As I mentioned in my last post, this blog will start to focus more attention to the evolution of my new design firm, Big Generator.
As this blog has significantly helped me with my personal challenges, I think it will offer a similar benefit towards helping me keep up the level of motivation, persistence and energy that a new business venture requires. I also think that the sheer transparency of what I am thinking about and how I am going about improving my business and design abilities can ultimately serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy of its own. If I think positively, the majority of the work that I do, both from core design and business perspectives, is also more likely to result in positive outcomes.
While increasing the level of transparency is important, it’s unlikely that I’ll mention specific clients within these posts at least until the project has concluded. If the client maintains all rights to the work, then I won’t, of course, be allowed to publish any related information about the engagement. Independent of the situation, the process of approaching a new design challenge and coming to a final solution is worth documenting. In many circumstances, the process of documenting your experiences can refine your level of understanding and push you to think about the situation in new ways.
At this point, the business “foundation” is nearly built – this foundation includes the core brand, web site, portfolio, letterhead, many project proposal letters, and a supplemental graphic visual suite. The next step in the process is to develop a comprehensive client building strategy – to do this I am reading a book called Get Clients Now by C.J.Hayden.
After reading the first fifty pages, I’ve learned the key to a successful client building strategy is persistence. To achieve persistence, the development of a formal plan is required. To summarize here, there are five such steps that need to be followed every month:
- Marketing Strategies – selecting two to four client-building strategies
- Marketing Stage – identifying the stage of the marketing cycle where you are having difficulty
- Program Goal – identifying what you want to accomplish during that time period
- Success Ingredients – identifying the missing ingredients that you need to be successful
- Daily Actions – documenting the specific steps that you are going to do
In addition, there are six marketing strategies discussed in the text (from most effective to least effective):
- Direct Contact and Follow-up
- Networking and referral building
- Public Speaking
- Writing and Publicity
- Promotional Events
- Advertising
At this stage, my next step is to finish reading this text and start developing a monthly plan of my own. In my a future post, I will share additional details about what my client building strategy looks like and how well it’s working. As indicated earlier, sharing the strategy in this manner will help increase accountability and will provide a history from which I can learn.