Sometimes, all you need is a kickstart.

That’s all it took for Julia Nable, co-founder (with her partner) of SandorMax, to decide how to position their small Connecticut-based firm after 6+ years in business. 

I met with Julia and Zoltan for a 2 hour consultation in June 2011 (almost exactly 6 months ago). Then, in early December, Julia wrote to tell me they’d made great strides with their positioning and their target market, healthcare and bioscience companies – and that they were accepted as speakers at a prestigious industry conference later this year.  

I was like a proud parent! Here’s how it happened. 

First, like everyone else, they were generalists, until they came to the realization that this approach just wasn’t working. She said, “We were so broad that we were taking any work that came our way. We were too many things to too many people.”

They knew things had to change. That’s when they called me and we spent 2 hours hashing out potential positioning statements and possible markets to focus on. “At the beginning, our big fear was: How do we turn away business? I think that’s what everyone wonders at the beginning. What if someone calls and they have nothing to do with healthcare, do we turn them away?”

Julia likens their new approach to having a tiny herb garden instead of a huge farm. “Before, we had a gigantic farm. The manpower required to go after business was impossible. Now, with the small garden we’re nurturing, we can become experts in this area and create a prospect list we can actually go after. It’s contained enough that we can get a name in this area, and get high-level referrals through the community we’ve created with our clients. It’s something we can perfect.”

I asked Julia to share their positioning process so others who are struggling can see the small steps it takes. In this interview, Julia defined the process and the benefits so clearly. She also talked about:

• How, exactly, they chose their new market.
• The extensive research and competitive analysis they did 
• How they retooled their website, and how they handled the projects that no longer fit their positioning 
• How she found the industry-focused speaking engagement on LinkedIn. 

Listen to this (14-minute long) interview and you will learn. And if you need a plan to follow, check out the just-released 2012 Marketing Plan Bundle.

We’ve been talking about crowdsourcing a lot on the Creative Freelancer Blog, and designer, Laurel Black, is central to every discussion.

So, I decided to do an interview with Laurel on some basics of crowdsourcing (from her perspective) for those who haven't been following all the comments. We started with a few basic questions:

What is crowdsourcing?

Who is upset about it and why?

How has it affected (is affecting) your business?

How are you dealing with it?

What advice do you have for others concerned about it?

Listen to Laurel’s take on crowdsourcing here.

Should you be putting samples inside your proposals?

Should higher fees equal longer proposals?

What are the 5 basic elements every proposal should have?

Find out answers to these questions, and many more, in my recent interview for the International Freelancers Academy with Ed Gandia. In this hour-long interview, we cover the real information you need to craft winning proposals. Topics also discussed include: 

• The most common types of proposals - 4 types
• Hybrid all-in-one proposals
• Optional elements (marketing, testimonials, usage rights, client responsibility, results )
• Do you need an attorney involved for legal language?
• Should you place an expiration date on your price?
• How to submit your proposal
• How and when to follow up
• Should you ask for the business?
• How to discuss next steps…
• Handling price objections

If you want to increase your chances of winning projects – The Proposal Bundle (we have versions for Designers and Copywriters) will give you 25 resources, plus 11 actual sample proposals to use as models.

Bob Bly, who has been a freelance copywriter since 1982 (and made millions doing it) generously shared his one-page agreement in the new Proposal Bundle for Copywriters (Today only: Get $10 off with promo code: BUNDLE10).

I interviewed Bob on the Marketing Mentor Podcast to find out more about his agreement. Here’s an excerpt… 

Is it safe to skip the agreements—and get right to work for existing clients? Bob says: 

You always need to have, for every job, even if it’s an old familiar client, a written agreement which the client approves. My philosophy is to keep it as short and simple as possible while covering all the salient points. We email it to the client. All they have to do is email back that they approve. New clients pay half the fee up-front.

When it comes to rush jobs, Bob says: 

Since we have a standard agreement, it takes less than three minutes to put in the particulars of the job. Time is no excuse. Just because it’s a rush job doesn’t mean I can’t send out the agreement. 

What about the excuse, they “won’t be able to cut the check in time”? 

Bob makes it easy by accepting Paypal, credit card and wire transfers. 

Find out more about the specifics inside Bob’s agreement. Listen to the full 15-minute interview here.

If you know you need a target market—but don’t know where to start, this interview will help. Often, your market is right there in front of you, where you can see a need. Usually, it comes from your past experience. This is where I found my target market (creative professionals) in 1988.

Last week, I shared the story of how I got started with Anderson Smith, who interviewed me on his radio show, 1 Hour Photo, on ArmadaFM. Listen in if you want to hear:

• Questions to ask yourself to find your market without starting from scratch
• How I found my market under a pile of paper
• How the changing economy affected the “need” for marketing
• How I help clients break old habits and build new ones
• The steps I take clients through in the 6-month marketing group (http://www.marketing-mentor.com/html/beginnermarketinggroup.html) process 

Listen to this 11-minute interview on the Marketing Mentor Podcast.

Daniel Pelavin is entering his 5th decade as a typographic designer and illustrator. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Graphic Artists Guild’s Reboot (http://newyork.gag.org/RRR_Conference/schedule.html) conference. He was pointed out as being “the king of self-promotion,” and of course, I had to find out more. 

Recently, I talked with Jim Blasingame, of Small Business Advocate, about proposals. Though we have a slightly different approach (he says don’t miss an opportunity, I say deliver only when you have a real chance of getting the job) we can both agree on this:

Whenever possible, present the proposal personally.

This is, hands down, the best way to ensure that you have a chance to negotiate and continue the conversation, rather than never hearing from your prospect again. 

In this interview, Jim and I discuss the effectiveness of presenting proposals face-to-face or with web conferencing tools vs. sending them via email.

How have you presented proposals—and which method has been most effective?

P.S. If you want to enhance your proposals, and your chances of winning the work, we will be focusing on this in the Advanced Marketing Group. A new group starts October 17th, and there is one spot left! Sign up here. 

Want 11 actual proposals to use as samples (plus a lot more!)? Check out The Proposal Bundle: 25 Resources for Project-Winning Proposals.

Just 5 months into her new career as a freelance food writer, Bryn Mooth is already getting a lot of publicity and great projects. (Follow her journey here.)

But as a lot of new freelancers do—Bryn is finding pricing to be a challenge. Why?

She’s calculated an hourly rate, refined an estimating sheet, and learned to price by the project—but the problem is—she’s really fast.

With 20 years of experience, she finds that using hours to calculate project costs is leaving her with a price that doesn’t equal the project’s value. Her clients often share a budget, but when she calculates her project cost—it’s way too low.

With her current approach, there’s an apparent disconnect between what the project costs—and what it’s worth.

Listen to this interview to find out where the discrepancy is—and how she can solve it.

Should she double her hourly rate? Make room for higher profit? Find out here.

Bryn also shares how she’s:
• Dealing with pricing
• Determining her minimum project rate
• Using an estimating worksheet to figure out hours for each project
• Starting to track her hours/rates over time

She also shares why pricing should be “uncomfortable.”

Listen here. Have any advice for Bryn? Please share.

If you’re hesitant to focus on a target market, listen to this interview with Jennifer Neal, Owner of K9 Design Co. – I bet it will change your mind.

In a nutshell: in 2008, K9 was a busy family-owned design business that was almost completely referral-based. They need more control over the flow of work, so they decided to commit to and invest in their marketing—and before long, they started to grow, so much so that 2010 – a recession year for many – was K9 Design Co’s best year ever, with a 30% increase over 2009.

The first step was to embrace the idea of a target market and the fact they had a “portfolio full of publication work.” Jennifer says, “As scary as it was at the time for me to decide to market to publishers and the publishing industry, it was at that point that everything shifted. It was the toughest decision we ever made, but also the best move we ever made.”

In the latest Marketing Mentor podcast Jennifer also shares:

• Why even a specific target market will have enough work to keep you growing.
• Why not to waste your time on perfection.
• Why their business name doesn’t matter anymore.
• And more…

Listen to the whole interview on the Marketing Mentor Podcast—and let me know… Did it change your mind about target markets?