This is a great commencement speech given by Apple Founder, Steve Jobs to  the Stanford University 2005 graduating class.  A great throwback and truly inspiring speech that will surely re-energize the young entrepreneur and remind him of why he started his own business in the first place…  Enjoy!

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You've hired your consultant two years ago and most of your marketing budget is still going towards Google Adwords!  Your Adwords campaign landing pages are still your homepage! Your inbound marketing strategy includes 75% cold calling!  Your company's blog is still on the wordpress subdomain! Facebook is still only for your friends and family!  You're still confused on what a Twitter hashtag is! Google still has no idea that your website exists!  You are still using your blog primarily for company announcements! The Page titles on your website only have your company's name... on every page! You still don't know why blogging is important!  You can't figure out why you're paying your consultant so much money!  You're so confused about social networking that he still handles everything! If this is you,  IT MIGHT BE TIME TO FIRE YOUR SEO/SMM CONSULTANT.

Then...

Hire a Social Media Consultant that understands that social media marketing campaigns are most effective when implemented by the business owner or someone in the company. I believe that the key ingredient to a successful social media campaign is your involvement in the process. You either do most of the social media outreach yourself, i.e. blogging, tweeting, buzzing or making Facebook friends, or you hire a fulltime employee to do it for you. Seldom can a part-time consultant be effective in building your brand online, especially if he's managing twelve other brands. 

Your consultant should be there to manage or 'consult' you on ways to effectively run your campaign. He should develop marketing strategies, and discover communities where your demographics gather, and plan marketing campaigns that will be effective in reaching them. Once the strategy and marketing plan has been developed, he should involve you in the training, planning, and the execution of the plan, allowing you to genuinely engage with your community.   

It's been my experience that even though your consultant amasses 3,000 friends on Facebook and 5,000 followers on Twitter, it still doesn't add up to a successful social media campaign... unless those people are engaged with your brand. 

Engagement builds friendships and business relationships that will lead to new customers, either through direct contact or by your community sharing your content with their friends and colleagues.

I know that you hire experts to do the jobs you can't do or don't want to do, but you should know what the expectations of hiring a social media consultant are, what he can and cannot promise or deliver. Knowing the expected ROI will allow you to track the consultant's progress and allow you to make changes if necessary in order to reach your marketing goals. 

To learn more about what makes a great social media marketer or consultant read Tamar Weinberg's post, What Traits Define a Social Media Marketer?

To learn what to look for in hiring an SEO Consultant read Jordyne Wu's post on Hubspot titled How to Hire And Manage An SEO Consultant.

What are your expectations of a social media consultant?

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You've been working for 3 years and you haven't made a dime!  Your web designer is the only one who's making money! The IRS considers your business a hobby! You still don't know who your customers are! Your elevator pitch changes every time you give it! Your accountant does your taxes for free! Your friends constantly ask you... so, what exactly do you do again? And your wife is wondering when you'll get a full time job.  If this is you, IT'S PROBABLY TIME TO END YOUR STARTUP.

OR...

You can decide to take control of your business.  Decide whether  this is something you really want to do.  Perhaps your commitment is not there because you'd rather be doing something else.  However, if you've figured out that you are indeed passionate about your product or service, you must find out if there is a real need for what you're offering. 

It's no longer "build it and they will come", it's now "build it with them and they will stay."  If there is a real need, then you might want to take a closer look at your brand design or branding strategy.  Why aren't you connecting with your customers? Maybe your business model needs to be adjusted.  Sometimes it may not be the product itself but the price. Or it may be your call to action on your website.  Maybe you are targeting the wrong demographics or perhaps your branding does not appeal to your audience.  My recommendation is this: Step back from your Startup, forget all the time, money and effort you've already invested (I know it's tough)  and take a long hard look at your product or service, and find out if there's a real need there.  Once you've established that there's a need, you can move on to effectively targeting your market.

Given the state of marketing and advertising today, most small business sales and marketing efforts are focused online via their websites. I'm currently writing an eBook, The Website Design Guide For Startups - 7 steps to finding the right designer for your Small Business.  It should be completed this summer.  You can be notified and receive a complementary copy when the book is released by clicking the link below (This offer is only good for the first 100 readers that sign up).  It will help you flesh out your sales and marketing ideas, get you thinking about your business branding strategies and provide some step by step guidelines on finding and hiring the right web designer for your Startup.

 Click Here For Your Complementary Copy

Please feel free to share any additional advice you can give young entrepreneurs and Startup companies that are at the crossroads of... Should I keep going or should I end my Startup?

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The Styleapple Hire A Designer Series continues with Sue Treiman, an Emmy-award winning TV writer/producer, newspaper columnist, website copywriter, and corporate communicator. Sue has 20 years of experience tailoring messaging to the right audience and the right medium, with amazing results. You can read her full profile here. Sue wrote a very comprehensive article on the Top 10 things to look for when hiring a freelance copywriter. If you are thinking about hiring a freelance copywriter for your ad campaign or website, this is a must read. Find a brief excerpt of her article below. You can read the full copy here.

It's already in the teens and your website is looking downright millennial?

Consider hiring a professional web copywriter. A qualified scribe can create bright, polished copy that accurately captures your ‘value proposition' while skillfully targeting your audience.

Selecting the perfect professional, though, can be tricky. After all, writing is an intimate process that requires sharing proprietary business information, not to mention hopes and dreams.

To ensure you find the best person, keep the following 10 qualities in mind.

1. Voice - Like people, businesses (and their websites) have distinct personalities. If you sell trendy duds, you may want sassy, irreverent verbiage, but if you peddle paper, plain vanilla prose is fine.

Either way, the first order of business is to know your needs and your market. Think about the language your clients and competitors speak. What are its distinct characteristics, phraseology, quirks? Once you find a writer, the research will help inform and educate him.

2. Curiosity - It takes an engaged, involved writer to paint a captivating ‘word picture.' Be certain that your copywriter fully comprehends the business, and is inquisitive enough to seek answers. Listen for probing questions about your product, your purpose, and your ideal customer. If your copywriter dismisses the process with an ‘I can write anything' shrug, move on.

Good writers must get up close and personal. If they are uninterested at the start, imagine how things might be two months and 15 revisions from now.

3. Specialties - Not all writers are suitable for all projects. A marketing writer may be a promotional whiz, but terrible at crafting longer text; a search engine genius may be stymied by a tough mission statement. Seek skills accordingly, and don't assume everyone is a Jack or Jill of all trades.

Continue... Read points 4 - 10 here

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Food For Thought:  Is content still king or does Google Chrome rule when it comes to content targeted Ads?

Today I was browsing the web using Google Chrome for a dog grooming service. After doing my research at various grooming sites I opened another tab in Chrome to browse the recently added designers portfolios on Styleapple.  We currently have one ad space for Google Ads, which 99.9% of the time shows Ads relevant to the content on our pages. i.e. design schools,  freelance design jobs, web design firms, etc.  However today it showed an Ad for a dog show. A DOG SHOW?   Hmm. 

I browsed the current content on Styleapple to see if any of the recently added designers were doing doggie portraits or developing websites for dogs to no avail.  Then I thought: Does Google believe that your previous searches are more important than the content on the current web page?

 What do you think:  Is Google Chrome smarter than a 5^th grader ?

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 Being an entrepreneur for many years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the sooner you accept that budgeting for a startup business website is as illusive as figuring out Google’s algorithm for search,  you’d be in a much better place.

If you’re an internet entrepreneur or any kind of  business owner for that matter,  chances are good that a large amount of your business success will depend on your online presence.  With that said;  the top 3 things young entrepreneurs worry about all the time are…  finance, finance and more finance.  Most entrepreneurs have a business idea and a plan to succeed.  What most of us are lacking is the ability to budget our startup costs effectively.  In our defense though, it can be difficult to predict what expenses a new business will incur as it grows. 

Building or designing a brand these days is more about building an effective online presence.  Which means finding a designer who is both talented and knowledgeable to understand and effectively implement your branding design strategies.  I’m not going to bore you with a branding design lecture at this point, but take a look at this great presentation on the importance of  branding design below.

It is my position that if you’re building a business to succeed, you should be mindful of the core ingredients for success.   Hiring the right web designer to build your website is  one of those core ingredients.

BUDGETING FOR YOUR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Getting Website Design Services For Free

The ideal option is to find a worthy web developer and offer him a partnership in your new venture in exchange for his expertise. This will not only allow for a possible continuous and quality development of your company and brand identity, but also a major reduction in your startup cost.

Hiring a Freelancer or Web Design Firm

If on the other hand, you choose not to partner with a web designer then your next option would be to hire a freelancer or  web design firm.

How To Budget For A Web Design Project

Many young entrepreneurs get the initial quote from  a web designer and allocate the respective funds as their  web development budget.   The problem with this is that the initial quote that a designer gives you seldom proves to be the one you end up paying.  Sometimes it maybe less but most times it ends up being more.  Much more.

As a designer starts a project, he/she may not know the obstacles that will occur as the project gets on-the-way.  This is especially true for custom website design.

Custom website design can sometimes involve lots of programming which is not an exact science, hence, can easily add hours to your project, ultimately increasing your website budget.

So you should be aware about these things upfront as you’re negotiating the terms of agreement.  If you’re on a tight budget (like most young entrepreneurs), try to negotiate a project price instead of an hourly rate.  This way you’re sure to be able to manage your money a little better.  Another way to plan for the unexpected is to create a detailed design brief , outlining your business strategies and project requirements.

Do You Have A Post Launch Budget ?

Another thing most entrepreneurs overlook is the post launch expense of a website.

When a website is launched, aside from the inevitable bugs that will come up, there are many things that will not be apparent until your visitors start to use your website. For example:

·        How user friendly is the website ?

·        Is your call to action buttons in the right places ?

·        Are your signup forms too long or difficult to fill out ?

·        Are the landing pages effective ?

Once you determine that the Buy Now  buttons should be green instead of light blue and that you’d rather have a search bar at the top of the home page instead of a link on the side bar. You’re talking about more time and hence more money. 

These are just some of the things you should be mindful of as you budget, negotiate and ultimately hire  a web designer for your startup company.

What have been your experience with budgeting for a website design project?

Are you looking to hire a web designer for your startup business?  Request a free quote from our designers network.

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When I decided to write this article I was inspired by all the people I knew that were having trouble finding work; some for a few months, others moving into a year.  It got me thinking about the extended length of time it takes to find a job these days.  I thought,  with all the qualified designers out there in resume databases and design portfolio websites, why are recruiters still having difficulty finding designers to hire. 

The reason is that recruiters seldom look for designers that are looking for work.  Instead they look for designers that are not looking for work.  Confused? Well, there are two phrases in the recruiter’s lexicon that are used constantly, “active” and “passive candidates”.  They prefer to hire the latter, simply because of the perception that good people are always employed and employed people are usually talented.   

 It’s kind of like that girl you liked in high school-- you chased her around to find out that she was not interested… that is -- until you got busy, ignored her, spend time working out, playing sports and becoming popular, and voila – Now she wants to hang out. 

Same is true for recruiters.  They want to discover you and not the other way around… So if that’s the case, let them.  Instead of wasting your time searching job boards and adding your resume to bottomless databases, how about coming up with a plan to build up your personal brand, showcasing your talents so they can find you.  Yes!  the personal branding talk yet again :)

To help you get started:  I’ve outlined a plan of action or blueprint with the necessary steps you’ll need to take  to find your next design job.  This will take some time to implement, so the quicker you get started the better.

First, I’ll create a fake designer persona (profile) so I can better address the designer specific needs:

Fictitious Designer Profile: 

Title: Fashion Designer

Experience:  3 years experience

Expertise: Great at design and illustration

Location:  Looking for a design job in New York City

Target Company to work for:   Donna Karen, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors

Next, I’ll outline the necessary steps you’ll need to take to establish your online presence.

The Design Job Getter Social Networking Blueprint

 (this plan assumes that you’re starting from scratch)

Steps to building your online personal brand

1.     Create a design portfolio website – If you don’t have the resources to do it yourself or pay someone, use a design portfolio website like Styleapple or Carbonmade to upload your work.   To maximize your exposure on these websites I recommend filling out your designer profile completely. 

Most portfolio websites search engines search keywords, disciplines and categories.  You’ll show up in more search results by simply taking the time to fully complete your profile. Generally speaking, images will not help to get  you found in a keyword search.

2.     Start a blog – preferably on Wordpress (free) or Hubspot (monthly fee - SEO assistance)

a.     Frequency of blog postings – 2 to 3 times per week.

b.     What do you blog about?  At least once a week you should have a new illustration or design work in which you demonstrate your creative process step by step from inspiration to sketch to fabric selection.

What you’re looking to accomplish here is  to share how you go about developing a collection or pieces in a collection.  It’s important that your future employer knows how you work. 

Other ideas for blogging include unconventional inspiration, fashion shows you like, your trips to the fabric store,  cool fabrics you discovered, designers you admire (hopefully one of which is the company(s) you’d like to work for. 

This is necessary for one important reason: companies are actively monitoring their brands online (utilizing brand monitoring tools) by subscribing to a number of  keywords that they deem important to their brands. Company name, head designer’s name, competitors names,  and product names are keywords you can expect to trigger a response or a review of what is being said online.   So why not talk about them!

This can be an effective strategy when job hunting. With that said, doing your research about the company, finding out what they are up to and writing blog articles about what’s important to them is a great way to get noticed.  So when your potential employer is searching the internet to find out who’s talking…. Well-- you’re talking and you’re saying “nice” things about them.

3.     Start accounts on the following social networking websites: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

a.     Twitter (To Do List)

                           i.      Tweet Frequency – 2 to 3 times per day.

                          ii.      Twitter Profile URL - Link your Twitter profile URL to your blog or Facebook business page, NOT your personal profile page

                         iii.      Whom Should I Follow? Start following designers from all disciplines including interior designers, web designers, industrial designers, illustrators, fashion designers, fashion companies, fashion schools, fashion editors, fashion bloggers, graphic designers, advertising agencies,  etc. – Anyone that may have some connections in your industry.

                         iv.      Twitter Bio –  Your twitter bio should be witty yet informative i.e.  Young Fashion Designer Looking For His Next Big Break – Will work for fabrics...

                          v.      Tweet Content – Let you personality shine here. Talk about things you find interesting personally and professionally.  Have your blog feed attached to your twitter account.  Retweet and comment on tweets from companies that you have an interest in. 

b.     Facebook (To Do List)

                            i.      Facebook Accounts - Start a personal profile as well as a business page (this will allow you to post design related content and get a fan base going.

                           ii.      Blog Feed On Facebook - Have your blog feed attach to your Facebook business page.  You can use the Social RSS application to do this.

                          iii.      Facebook Fans - Ask all your friends, family and associates to become fans on your business page, the more fans the better.

c.      LinkedIn

                           i.      LinkedIn Accounts - Start a LinkedIn account – Take the time to complete your profile (above 90%) for reasons mentioned above.

                          ii.      Get recommendations – Ask your colleagues or previous employers to write you a recommendation, at least three(3) recommendations will give you a leg up when being considered for a job.  I’ve gotten many jobs purely on a recommendation.

                          iii.      LinkedIn Groups - Join all the groups you have an interest in.  LinkedIn’s limit is 50 groups.  Join 50 LinkedIn Groups.  There are many design and recruiter groups you can join including Creative Design Pros,  Designers Talk and Fashion and Lifestyle.

                         iv.      Connection Selection - Find designers and recruiters in these groups and ask to network with them.    Be sure when asking to  connect with recruiters not to be pushy by asking them if they have any jobs available.  They’ll likely ignore your request simply because they get these requests all day, every day.  It’s better to start building a professional relationship first. 

It’s also important when networking and finding connections that you do not only ask fashion designers or designers in your discipline to connect with you.  It’s better to connect with designers outside your discipline as well. This is so if someone approaches an interior designer looking for a fashion designer, chances are good that they’ll only know one(1) fashion designer, YOU!

Once you’ve set up the above accounts, now you’re ready to look for a job or rather have your job find you.  Which, I will discuss in my next post where you’ll learn how to work these networks  and contacts to get your next design job.

Feel free to leave your questions and advice in the comments below, I would like to get your feedback.

--

Step 1 in finding a design job is creating a design portfolio of your best work.  Start by creating your design portfolio on the Styleapple Designers Network!  It's free and simple.

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EBGE '09 Introductory Video from myrmigi design house

I am very pleased to introduce The Myrmigi Design House Team to the Styleapple Hire A Designer series. Myrmigi Design House is a creative studio that offers high-end creative design services including motion design, graphic design, 3D design, and animation projects (2D/3D). You can read the design firm's full profile here.

The Myrmigi Design Team wrote a very comprehensive article on the The Top 10 Things to Look for When Hiring a Motion Graphics/Animation Designer. If you are thinking about hiring a motion graphic designer for your next project, this is a must read. Find a brief excerpt of the article below. You can read the full copy here.

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1.    Free Marketing.  Your work is seen by both clients and peers with little marketing effort from you.

2.    High Visitor Traffic.  More traffic comes to your portfolio on a social network site than that of  your own website. Think about it... Which location do you think sees more "walk by traffic".  A mall (social network with thousands of designers)  or a business located on a side street in a residential community (single design website)?

3.    No Setup Cost. Most social network portfolio websites have a free option which means you pay nothing to set up your design portfolio.  

4.    Multiple Design Services. Social network sites offers a wide variety of design services which makes it easier for clients to find what they are looking for in one place, which translates to more clients finding your business.

5.    Job Opportunities Sent To Your Email Inbox.  Design portfolio social network sites with an integrated job board will send you jobs that are posted on their job board which is a convenient way to find new clients.  Styleapple also has a membership option (Pro Membership) where designers can receive quote requests directly from potential clients.

6.    Social Marketing.  Your design portfolio will most likely get tweeted, dugged, fanned, bumped, floated and become delicious due to the convenience of social media icons on design portfolio social network websites.

7.    Feedback From Peers. By definition, social network websites have elaborate communication functionalities, which include various comments/ feedback/ and voting features.  Getting feedback from your peers can help build your strengths and fine tune your expertise.

8.    Networking For New Clients. Potential clients and customers can ask questions and inquire about your design services in a less formal environment.

9.    Flash Disable. Most design portfolio social network websites does not have flash which can hinder search engines ability to search and index a website. 

10.  Free Upgrades. The design portfolio social network websites does all the upgrades needed to stay current which in turn gives your design portfolio a free upgrade.

11.  Strength In Numbers.  Chances are good that you will show up on Google's top 10 search results  from your social network designer profile  than your own portfolio website for more general design service terms.

12.  Free Promotions.  If your design work is "feature worthy". Design portfolio social network websites will promote your work for free. By either making you a feature designer or for any marketing campaign they might be running to promote their social networking website.

13.  Collaboration Opportunities. Easy to meet potential business partners for collaborations on design projects and partnerships are formed when other designers are browsing and run into an intriguing design portfolio.

14.  Short Setup Time. Most design portfolio websites can be set up in less than 10 minutes. Whereas your own portfolio website may take months.

15.  Leveled Playing Field.  Clients won't judge you from your website layout and esthetics but rather your actual design work.

With all that said you might think that I'm against designers creating their own websites. On the contrary, I believe it's absolutely essential for designers to have their own websites.  The truth is, the majority of designer portfolio websites, though esthetically pleasing and optimized from a marketing perspective may not see a huge amount of traffic. For this reason, design portfolio social networks can be a very useful tool when promoting and searching  for new clients.  Once your potential client finds you, your personal website will serve as a closing argument to why you're the right designer for the job.  Your site says a great deal about you and will be an important factor on whether or not a client chooses you for their next big project.

Full Disclosure:  I'm the founder of the design portfolio social networking website, Styleapple.

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Designer/Illustrator:  Andy Quick

As you know my job is portfolios. I eat and sleep design portfolios all day, every day. Sounds boring? Not in the least. I love seeing new portfolios and exploring a new designer's creativity. But there is a catch - I have an ulterior motive.

I look for things that are effective portfolio design. Effective from a usability and marketing perspective. I mean at the end of the day isn't it all about getting new clients? My routine is that when new designers sign up on Styleapple I do a quick once over of their portfolio on the site as well as their external portfolio. Make a decision fairly quickly whether or not I'm a fan.

I am by no means absolute judge and jury when it comes to portfolio design but I'm no different than the next guy. Some I'll like and some I won't.  So let's get to it. Andy Quick is an illustrator from the UK. I like the way his portfolio summarizes.

Thumbnails with description... cool. Thumbnail opens up seamlessly into a larger image of the project... very cool. All projects place on one page for easy scrolling and quick viewing... sexy. Quick previews of the projects cycling through on top.... very sexy. Great job Andy and welcome to Styleapple.

As far as my blog title goes... after finishing my post I realized that maybe what I do is not that random and maybe I wasn't looking for something else. But hated to get rid of it... so there I said it. Oh I also wanted to piss off the SEO voice in my head who kept telling me that the title was way too long... Sometimes you just gotta live a little :)

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