Marketing 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Rm 105

Facilitator Nick Armstrong

TOPICS

What is marketing?

1. Strategic alliances

2. % of my budget I should be allotting to marketing

3. Types of marketing plans

4. The kitchen sink (what are the options for marketing)

What is Marketing?

When you think about marketing your business, what is marketing to you?

Teams:  
YOU   
Outsourcing
Interns
Evangelists
Partners/Alliances

Tools:
Sponsorship
Community Interaction (Web)
Talking
Building Events
Teaching
Strategic business units (McDonalds & Coke, as an example)
Advertising/SWAG

Finances:
Rewards for Word of Mouth evangalists (bonuses)

Investments (time):

Procedures:
Find the tribe
Word of mouth
Finding target audience (define the specific person)
Strategy
Screening
Focus

Message:
Consistency
Elevator pitch
Right message for the medium

Marshall McCluen (sp?) RESOURCE
 *Sometimes the medium can be the message and the message can be the medium

Content Neighborhood:
Talk about similar things in different ways, identifying these groups

Off the cuff marketing ideas:
 Angel “hits on” potential coworkers at coffee shops
  -She “profiles” her targets
(laptops, alone, might be a freelancer or someone who would be interested in coworking)

Part of the procedures is to create a profile of your target market –
 Create the actual person on paper
 Where does she live?
 What does she listen to?
 Kids? How many? What ages?
 What movies does she go to?
 Income?
 Vacation?
 Etc.

ROI/metrics:
How do you measure if your marketing is working?
 Finances – are you actually making money?
 Time – is your time paying off?
 Trade Offs – do your kids recognize you?

 Define what return is: Is it a sale, a lead, a contact? How do you define you’re the return on your time/marketing.
 What’s the return, what’s the investment… you can track this… WRITE IT DOWN. Nick recommends coming up with a good metric system.

 Where did you hear about us?  Helps track what is working and what isn’t working in your marketing.
 
 What are people using to track return on investment (ROI)?
  Forms
  Asking new clients
  Google analytics

Do you have a marketing strategy?
 Many ppl in this workshop did not rais their hand.

Workshop member Daryl, finds way for artists to become profitable.:  Teaching. Be a trusted advisor. 

Workshop member who builds web sites in a small town: Talking at the bar, creates trust.

Workshop member Rue:  Creates personality of self. Finds out how he can help his client solves their problems, has and uses an elevator speech.

Workshop member: Make other people want what you offer.  This can be a marketing strategy.

“Hierarchy of success” Seth Godin  RESOURCE
-Attitude, how you say what you say and why you want to say it
-Approach, what and who I am going to market to…
-Goals, things you want to accomplish need to be timely, SMART goals, 1-5 years out, sometimes further out
-Strategy, how you will accomplish your goals
-Tactics, executionable portion of that strategy (metrics for success…track your tactics)
-Execution, the actually doing
*Each follows the other

@smacready recommends looking at this list of tools, from Seth Godin, from the bottom up. 

Other discussion:
How to market your stuff –

Find out what do people care about.
Saturate a circle of influence… activate your network.
If people know and like you, you can ask them to do things on your behalf!  It’s a fact.
Marketing/Sales - old idea, still true today, people buy from people they know and like.

Your marketing should fulfill a need, even if they didn’t know they needed it. - @RueSmith

Made to Stick RESOURCE book
Making it Happen RESOURCE book

Freelance Bartering

11 AM, July 28, 2010 

Controversial.

Comes down to having enough trust in the people you are bartering to make sure you aren’t going to get screwed in the transaction.

RESOURCE Message boards depending on the services you need.

DigitalPoint

WebMasterTalk

Brent - if I don’t know them I usually won’t barter with them

Trust isn’t just a matter for barter, it’s a matter for any business deal.

Even deals with family members can go bad.

Bartering can ruin friendships.

You can also have awesome experiences bartering, some of the best experiences possible.

Example of bartering working, not just in freelance.

Trade-up stuff on line. Guy started with a paper clip and wound up with a house a year later.

How you value services… it’s about perceived value, not actual value.

Brent felt he was getting more value from the person he was bartering with, but the other person felt the same way. That’s the best kind of barter situation. 

Before you barter with someone, know what you are willing to give away

People can get resentful because they didn’t ask for what they wanted or needed

Chris

If someone says “I’ll know what I want when I see it” - don’t do business with them… (not even when they are paying for work!)

Make sure time frames are similar. One story of a trade, but the business traded with went out of business before freelancer got to use up her credit after completing her end of the deal.

The time factor is a risk to be aware of.

Failsafes can be built in: if the furniture recipient bails out before completing the 12 months worth of work, then they’ll pay this much for the furniture. 

Successful barter transactions can strengthen the trust between the two parties and lead to further paid work. They could become a good client.

It’s like someone coming to you saying they want your work for free, but they’ll tell my friends about you. 

Car dealership comes to developer and says when you make the web site put on there that you made the website and that will bring you more business. Counter: ok Mr. Car Dealer, why don’t you give me a car and I’ll put a bumper sticker that lets everyone know where I got it. That will help you sell more cars, right?

Have a conversation about cost. Know what your cost is. Are you doing it retail-to-retail, or cost-to-cost, or?

Guidelines: Trust is one of the most important factor.

What if it’s friends? How do you have the conversation with tact? “If I did this for a client, this is how much I would charge.”

Important to have the discussion about value of services, and if they don’t match, work out how to handle the difference. Cash is an option? 

Find out what’s expected from the barter on both sides.

Are both parties being transparent?

Is there a contract involved?

If large amounts of work involved, Brent will use a contract even if no $ are involved. Protects both parties.

Approach a contract in a friendly way “this is a written reminder so we can go back and remember what we both agreed to.” “Reminds me what my obligations are to you.” That way it’s not “sign your life away” or “I don’t trust you.”

Lesson learned: we were writing the contract, and they wanted us to start the work before the contract was signed. 

Warning signs: leave a voice mail and no message returned, same for email: non-responsiveness.

If they are providing services over time in return and the quantity or quality starts to degrade over time.

What about scope creep?

For larger web development projects, in the contract is the scope.

Be willing to say “that’s not what we agreed to”

Are you looking to barter? Talk to people here at #freefc

REOURCE:

Mechanical Turk

“What would you do for five dollars?” http://fiverr.com

Can use resources like that to get logo designed, etc. Going to come across a lot of crap, but also some gems.

Are there tax implications? No lawyers present, but the general consensus is that yes, there can be, but falls in the category of things like you are supposed to voluntarily pay state sales tax for all online purchases. Talk to your accountant or lawyer.

Email discussion of how to share safely online or on Twitter:

Yahoo has temporary/disposable email addresses you can set up within your existing account

Use a service (free) like scr.im. Very easy for a human to follow the link, match two pictures and get your email address, but a robot or automated script can’t. (Of course a human could go get your email address and add it to a list.)

Our presenters Twitter handles:

Brent: @brentter

Chris: @heizusan

Followed by a guitar performance by Chris. Who has bartered with Atlas Purveyors - he plays music, they give him food and drinks.

Big struggles - All of the crap that has to go along with freelancing - the “boring” business side of things - bookkepping, etc.

Business Structure

- Running an LLC through your personal taxes is the same as sole proprietorship. However, you gain the credibility of an LLC Business, access to business checking, etc.

- As an LLC, you can protect your personal assets from liability

- However, if you’re treating the LLC as a Sole Proprietorship, you lose the advantages.

- RESOURCE - Colorado Secretary of State Website http://www.sos.state.co.us/ - Tells you everything you need to set up an LLC. Has a wizard for filling out Articles of Incorporation.

- RESOURCE - Business Librarians -Business Librarian at Poudre Libraries - Anne McDonald

- If you’re an LLC, a CPA is highly recommended

- As an LLC or Sole Proprietorship - keep about 30% set aside for tax.

- Self Employment tax - 15.3% - Required as an LLC or Sole Proprietorship

- If you have a qualified retirement plan as a self employed individual, you are eligible to deduct those contributions at the end of the year. Solo-K, SEP-IRA are eligible. A Roth IRA is not eligible.

- Make sure your business structure is right for your business. Sometimes incorporating will lose you money.

- You can ‘upgrade’ your business entity status at any time - from LLC to INC, but can’t ‘downgrade’. You have to dissolve the INC first.

How to Find A Good CPA

- Twitter

- Personal Referrals

What Should You Outsource?

- Accounting

- Client Management, Invoice Tracking System

- RESOURCE - Harvest - GetHarvest.com - Integrates with BaseCamp, iPhone App

- RESOURCE - FreshBooks - freshbooks.com

- For bookkeeping, start with the high end, like QuickBooks, it’s a pain to move everything between systems.

- Legal, especially review contacts for liability

- RESOURCE - Graphics Design Handbook - Blue Book - Disc with templates for legal forms

- RESOURCE - NOLO Books

- RESOURCE Cohere LLC has a copy of an eBook from NOLO, contact them for information.

- RESOURCE - www.printablecontracts.com

- Web Design, SEO

- Outsource ANYTHING you DON’T enjoy doing. The more time you spend doing the stuff you love doing, the better your business will be.

- Just because you CAN do it, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

- Especially outsource if you can do it for less than your billable rate.

- Tech Support - Backups, Computer 

- RESOURCE - Simplicity Tech - IT Services - Well Recommended

- You should always have some sort of a backup, whether it be an online backup, or on external media.

- RESOURCE - external Media Backups - Time Machine for MAC - Built In Windows Backup

- RESOURCE - Online Backups - MozyPro - Carbonite - Google Docs - Syncplicity (Syncs with Google Docs) - DropBox

Insurance Issues

- Errors and Omissions Insurance - Especially as a writer.

- Cost will depend on the industry

- Liability insurance, if a physical business, or you have physical products.

- Renter’s Insurance - CAREFUL - If you have your business address a home address, they won’t cover you.

- Above all else - CHECK YOUR POLICY - Take it to another agent, have them review it.

Psychological Shift to Becoming a Freelancer

- Initial Shift - from “Holy crap I can get up whenever I want” to “Holy crap if I don’t get up I don’t get paid.”

- Treat yourself like your own client, you’ll get stuff done

- You have to put your business before your clients. Otherwise, your business won’t grow.

- Cash Flow - make sure you can weather any fluxes in your cash flow. Build your reserves.

- Understand your billing terms. Net 30 usually means Net 60 or Net 75.

- Make sure you have clients sign for the payment terms.

- RESOURCE - PayPal, or other Mercant Services Account - Can write off handling fees as Business Expenses

- Make it easy for your clients to pay you. Never let them say “The check is in the mail.”

- Never be afraid to understand that you have an inherent value.

- Say NO!, And don’t feel bad about saying NO!

- Sometimes you have to learn to say no by saying yes too many times.

- Saying no also opens up the opportunity to say yes to the right client.

- Balance building a portfolio of your work vs. giving yourself away for free.

- Rely on your gut. If you know that a client is going to be trouble, then just say NO and walk away. Or quote them REALLY high.

- Find a “creative partner” to bounce ideas off of. Get honest feedback from them. Also known as a “Frontstabber”.

- Set up regular pricing reviews, make sure that you’re charging what you’re actually worth.

- Don’t be afraid to raise the rates on existing clients, especially if they’re long term clients. But be sure to work with them on the increase, and increase their rate slowly, especially if it’s a big increase.

- Always have pricing conversations over the phone or in person, not via email.

- Establish a referral policy.

- Consider having two different pricing schemes, one for Open Market pricing, one for Agency pricing.

- Be sure to thank people for referrals.

Branding (Rm 105)

TOPICS

How to create a brand?

Define branding?

Why do you need a brand?

Branding product lines

Controlling your brand

Personal branding/corporate branding

Using your brand (elements)

When to bring in outside help?

FORMAT

Group facilitator Rue Smith (RFI Marketing)  @RueSmith

1.  Definition of branding:
A brand – Perception of your company, both visually and community and interaction, perception of value

Branding – “Making sure the outside perception of your company and inside reality are equal or close to equal.”

Wiki Def: a personality that identifies a product, how everything you do in your business reflects outward 

Note: There are differences in branding between service v. product company

2. Why we brand:

What you stand for and how you stand out in the market place, personality, creditability.

The example of branding cattle – I own this cow, I own this particular segment of the marketplace.  Addition, the “value perception” in that particular segment of the marketplace.

3. What/how do we brand:
 
As freelancers we brand ourselves… everything.

Your brand speaks when you stand in front of someone or a crowd.  “My brand story is being shared with all of you when I opened freelance camp through direction action,”  ~Kevin Buecher

 Not only actions, but prior actions, create a brand.

 Know yourself, you are your brand. 

Marketing is knowing your audience, branding is knowing yourself.  
 
Cultural analysis:  New generation not trying to fill market needs, but are finding what who they are/what they want to do and creating a need for it in the market.
Book recommendation: “Flip” by Peter Sheahan  RESOURCE  book on Gen Y

Brand comes before market (in Rue’s opinion).
 
How Rue would help his client brand their company – the questions he would ask?

1.   What are your unique selling points USP / value
2. What is your niche
3. What is your unique culture (examples New Belgium, Zappos)
4. Use 5 words to describe yourself and then 5 words to describe your business – find out where they converge and then move forward from there.

Things to keep in mind when branding:
Social cultural awareness
Delivery of value
Simplicity of message/defining message
Consistency across the brand

Controlling your brand:

Consistent messaging
Understanding what your market wants/giving them a deliverable
In every interaction, answer the needs of clients

How do you promote your personal brand?
 Evolving brands/controlling it while it evolves
 Ocam Razor RESOURCE

Top 3 pieces of advice for someone with an established brand to kick it up a notch, take it to the next level -
  Box tiers:
  1. Understanding who you are and what you are (promotion)
  2. How you interact?
  3. Advanced, industry specific things that you are doing  
   (examples, sponsoring events and volunteerism with target market)
“If the event doesn’t exist, build it,” Nick Armstrong 

Simplicity discussion –
Spreading marketing, spreading brand
Is it possible to go too wide?
Okay if it stays within a certain
Diversifying your market.  
 
Utilizing elements of your brand (specifically your identity):

Make sure you are using multiple avenues, but that they all point to the specific element of your brand.
Pick a primary target for people to hit when they recognize your brand, possibly a Web site. 

Smashing Magazine article “20 best resources for branding guides” RESOURCE
 *Link being tweeted by Ron & @RueSmith.

Advanced topic – consistency of message
Example:  Blackberry logo
  “A Branding Guide is absolutely necessary for every new business,” Rue Smith.

 A company that did a really good job of putting in their values into their brand and making it pretty for the public is LuLu Limon (yoga company) manifesto.  RESOURCE

 People who mind, don’t matter, it’s the people who don’t mind who matter.

 Kevin Kelly’s discussion of true fans RESOURCE

 Seth Godin “Tribes” RESOURCE

 “Rework” by Jason Fried RESOURCE

Interesting question that came up during discussion:  As we are building teams and collaborating, how do we do this with all our separate brands?

Main struggle of freelancing is the ‘business’ set - bookkeeping, finance, etc.

Setting up the business structure (LLC v Sole Proprietor v DBA, etc).  Pass thru with an LLC provides benefits of an ‘entity’ - business address, accounts, cell phone pricing, acquire EIN for billing from an employer, writeoff direct to business entity, etc. Recommend CPA to follow business and guide growth.  Liability cushion of an LLC only provided if LLC is run as a ‘true’ LLC and not being run as a sole proprietor, organizational documents and structure established.

Colorado Secretary of State website for all documents, has wizard to work you through the process.  $50 application, links you to Federal site for getting your EIN and provides all pdf docs required.  * Organizational Agreement (not official) versus Articles of Organization (official, required).  Library provides free resources, research and guidance.  Corporation poorly affects taxes unless your employee numbers require that structure.  Corporations taxed at a higher rate.

Self employment tax is 15.3% currently.  Pay quarterly versus annually (although IRS does allow it, not a good idea).

If you have a qualified retirement plan (as a self-employed individual) you are eligible to deduct your contributions (applies for SEP IRA, Solo-K or Traditional IRA but not ROTH IRA).  SUGGESTION:  Stash money away thruout year, following year take one time deduction (up to $___) amount for 1st time homebuyer. If replaced before April 15th, no implications for your taxes.

Can ‘upgrade’ from LLC to Corp but not backwards. Must dissolve Corp. first.

How to find a good CPA?  - Twitter, referrals.  Costs $300-400 annually, saves substantial amounts.

OUTSOURCING As a Freelancer

  - Accounting

  - Legal

  - Web Design

  - Anything you don’t enjoy doing

  - IT (rec: SimplicityTech)

  - Backup (rec: MozyPro, Carbonite, GoogleDocs/Syncplicity, __ )

TOOLS Needed

- Invoice Tracking/ Customer Management System (rec: GetHarvest.com or Freshbooks)

- Contracts (graphic design handbook, NOLO eBook, printablecontracts.com)

- Insurance (E&O, liability for physical biz, insurance for stuff, don’t rely on renters insurance as it won’t cover ‘business’ assets)

Psychology of Freelance

YOU ARE YOUR FIRST PRIORITY CLIENT

- Freedom v structure

- Deadlines and scheduling

- Cash Flow and building reserves, understand your billing terms

- Up front payments, deposit and Net 0 or 30 (the larger the clients, the longer the delay of payment)

- Make it easy to get paid (paypal, merchant services, etc). Write off your paypal service charges.

- Learn the word “NO” and how to use it without guilt!

- ‘Frontstabbers’ are those who will get straight to the ‘gut’ but with honest feedback.  A mentor with an open pass to say what needs to be said.

Twitter Handles Part 2

fccoworking:

Session building!

Reu Smith facilitating the Branding session!

Twitter Handles Poster :-)

Thanks for registering for Freelancecamp Fort Collins!  Here are some important details that will help you get to the event with no trouble, be well fed and have a great day.

Directions

From I-25, exit Prospect and head west

Turn RIGHT on College Avenue

Turn LEFT on Laurel and go until you see Woody’s Pizza on your right

“Rockwell Hall-West” will be on your LEFT side.

Parking

You may turn RIGHT onto Whitcomb (across the street from Rockwell-West) and use street parking as long as there is no 2 hour limit.

OR

You may turn Left into the parking lot labelled “Q”.

Use the WEST FACING entrance into Rockwell Hall-West, follow the hallway to the check-in tables

Schedule

In true unconference fashion, there are very few places you HAVE to be during the day but if you want to be able to eat, follow these tips:

8:30a-9:00a Check-in and Breakfast  We request that you arrive prior to 9:00am so you can actually eat.  Food/drink is not allowed in the auditorium or the break out rooms so we want you to be well fed by the time session building starts at 9:00 :)

9:00a-10:00 Orientation and Session Building This is where the magic happens. We’ll learn about how an unconference works and build our sessions and agenda for the day.

10:00a-11:00a Session 1

11:00a-12:00a Session 2

12:00p-1:00p LUNCH-Hooray!

1:00p-2:00p Session 3

2:00-3:00p Session 4 + Snack Hour

3:00-4:00p Session 5 (FINAL SESSION)

4:00p-Later On After Party at Woody’s Pizza across the street.  Join us for casual conversation, unwind from the day, meet more new friends and enjoy some good beer and pizza.

Other Delights

The twitter hashtag will be #freefc and we’ll have the live twitter stream running in each room for #freefc.

Wireless internet is available and we’ll provide you with the user/password on Wednesday.

Once again, no food/drinks in the rooms.  The venue is brand new, beautiful and unsullied by stains on the carpets.  Let’s keep it that way!

Looking forward to spending a delightful day with you learning, sharing and becoming better freelancers!