkeeping, and the like maybe. As a designer you may not have too many new projects coming in. If you’re one of them keep reading. I’ve got some ideas for you to keep busy and productive if this will be your slow season.

Update Your Own Work

One of the things we always neglect, is our own work. Whether it’s our website, logo, business plan, chances are there are quite a bit of housekeeping items we need to get done that we’ve been putting off all year due to being busy. Why not take the time to revamp your work. If you haven’t been able to add some social media items to your website, schedule it in now.

Brush Up On Your Skills

Have you been wanting to learn more about javascript or HTML 5? Why not take some easy to follow classes with Lynda.com or your local university. Knowledge really is power. Especially when that knowledge can be traded for money. Lets face it, the more you know the faster you’ll be at your trade and the more money you can request for your skills.

Setup a Referral Program

I know I’ve talked about this before but it actually works. Start with people you already know like friends and family and ask them if they know anyone who may need the services you provide. Entice them offering a referral fee. $50 is usually good enough to wet anyone’s appetite.

Get Out There and Network

Everyone is hosting parties. Host one yourself and invite all your clients and their friends, or attend their parties and socialize with their clients and friends. Don’t push your business on anyone, but you can provide your card if asked for it. Being in the presence of your clients gives both of you memories and a sense of friendship outside of just the business relationship.

Do you have some tips on staying busy during the slow times of the holidays? Share with us in the comments below.

Attending Meetups and Expos really boosts your exposure

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OBusiness Networkingver the past two months I’ve been attending quite a few networking groups, meetups, expos, and the like. My experiences range from great to a complete waste of time.  Some were free and some carried an entry fee; but all of them left me with something to learn and something to walk away with.

Let me start by saying that I would recommend any solo-prenuer designer to try to attend as many networking engagements as you can when you’re starting out. You’ll get a chance to practice your elevator speech over and over again. If you don’t have one, you’ll quickly learn one as you introduce yourself to people every few minutes. Have a speech prepared already, the repetition will help finesse your keywords and delivery. Those of you who’ve been around for a few years, you already know that your time is important. Being strategic about which events you attend is key. Think about who in the community in terms of leaders or movers and shakers will be in attendance. Try and work your way to meeting them and making a good impression. Not just to get them to take your business card, but to find interest in what you know about a subject matter. If the conversation goes well then give them your card. Also seek out city officials and editors of your local newspapers.

You’ll pick up a lot of business cards during the event. Even during a 2 hour meetup with about 40 attending professionals, you’re set to collect about 30 new business cards. Treat each new business card as a possible lead. Quickly email them back with a short personal message the very next business day. Include something to remind them about what you may have discussed together and leave them with an open-ended request for service. For example:

“Good morning Mr. Smith. It was great to meet you last night at the Entrepreneur’s Networking Event.  Especially to meet someone else who still wears penny loafers! You had some really interesting points about your products. If you ever have any questions about (design, or websites, or social media, or graphics) feel free to give me a call.”

That’s all you need to say really. Short and to the point. In my experience I hear back from 10-15% of the people I reach out to after an event.  Out of those that I hear back from I’m able to convert clients or referrals out of at least 1 or 2.

The events that could be a waste of time are ones where your target clients are not obviously attending. After you’ve been to a few networking events you should be able to tell from the invite who the audience in attendance will be. Save yourself the gas and RSVP to ones based on who will attend, even if you may be at bit nervous. I’ll admit that stepping out of your comfort zone may be nerve-wracking but the more you do it the more rewarded you will be. Eventually you’ll build up a good confident vibe when entering a room, talking to new people about what you do in under a minute, and having people ask you first for YOUR business card because they recognize you’re the authority on your industry.

Have any recent experiences like this to add? Please share in the comments field below.

The reality of SEO and your shoestring budget

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SEOOf the past few weeks I’ve been getting quite a few questions about SEO. With the growing consciousness of the power of search and keyword relevancy, all questions are pretty much valid. Let me start off though with stating that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a service all on its own. My personal recommendation is that you find a reputable company that provides these services almost exclusively.  They’ll work with your web designer or if you don’t have one, they’ll make the necessary updates for you in their marketing plan. Typically you’ll see prices range from $700 to $2,000 a month. And that’s where I notice a lot of people’s facial expressions drop.

For the average small business start-up, forking over $1,500 a month in SEO services may be a bit high. There are a few things I want to bring to light about SEO and the shoestring business.

  • SEO is not for every business on a budget. If you can only allow for a budget of $100 or less per month, you’ll be better off doing a local PR campaign, or an ad in your community newspaper, or social media.
  • Evaluate how much profit you make per each new customer before doing SEO. If each new client brings you a profit of $50 to $100 but you’re monthly invoice for proper SEO is over 1k, that SEO plan needs to bring in more than 10 new clients a month at least.
  • SEO should incorporate many online facets like, directory listings (DMOZ, Altavista, Google), local directories (Yelp, Superpages, Google Places).
  • There should be some goals and metrics involved before and during an SEO campaign. I’ve heard a few people say they’re doing SEO but have no idea what the increase of inbound links are from month to month or what their lead to conversion rates are.
  • Don’t think SEO is something you’re going to do for one or two weeks or months and then turn off or stop the service. Like any other marketing plan, SEO needs to be considered as an ongoing plan. You’ll want to monitor and even graph your traffic, leads, and conversions each month. Stopping altogether really isn’t an option, but switching providers due to bad performance may be.

There are other things a business owner can do to boost traffic on their own website. Some free tactics include Google Analytics and Website Grader from Hubpspot. The data that these two sites provide can really give you an in-depth look at the traffic coming into your site, what keywords are relevant, browser usage and more.

I do want to stress that SEO is fantastic when you’re ready to really compete against your competition. You’ll certainly want to expect more traffic to your physical brick and mortar store too. Having great sales reps and customer service already in place will help capitalize on all this new recognition too.