What you’re about to read isn’t stuff I read in some book or overheard some lawyers talking about in a coffee shop. These are just a few things I’ve picked up on this sometimes winding and bumpy road of owning my own business. Hope you enjoy these points and get something out of them!

Communication is the key

I’ve said this a million times on this site and IgniteLiving.com, but if you don’t communicate, you’re not gonna make it.

It doesn’t have to be artsy, poetic, business-like or even intelligent communication. It just has to be communication.

Your client doesn’t care if you use the words “empowering”, “networking” or “flux capacitor” in your email. He doesn’t care if your sentence structure is a little funky. He doesn’t care if you floss regularly or subscribe to any particular political stance.

He just wants you to exist and act like you’re actually there.

When someone writes you, write them back. When someone says they like your stuff, say thank you. When someone says it’s urgent, don’t go out for a long lunch before you answer. When someone calls, call them back.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the phone. I’m with you; I hate the phone. Ultra-hatred bordering on homicidal and/or suicidal psychosis probably. But it’s not about me. It’s about the client and the client wants a phone call. Seeing as how that client’s money will be paying my bills or buying me some groceries, I guess I ought to just shut up and get on with it, eh?

When you do communicate, have fun

If your business is anything like mine, you might have a LOT of clients. That’s not a boast; I’m just saying I don’t charge an arm and a leg for what I do, so have to make up for it in volume.

If I wrote every client the same email, over and over and over, I’d go insane. I try to keep it fresh and interesting and inject my personality into what I do. It makes it way more fun for me, and I’m sure clients enjoy my messages more than some generic bland form letter I could send. Plus, if you act like yourself, your client probably will too. You may even end up making some good friends along the way!

Pay attention

This is a tribute (or anti-tribute maybe) to the old used-car salesman mentality.

You go in looking for a car. You say, “I want one in blue.” The car salesman says, “We don’t have that, but look at this stunner in bright pink. Now that’s you!” And you think to yourself, “Is this guy a moron? I want a blue car and he is showing me one in bright pink? And it’s not even the same model!”

This happens all the time in business, especially via email. Client says, “I have a 50-page ebook I want designed.” Don’t write back and say, “How long is your ebook?” It makes you look stupid. It makes the client think you’re not really paying attention…which you weren’t. You can lose business this way.

It takes much less time to read an email all the way through and get it, than it does to read another email the client has to send because you weren’t on the ball. Wastes their time too.

Don’t take every client

I always run the danger of estranging clients when I speak of “Clients from Hell!” on this site, so please read this disclaimer first lest you think I’m pointing a finger at you:

Clients from Hell don’t care if they’re Clients from Hell. If you have the sensibility to even worry that you may be a Client from Hell, you’re not.

If you have to ask a client four or five times how long their book is, you might be steering into dangerous territory. If you ask the client, “Is it okay if I get this to you on Tuesday,” and they write back, “My favorite color is blue,” you might be in for some trouble.

You bring in what you put out

That probably sounds a bit enigmatic, so I’ll explain. If you want work to come IN, you have to put OUT communication. If you want a new client IN, you have to advertise OUT. If you want someone to know that you sell special wedding napkin rings with ducks on (business IN), you have to tell them (OUT).

Make some noise, tell everyone what you do, post to your blog, pick up that phone, spark up conversation even if you hate talking to people. Your reward will be new business. It never fails.

Take care of those who take care of you

When you find someone with whom you work well, boost that relationship and protect it as much as you can.

There are a few clients for whom I’ve done countless projects, one after the other. They make my business and life so much easier, having their repeat business. I have no illusions about that whatsoever, so I take good care of them. The more I help them the more they help me, and that is a fantastic way of things.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, do your best for them. Well, you should be doing your best anyway, but maybe you could do extra your best. Or something more logical perhaps.

Keep getting better at what you do

This is not only essential for keeping up with your competitors but also is a great trick for keeping interested in what you do.

Case in point, after designing about 8,384,859 ebook covers, I was feeling a bit stagnant and burnt out, and wanted to spend all my time watching Square Dancing DVDs.

So I started learning 3D programs, different Photoshop skills, studied up on classical typography and layouts, figured out what the Golden Mean was and how it could help me in my designs. All of a sudden I was interested again and started having better ideas and more of them.

So, long story short is don’t type-cast yourself. You’re not necessarily going to develop new skills and competencies just working your routine. In fact, just in interest of time and keeping the machine running, you may end up doing the same things over and over. They’ve worked before and they’re easy for you, so you just keep pulling that same trick out of the bag. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also not the best route to personal development either.

Of course, this not ALL I’ve learned over the past year of working, but these main points will leave one in good shape if they’re remembered and practiced. Plus, I just don’t feel like writing any more.

Next week, we’ll be posting the next installment in our old series: 10 ways to make your website look better. You don’t want to miss that so subscribe now. Oh…and here are the first three posts in the series, case you missed them:

• 10 Ways to make your website look better
• 10 ways to make your website better, Part 1 – Effective eye trails
• How proper line height will improve the look and stickiness of your site

Branding is none those things, though each may play a part.

What branding really is

Let me ask you some questions and you’ll understand the simplicity of branding:

1. When you see the golden arches of McDonalds, what do you think of?
2. When you see the multi-colored font of Google on their home page what do you feel?
3. When you see a Nazi swastika, does it elicit any emotional or analytical response from you?
4. When you see the apple on a Macintosh computer, what happens inside you?

The answer you thought of or what you felt for any of those questions is branding.

When I was a kid, the golden arches of McDonalds meant a quarter pounder with cheese, ice cream sundae and getting to bond with my dad. Now, as an adult and after two unfortunate incidents back-to-back, I see the golden arches and think of vomiting. Unfortunately for McD’s, both cases are equally steeped in branding.

When I see a Xerox logo I think and feel absolutely nothing. I don’t own a Xerox and I don’t really want to, though I couldn’t tell you why. I don’t even remember ever using one, but that’s also branding, isn’t it? The logo means nothing to me.

When I see the Macintosh apple, I don’t really think of anything specifically, but I do get the same feeling that I do when I’m creating something. I get that feeling of magic, and that something utterly insanely bitchin is going to happen soon.

These are all the province of branding. I guess we could loosely define branding as: the message or feeling that is delivered or evoked or recalled upon viewing an identity of some sort.

If a company gives you the warm-fuzzies, that’s branding. If a company makes you want to laugh, that’s branding. If a website looks shoddy and unprofessional, that’s their branding.

What’s the problem with your website?

Though we’re going to talk about websites now, what follows is true for brick-and-mortar companies as well. It’s also true for individuals. Remember that when you’re on your next job interview.

Why your site’s brand is suffering

• The problem is that you’re using a free theme that hundreds or thousands of other people are using.
• The problem is that you created or hired someone to create a logo and you slapped it on your site, thinking it would insta-brand you.
• The problem is that when someone stops by your site, you’ve got (according to web usability surveys) about three seconds to grab them before they leave.
• The problem is that you bought a $49 or $99 cookie-cutter logo from a logo house and it doesn’t really do much for your site.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to put myself out of work here. A good logo is an absolute necessity, because it is part of your total branding package.

But done wrong, a logo is nothing more than a bumper sticker. It might be entertaining or look great, but it doesn’t do anything for the saleability of the car.

It has to be the right logo and it has to work hand in hand with the rest of your site and whatever qualities you want it to exude. A humorous website, for example, with an ultra-slick medical looking logo is not really creating a cohesive brand.

In contrast, a medical website with a shoddy logo isn’t creating a very good brand either.

A sports website with a sports logo…that fits, right? Branding.

How will branding solve your problems?

If your website is suffering any of the above woes, proper branding can alleviate them all. As we looked at already, branding is partially the visual identity of a company, but it’s also the feeling they elicit from you. A strong brand will give feelings of:

Familiarity
Comfort
Stability
Professionalism
Memorability
Market Domination
Success

Good branding will give you these qualities (if it’s done right).

If you’re in doubt about whether or not you need a brand, that should end here. You do. It’s more important than ever. There are millions and millions of websites and companies out there. And with the speed of technology and communications being the way they, we see more brands and we see them faster than ever before.

In this constant stream of brands and products, if yours blends in, it’s gone. Poof.

My brand, a quick case study

Off to the right there is a little 125×125 badge I use for advertising. As of this moment, this badge shows up in exactly three other places on the whole internet.

Obviously I designed that badge and logo, but let’s say I’d paid a designer to do it. Ordinarily something like that would cost from $200 up to $500. Is that worth it?

Within the past two weeks, this badge, from the three locations in which it shows up, has already earned me over well $500 in commissions. I know the brand is growing and inspiring confidence because I receive tons of emails that say, “I keep seeing your little hook logo all over the place.”

Why does this badge work?

First, it’s an alright design. I mean…it’s not horrid to look at. You know, there’s no green with pink stripes and six different fonts. So that’s alright.

Second, it’s legible, which isn’t necessarily true for all 125×125 badges you see.

Third, the tagline “Design that kills…in a good way” is sort of funny-ish. Or maybe it’s just weird, but it’s not boring or stagnant or stuffy.

But as we’ve discussed, such a badge doesn’t make a brand. That’s why I make it my first priority to do other things that solidify the image I want to portray. I do the things a tiny ad like that couldn’t possibly do on its own.

Other parts of the branding package

Customer service : When a customer or potential customer writes me, I usually write back within 5 minutes or so. That’s pretty much unheard of online, unless you happen to know that your customers are the most important part of your business.

Sometimes it takes me longer to write back, but usually not. And if it ever takes me more than 24 hours to get back to a client, something is awfully wrong. Like possibly my head fell off or I was attacked by gargoyles in my bathroom.

Personality : When I write my customers back, they get the same service as my badge portrays, namely that I don’t act like something I’m not. I have a sense of humor that I don’t try to hide. I have a personality that isn’t “put on hold” until I get to know you better. Who I am makes my work what it is. They’re inseparable.

This isn’t by any means me patting my own back. It’s just what I do for my brand.

So, long story still far too long, get yourself a slick logo. Get a nice website. Do what you can to polish your identity, but don’t stop there. Act the professional and be professional in what you do.

Your branding will never be better!

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