Every Wednesday, we will do a roundup of news that we feel would be of relevance to our readers. These articles come from other sites, as we cannot possibly cover anything and everything that would be of interest or relevance.
How to Set Goals and Motivate Yourself to Actually Achieve Them - Leaving Work Behind - I prefer to rewrite the opening sentence as, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail," but the sentiment is still the same. It takes planning and the commitment to come up with goals to achieve in order to achieve them. Good advice for any freelancer or solopreneur.
How Not to Be Invisible - The Freelancery - There are lots of people who do what you do, and it could be tough to stick out from everyone else. As this article illustrates, it doesn't have to be something unnatural or contrived that makes you memorable with potential clients. Sometimes, it could be an unnusual, but familiar, word that you used. It could be something you wore when you met with a few clients. It could just be something that you say or do that makes you, you.
Are We Too Accepting of Information? - Meryl's Notes Blog - It's information overload out there, and it's getting harder and harder to tell what's true and what's not. When do you verify something, and when do you accept something as true? This article is of great timing, consider the Progressive fiasco that erupted over social media, but was discovered to be untrue, not that the discovery matters much for Progressive.
Why You Need an Exit Plan Even If You Love Your Job - Escape from Cubicle Nation - Should freelancers and solopreneurs have an exit plan? What's even involved in an exit plan?
Five Tips to Search for Companies Online - Freelance Folder - When it comes to marketing, it's a good idea to do some research before pitching companies as potential clients. This article provides some great tips when searching for companies, but we'd recommend having an idea of what to search for (what sort of companies would make an ideal client for you).
Collections: A Comprehensive Guide - Freelance Switch - Collections suck. Why can't all your clients just pay when they are supposed to, or at least let you know what's going on when they don't pay or can't pay? Fortunately, this guide makes the dreaded process of collections just a little bit easier.
Are You a New Writer? Avoid These Common Freelance Mistakes - Dollars and Deadlines - It's tough being the new guy on the block. A mistake that we made when we first started was not charging what we we're worth. It seems like the right idea to underprice yourself, especially as the new person who's looking to build a portfolio and get some experience. Hopefully, you don't make that mistake, or any of the others in this article.
For New Writers: 3 Tips for Becoming a More Better Writer - The Renegade Writer - Any freelancer or solopreneur who's marketing through a website and/or through a blog is a writer, and can always do something to become a better writer. This article offers some great tips to becoming that better writer.
It's a known fact that people like to associate with other people of similar interests. Joining a social network site like Google+ and showing others that you've joined--by placing a Plus One button on your business' website, for example--can be the boost that solopreneurs and freelancers need to help build a strong customer base.
It's the concept of networking, taken to a different level. By maintaining a blog or website that has to do with some aspect of your business, you attract readers who perhaps have a similar interest. Or, perhaps they are seeking assistance or instruction on the topics you are writing about. If you are able to successfully connect with others who have the same or similar interests--customers or other businesses--you've now provided a forum for the discussion of ideas, observations, etc.
For example, let's say you are a hardware store and are selling a new type of fertilizer. On your website, you could include information for your customers about why this particular type or brand of fertilizer is so much better than others. You could include links to studies that show this, and so on.
You should then also consider doing a Google search for any business--such as a nursery--that might be interested in trying it (perhaps offer them a discount), or maybe one that already is. Ask them if they will mention your business on their website--perhaps in return you could promote one of their products or services on yours. If both of you are part of Google+, customers that might not ever think about your hardware store are introduced to it. The fraternal nature of the social network implies endorsement, even if none actually exists.
By including the Plus One button, you're giving your customers another level of contact with you. And, by becoming a part of their network (or they becoming a part of yours), your business will be introduced to an entirely new audience.
Google+ also allows you to connect with other solopreneurs in your same business niche to share experience and learn from one another.
There is a feature known as "hangouts" that allows a group of people to have a real-time group discussion. This means you and other similar or associated businesses can team up for informative workshops, creative "brainstorming" sessions--you can even conduct marketing focus groups.
The goal of the Google+ affiliation isn't to over-promote or oversell your own business, but rather to build relationships with others and make the group stronger as a whole.
Symbols have power. Adding the Google Plus One Button gives all kinds of customers--repeat and new alike--the one-click easy way for them to access your site and share it with the people they interact with.
While you can certainly also use other social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, Google+ was designed for all types of social networking--not just business, the way a site like LinkedIn is set up.
The way the social networks have evolved, almost independently of each other, gives those that are able to cross from one type of social media to another a great advantage. Being able to effectively leverage that advantage is what can help make a business successful.
This is a guest post from Farhan Niazi, an IT professional with expertise in the fields of Web and Database Development. Niazi is the founder of SMB Tech Guide and is currently serving Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Pakistan as the Deputy Director of Information Technology.
Client Talk is our weekly advice column about the trial and tribulations of working with difficult clients. If interested in submitting a topic or question for this column, then do so through the link above.
I'm working with a client that, in my opinion, is practicing SEO (search engine optimization) techniques that borderline ethical. They aren't black hat techniques, but they certainly are practices that don't favor the reader (this client is an online publication). I'm uncomfortable implementing these techniques into my work. What should I do?
Hmm. This one is tough to answer since we don't know the specific practices. On the one hand, if the client is purposely trying to hurt the reader experience, or know that it hurts the reader expereince and want to do it anyway, then I would say to disassociate yourself from the client right away. You don't want to be tangled with a client that doesn't put its customers', or in this case, readers' interests first, as it could mean a horrible association for your, or no more client if they are caught.
On the other hand, since these practices are described as "borderline", it's possible the client doesn't realize that what they are doing hurts the reader experience. If this is the case, then explain to the client what's going on and offer a solution that not only accomplishes their goals but also improves the reader experience. Perhaps the explanation will get them to change, or at least allow you to do something different when you do your work.
However, if you're uncomfortable, perhaps it's best to cut ties no matter the client's intention. If you aren't comfortable doing the work that you are doing for whatever reason, you can't possibly do your best work and then you are doing both yourself and the client a disservice. This doesn't have to be your problem if you don't want it to be.
What do you think of this response? What would you do in this situation?
A wise and savvy small business owner will use all the resources available to help grow his or her business. The emergence of social media marketing, and its correct usage, is an often low-cost or even free way to do just that.
Like anything else, there’s a right and wrong way to properly execute a social media campaign. Here are some tips to consider:
Have a plan. Consider this to be a series of questions—your plan should address who your audience is or will be, what messages you will have for them, what you can offer them that’s different from your competition. How will you measure your success? If you’re not able to effectively answer all of these questions, or you’re unsure of your answers, then you aren’t ready to make the jump yet. You should gather the information that you need before moving forward. Without the proper plan in place, you won’t be happy with your social networking results, or will have a hard time knowing if you're efforts are successful.
Do the research. There are many social networks available, possibly some you’ve never heard of. Each serves a particular purpose for its target audience. Some are for personal contacts, some—like LinkedIn, for example—are designed for business networking. It’s often best to start with a blog that serves as a sort of “depot” for your online content, and can serve to aggregate it from across all your social media. For example: if you own a landscaping company, you might post different entries on several different social media sites. It’s likely that a customer doesn’t visit every one of those sites, so that customer is missing out on important information. If you had all these postings collected in one central area—like your company blog—your customers wouldn’t have to search the Internet to find them. Also, someone who stumbled onto one of your postings on a social media site and wanted more information could follow the link from that site to your company’s blog.
Develop relevant and timely content on a routine basis. How many times have you clicked on your email application’s 'Refresh' or 'Get Mail' button, waiting for an important email, only to find nothing new? Don’t make your customers wait a long time for new content. Develop a schedule and stick to it! Educate your customers on what to expect, and when. For example: Friday is “Weekly Sale” day, when you post any sales you have scheduled for the upcoming week. Tuesday is Two-Fer Day, when you post which things are buy-one-get-one free today. Your “Backyard Garden” column is posted every Wednesday. You get the idea. It’s been said that the building blocks of any online community that is doing well are users and content. Keep it coming.
Listen. Carefully monitor social for mentions of your brand/product/company. Have a plan ready to document any such mentions, and stand ready to take action (if that’s the appropriate course) to defend against accusations, answer questions, provide guidance, or whatever might be the case. By promptly responding it shows that you care about your business and its customers.
Prepare a budget. How much time and money do you have to devote to this endeavor? While it’s true that some businesses—like a nightclub, for instance—would need a much stronger social presence to maintain relevancy than a dentist’s office. If either is limited, perhaps the crawl-walk-run approach is a better one. Most major brands have as many as 25 people staffing their social media efforts. While in all probability this is nowhere near what you would need, a working social media campaign does require almost full-time attention. Perhaps hiring a person just to oversee and run the operation, like a sort of in-house social media manager; or, perhaps an outside agency, will provide the support necessary for a social media campaign to succeed. Take a realistic approach to the time it will require, and if you can’t run it yourself, bring it in house or outsource it.
Have a little patience. This isn’t a sprint, but a marathon. It will take some time to attract visitors, develop a steady following, and get your online presence built. Don’t be discouraged by what seems like little interest, as you can’t see the whole picture from where you sit.
Your business wasn’t built overnight, and neither is a good social media campaign. As is so often true, you reap what you sow—the effort you put into it often determines the reward you get back from it.
Some time ago, retail stores carried almost all of their inventory right inside the building’s four walls. When you walked in the door and needed something and they sold it, it could be found somewhere in the store. Ultimately having that entire inventory on hand proved to be wasteful of energy and resources, much in the same way a typical small business’s data centers also operate in a way that is wasteful, especially when there are better options available. The choice to move that data to the cloud and have it managed by a cloud service provider would be much more efficient.
Retail stores had operated that way for a century or more. The system proved inherently wasteful, however, as some products were only sold during certain times of the year, like snow shovels. Also, some items were huge and too unwieldy to be moved around and properly put away—and didn’t sell very well. The solution was to reduce inventory by carrying only those items that were the best sellers, and move the rest to storage in a centrally located warehouse. This reduced overhead as the store could now be smaller, which used less electricity and required fewer employees to order and stock the now-deleted products. And, as the process became more and more specialized, soon everything was available to be sold from the warehouses directly, where the entire inventory was now stored.
This analogy is not unlike a typical small business and its data servers. There has been much talk in the past decade about a “carbon footprint”—how much energy and resources an individual, household, or corporation consumes. Generally speaking, a smaller carbon footprint also can mean less money wasted, as more efficient methods of operation are utilized.
Most in-house data centers are not very energy-efficient. Typically, a company’s servers are sitting idle about ninety percent of the time. And, computers and servers generate a lot of heat—in use or not—and they work best when they are in a cooler environment, so good temperature control is required. Because human beings don’t see very well in the dark, there also must be adequate lighting so the data centers’ operations can be monitored. Of course, this monitoring isn’t always automatic, it requires IT staff. Here, then, are at least two cash drains: the electricity for everything to work properly, and the cost of the IT staff to watch over, update and keep it all running.
In addition to the obvious advantages, cloud service provider (CSP) services offer more efficient methods to save you even more money. There are a couple of terms involving the services CSPs offer that you should be aware of when shopping for on to replace or supplement your data centers:
◦ Dynamic provisioning refers to the process of matching server capacity with demand. This results in perhaps a smaller server that’s more filled to capacity, which is much better than the energy wasted by a larger idle server.
◦ Multi-tenacity refers to sharing a server with other companies or businesses…like a sort of timeshare, or a doctor’s office waiting room full of patients. Again, now the server can operate closer to its full capacity, and therefore be more energy efficient.
If you moved your network to the cloud, you’d have none of the expense of those previously mentioned issues. The company that you’ve hired would take care of all this and you could go back to running your business. You could save on electrical costs and although you’d still need an IT department for your computers’ troubleshooting and daily operations, it would be a lot smaller.
In turn, this means fewer employees traveling to and from your business, burning less gasoline. It also means you don’t have to discard old IT equipment when it breaks down—or invest in a new system.
The GoGreen website provides some numbers on potential energy savings regarding the cloud: its adoption could lead to a 38 percent reduction in energy usage within the world’s data centers by 2020. And, because of this growth due to its adoption, energy consumption is expected to decrease from its current rate of 201.8 terawatt hours (TWh) to 139.8 TWh in 2020. This would work out to be a 28 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The message is clear: you’ll save money if you switch to a CSP to manage and administer your small business’s data centers. It’s worth a look to see what other benefits such a switchover could ultimately provide.
This is a guest post from Farhan Niazi, an IT professional with expertise in the fields of Web and Database Development. Niazi is the founder of SMB Tech Guide and is currently serving Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Pakistan as the Deputy Director of Information Technology.
Many freelancers and solopreneurs are sole proprietors: one-man operations. If you pass on, there's no more business. Although some states do allow people to conduct business under their legal name without having to file anything, it's highly recommended to file for an LLC. However, if you are conducting business under a name other than you legal name, you could be breaking the law by not filing for an LLC.
It's actually much easier than many people think, and in most states, you could probably file online and have your name secured in just a few minutes. Since it's such a simple process, do not go through the trouble of hiring a lawyer to file an LLC for you. Filing on your own will cost anywhere from $50 to $800, and that's just for the filing fee, which differs from state to state. If you were to hire a lawyer, it would easily be several hundred dollars on top of the filing fee because you would have to pay for the lawyers time.
Whatever your case may be, if you are a sole proprietor, a freelancer or solopreneur running your own operation, you really ought to file an LLC. Here are a few reasons why, beyond the fact that it is so easy and cheap:
- It separates you from the business - Yes, as a one-man operation, you are the business. But, there are things that belong to the business that don't belong to you, such as product inventory, or technology such as a laptop and printer. If someone wants to sue you, for whatever reason, they can sue for everything you own if you don't have an LLC for the business. This means that by operating under your legal name, all your personal assets could be sued for in a lawsuit, such as your car or your home. However, if you have the LLC, and someone wants to sue the business, then they can only sue the LLC and its assets. Although this may be a rare case for freelancers and solopreneurs, it's better to be safe than sorry.
- You Can Be Taken More Seriously by Clients - It's easy for shady and awful clients to take advantage of an individual freelancer or solopreneur. They know you're just one person who can't do much if they don't pay their invoices. However, that's much tougher for them to do simply because you look bigger as an LLC. As an LLC, you could easily have a lawyer on staff to get these shady clients, or could have much more resources as your disposal than the client. Even if you are still a one-man operation, an LLC doesn't make it so obvious.
- It Helps in Taking Your Business Seriously - One of the biggest pitfalls for freelancers is that they treat their service, whatever it may be, as a hobby instead of an actual business. By filing an LLC, you know that you are in business, and that can make it harder to keep operating as a hobbyist or a part-timer.
- It Helps in Separating Expenses - Although you can just open two separate accounts in order to keep business expenses and personal expenses separate, with an LLC is easier to open that business account and strictly show that the expenses are separate. Even if you have two that happen to have the same name, that may not be enough if you are audited by the IRS.
- It Opens Up the Possibility of Growth - Right now, you may feel like you want to be a one-man operation forever and ever, but if you suddenly get a ton of new business or want to take on a bigger project, an LLC makes it easier to hire and to grow as a business.
For such a small price, it's hard to see what a freelancer or solopreneur wouldn't opt for an LLC. As a sole proprietor, you wouldn't have to worry about partners or an operating agreement. As an LLC, you wouldn't have to worry about losing your personal assets or being seen as someone who will do work for free.
Starting January 2013, it will be legal to text while driving in California. Well, without using your hands that is. Next year, drivers will be allowed to text using voice-activated technology, such as BlueTooth or a headset.
California has had a complete ban on texting for the past few years, but had quietly made this change to the law at the end of July. This change may seem drastic for the state's texting ban, however, the law specifically states that, "A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication, unless the electronic wireless communications devices is specifically designed and configured to allow voice-operated and hands-free operation to dictate, send, or listen to a text-based communication, and it is used in that manner while driving."
This means that smartphones are still out of the picture, since a driver would still have to pick up or to handle the phone in order to send a text or email through voice activation. So, there really isn't a whole lot of change to the driving laws. No driver can text or send an email through normal means, and hands-free devices can do a lot more than text, call and send emails. So, using them, and having a police officer decipher how its being used through a cursory glance while patrolling the roads, is still tough to do. However, if you do get a ticket for texting and driving, you are required to take an 18-question exam when you renew your license, so it's beneficial to practice with a California DMV practice test in case this happens.
This new law doesn't change any other existing laws or bans, such as using hands to turn on a cell phone or to check directions. It may seem like hands-free laws don't make much of a difference, but they do. Since the law to ban handheld cell phones took effect in July 2008, deaths blamed on hand-held cell phone use in California have dropped by 47%.
Laws like these need to be learned by novice drivers, no matter what state in which they will be driving. These laws are likely to be missed by young drivers, who may be tempted to text and to use their phones while driving, but these laws are also likely to appear on the DMV Test, so it's important that new drivers learn what these laws are and how they apply to them.
"The most important thing to do when you're driving is to drive," California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Jaime Coffee said in the Silicon Valley Mercury News. "It does take your attention away, whether it's hands free or not."
Many use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to post pictures, to share links and to post a status update occasionally. But most business users aren’t aware of all the potential the social networks—particularly Twitter—have to offer. Here are eight ways to get more out of Twitter
1. Decide what you want to accomplish with your Twitter account. Is the purpose of your Twitter account to generate leads? Converse with customers? Keep up with industry news and competitors? By figuring out what you hope to accomplish with your Twitter account, you can then figure out what kinds of Tweets you’re going to post and what metrics to measure.
Another decision to make is what your level of participation will be. Are you only interested in news related to your business community, or do you wish to participate in discussions? The latter will help greatly in promoting your company and its products and services to others. Again, like most things, you get out of it what you put into it.
2. Create your Twitter bio as if it’s a sort of online resume, or like a business card you’d hand out at a professional conference. Select a passport-style business photograph of your face, and a short intro that briefly describes what your professional experience and interests are. The goal in Twitter or really any social network is gaining a large amount of followers. By choosing a good representation of yourself you’ll gain some followers based on common interests.
Try to choose a username that is close to your own name, so others from before will also recognize you and make the connection. Alternately, use the name of your business as your username. This allows you to promote your business with every tweet.
3. Start by tweeting information on professional topics or interests. For example: if your business is technology, you might mention a new gadget, computer or other device you, a friend or colleague just purchased. Remember that a tweet is only 140 characters, and that you should rarely ever continue a message into a second tweet. You should even try to avoid using more than about 120 or so, because in Twitter the way to get your message across is by re-tweets from others who are passing along your message. If you’re already at the maximum character count, then others can’t re-tweet that message effectively, or you can't tell others in your tweet to retweet, which has been shown to increase the number of tweets.
Don’t be concerned if you don’t have any followers, or just a few. It could take a little while before the individuals reading your tweets decide to make the move to follow you.
4. Communicate with both current and former colleagues. Search for them by name and click the “Follow” button found in their profile. Send them a greeting by entering the “@“ symbol before their username. They will receive an email and/or tweet with your profile, and from there will decide whether of not to follow you.
Remember that it’s polite on Twitter to follow someone who is following you. This rule is rarely followed by celebrities and high-profile business leaders, but it’s still a good one to remember.
5. Go to WeFollow or Twellow to find the leaders of your industry, and follow them. Don’t go overboard with choosing a lot of members to follow, or you’ll look a bit spammy by following so many people and having so few followers in return. Choose five or 10 to start with, and grow it gradually from there.
6. Feel the need to respond to someone’s tweet? Don’t be shy! You can say “Thanks!”, or offer a similar opinion or thought. Many times, the person you’ve sent the response to will re-tweet it. Please be certain it’s what you want to say, as it represents you. The last thing anyone wants is a re-tweet spread across Twitter that points out the inaccuracies in what you’ve said. Don’t subject anyone to personal attacks of any kind. That can get you banned from Twitter, and in general it’s just a bad idea.
The way to gain followers is through a thoughtful interaction with others.
7. Don’t be a Twitter blabbermouth. Some feel the need to announce their daily schedules through hourly or to-the-minute updates. Not only is this a bad idea for your own online image (it looks spammy, especially if your tweets offer nothing of value), but it does post a threat to your security. Announcing that you're going on vacation for two weeks only invites thieves to break into your home with impunity.
Other users will read your tweets if you have such things as industry news to pass along, or a unique insight you’ve gained. Twitter can be a great networking tool. You’ll find that by reading other’s tweets you’ll soon catch on to how it’s done, and soon you’ll have followers that can spread the good word about your business.
This is a guest post from Farhan Niazi, an IT professional with expertise in the fields of Web and Database Development. Niazi is the founder of SMB Tech Guide and is currently serving Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Pakistan as the Deputy Director of Information Technology.
Content is something that affects all freelancers and solopreneurs. Whether it's creating content for our own marketing efforts, or for clients, or both, creating content for online media involves more than being a good writer. It's also a matter of creating something that can be found online, is easily digestible, and is something worth sharing across multiple channels.
One of my favorite statistics from this infographic is that two and three-word keyphrases have the highest conversion rates. Goes to show that specificity helps in creating content that's SEO-friendly, yet engaging and of quality. Another nugget is that less people are finding websites through search engines, 83% in 2004 versus 61% in 2012. If less than two-thirds of people are finding websites through search engines, how are they finding websites? Social media? Email?
Creating content is easy to learn and tough to master, and the statistics in this week's inforgraphic show that things change quickly. Creating content for the purposes of getting found, or creating content because it's the smart thing to do when it comes to online marketing, is not enough to making that content engaging for the audience or even ensuring that it is quality, unique content that the search engines favor.
Many new solopreneurs are understandably excited at the prospect of being their own boss. They dream of living it up in the Caribbean while spending the riches they earned from their hard work. Because of this fantasy, these people sometimes dive into entrepreneurship without much thought, causing them to make finance mistakes that they could have avoided had they been more careful. Of course, these mistakes are not in vain. It’s through them that people learn.
However, you don’t have to commit a finance mistake just to learn from it. It’s important to keep a level head and to listen to people who’ve been through the same thing before. You can learn from the experiences of others and avoid these three finance mistakes solopreneurs tend to make:
1) Taking out a big loan with a high interest rate
It’s not unusual for entrepreneurs to borrow money to serve as capital for business. Everyone from multinational companies to small business owners do this. However, not everyone gets out of debt successfully.
When you’re just starting out as a solopreneur with no other substantial source of income, go ahead and get a loan only if it’s necessary, and only if you can pay it off whether your business succeeds or not. It’s bad enough if your business fails; don’t make it worse by getting into deep debt.
If you can, borrow money from family and friends. They’ll most likely offer you loans with low interest rates, or none at all. And they’ll be more flexible in terms of payment schemes if your business does fail.
2) Using personal savings to fund a business
There are solopreneurs who refuse to take a loan. They prefer to fund their own business with their own money. On paper, this seems like a great idea, but not in execution. Many solopreneurs who used all their money as capital also lost everything when their business failed. Yes, they don’t owe money to anybody, but they’re also left broke.
If you’re going to use your personal money to finance your business, don’t forget to leave a substantial amount for yourself. You never know what will happen, so it’s best that you have some money you can count on in terms of major emergencies.
3) Not asking for enough money
Many solopreneurs are willing to enter the market with such low rates for their products and services in the hopes of attracting clients. It works well at the start, but as soon as they start increasing their prices, most of their newfound clients are also quick to leave. They have to start all over again, making them wish that they did it right the first time.
Instead of working your way up, why not target the market you want right from the start? It’s a waste of time to go for clients who will not be able to afford your intended prices in the long run, anyway. Also, by pricing your products and services too low, you’re incurring losses. You don’t have profit, and you’re also losing money. You didn’t become a solopreneur for that to happen!