Sometimes a new freelance designer will find himself in an awkward position when managing finances. If you're working on a tight budget, which is normally the case with designers starting out in freelancing, the tendency is to seek work anywhere and everywhere, just to keep your business afloat.

In the beginning stages do your best to stay on the path you've outlined for your freelance business. Refer to your business plan, esp. your marketing and branding plans to guide you. I know as Styleapple grows we are faced with deciding who to partner and work with in order to maintain a consistency in our brand promise.

As your business grows, be aware of the projects and companies your brand is associated with. Just because their paying you doesn't mean it's the right gig for you. If the job doesn't align with your personal brand or the brand promise of your design firm, I would probably not recommend you take the job. Of course, if not taking the job means that your business fails, then you'll have to do what you have to do.

Overall, staying true to your core brand promise will keep your company on the right path giving you a better platform in which to grow. Diluting your brand for short term gain only clutters your message, making it much more difficult to define your brand to potential clients.

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The other day I played around with hunch.com, a new website that answers your questions. As I got more into it, I realized that it also allows you to add your own questions to their database, which immediately intrigued me.

First, I had to figure out what the answer would be... and of course, the answer is Styleapple... So what is the question? As I was thinking on what the question should be, I realized that that my mindset suddenly moved from the CEO of Styleapple to the Designer or Design Firms who would be looking to use our branding design services.

So the obvious question was "What Design Portfolio Website Should I Use?" To get to the answer, a user would then be asked a series of questions that would hopefully lead them to the most accurate answer. And it was at that moment, that I realized if Styleapple weren't significantly different from the other design portfolio websites, then this would be all for nothing.

The same is true for your design firm's brand. What questions can your clients ask you about your design firm that would eliminate your competition from the running?  What are you doing, or what services are you offering that your competition is not?  It's really important to know the answers to these questions if you're serious about becoming successful in the design industry.

Branding yourself, or your design business is just as important as starting the business. At the moment you conceive your business plan, you should immediately be thinking about your plans to becoming branded.

Just for fun I've embedded the question I created on Hunch. See if your result is Styleapple. If it is, I'd like to hear about it, If it isn't... well, keep it to yourself.....  ;)

Which design portfolio website should I use? - make thousands more decisions on Hunch.com

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1) You Provide A Great Product or Service That Cannot be Matched By Your Competition

Simply put, excel at what you do. Don't settle for being second. The only thing that stops you from being the best in your industry is that you stop trying to be the best.

2) Your Services Are Underpriced... Intentionally

In this competitive market, value is key. Providing a great product or service that's noticeably worth more than your offering is important. Be careful not to undervalue your product or service by trying to low ball the industry. The goal here is to excel in your service while maintaining a reasonable price. Note: Low balling your industry can backfire on you, where your customers think that your services may not be up to par with someone who is charging more. Find the sweet spot for your product or service.

I'm not telling you to undervalue your expertise, what I'm simply saying is to provide much more quality and service than the industry norm, or what your clients expect.

3) Your Projects Are Completed Earlier Than Projected

The truth is clients want their projects done yesterday. Once you've given the client a date of completion, that date is etched in their minds. Delivering the project on that completion date- in the client's mind, you've done your job. Anytime after that date you're late and have broken your ‘brand' promise - not so good for business. If you are early, by even a day or two, this gives the client another reason to toot your horn for you. They will tell their colleagues and friends that you are professional, efficient and the go-to guy for your type of design services. Even if ‘early' was only a day early. I think businesses still underestimate the power of word of mouth even with all of the social technology around us.

4) You Have Personalized and Knowledgeable Customer Service

Personally, customer service is on top of my list of keys to being successful in this industry. I am a HUGE fan of good customer service. Not only good but rather great customer service. No one remembers good- people tend to remember great and exceptional, and of course bad.

Case in point: I remember hiring a design company to do a project, and one day I phoned the account manager to get some information. That person was completely incapable of answering basic technical questions about my project. She had to refer me to the designer, who of course was not available to talk. Great customer service can make up for shortcomings in other areas in your design business process (hopefully there are none :) )

5) Your Design Business Uses Cutting Edge Technology - Utilizing The Most Current and Relevant Tools in Your Industry.

When a client asks for you to do a project for them, they have already assumed that you'll be using the most current technology or process, unless otherwise stated. Anything less is a strike against your company product or service, Period. You should keep up with your industry, getting left behind is not an option.

6) You Are an Expert/ Thought Leader in Your Industry

Clients hire you because you can do something they can't do themselves; otherwise, they would do it themselves. They also hire you because they perceive that you are an expert at what you do. And as an expert you should have the knowledge to communicate intelligently about topics pertaining to your industry, current and future technologies, illustration styles, trending logo designs, etc, etc. And please, be able to provide answers to questions on why you've decided to use the Anivers font instead of Helvetica .

7) You Are Actively Involved In Your Client's Success

There is nothing better than a designer who takes the time to learn about a client's business. Not simply what the company does, and who their clients are, but their brand promise, inspiration and maybe the direction a company is looking to go into 3 to 5 years from now. The more you learn about your clients, the more information you'll have to satisfy their needs. And oh yeah, you'll actually start building a relationship with them. Maybe a relationship that can grow into a "business-friendship" - ultimately giving you the upper hand on future projects.

What are some things you've done that have pushed your company ahead of the competition?

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Here you are- brand new plan for a great business idea. This is the one, the big idea that will propel you to financial independence. You've already picked out the business colors and logo design concept, selected a couple of websites you'd like your company's website to mirror. You've sized up your competition and have located the niche you're pretty sure you can satisfy.

Now it's time to develop your website. You have done the necessary research, found the ‘perfect' web designer and are ready to get started. Your web designer says he needs you to detail as much as possible exactly what you want. You give him your full list of requirements - business colors, websites you like, a list of preferred fonts, and tell him to hit it out of the park... Three months later your website is completed and is nothing like you envisioned... Why? What happened?

Before I answer that, I would like to say as a designer with major entrepreneurial tendencies that I've learned a lot about the business of design. There are many things that I learned the hard way admittedly, and others that I've gotten sound advice for. This is one advice, I would put in the sound advice category.

Branding is an interesting process. I believe that branding is more of a study of psychology than design. One of the things most overlooked when starting a branding campaign is the importance of the branding ideas, and promise being shared from the very beginning; from the CEO, to the employees, to the HR department, and right down the line to the woman that cleans the office at the end of the day.

It's a mental collection of your brand ideas with everyone involved, that when combined in their most potent form enables an amazing brand synergy leading to major branding success for your new venture.

That being said, the web designer you choose should be engaged in this branding process as well. For he is more or less the architect of your dreams into their digital form. Therefore, take the time to find a freelance designer or design company that truly have a vested interest in your success.

How you find that designer or design company is an entire discussion onto itself. We had a heated discussion about this very topic here, and you should also check out David Airey's post on Design Agency Vs. Freelancer to get you started.

Back to your web designer:

He/she should not only want to know your colors and font preferences, but also inquire about your company's vision, your thoughts, your mission statement, your brand promise, your taglines, your wife and kids if necessary.....okay maybe not the wife   Your web designer must be a partner in the process. He should be the most important person at this juncture. After all, he will be the translator of your dreams into their digital reality.

He/she has the ability to provide a user experience that mimics and marries well with your company's brand promise. By engaging him early, you allow him to think of ways to implement not only your physical requirements on paper, but also the mission, vision, and brand promise of your company. Maybe he chooses just the right color orange or perhaps the typography and color combinations or button shape that speaks directly to your demographics.

Choose your web designer like you're choosing your next girlfriend or boyfriend. Because more than likely you'll be spending a lot of time with them, agreeing, disagreeing, arguing, breaking up and making up. Everything that a relationship goes through in order to grow and become successful.

My brother once told me that I should find a good web developer and stick with him or her (like a girlfriend) And today I say the same to you. Take the time to choose the right guy or gal for the job and your company will thank you for it many times over. Trust me!

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How do you feel when you go to a fast food restaurant and the line is out the door.   How about going to get your "Car Tire Flat Fixed in Less Than 10 Minutes" and it takes an hour for someone to look at your car. $%#&... Exactly. Chances are, you're going to change your own tires next time. The same is true when it comes to your design company's brand.

The branding process is a long one. You're building relationships with clients or customers that goes beyond simply getting the work or project done. It's about the promise you made or the promise your brand made to your clients (Brand Promise - What your company says it will do for your customers and what the customers perceives they can expect from your company).

The client chose you out of the thousands of potential design companies out there because you've exuded a quality of service or claimed to have a product that promises to deliver X, Y and Z. Maybe your brand focuses on high end fabrics for custom made clothing, or web hosting with no down time or quality logo design services. That being said, your customers expect that you will deliver on that "promise". If for some reason you do not perform as expected. That becomes a strike against your brand image.

If you're promising a certain type of product or service, you must deliver that product or service... no excuses. You have to do what you said you'll do. And now with the power of social media and the voice of the consumer having global reach, you have to make sure that that voice speaks favorably about your design company.

Wouldn't you rather your customers tweet and retweet this:

"Boy what an awesome job company XYZ did , Thank you so much @blahblahblah for making my website rock"  instead of this...

" Company XYZ is not be trusted and I will never ever eeeeeevvvvveeeerr go back there" 

How do you manage your customers expectation in order to protect your brand image?

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