It’s the start of a new year and a new decade and like many self-employed people you’ve probably been thinking about how to have a good year despite the sluggish economy.

The one thing you must do this year for your work to take off…

I’ve been advising people for 5 years on how to make their own business work and whether they’re a freelancer, consultant, coach, speaker, or internet entrepreneur, I’ve discovered one defining factor that consistently separates those that succeed from those that struggle.

The factor I’m talking about isn’t having a fancy website, or masses of web traffic, or the smartest marketing, or even the best sales skills. It’s something more fundamental than that. The distinguishing trait of those whose businesses really take off is that they sell the right thing – they have a killer offer.

Until you’ve got a killer offer – something a lot of people really want – all the marketing in the world won’t help you. So how do you create one?

Three keys to building your killer offer

• It must be based on something you love doing. Firstly, it takes a lot of time and effort to build a successful business so you have got to choose something that you will enjoy working on and will hold your interest. It just won’t work otherwise. Secondly, if you build a business around the things you love doing a lot, you’ll already have a competitive advantage. It’s hard to compete with someone who loves what they do. You’ll be happier too and as recent research shows, happiness leads to success.
• It must be something you have real talent for – but understand that most people’s idea of talent is far too narrow. Your greatest talents might be things that never show up on a CV: the ability to connect with almost anyone, your endless supply of creative ideas, an obsession with getting the details of a project just right. Focus on those things that come easily to you. As marketing guru Seth Godin says, do what you’re best in the world at, quit everything else.
• Your offer must meet a pressing need – it should solve a problem or address a pain that lots of people have. When you work out what this is, you’ll find you connect directly with the people you want to work with and dramatically reduce the time to win business. To find the pain you address, think about this: What’s the biggest concern for the people you work with right now that you can help with? What do they wake up in the morning stressing about? What often irritates or frustrates people in the area you work in? Once you know what it is, you can start to speak directly to what is at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. Get all this right and you’ll find you gather momentum quickly – you’ll generate word of mouth referrals and attract more and more business. You’ll be doing work you enjoy and you should find you can raise your prices too!

Want to find your own killer offer?

This January I am leading a small group of people step by step through a process to find their killer offer and tell the world about it. It’s packed with tools, tricks and blueprints to show you how to finally get paid well to do the work you love doing – whether you’re just starting out in business or you’ve been self employed a while and would like to get better results with less struggle.

Learn more about the programme here

John Williams is author of Screw Work, Let’s Play: How to do what you love & get paid for it to be published by Pearson in June 2010. He is a former Senior Managing Consultant at Deloitte and has consulted independently to the BBC, Siemens and Accenture.

My top tips for dealing with complaints:

• Make it easy to complain — let clients know that you want to hear if things are not quite right.

• Let the client vent if they want to — listen to and acknowledge how they are feeling first before getting to solutions and don’t be drawn into arguing.

• Thank the client — simply thanking the client for taking the time to inform you of an issue takes the steam out of a situation.

• Find a way to apologise — even if they are ‘wrong’. They are the client and they are dissatisfied. Do it only when they have given enough detail so it rings true.

• Break down the complaint to find out the real issue and what would be a solution to it.

• Fix the issue if you can. Make sure you follow up the complaint. Be proactive with a customer to find a solution.

• View complaints as gifts — they allow you to review your service and innovate and also recover a client who may have otherwise gone elsewhere.

• Put a prevention plan in place to ensure a similar complaint doesn’t happen again.

It may be difficult to take complaints without getting defensive, by seeing them as part of the feedback process and handling them well you can actually turn them into an advantage. I often remember favourably those who have dealt with a complaint of mine well and exceeded my expectations.

I definitely remember those who didn’t seem to care.

By Business Mentor Toby Buckle

Screencasts give people confidence in your skills:

You’ve probably watched short tips and tricks video in blogs. These videos are very easy to make and they give your viewer confidence that you know your subject.

These videos are an easy way to get potential clients to contact you — if the client has difficulties and they can see that you really know what you’re doing (as opposed to people who just say they know what they’re doing) then they’re more likely to send you a question which begins a dialogue.

Making a tip video

The most important point with this kind of video is that you just get on and do it. Don’t worry about crafting a perfect recording — tips can be a bit rough and ready (and you’ll improve with experience) — lots of tips are worth more to you than a few perfectly produced videos.

Give the post a good title, put the video somewhere public like YouTube and then write a good description so Google has lots of keywords to read to add to its search engine. Finally — submit the post to the social news sites you read to win some instant traffic.

Building a whole series of tutorials and tips

One step on from here is to build an entire tutorial series — Remy Sharp’s excellent JQueryForDesigners site is packed with tutorial screencasts and through the site he’s built an impressive audience.

By themselves these videos are great marketing material and you’ll build a set of eager followers who will publicise your videos. More importantly when one of the viewers is asked for a recommendation by their client they can confidently point at your site as say that “this freelancer really knows their stuff”.

Proving what you can offer

A final an even more impressive type of video is one that shows direct proof of your skills. Imagine you worked with Search Engine Optimisation — a “before and after” video showing the improved ranking and traffic that you delivered would be a very impressive testament to your skills.

If you post this sort of video and link to your other tips you’ll be showing your reader that you can do it — and so can they (and if they need a professional — you’re their first point of contact!).

Why screencasts help sell products and services:

You’ll have noticed the rise of demo screencasts on product homepages which give you a quick tour of the product (in face this is what my last company ProCasts specialised in!). Intuitively we know that it is better to show rather than tell — with desktop screencasting tools you can create demo videos for your own products and your clients’.

Aral Balkan has some lovely demo videos (e.g. for Feathers). With a prepared script, an editor and some background music he quickly gets the point of his applications across to a viewer — there’s no reason why you couldn’t produce similar demo and training videos for your clients.

Tools like MockupScreens are best demonstrated with a video — take a look at the 3 minute tour on the homepage and you’ll understand all that’s on offer by the end of the video even though you’ve done no other research.

The main reason these videos work is because:

• There’s visual proof that the application works — it isn’t vapourware!
• It is clear whether the application does something that’s useful for you
• The speaker is confident and sounds trustworthy — this gives us confidence to keep watching and learning more

Work-in-progress videos are great for building trust with your followers

Do you have any side projects that aren’t finished yet, so can’t be presented as a complete project? Why not give a work-in-progress demo of what you’ve achieved so far?

I use this approach for my artificial intelligence projects (e.g. my robot head and English Heritage plaque machine vision project).

These projects won’t be finished for a while but I can show my followers new ideas and techniques — in turn they keep following because they expect to get cutting edge ideas from me.

Making a work in progress video is super-easy — you just record 1-3 minutes as if you were giving a demo to a friend. You’ll demonstrate that you’re at the cutting edge and build a larger following — and if the topics are particularly interesting then you’ll win flurries of traffic from sites like Twitter.

Distribution

In the (previous post) we looked at some of the tools you can use to make a screencast. Having produced the screencast you now need to distribute it — you want to get the widest selection of viewers as possible.

Make sure that your video contains references to your main site — if the viewer finds your YouTube video embedded in somebody else’s site then they’ll need to easily figure out how to find your main site. Add your logo and URL to a title screen, you can add a closing title to the video with the same links and your voice-over can sign off by inviting the viewer to visit your site.

Some of the obvious upload sites are listed at the end of my screencasting software page. Three relevant sites are:

• YouTube which offers the widest general audience
• Vimeo which offers the second widest general audience
• ShowMeDo which offers a niche but very active audience of Open Source learners

Always use at least YouTube — it is very easy for a viewer to embed the video into their site which keeps on giving you exposure to people you’d otherwise not reach.

Video licenses and length:

You need to add a license to your video — some people get very worried about infringing on other people’s works and won’t embed your video unless it is clearly allowed. I’d suggest using the most permissive Creative Commons license that you’re comfortable with — generally I use CC:By which allows commercial use and always requires that I get credit (so the viewers know where to come to find me).

The length of the video is simple — keep it as short as possible! Nobody likes to wait through waffle, “ums” and “errs”. Practice the demo if you have time and keep it to 1-3 minutes (the shorter the better).

Getting started quickly with The Screencasting Handbook

I’m the author of The Screencasting Handbook, the 128 page PDF is packed with 4 years of my own professional experience from building ShowMeDo and ProCasts.

The goal is to lay out everything you need to quickly and confidently plan, record, produce and distribute your own screencasts. The Handbook is aimed at freelancers, teachers and marketing professionals covering both quick videos and in-depth productions. Visit the blog to find a lot of tips and links to useful software

An added bonus of the Handbook is the free Screencasting Google Group — over 130 screencasters are a member of this Group. Feel free to join and ask questions, we’re all happy to help you move forwards.

By Ian Ozsvald — author of The Screencasting Handbook

• Twitter eliminates the geographical boundaries of your business and allows you to connect with people from all over the world.
• Twitter makes it possible to meet new people and build new relationships. Connecting with others who share common interests, values and goals is no longer restricted to your neighbourhood or community.
• Twitter allows you to star gaze by following famous authors, actors and billionaires. John Grisham, Ashton Kutcher and Richard Branson may not answer your Tweets (you may be surprised when they do) but you will have fun following them and seeing what they are up to in real time.
• Twitter can help you stay updated on current and world events.
• Twitter can help you promote your business products and services.
• Twitter allows you to share the things you love to do with other people.
• Twitter can help you find answers.

Want to know how to start a WordPress blog?

There are lots of experts and users that will share free tips and insights all the time.

Want to know how to help your kids start their own business?

There are plenty of teachers for kids and teens on Twitter, plus lots of kid and teen entrepreneurs, too.

Need to know what family events are planned for your area?

Follow local businesses, newspapers, schools, museums, libraries, zoos and community groups.

Want to learn to art journal, grow your own organic tomatoes, take better pictures, make awesome YouTube videos, or any number of topics?

Twitter has millions of users who not only share information about their businesses, but about their hobbies and things they love to do.

Need some idea’s for your next PTA fundraiser?

Connect with other Mom’s, teachers, PTA members and fundraising companies.

Want to start your own business?

Twitter is a rich source of both free and fee information.

Twitter gives you the opportunity to teach other people, share your knowledge and expertise, give back and help make a difference in the world.

Twitter makes the world just a little bit smaller and gives you the opportunity to meet and get to know your neighbours in over a hundred different countries.

To get started follow @freelanceadvice and join the conversation with 1,000s of UK-based freelancers

And you can follow Sandy here

By Sandy Dempsey

Sandy is currently working with Barbara Winter, author of Making a Living Without a Job, and Alice Barry to bring together more than 100 creative entrepreneurs to celebrate self-employment and ‘More Time, More Fun, More Money” at the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree in Austin, Texas, October 15-16, 2010.

Image by ~Ilse

Let’s take a look at how you can use your time more efficiently, give you client more confidence in your work and help them to pass knowledge to you more effectively.

Avoid progress meetings

Some clients need frequent progress reports, generally they like to see results rather than just hear about what is coming soon. The live demos are also useful for a client as they get a better idea of how the finished product will look at work. The downside is that you often need to run a meeting which costs you time and can often be unbillable (this can be painful when you count the time for preparation and travel too).

What if you could save time by sending them a 5 minute progress video which takes you just 30 minutes to record and send? A steady stream of progress videos saves you meeting time and keeps the client just as informed. You can’t cut out all of your meetings but you will reduce their frequency.

These progress videos can help you raise questions — you can show how something works right now and question the alternative approaches. The client can easily answer by writing an email or giving you a call — an added benefit is that you keep the client to task as you’re dealing with single issues at a time.

Avoid group meetings

If you’re working as part of a team then another benefit of a video is that everyone can watch the video at a convenient time — this is a lot easier to organise than a group meeting. The videos can be re-watched and they form a history of progress for the client. If the client has to report to others then they can use the videos as evidence of progress, empowering your employer is always a good thing!

Training the client to communicate to you with screencasts

A further benefit of screencasts is that you can train your clients to create their own to use when communicating with you. Imagine changing the horrid situation when a client tries to describe graphics, animations and processes over a voice-only phone call and instead they can record a walk-through in their the demo product or a competitor’s site as they explain what they need.

Getting the client to demonstrate bugs is a wonderful use of screencasts. They’re showing you how to replicate the issue (and they’re forced to figure out the replicable steps rather than giving you a vague description over the phone!) so you can easily verify the problem. Once they’re comfortable with screencasts they’ll know that if you’ve seen the bug, you’re more likely to know what the problem is and how to solve it which gives them more confidence in you.

How do I make my first screencast?

There are two approaches to screencasting:

Create quick and simple videos

This should be your first approach if you’re new to the subject. There are a couple of web tools that make this very easy.

Use desktop software

The added benefit here is that you can edit the recording afterwards. This takes longer but gives you a far more professional result.

Web tools to record a screencast

The easiest tool to start with is TechSmith’s Jing. Jing runs on Windows and Mac, it is free and it takes just a few minutes to get started. TechSmith also offer free video hosting (which can be private) so after recording your video you just send a web link to your client and ‘it just works’ in their browser.

Recently I gave a quick talk on “Screencasting in 7 minutes with Jing — it shows you how to get started, what the result looks like and includes tips for effectively making your first videos.

Two other relevant tools are ScreenToaster and Screenr. Both offer their own hosting and are free, ScreenToaster runs on Linux too and Screenr specialises in linking your video out to Twitter (which makes it great for recording short public demos and pushing them out to your readers!).

Desktop tools to record a screencast

On Windows the main tool is Camtasia Studio — it has a 30 day trial and then is quite pricey but it has many features and a powerful editor. If you’re going to screencast frequently then it is a sensible purchase.

On the Mac the main tool is ScreenFlow — again there’s a 30 day trial and a very reasonable price for the full package.

Both of the above tools have powerful editors, they let you record multiple scenes and import other assets (e.g. images, sounds, animations and intro and exit scenes). Getting through the learning curve for both will take you an afternoon, after that you’ll be ready to produce your first edited screencast.

Other tools to use

For a longer list of tools see my comprehensive list of screencasting software. It lists not only the recording tools but many useful additions like audio editors and sizing tools.

Getting started quickly with The Screencasting Handbook

I’m the author of The Screencasting Handbook, the 128 page PDF is packed with 4 years of my own professional experience from building ShowMeDo and ProCasts. The goal is to lay out everything you need to quickly and confidently plan, record, produce and distribute your own screencasts. The Handbook is aimed at freelancers, teachers and marketing professionals covering both quick videos and in-depth productions. Visit the blog to find a lot of tips and links to useful software.

An added bonus of the Handbook is the free Screencasting Google Group — over 130 screencasters are a member of this Group. Feel free to join and ask questions, we’re all happy to help you move forwards.

By Ian Ozsvald — author of The Screencasting Handbook

1. Why: Know why you are joining Twitter
(or other social networking sites)

Are you joining for personal reasons? Business? Both?

• Personal: Who do you want to connect with? Why? Looking to connect with your Tribe-people who share similar interests and values?

• Business: How will you promote your business? Will you be sharing your expertise via blogs and articles? Will you be offering specials just for Followers?

Just remember, whether you are Tweeting for personal or business reasons always remember to give more than you get, to share generously and engage people.

2. Plan: Have a plan to start and to keep going

Just as you need a business plan, or at least a guiding vision with goals for your business, you also should have a plan when joining Twitter. Too many people join and then end up giving up and abandoning their accounts.

Some tips to help you start and keep going:

• Decide when and how long you will spend on Twitter. I started with 15-minutes, three times a day.

• Decide on your approach. Spend time each day Following new people, saying hello, reading and Re-tweeting and/or sharing something of your own that might be of interest to your Followers – this could be a link to a blog post you found interesting or a link to your own blog posts.

Check your Mentions and Re-tweets to see who is talking to you, or about you. Engage them in return, participate in a conversation and/or just say thank you.

3. Commit: Make a commitment

Commit to sticking with it.

Twitter can be confusing in the beginning, but I recommend giving yourself at least three to six months before giving up and walking away.

4. Engage: Reach out and engage others

How do you engage others on Twitter?

• Re-tweet – If someone posts something you enjoyed and think your Followers will, too, then Re-tweet it.

• Say hello – Reach out to someone new you are Following or someone Following you and say hello.

• Share something of value – a link to an article or blog post, a link to a video, a picture, a quote.

• Ask questions – Confused or curious about something? Post and ask a question – preferably one that can be answered in 140 characters or less.

• Answer questions – If someone posts a question and you have a solution or know where to find it, reply and answer.

5. Share: Share generously

Whether you are a writer, an artist or an entrepreneur sharing what you know generously with others helps build relationships. This is especially important if you are on Twitter to build a following and establish your expertise. You don’t have to give away everything you know for free, but sharing and helping others goes a long way in becoming a mentor, leader and go-to person in your field of expertise, or desired expertise.

Bonus Tip: Be yourself

Twitter has been around for a few years now and there a many experts that you may be tempted to emulate. Don’t. Be yourself. Tweet and engage others from a place of honesty and authenticity. Be a real person. Just be who you are and you will find yourself meeting new people, building friendships, learning new things and building your business all at the same time.

By Sandy Dempsey

Sandy is currently working with Barbara Winter, author of Making a Living Without a Job, and Alice Barry to bring together more than 100 creative entrepreneurs to celebrate self-employment and ‘More Time, More Fun, More Money” at the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree in Austin, Texas, October 15-16, 2010.

Image by TarikB ~ cc

This freedom can have shortcomings however as it’s very easy to be distracted by emails, twitter and other interruptions — and it’s tempting to focus on doing those tasks you like instead of those which may be most useful.

A part of our series on #FreelanceFocus Freelance Advisor and Business Mentor Toby Buckle show us how he balances personal and work tasks and how to make sure we find time for the non-urgent but important tasks.

Enter the Matrix

I am a firm believer in using the ‘urgent/important’ grid by Stephen R.Covey to manage the planning and prioritising of time.

Instead of simply listing out the things that need to be done in a day/week (which invariable turns out to be more items than it is possible to get done in the time), you draw out a matrix as illustrated below. This Matrix has the axis defined in terms of the urgency and importance of the tasks to be done.

Thinking about these two dimensions of work helps me to prioritise and allocate time to tasks.

Often we end up simply doing the urgent things which may not be that important in reaching our goals. Covey believes that successful people find time to do the important things which never become urgent (B tasks) and are great at resisting doing the nom- urgent things (C & D tasks), even if they seem urgent or appealing.

Prioritising getting A tasks done first and then B tasks allows a structure of priority to the day and stops you bouncing from one task to another randomly as helps prevent distractions taking over.

Unfortunately in using this system there are things that never seem to get done. They are personal admin tasks and so not business important and usually they are not urgent.

When I’ve got my business head on these things are like static distortion buzzing away in the background. Sometimes it is good to get rid of this static by setting aside some time to blitz this non-urgent and personal stuff.

I took some time out of running the business recently to do exactly this. I focused on stuff like getting my car a service, using my ISA allowance and fixing up odd jobs around the home as well as going to see the dentist and doctors for checkups. These were things I had been meaning to do for ages. I still did some urgent/important work tasks but mentally work was a secondary priority on those days.

It is important to do this every now and again as not only does it clear the static but allows you space to think about what you are doing and check you are in balance. Make sure you pay attention to health, home and relationships and if you feel they haven’t had attention recently blitz them. It doesn’t need to be a whole day of focus, just an hour or two could do it. Doing this on a regular basis allows the focus to remain on work tasks.

When you freelance you can become so focused on work or trying to get work in that it becomes all too easy to be sucked into being busy all the time and forget about all the other really important things that need doing in your life as a whole.

By Business Mentor Toby Buckle

Image by KayVee.INC ~ cc

How to do what you love and get paid for it

Of course, ‘playing’ means more than merely playing. It means doing something of value that you enjoy, and earning money by doing than thing. John’s enthusiastic prose takes you from the start and leads you to discover your potential play project — an activity or product that brings you as much joy as it might profit. John provides plenty of examples of people who’ve made a living out of playing, and he also offers real-world advice on things like marketing, sales, rate setting and the things you’ll need to do to earn a healthy playcheque.

John’s book isn’t aimed at freelancers in particular, but his advice is highly relevant for people like us — especially as freelancers are increasingly adopting ‘portfolio careers’ where they offer a blend of services and work in a mixture of styles. I know freelancers who successfully split their time between disparate things like project management, music lessons and environmental assessments.

John makes the excellent point that anyone beginning a play project, starting a business or becoming a freelancer doesn’t need to take chances or leap into the unknown – all of these new ventures can be started as side projects, from the comfort and security (ahem) of your day job.

John has great advice for anyone with big ideas but small motivation, including my own favourite industrial-strength motivational device: death anxiety. He quotes the geek deity Steve Jobs:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death..”

If you have a nagging feeling that you’re destined for bigger things than your employer can offer you, then buy Screw Work Let’s Play. You’ll get motivation, reassurance and practical advice. I’ll leave you with John’s injunction to get started:

“Thinking is overrated… Stop thinking and start playing… Get your idea out there and evolve it on the fly.”

Book review by Leif Kendall – freelance web copywriter and amateur player

More

• Screw Work Let’s Play official website
• Free Chapter

You may be lucky enough to have a huge family or a thriving social group, perhaps assisted by a drama group or rugby club. But most of us don’t know all the people we need to know to be good freelancers.

This isn’t about networking

But this is about networking. Just not in the conventional sense. Networking doesn’t always take place in bars or conference centres, and it isn’t always organised.

The best networking happens spontaneously, when you talk to new people. Every day we have chances to talk to new people, but we rarely take them up. For some reason we assume that strangers are irrelevant or unnecessary, so we make little effort to connect with them.

Get talking

Life can be different. Say hi to that guy in the gym. Ask the girl who makes your sandwich how she is. Comment on the weather to the old man on the bus. Pay compliments. Say something to the people that pass you by. Start a conversation. This kind of guerilla conversation is fun. It’s nice to use your voice and it’s heart-warming to smile at strangers – even if they think you’re a bit mental.

Chatting loosely is great because you learn to relax, to think quickly and to improvise. You learn how to talk to strangers, so when you’re next in a room full of stuffed shirts at a mildly-awkward networking event, those strangers will feel no different to all the other strangers you’ve been talking to.

Oh, and it’s always a bonus when that dude at the gym turns into a client.

By Leif Kendall, copywriter

Image by ohhector cc

Seminar video & slides

Digital veteran Darren Fell, founder of Pure360.com and the ground-breaking online accountancy service Crunch.co.uk shares his experience in Personal Branding for freelancers – marketing YOU to generate leads

This interactive lecture is now over, however slide of the event and video clips are available below.

Slides from Event

Video clips

These seminars are part of an ongoing program of interactive and hands-on training sessions for freelancers and contractors. To receive announcements of the next event please subscribe to our newsletter

Sales tactics for the digital freelancer

Event Detail:

Digital veteran Darren Fell, founder of Pure360.com, freelance advice site FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk and the ground breaking online Accountancy service Crunch.co.uk tells his story of how to sell and really make your business.

If business is slow or you are starting out, attend this interactive lecture and you will leave with fire in your belly.

Slides from Event

• When: March 10th 2010, 2010 18:30 – 20:30
• Where: Westminster Business School
• Location: 35 Marylebone Road, room M228, London, NW1 5LS
• Price: free event (55 places) (sponsored by Crunch.co.uk)

The course will cover…

Do you actually like selling? Do you follow a structured approach to bringing in business?

For some, this is easy, for others this is the hardest part. Bringing in business successfully and following a structured approached will be the difference between a fantastic career or one that is just too painful and very poor!

Darren Fell will guide you through his story from corporate sales in a pan-euro position to his first startup, Pure360.com. Setup on a shoestring and existing on a fierce cash burn rate Darren was forced to sell fast or face personal bankruptcy.

A lot of the tips are common sense however this course will give you the structure to sell well, actually enjoy the process and ensure you create the perfect pipeline!

The seminar will deliver:

• Sales basics, getting the word out there
• Managing the contacts and the actions – picking the right software
• Reasons to stay in touch – keeping up the momentum of the sale
• The importance of the pipeline – ensuring you never end up with a sales black hole
• Closing business – how to close effectively

The seminar will also comprise of an interactive question and answer session to learn from your selling woes and hear Darren’s solution.

Darren helps many other entrepreneurs for free and is passionate about the flourishing freelancing space. He helps people to start-up on their own by teaching them sales tactics to drum up business and ways to ensure continued success. He also speaks at seminars to help freelancers and micro-businesses really make their companies work; ultimately helping them to fulfil their dreams and avoid being stuck in jobs they dislike.

Sold Out

Why effective Personal Branding is critical to your success as a freelancer

In a world of virtual networking, both social and business, the perception the world already has of you begins way before any physical communication. Via all online mediums, including your personal website, Facebook or LinkedIn profiles, Twitter messages and now Google Buzz, the world has enough information to, rightly or wrongly, form an impression of you. That impression could make or break your ability to create a successful professional career as a freelancer. With access to personal data never being easier the freelancer must be more conscious then most to ensure that their personal brand is effectively supported online at all times.

There are many different facets to personal branding but the one key theme that I communicate to my clients as critical is that your online and physical appearance, communication and actions must clearly represent the values that you want the world (and potential employers) to see. It is of no use calling potential clients and telling them how professional and effective you are if your online identity shows otherwise, either through communication with friends or photos of events that are best kept private. What also must not be forgotten is that physical presence is critical when pitching and presenting for new business and to not support your claim of being the utmost professional with an appropriate physical appearance is an inexcusable error.

The management guru Tom Peters wrote an article in Fast Company Magazine back in December 2007 titled “the brand called you”. This article explained that the major purpose of branding is to distinguish you from the rest of the herd based on your skills, abilities and experience. Tom Peters suggested focusing on the following key areas when attempting to identify your own personal brand.

• What qualities or characteristics make you distinct from your competitors or colleagues?
• What do you do that adds remarkable and distinguishable value?
• What do you want to be famous for?

Defining your personal brand is only the start of the process to achieve an effective personal brand. You next have to market your brand, from a physical and online perspective and learn how to sell your brand – not only verbally but also through your everyday actions. Something else extremely critical to the success of personal branding is the ability to accept that you are a brand and to be able to change your approach to your professional career. If you don’t value brand ‘you’ then no one else will – then what is the basis for anyone to want to employ you? I’ll be addressing personal branding further next month but in the meantime see if you can get started on distinguishing what makes you the freelancer everyone should hire.

By Daryl Close, business success consultant and coach

Do you your online presence professional? Or do you let it all hang out and let your clients decide what to make of it? What tips would you offer?

Add your comments below…

Courageous conversations

How to say what you mean and get what you want

But as a freelancer you’re on your own when it comes to dealing with issues and problems. If and when they need sorting out you’re the one who has to do it and (you know what I’m going to say here, don’t you?) the longer you avoid dealing with things, the worse they get. Not that I’m suggesting you leap on every issue as soon as things run less than smoothly, but  sometime or other you’ll have to do something about those situations that lurk like a worsening toothache.

Don’t just sit there – do something!

The way round  all these concerns lies in improving your ability to undertake courageous conversations – those in which open and positive communication is used to create constructive solutions to difficult issues within the context of a strong and trusting relationship.

Sound great, doesn’t it? And so easy! So why don’t we do it?

Mainly because as well as those fears mentioned above we are held back simply by the terror of jumping off the diving board and getting on with it. Hence the name “courageous conversations” – we need to be brave and fearless if we want results.

Conversations for any situation

In essence, they all share a common basis: they’re causing you tension, that tension is leading to you to feel resentment and possible irrationality, and you want them to change their behaviour.

Rules of engagement

1. Positive intent This means that you have to embark upon the conversation intending to achive a mutually beneficial, positive outcome i.e. a win/win situation where you may get the other party to agree to making some changes, but you co-create the outcome and they don’t lose face or feel diminished or bullied.
2. Outcome You must be clear about exactly how you want their behaviour to change. It’s no good saying “I’d like you to pay your invoices more promptly”. If they never pay anyone within six months, “more promptly” for them might mean four months whereas what you want is payment within 30 days. So be specific.
3. Perspective This is perhaps the most important area of all and reflects the fact that whatever you believe the issue is you are only seeing it from your perspective – the other person may not see it as an issue of any significance whatsoever – and, of course, you may not be seeing the bigger picture.

Candid, challenging and courageous

Conducting the conversation itself involves following a few straightforward rules:

• Forewarn the person that you want to talk to them about the issue. (e.g. I’d like to come and see you on Thursday  to discuss how to improve the timing problem we keep having around your invoice payments”).
• Start the conversation by stating what you believe the issue is and the impact you feel it is having on you and your relationship with them. Be assertive and clear – if not, you risk losing momentum from the start.
• Tell them why the situation matters to you and what you feel are the implications if it is not sorted out.
• Ask them to acknowledge that they’ve understood what you’ve said and for their perspective on the situation. Listen carefully, asking for elaboration or clarification if necessary.
• Tell them what outcome you would like to see, then ask them to suggest a solution that would address your concerns.
• Discuss their proposals using lots of questions and reflecting back what they agree to so you are both clear about what is involved.
• Ask them for their commitment to making the change and stipulate a timescale. Agree with them how you will both know when the change has been made.

By Dianne Bown-Wilson

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There is that well known phrase in the sales industry ABC – Always be Closing and whilst I’m not into the ‘selling double glazing’ approach we can learn something from their proactive way of getting results. Let’s look at a simple sales formula for calls/meetings to get us started:

1. Introduction & Hook

2. Probe

1. Level One – asking questions that will help you establish what they are looking for e.g type of project, skills required, time scales (facts)
2. Level Two – is the need analysis step, in otherwords why they need a freelancer, so use open questions e.g what impact does this project have? what are the consequences of not starting on time? what value will a freelancer add? (Once you know this information you can use it to sell it back to them in the next stage…

3. Match

4. Confirm

5. Close

This is an easy sales process to learn – Intro, probe, match, confirm, close and if you start using it today I guarantee you will see improved results.

Happy Selling!

Please share how you get on using this by posting your stories and if you would like to learn how to use this practically join us for our workshop on Thursday 12th November at the The Werks, Hove:

Freelance Training: Improving your Sales Hit Rate

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For one week I stopped spending my time posting articles and got back in touch with my clients using the telephone. Yes that dusty thing that we only pick up if it rings or if (God forbid) our Internet is down. I was amazed at the results not just from a business perspective from how I felt having made personal connections with my clients. I too had fallen into the habit of doing business by email, trying to resolve conflict by email or just generally being lazy by answering questions that would have been quicker for me to pick up the phone and answer. Why? I just got into the habit of doing it that way.

When I used to work in Sales, there was no internet and we had to send literature to clients by fax. This of course meant us leaving our desk and standing by the fax machine which if we were seen to be there too much meant a reprimand from our manager. Why? We were selling by fax which has of course now turned into selling by email. Clients will email us questions, they will email us objections and sometimes they might not reply at all which we guess to mean that they aren’t interested or have gone else where with their business.

We need to start picking up the phone again. We can’t build rapport over email, we can’t sell ourselves effectively on an email and we can’t build trust with a client over email. It amazes me when I work with organisations how much internal conflict is cause by mis reading the words or tonality of an email or how much time is wasted by people emailing each other who sit two desks away – to build relationships takes time and to do this takes effort – close down your computer and pick up the phone.

Scarily enough social media has now brought about another way of doing business. Except it isn’t selling and the secret rules of some of these sites such as Twitter is that you do anything but sell or talk about what you do because this puts people off and is bad ‘etiquette’. Now I’m not one of these people who is against such sites as I love Twitter and keeping in touch via Linked In, I just think we need to remember how powerful the phone is and how much of the rapport we lose via posts, blogs and tweets.

Look at your client list today.

• Who can you call and have a chat with?
• Who haven’t you spoken to in a while?
• Who didn’t respond to some of your emails?

To find more about how to sell YOU, come along to our next workshop Selling YOU workshop.

Selling YOU – Training Workshop

image by ~seb

Manage your environment

Influence the time you are called

What are your 3 key messages?

Build rapport with the interviewer

Stand up

Use a mirror

Research the company

Save questions about package or working conditions to the face to face interview

Tell them something personal

End on a positive

If you want to find out about our personal 1:1 Telephone Interview training or Voice Coaching please contact Hannah at training@freelanceadvisor.co.uk.

Selling YOU – Training Workshop

image by splorp

Maybe these high performers knew that time was precious and so getting back on the phones was the best remedy rather than wallowing or bringing down others with them. I believe the key to being a consistent high performer is how you deal with the lows and how you build upon the ups.

Recently I interview 30 top performers in various sales roles for research for my book Fight Back! When presented with set-backs or challenges they all seemed to respond in a similar way using some or all of the steps below:

1. Keep your thinking and your energy directed to future goals and how you are going to achieve them. Break goals down into smaller targets that can be achieved in one afternoon. The small taste of success will help you get back into ‘the flow’ of being at your best.

2. Soon after the set-back has occurred spend at least an hour on a part of your job you really enjoy and that energises you. By doing something that plays to your natural strengths and that you can loose yourself in will help re-adjust the mental and emotional reaction to what has happened.

3. Kick the ‘self-doubt gremlin’ into touch. You know him/her that annoying voice that starts making you doubt whether you are actually suited to the job you are in or the decison to go freelancing or even attributing previous success to luck! Instead focus your thoughts back to the times you have been really successful and how you felt and what you did well. High performers have minimal self doubt – kick your gremlin into touch!

4. Resilient people have varied ways of managing the emotional reaction to change, problems or challenges. Whether it is taking the positives, learning from the experience, spending time with people that make them laugh or a hobby – they have a route to channel negative emotions. Do not store yours up – find a way of handling them and moving on – FAST! Fight Back!

5. Some people were quite practiced at the steps above and even had a conscious strategy for ‘bouncing back’ that they could teach others. If you don’t bounce back quickly you need to start adopting some of these steps, if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got!

If you would like to learn how to put these steps into practice there are loads of tips, exercises and stories in my book Fight Back! (See below for details).

Finally I will leave you with a quote from Helen Keller:

“When one door closes, another door opens, however we can spend so much time looking at the closed door that we don’t see the one that has opened for us.”

Hannah’s book is available to order online via Paypal.

Fight Back (Paperback) £8.99
Fight Back (e-book version) £4.99

Without a sale we’re not in business and ongoing sales will spur the business to grow. Emma Jones offers five steps on how to make a sale and keep the cash flowing.

Step 1: Prepare

Before making a first approach to the potential client, carry out a search so you’re happy you have the right person, their correct name, and possibly a news item highlighting their demand eg a first note may be ‘Dear Andrew, having seen you quoted in a recent article in ABC press, I understand you are looking to move to new office premises. I am writing to introduce you to my interiors company ….’

Step 2: Present

This applies whether it be sending a first email (as above), distributing flyers or making a call to a prospect. Present the benefits of buying you and your product/service. How will it make the client’s life easier/who else has bought/what does it cost/who can they call if interested. These are all useful points to cover in a first approach.

Step 3: Persist

Saying that, unless your potential customer has an immediate need for what you offer on the day on which you make the approach, then it’s likely you’ll present yourself and then have to spend a bit of time following up. Submit the proposal, follow-up with a delicate prompt a week later and, if still no response, keep in regular contact with friendly emails and calls along the lines of ‘Hi, just like to keep you updated on what’s happening here .. would love to do business with you when you’re ready..’

Step 4: Perform

Perform to a high level so reality meets expectation. Along the way, check the new client is happy with the service they’re receiving.

Step 5: Promote

A growing roster of quality clients will give others the confidence to trade with you. Promote new sales and client wins; through a press release, via testimonials on the site, or social media such as Twitter.

Taking these steps can be eased by using software such as Salesforce.com which keeps track of sales leads and the business development pipeline. Or, do what I do, which is to use an excel spreadsheet and a handwritten list that’s regularly updated and always carried with me!

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up’

Enterprise Nation is racing to follow every home business on Twitter by Home Enterprise Day on Friday 20th November at www.twitter.com/e_nation

Freelance Training:

Selling YOU – 1 day Training Workshops

It’s a tough climate out there. If you are looking for a permanent job then you are up against lots of candidates who are all fighting for the same job. If you are freelance/contract then you have to ensure your skills are leading edge, have the confidence to hit the ground running as well as prove why you are better than your competition.

Whether you have just started looking for work or you have been out of work for while this new workshop from Freelance Training will help you get back on track, brush up your interview technique and help you stand out. In short, we will help you reduce the time it takes you to find the right role.

What will we cover?

Research also indicates that what you say in an interview is only 7% of the impact you will make with a whopping 93% being based on how you say it (appearance, voice & body language). This is why it is critical that you invest in not just your CV or further training to enhance your ‘ technical skills’ but you take our Interview MOT workshop and get some personal feedback on your presentation style as well as practical techniques to ensure you stand out.

If you are a freelancer, contractor or sole trader you will also benefit from this workshop because every sales call you make you are being interviewed by your prospective client.

To find more about how to sell YOU, come along to our next workshop Selling YOU workshop.

Still skeptical? Take our quiz:

1. Are you always successful at interviews, do you always get the job?
2. Do you dress depending on the culture of the organisation you are seeing?
3. Do you research their ‘pain points’?
4. Can you adjust your communication style to the interviewer e.g introvert or extrovert?
5. Do you know why you are unique?
6. Do you know how to control your nerves and appear confident in all circumstances?

Go to events for details or view on Upcoming.

Have you signed up for our Launch Party?

image: While-U-Wait by habeebee

Freelance Training:

Selling YOU – Training Workshop

Whether you are looking for your first freelance job or have been in the market a while you will know how important it is to be able to promote your services to ensure you aren’t out of work for long.

Whether you have sales experience or not, things are different now. Why? Because you are the product. You are selling YOU. Easy right? Think again, even the most experienced sales person who can sell snow to the Eskimos finds selling themselves a challenge and sometimes even embarrassing.

Time to get over it quickly or look for another career, because being a freelancer the only person who is going to sell you, is you. Even if you have agencies representing you, the way you sell yourself to them is important and don’t forget agencies just want to close the deal so you will be up against plenty of other candidates too.

How to Sell You?

Here at Freelance Training our one-day training workshop run by experienced sales professionals will give you the skills needed to help you improve your sales hit rate and most importantly remain positive no matter what.

What will we cover?

• A simple and easy sales process for meetings and cold calling
• Ethical Selling
• Preparation – setting yourself up for success
• Why You – how to show you are different from your competition
• Confidence – feel the fear and believe in yourself
• The absolute Must Do’s and Must not Do’s of selling

How?

To see dates or to book please see our events pages:

• Selling You – Brighton – September 4th : More info – Register
• Selling You – Manchester – October 2nd : More info – Register

Freelance Training:

Selling YOU – Training Workshop