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Quote of the Month

Published May 1, 2012 | By Contributor

Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch. (Tim Berners-Lee)

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Is Your Mind Still Getting In Your Way?

Published April 25, 2012 | By Contributor

We’ve all heard the talk about positive thinking and how our own thoughts can create our reality. And, it is hard to argue that positive thinking is in any way a bad thing. But could your negative thoughts really be a bad thing? Could your own mind be part of your stumbling block?

The reality is that positive thinking is an extremely powerful force. I am not talking about the law of attraction or the power of attraction. Rather, your personal power to navigate change and challenges effectively, and maintain your personal power. If you are or plan to be a business owner then you have to acknowledge that your success is dependent upon your ability to think and stay positive and embrace the challenges that come your way and learn the valuable lessons they have to offer. If you choose to be taken over by challenges and sink into negativity, questioning your vision and your abilities you will sink.

Keeping focused on your vision and staying open to the possibilities; are two of the keys to staying positive. Some businesses die from lack of creativity and willingness to change when necessary. Keeping your positive outlook and evaluating the possibilities as they arise will keep your business on a positive swing. Open your mind to the possibilities that can keep your business successful and not add you to the heap of the dead and dying.

Stay Focused On Your Plan:

Look back at that original vision and plan. Evaluate where you are right now and where you need to refocus. Often business owners get distracted from the plan by the day to day business. It is a perfect time to look back and see if you are still on track. It is also an opportunity to decide if your plan needs to be revised or changed. Staying open to the possibilities also leaves the door open to add new products or services to your offerings. It is important to evaluate each of these in alignment with your overall business plan. Do they fit well?

Keeping your mind out of your way is easier when you are focused on your plan and each decision you are making fits well into your business and marketing plan.

You may have decided on one course of action to get the business started. Now could be the perfect time to niche into a more defined product. Here are the advantages:

More targeted marketing strategies
Higher sales

Success has its own rewards, but only if you are willing to pursue it. When you allow yourself to dream big, the sky is the limit. You won’t grow without the attitude and vision to see beyond where you are now.

Author: Donna Price

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Creating a Unique Business Logo

Published April 18, 2012 | By Contributor

Have you thought much about the branding you’re putting forth to your customers and clients?

When it comes to marketing your business, something as simple as a memorable graphic or catchphrase can create brand recognition and help you establish your business reputation. This is so important because every business needs to establish a relationship where their customers know, like and trust them.

When you think of Nike, what do you think of? For most people, the image of the Nike swoosh or the words “just do it” automatically jump into their mind when they think of the company.

When you see an image of an apple with a bite taken out of it, what do you think of? Many people will answer that question with either “Apple Computers” or “iPod”.

Establishing your own business logo or slogan can help people remember your business and think of it when the time comes that they actually want to use what you have to offer.

Branding With a Logo or Slogan

New visitors to your website will most likely not buy as soon as they get there. Most likely they’re going to see what you have to offer and then comparison shop or surf around looking at similar information.

You need to stand out in order to get them to return!

Creating a Logo That Helps You Stand Out

Look, the honest truth here is that a logo is not going to make or break your business. If you have a good one that helps you stand out that’s GREAT, but if you don’t have a logo you can continue and build a successful business.

The key to creating a logo that is unlike any other is to make sure it is completely authentic and infused with YOUR personality.

An example I can give you is in my own business here at Marketers Mojo. The name of this site itself is a great reflection of my own personality. I just love the word ‘mojo’ and the feel it gives.

Now of course my logo and branding is not just about me. It’s about my market and what they can relate to. The great thing about creating such an authentic logo is that it attracts people who also really resonate with what it represents. That way I work with people like me – and THAT makes for a business that I am completely in love with.

Logos That Associate You With Something

By creating your branding and logo you are associating something with your business. It may be a symbol or an animal or anything really. The important point is that when people see this representation anywhere else they may end up thinking of you if you’ve done your branding well.

When deciding which type of logo to use, think about your business and how you want to be perceived. Who is your target market and what type of things are they interested in? If your target market consists of grandmothers who are active, adding a rocking chair to your logo may insult them. However, featuring an older lady in tennis shoes or a in a jogging suit doing Pilates may make them laugh. This could be the type of logo that will stick with them and make them remember you.

The same goes for your slogan. Think of how you want to be represented and what appeals to your target market. In most cases it’s best to stay away from anything offensive, such as curse words or slang.

You will also want to stay away from trends. Your business logo and slogan can be with you for years. What is “cool” today can be “cold” tomorrow. Plan for a long-term investment and stick with what you will be proud of five or ten yeas from now.

How to Create a Free Business Logo

No cash to hire a graphic designer to create your logo? If you’ve got a bit of time on your hands to learn some graphic design yourself you could use the free graphics software program, Gimp. Gimp allows you to edit, create and enhance images and graphics for your website, business and branding.

Author: Angela Wills

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Delegate and Manage

Published April 11, 2012 | By Contributor

As you build your freelancing team, these tasks – delegating and managing – will be the bulk of what you do. That’s because you’ll already have hired and evaluated freelancers.

Yes, you’ll need to hire and evaluate on an ongoing basis, but you’ll have a team in place for long-term and ongoing projects. And this team will require you to delegate tasks and manage on an ongoing basis.

So let’s go over five dos and don’ts for accomplishing this step…

Don’t Treat the Freelancer Like an Employee
The first thing you need to remember is that you don’t own your freelancer’s time. That means that you shouldn’t assume that he/she will take on your projects, especially within your required timeframe.

Because your freelancer is an independent contractor, he/she usually has several other clients. This means that he/she may be booked, so you can’t expect nor demand him/her to take on your project. Indeed, even if his/her schedule is free, you still can’t demand that he/she can take on your project.

The second thing you need to be aware of is adding extra work to the project after you’ve already talked about the scope of the project and set deadlines. If you need something extra, you’ll need to ask the freelancer if he/she has extra time in his/her schedule to accommodate you. And if not, you’ll need to get a second deadline for the extra part of the project.

If, however, you’ve hired a freelancer to create something like software – and you’ve extended the features on the software – then the entire project delivery date will probably get moved when you extend the scope of the project.

Do Continue Using Briefs
When you first start working with a particular freelancer, you’re sure to create detailed briefs, offer examples and in general give thorough instructions. As time goes on, you may be tempted to send less information since your freelancer always seems to know what you want. DO NOT do this.

One of the reasons you and your good freelancers likely work well together (and why you get good results) is because you provide thorough briefs and project instructions. If you stop doing it, you’ll probably see your results drop off. At the very least, you’ll probably create more work for your freelancer, since he/she needs to guess what you want and/or ask a lot of follow up questions.

So make it easy on both of you by continuing to provide detailed briefs.

Do Manage Ongoing Projects
If you have a large project – such as a long ebook or a big software project – be sure to ask for regular follow ups.

If you’re just starting to work with a particular freelancer, you may ask for updates every day or every other day. As your relationship grows, you may be comfortable getting updates every three to four days or so.

However, even if you have a great relationship with a freelancer, be sure to get updates at least once a week for large projects. That’s because you don’t want several weeks to go by without hearing anything, only to find out later that the freelancer isn’t on track (which of course derails your project).

Secondly, remember that your freelancer is an independent contractor and an expert, so don’t micromanage the project. That is, DO NOT tell the freelancer how to complete the task. The exception, of course, is if you’re training a freelancer – such as a virtual assistant – who may not know how to do certain tasks.

Which brings us to our next point…

Don’t Neglect Training
If you expect to work with a freelancer on a long-term and/or ongoing basis, then you’ll probably want to spend some time training him/her with regards to your preferences and/or your expectations.

If you’re hiring a virtual assistant who’ll do a variety of tasks for you, then you’ll need to set time aside each week for training (at least in the beginning). For best results, you should create training materials, such as training videos or instructional manuals.

And finally….

Do Offer Praise Generously
You’re likely to need to correct your freelancers from time to time or at least request that things be done differently.

However, be sure that you don’t get in the habit of only pointing out what was done incorrectly or what you’d like changed. That can dampen the morale of your freelancing team.

Instead, you should regularly point out what was done right by offering generous praise. Indeed, you can even praise your freelancers right alongside your corrections.

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Hire the Best Freelancers

Published April 4, 2012 | By Contributor

If you have just two or three prospective freelancers left on your list after the due diligence process, then you can go ahead and hire them all.

There are two main reasons for hiring multiple people:

You can find out which freelancer does the best job for you.
Remember, even freelancers who do great jobs for others may not necessarily do a spectacular job for you. This usually happens because the two of you don’t communicate very well.

In other cases, you may simply not get along with a particular freelancer very well (e.g., your personality styles may clash). So even if this person produces good work, you may simply choose not to work with that person again. (Or, alternatively, that person may choose not to continue working with you.)

Point is, you want to test a variety of freelancers (the top two or three candidates on your list) to see who’s best suited for doing a particular project.

You’ll build a “second string” of freelancers.
Think of sports teams. They have their “first string” players, which are the guys who start the game and play for most of it. These are the best players.

But what happens if one of the first-string players is unavailable to play? Then a second-string player has to take his place. He/she may not be as good as the first string player, but he/she gets the job done.

The same thing can happen in your business. You may have your “first-string freelancers” – these are your favorites, the ones who do the best job for you. But your favorites aren’t always available.

So rather than wait months in order to get a job done, you may just hire another qualified freelancer (your “second string freelancer”). And that’s why it’s a good idea to hire a variety of people upfront, so that you can create a first and second line of freelancers.

Now, there are basically two ways to hire several people at once. Specifically:

Hire everyone to do the same job.
This obviously works best if you have an inexpensive job you need done, like creating a graphic. In this case you can hire two or three people, give them all the same project brief, and see who creates a graphic that most closely resembles what you had in mind. The advantage of this is that you get to directly compare different freelancer’s work and results.

But of course hiring different people to do the exact same job doesn’t always make sense (especially financially). In that case, you might try the second option…

Hire freelancers to do similar, but different, jobs.
Another option is to have your different freelancers complete different parts of the same job.Now, maybe you’re wondering what to do if your due diligence resulted in you getting left with more than two or three people on your list.

In that case, you need to rank your list in order of preference and then hire the top two or three. In order to do this, you may need to do one or more of the following:

Do additional research – In other words, extend your research to see if there’s one candidate that’s more qualified than the others.

Interview the person – (This step isn’t required for small, one-off tasks.)

Check the freelancers’ schedules – You may be prepared to hire someone, but perhaps you find out that the freelancer isn’t available for months. If you have a project that you need completed ASAP, then these long wait times may naturally disqualify a prospective freelancer.

Once you’ve ranked your freelancers in order of preference, then hire the top two or three to do the same or similar jobs (as described above). But keep these tips in mind…

Start small. Remember, this is just a testing period. You’re testing the freelancer to see if he/she produces good work. And for that matter, he/she is testing you to see if the two of you work well together, if you provide clear briefs and if you pay on time.

As such, you should start out by working on small projects together for a few weeks. Point is, don’t give your long or expensive projects to a new freelancer until after you find out if the two of you are a good fit.

Provide a clear project brief. Your freelancer isn’t a mind reader. And that’s why you need to offer a clear project brief and instructions.

Create legal agreements. In most cases you’ll need to talk to a competent attorney about this. However, you will want to consider creating and signing legal agreements which will protect both you and the freelancer.

Make your expectations known. Your legal agreements will cover the main points, such as payment terms and delivery deadlines. However, you should make your other expectations know as well.

Now that you’ve hired a freelancer and started working on small projects, it’s time to move on to the next step…

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All posts in the “Grow Your Business with Freelancers” Series: