Freelance Camp Fort Collins

Best Lessons from FreelanceCamp Fort Collins?

nickarmstrong — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:28:06 -0600

Now that you’ve had some time to reflect, what was the single best lesson from FreelanceCamp Fort Collins that you’ve put to use?

For Nick, it was: if your services are priced so low that you can’t afford to hire someone to help, you’ve priced too low (from @RedHeadWriting)

FreelanceCamp by the Numbers

fccoworking — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:31:33 -0600

When asked how much it cost to put on an event like FreelanceCamp, I decided to share all of the numbers. Both to satiate your curiosity and to help future volunteers, sponsors and organizers understand the quantity of money that is necessary to put on a well-run, professional event.

Money In

Ticket Sales: 845.00

Sticker Giant: 120.00

Cohere, LLC: 75.00

Digital Gunslingers: 75.00

The Hive: 75.00

Shir Joy Creative (Liz Sunshine): 75.00

Total Income= 1,265.00

Otterbox: $120 In-kind donation of 12 otterboxes and gift cards for the volunteers

Old Town Media: $40 In-kind donation of a boat load of snacks

Money Out

Venue: FREE

Breakfast, Lunch, Coffee, Tea: 672.21

Akinz sunglasses at a HUGE discount: 230.00

Eventbrite Fees: 62.75

PayPal Fees: 36.73

FreelanceCamp Stickers: 82.81

FlipChart, dry erase markers, nametags: 41.74

Plates, cups, bottled water: 36.33

3 Pizzas at After Party: 48.00

Total Expenses: $1,210.57

Difference: + $54.43 (to be applied towards next FreelanceCamp Fort Collins)

Photo

fccoworking — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:41:30 -0600

Session Building

Session agenda

Session agenda

After party!

After party!

Cooperation in Business

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:07:26 -0600

Definition: being prepared to take on more clients without quality of work diminishing or potential to continue successfully as its size increases

Going from Start Up to BIG – communication isn’t as easy – and not as efficient

“Didn’t you get the memo”

When you have to say that = you’re not scaling well

Steve Blank is a venture capitalist, founded companies, and has a great blog on this topic – Steve Blank

Who HAS succeeded at scaling their business?

First: talk about employees they are a means to a goal – not the goal itself

Code Geek – web firm: himself alone at first

He did all: design and development and writing….. better graphics ability – networking, user groups in Denver, id people who were skilled

Hired freelance at first – now dozen 1099s – he needs NOW to replicate himself

Delegation is crucial – find the right person who has the skill set – who can clone him

Programming and can also talk to clients

He SHOULD be the salesman, always

ID point of pain – I’m not a designer – knowing what your limitations, where your box is

Whatever goes into that box, comes out as amazing stuff

Try to not be an assembly line – be creative – keep YOU in the product/service

a) Who am I/what do I do well/what can others do better?

If an owner can’t go on vacation for a 6 months stint – then it’s not really a business

Difficult tasks:

Accounting

Operations

Networking/Presenting/Sales

Web design

HTML

Marketing

Question: ought you to outsource sales of services?

Of products, yes.

The only thing you can’t outsource is OPERATIONS

Risk of growth – leader originally holds the red balloon (the vision) – as they grow the balloon gets harder and harder to see

Look at Home Depot and New Belgium – Corporate Culture – its embedded into the organization.

Chic’Filet – it’s my pleasure – that’s not REALLY their pleasure : welcome to Walmart

Keep the vision because that’s what we are passionate about – and translate that into future branches, it will be fail

Be the charismatic leader of the cult

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Another aspect: Why am I growing and what does the picture look like?

Am I a steady presence or absent leader?

Think about what you really want!

Don’t grow for the sake of growing – that’s what society says, get a loan and grow and grow and grow – that’s peer pressure!

Different levels of scaling.

How much of a hand in it?

How do you replicate yourself?

Look for people who are different – those who excel where you don’t.

Having two visionaries as partners – kind of a nightmare!

To get an employee you need an EIN, but you don’t have to be an LLC.

Rules of contract vs employees:

W9/1099 contractor – can’t dictate the span of control.

Ramifications: contact CPA – keep you out of trouble with the IRS but consider that there may be back Unemployment Taxes and Social Security owed.

2 must haves: a good lawyer on tap and a good accountant to do your taxes

Find an EA (enrolled agent) with the IRS they can represent you without being there!

______

Hiring someone – options are limitless – take the time to hire a quality employee

Develop an interview process, an application form, look it up on the internet for sample questions, personality matches

Why do you want to have employees – ways to scale without never hiring.

Comes from strategic partnerships – those who do exactly what you do, and are complementary

RESOURCE: Erica (RedHeadWriting) – ODesk.com – do your admin while you are asleep

– concentric circles – more business but not expanding your services; more employees then

- scaling your business – increasing your scope; get strategic alliances

OTHER:

Take time to find people you can work with and can support you.

If you can’t go on vacation, you’re failing at business

How can employees and contractors be invested with you – honor them in front of client, reward them, emotionally as a human being, how you manage them

Trust your contractors; but if you’ve done it right – they’re going to leave and do their own stuff – which is GOOD!

Price your services so you CAN scale – you have to be able to outsource, pay your vendors ½ of what you charge – if you can’t then raise your prices! OR send that vendor overflow!

Reward: energy to grow your business and be on your bike or wakeboarding.

Collaboration with Freelances

Offer more services than you can do yourself –

Surround with idea peoples – by virtue of being with freelancer

Real world - collaborate on a problem together

Financial benefit to collaboration – one person specializes in X, another in Y

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

When did you collaborate – alliances with people

Chicks who click – was the place she sourced that expert

What does like minded mean?

Ideas, values, goals,

Get advice from other freelances – vs employees – they don’t have RISK in their business

Places you get collaborators: FCIP, co-working places, camps

Backchannel on IRC – chat channel, log into that whether they are in the space or not (don’t have to be a member)

Co-optetion – people often want to protect their business –much rather be helpful and work together; it’s OK to be helpful. There’s more than enough clients for everyone and your X factor distinguishes you.

AND they can be back ups too. And the general marketplace is informed about your speciality as well.

Be an orchestrator and parcel jobs out. Everyone is in the same boat together – toss work to others, benefits YOU and helps the freelancer get work too.

Strategic alliances are different from the resources who do exactly what you do… there’s a lot of trust there.

Stealing clients is bad juju – and those are so rare occasions – don’t stress.

More brains involved in a project – yeah, that’s such good input! Those WOW moments you wouldn’t have had without that collaboration.

Can position yourself as an expert if you show yourself as cooperative and providing valuable information – don’t keep the knowledge to yourself.

Keep an open mind about collaborators. Don’t shut yourself off. Entertain possibilities.

As your business changes your collaborations will change.

Co-working opens up the ability to ask questions of others – you can pick brains for free. Those sorts of questions are so much easier if you are co-working – or on social media.

It’s ok to be in the same facility as your competitors! And networking groups too. What is this about networking associations restricting competitors from being in the same leads group!

One connection can make all the difference – must be generous from the start.

Traditional businesses won’t go for collaboration with competition – spread the word about this sort of open minded collaboration – be the evangelists for this paradigm shift. It’s a thought-shift.

There are people who will not use a business unless they have a brick and mortar office.

Clients benefit from collaboration – they can be over the moon.

All collaborators can share email addresses so they come under the business banner.

Us now film.com …. biggest thinkers talking about this stuff. Coolest many to many features out in the world, soccer team owned by the fans.

RESOURCES: Check out Start Up Weekend – coolest unconference in the world. Start companies over the weekend – now in over 100 cities. Had one in Boulder previously.

Bar Camp – about:

Mid 90s in SF, Tim O’Reilly invited friends to Foo Camp, then it became community-sourced, and started Bar Camp – host our OWN conference, same framework across the world (Change Camp, Bacon Camp, Demo Camp, … etc.)

There are emerging field of leaders… think about IGNITE as similar – let people do their thing.

Biggest Bar Camp is in Austin week before SXSW (music, design community fest.)

Make it happen here – NXNE!

Denver rules – Austin drools.

The awesome foundation – 10 trustees put $100 a month and support good causes (don’t ask for a stake!)

Think about this people – go talk to Angel. No metrics, no grant forms. No business plans or loans. Just rewarding and acknowledging awesomeness.

Beer thirty – we’re winding down.

Business Scalability

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:06:21 -0600

Definition: being prepared to take on more clients without quality of work diminishing or potential to continue successfully as its size increases

Going from Start Up to BIG – communication isn’t as easy – and not as efficient

“Didn’t you get the memo”

When you have to say that = you’re not scaling well

Steve Blank is a venture capitalist, founded companies, and has a great blog on this topic – Steve Blank

Who HAS succeeded at scaling their business?

First: talk about employees they are a means to a goal – not the goal itself

Code Geek – web firm: himself alone at first

He did all: design and development and writing….. better graphics ability – networking, user groups in Denver, id people who were skilled

Hired freelance at first – now dozen 1099s – he needs NOW to replicate himself

Delegation is crucial – find the right person who has the skill set – who can clone him

Programming and can also talk to clients

He SHOULD be the salesman, always

ID point of pain – I’m not a designer – knowing what your limitations, where your box is

Whatever goes into that box, comes out as amazing stuff

Try to not be an assembly line – be creative – keep YOU in the product/service

a) Who am I/what do I do well/what can others do better?

If an owner can’t go on vacation for a 6 months stint – then it’s not really a business

Difficult tasks:

Accounting

Operations

Networking/Presenting/Sales

Web design

HTML

Marketing

Question: ought you to outsource sales of services?

Of products, yes.

The only thing you can’t outsource is OPERATIONS

Risk of growth – leader originally holds the red balloon (the vision) – as they grow the balloon gets harder and harder to see

Look at Home Depot and New Belgium – Corporate Culture – its embedded into the organization.

Chic’Filet – it’s my pleasure – that’s not REALLY their pleasure : welcome to Walmart

Keep the vision because that’s what we are passionate about – and translate that into future branches, it will be fail

Be the charismatic leader of the cult

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Another aspect: Why am I growing and what does the picture look like?

Am I a steady presence or absent leader?

Think about what you really want!

Don’t grow for the sake of growing – that’s what society says, get a loan and grow and grow and grow – that’s peer pressure!

Different levels of scaling.

How much of a hand in it?

How do you replicate yourself?

Look for people who are different – those who excel where you don’t.

Having two visionaries as partners – kind of a nightmare!

To get an employee you need an EIN, but you don’t have to be an LLC.

Rules of contract vs employees:

W9/1099 contractor – can’t dictate the span of control.

Ramifications: contact CPA – keep you out of trouble with the IRS but consider that there may be back Unemployment Taxes and Social Security owed.

2 must haves: a good lawyer on tap and a good accountant to do your taxes

Find an EA (enrolled agent) with the IRS they can represent you without being there!

______

Hiring someone – options are limitless – take the time to hire a quality employee

Develop an interview process, an application form, look it up on the internet for sample questions, personality matches

Why do you want to have employees – ways to scale without never hiring.

Comes from strategic partnerships – those who do exactly what you do, and are complementary

RESOURCE: Erica (RedHeadWriting) – ODesk.com – do your admin while you are asleep

– concentric circles – more business but not expanding your services; more employees then

- scaling your business – increasing your scope; get strategic alliances

OTHER:

Take time to find people you can work with and can support you.

If you can’t go on vacation, you’re failing at business

How can employees and contractors be invested with you – honor them in front of client, reward them, emotionally as a human being, how you manage them

Trust your contractors; but if you’ve done it right – they’re going to leave and do their own stuff – which is GOOD!

Price your services so you CAN scale – you have to be able to outsource, pay your vendors ½ of what you charge – if you can’t then raise your prices! OR send that vendor overflow!

Reward: energy to grow your business and be on your bike or wakeboarding.

Session: How To Fire A Client

fccoworking — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:56:00 -0600

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

2:00 PM

Horror stories:

o Check out http://clientsfromhell.net/ for horror stories

Why/Who (to fire):

o Clients who don’t ever deliver the stuff you need to do you job done

o Clients that always ask for things out of scope / over and over / even after you have educated them on workflow.

o Clients who blame you when they make mistakes.

o Clients or Prospects that make threats / or hold things “over your head”

Signs (that you may need to fire):

o Clients that don’t know what they want (only what they don’t want) should raise a red flag.

o Long emails that you have to scroll to read (especially if they are aggressive)

o Horribly disorganized clients lead to issues that make your job very difficult

o “Follow your instincts”

o People who are condescending

o Unreasonable time expectations

o Email threats

o Cheap / prospects or clients that want you to do more for less

o People that are taking up a lot of time (the result is less time for the work you are enjoying)

o If you avoid taking their calls… hiding them in your chat program to avoid them

o Check your emotional during interactions for a gauge on who the working relationship is going.

How (to fire):

o Entrepreneur.com “Fire Your Bad Clients” - great article

o Five Steps to firing

1. Education - educate them to see if that helps the situation

1. 1. educate them about your process

1. 1. Talk about expectations

1. 1. Cut things off before things get bad and they may become a better client

2. Re-education

1. 1. Reeducate things from step one in a different way

1. 1. State your policies or reference the contract

1. 1. This is a less friendly version of first step

3. Try to transfer them

1. 1. Nicely state that you don’t think that your companies are not working well together and try to match them with someone else

1. 1. Suggest someone that they may work better with

4. Last Request

1. 1. Say no more “playing around” if you don’t change we will not continue work

1. 1. We are not happy with the relationship

5. Firing

Prevention (vetting clients to avoid the need to fire):

o Educating your clients in the beginning is the best way to avoid issues.

o Remind people that you are hiring you for your expertise - let you do your job.

o Having a “system” and set of rules that the client needs to follow in writing

Notes:

o Be sure to know your PERFECT clients AND also know who you don’t want to work.

o Create your list of your ideal client and keep it close.

o Know what personality types you get along with and who you do not.

o Have a PIA (“pain in the ass”) factor on your estimates / try to figure out how much of a PIA they are going to be.

o Include an “out clause” on your contract

o 80/20 rule

· 80 percent of your time is spent on 20 percent of your clients

· 80 percent of your money will be made with 20 percent of your clients

· 80 percent of your problems will come from 20 percent of your clients

o You may have to loose the money owed to you if you do not have enough outstanding to warrant paying a lawyer to help collect.

That’s @RedheadWriting talking about business scalability!...

nickarmstrong — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:53:56 -0600

That’s @RedheadWriting talking about business scalability! #freefc

Session 3 - Room 213 (Previously Room 107) - What I Wish I Had Known When I Started Freelancing

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:04:45 -0600

- It is OK to turn down business, and how to know when to do that.

- Networking is crucial when it comes to making the right connections to the right clients.

- Especially network face - to - face.

- You usually aren’t going to get a client at a networking event, you’re going to get a referral out of networking.

- Networking is also useful not only for what you can get from it, but what you can provide to other people.

- Limit yourself to how many networking events you go to.

- It’s usually more beneficial to show up many times at a few events, than once at many events.

- Don’t feel pressured to network. Network only when it feels right.

- Know how much you are worth.

- I wish I hadn’t worked for free so much.

- Put a dollar value on how much pro-bono work you’re going to do during a year.

- Sometimes, pro-bono work can be a tax writeoff.

- Be careful doing work for friends or family.

- Oftentimes, friends or family don’t know the value of the work they’re asking you to do.

- Have a good accountant and a good lawyer. Lawyer first.

- Surround yourself with people that know what they do.

- If people want to help out of the goodness of their heart, that’s fine. If they just want part of the business, then run for the hills.

- With free help, you get what you pay for.

- Up-front contracts can and should be used in every situation.

- Take a sales class. Know how to sell yourself.

- Whether you think so or not, you’re probably selling something. Usually yourself.

- RESOURCE - Ogilvy on Avertising - book

- Don’t get so caught up in your current work that you forget to get new business.

- RESOURCE - The Business Librarian at Poudre Libraries - Anne McDonald - FREE RESOURCE

- Have a Business Plan!

- Usually you have two different business plans - one for the bank, and one for how the business will actually be run.

- If you’re going to make a business plan, make it an attainable goal.

- RESROURCE - The Workforce Center does a Be Your Own Boss Class. Contact Cohere for the list

- In a proposal, assume everyone’s an idiot.

- Don’t be afraid to consult a lawyer for proposals and contracts.

- Make sure you have a payment deadline in your contract.

- Just because you’re a freelancer doesn’t mean you have to make less money than big companies.

- If you don’t know how much you’re worth, neither does anyone else.

- Make people realize that the value now isn’t worth the trouble later.

- Draw a triangle. Label the corners “Price”, “Time”, “Quality”. Make them pick two, you can’t have all three.

- Don’t forget about taxes.

- Factor in ongoing web support, if you have a website.

- Don’t forget about old-fashioned media. It’s a great way to get your name out there.

Seesion: What I Wish I knew Before I Started Freelancing

fccoworking — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:04:00 -0600

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

1:00 PM

Started by getting a feel for range of experience. Room ranged from people without a business yet to people with more than 5 years on their own.

Veterans Sharing ideas:

It is okay to turn down business and how to know when to do that.

o Story: Use to take work no matter what it was, hated the work so much she even subcontracted it out. In the end it took up too much psychic energy… she made money but it filled out too much other time and energy.

o If you are in for the money - don’t do it.

o One of the benefits of freelancing is that

o Time = money…

How do you find the RIGHT kind of client:

o Networking - - face to face networking is the best way to meet people. Don’t get too tied up in only in the technology - face to face networking is never going to go away.

o Don’t feel pressured to do everything, there are hundreds of events every week - just do the ones that really work for you.

o It makes more sense to go to fewer events… but go regularly. People need to see/meet you 7 times before you are recognized.

o Several people stated that leads group are usually a waste of time unless you are real estate or a similar business.

o Chamber of Commerce: After hours groups seemed like a waste of time unless you go regularly and build relationships.

o You don’t get your customer at a networking event - you get a referral from the people you meet at these events. It is about building relationships.

o Don’t go to networking to GET something out of it - spend your time getting to know people. Ask about people and what they do… get to know people. Ask first. See if you can be of service to them // see if can make a connection for them - they will remember you if you add value.

o Know where the bar is at the networking events… :D

o Avoid events that have “youth” or “young” associated with it… it is more about brainstorming and partying and less about getting business and/or referrals.

I wish I realized what I was worth from the beginning.

o Don’t get too caught up on the pro-bono work - you can only “build your portfolio” so much.

o Set a dollar value on your annual gifting and stick to it.

o Don’t over extend resources on the free work even to build your portfolio.

o Remember that pro-bono work is a tax right-off

How do you handle friend/family or acquaintances who want

o Just be clear on what you are worth and be okay with saying no.

Start-up Cautions/Info

o If you are having people who want to help and be part of what you are doing be sure they are as invested as you are - including money. In the end if it your checkbook and your name on the line.

o Be ware of “good hearted” free help. You get what you pay for.

o Get an up front agreement in writing.

o Surround your self with people who know what they do. Don’t try to do it all yourself. Get a good accountant and lawyer. Even a marketing agency. IT.

o Free resource - Anne McDonld at the Poudre Business Library. Call the Poudre Library and ask for her. She is a great resource - she even sent Angel a list of all companies with under 4 employees - name, address and phone number. She can help you find your target audience within 5 miles of your business (or where you want your business to be).

o Workforce Center does a class called “Be your own boss” and they will send you a packet of info of forms.

Business Plan

o Two different plans // one for the banks and one that you will follow for your business model.

o If you are going to take the time to write one out - make it an attainable goal.

o Veteran: Wishes she had created one because having a strategy ahead of time she wouldn’t feel like she was chasing her tail.

Estimates

o Use a boiler plate template

o Include EVERTHING and assume everyone is clueless and cover all details.

o Consult your lawyer about your estimates and contracts.

o Include the option to add-on with a change order / more work equals more money.

o Include a timeline so that you know you will get paid. Include a deadline on deliverables, if they don’t get back to you in a certain amount of time you should bill them at the end of the deadline so that jobs do not get drawn out forever.

o If you are doing web design: be sure to include that changes once the design is in code will incur additional costs.

o Freshbooks.com is a great tool for estimates and invoicing.

o The iphone app for it is Minibooks

Money

o If you are a freelancer it does not mean that you are not worth the same amount of money as the big corporate entities. Don’t think you can’t charge as much.

o Freelancers have a reputation of doing anything for any amount of money - you have to know your value.

o Know that your product is worth the money and don’t be afraid to remind prospects that they get what they pay for.

o People are too tied to the lowest cost - but you can educate them and help them understand the value of what you do.

o Don’t forget about taxes

o Factor in ongoing web support

Sales

o Take a sales class - you are SELLING your product and/or service.

o Go to a networking even with sales people.

o A sales class can be invaluable - learning a sales technique will help your business thrive.

o As a business owner/ freelancer YOU ARE A SALESPERSON… Learn how to sell yourself.

o Sales has a negative connotation - but EVERYONE is a sales person.

o A good book on advertising: “Ogilvy on Advertising”

o Spend a day at a car-lot and you will learn a ton about how to sell.

o Dedicate a certain amount of time to sales even when you are busy - you have to plan ahead. If you don’t have leads you will run out of work when the busy time is over.

o Cold-calling is a good way to get business. Sean says he even starts his calls with “Hi my name is Sean and this is a cold call” - he gets a giggle and they don’t hang up. But don’t forget to TARGET your list… find people that are real prospects.

o Don’t forget about old fashion media - newspapers are looking for “experts” and looking for content and can bring you a lot of business. Advertising, submit press releases, submit articles.

Quality — Price — Time

o There are three things and you have to choose two - you can’t have all three.

o Price is lower the quality will be lower / if you want something tomorrow the price will go up and the quality will go down…

Blogging for Business

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:03:30 -0600

Blogging for Business

1 pm, 28 July 2010

If you are going to have a business blog, it should be a part of an overall marketing strategy.

Creating content, especially for technical topics, where to find content?

Paying attention to what’s going on in the field.

Writing about things you’ve learned.

Solutions to problems - can generate a lot of traffic, because people are looking for answers.

LifeHacker style - “this is the one thing that will make your life easier if you do it today”. Nick finds that kind of topic meaningful if posted by someone he trusted or valued.

Roundups - list of 50 blue web site designs, things like that. People like that type of content.

When do you publish content? You need an editorial calendar for your blog. Onus is on you to establish expectations with your readership. How often will they find new content on your blog. They need to understand the 36,000 foot view of what value your blog brings to their life.

Map out your content.

How many times a week?

What time of day will you publish?

All important components of a successful blog.

Consider publishing in set categories.

Set times of the day - publish during “distraction times”. If target audience is people with day-jobs, usually between 9 and 10:30 am, 12-1:30 pm, 4-7 pm.

All RHW’s blogs (redheadwriting.com) are live by 9 am - hits key times here, and the second

Make sure you are blogging to your customers and not your colleagues. The people you are selling to.

Length of blog posts?

Katrina likes 500 words or less.

If you are doing SEO, no shorter than 250 words (SEO standards for “quality” content)

Thoughts on re-posting or summarizing someone else’s blog post. It’s crap! Don’t do it, it’s stealing content. Post a link instead. That’s valuable for the blogger.

Credit the author in your post that was inspired by theirs, give a link back to that blog, and make a comment on their blog.

Duplicate content penalty we’ve heard of about Google is a myth. What does matter is that it’s someone elses content.

Three most important things to RHW:

- Determine why do you want to blog in the first place, do you have the time to make it work?

- who are you talking to and who do you want to talk back to you (2 different things)

- how will you differentiate yourself from everything else out there

Your content affects your choice of technology:

Photo blogger - could use WordPress, but Tumbler might be better

All about your friends, only want your drinking buddies to read it, use the notes section on Facebook - Google and clients won’t find it.

Blogging for business - WordPress, can be styled like the rest of your web site

Wanted to sound “cool” like other blogs she was reading. Very hard to try to write like someone else. Much easier to just say what you want to say - find your own voice, your own identity.

Important way to get a sense of what others are saying - leave comments on others’ blogs. Gives you good content ideas too. Do what you want others to do

One-to-one comment policy. If someone leaves a comment on her blog, she’ll leave a comment on their blog.

RESOURCE: disqus - comment notification system plugin for WP, also let’s people login to your blog using OpenID, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Can be used to follow conversations of comments.

IntenseDebate is also a good platform.

Techniques for helping you focus: Create a profile sheet - identify your ideal client. Talk about who that specific person is, what they do for a living, for fun. Helps you understand how to write for them. These people are looking for you. Use keywords they would use to look for you.

Kick Ass Blogs:

DustinCurtis.com

ProBlogger (also has a book 31 days to better bloging)

RedHeadWriting.com (check out her FB fan page too)

TheOatmeal.com - premier humor site. No comments on blog, but FB fan page has 4000+ likes

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

ChrisBrogan.com

CopyBlogger.com - a strong community built here for engagement and interaction, built on Thesis WP Theme. - They are doing lots of things right. They understand their responsibility to their readers.

CohereCommunity.com

Feld.com

Katrina’s health and wellness blogs.

Useful components:

Blogroll to reach out to people - list of links to other blogs (e.g. see redheadwriting.com)

Important to keep that vital, change out top few links from time to time.

How do you monetize your blog?

You don’t.

Affiliate marketers are selling you a bill of goods.

RHW is a contract writer, her blog is her “close” and gets her writing gigs.

Chris Brogan for as big as he is, his blogs are just now paying his

Daryle: It is hard to make a living from blogging, has had success with getting sponsorships - getting the money up front rather than waiting for people to click (on affiliate links). Daryle used footers so the ads made it into the RSS feed but was subtle.

RESOURCE: RSS FOOTER

Clearly defined focus: Old Town Lofts. (Kevin Buecher)

Images.

Where to find royalty-free images, images that aren’t copyrighted.

iStockphoto (photos for purchase, many very inexpensive)

CreativeCommons licensed images - make sure to cite them.

WikiCommons?

CompFight.com - Flickr search tool

When using images on your blog, be sure to specify the Alt Text, useful for SEO. Can include keywords, but be sure to include a description of the photo.

Use Twitter and Facebook to promote your blog. 80/20 rule, 80% should be about other people, everyone else, 20% about you. RHW Tweets in the “distraction” periods mentioned above, or during lulls in other time zones where she has readers.

Try different headlines. RHW uses catchy, snarky titles. Works for her brand. What is going to get someone to click that link. You have to dare them! “5 simple things”, “One thing you must do now”.

Have a marketing strategy as well.

Leverage you audience. Send them the exact Tweet you want to go out and ask them for a lunch time push.

Tell the story: how you got your skills, how you got inspired, how you got your chops.

RSS subscriptions: subscriptions are great to have, but there are a lot of things to take into account when gauging the success of your site.

Use Google Analytics, use Clicky

A lot of readers may just come once, and that’s not a slight.

RHW gets four times as many page views as RSS subscribers. People are finding her other ways, including her marketing efforts. Friends, blog directories like Technorati, FB, Twitter.

RESOURCE: Article about good places to list your blog: http://kikolani.com/increase-traffic-and-authority-by-listing-your-blog.html

Don’t shove it down peole’s throats. When people find what they like they will tell others, they will share your content. Your audience is the best marketing you will ever have.

markwilliammann.com. Just redesigned it, including the sidebar. How do you design the sidebar so people don’t want to vomit. Keep things simple. People are smart, trust them to find what they are looking for. Be choosy.

Best times to promote your blog:

Marketing 11a.m. to 12 p.m. Rm105

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:04:08 -0600

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

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:03:55 -0600

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.

Session 1 Notes:Room 107 - The Business of Freelance

fccoworking — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:22:00 -0600

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.

Session 1 Notes: Branding (Rm 105)

fccoworking — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:22:00 -0600

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?

Session 1 Notes: Biz of Freelance

fccoworking — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:57:00 -0600

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

nickarmstrong — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:55:46 -0600

Twitter Handles Part 2

fccoworking: Session building!

nickarmstrong — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:55:31 -0600

fccoworking:

Session building!

Reu Smith facilitating the Branding session!

nickarmstrong — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:30:37 -0600

Reu Smith facilitating the Branding session!

Twitter Handles Poster :-)

nickarmstrong — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:23:24 -0600

Twitter Handles Poster :-)

Parking, Eating and Scheduling

fccoworking — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:31:00 -0600

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.

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!