Creative Freelancer Conference Blog

A Tip for Finding and Reaching the Right Prospects

I have to share a testimonial I got from a creative freelancer who attended the latest CFC webcast, Finding and Reaching the Right Prospects.

"It was magnificent! I can't believe you packed that much into only one hour. Thanks for walking us through the strategies we can reliably use to get better business. Thanks for all the great resources and ideas for mining the web for useful information and target-industry contacts."
Patrice Robertie, Acorn Advertising.

There were so many more examples of target markets I could have included in that webcast. In fact, one I didn't have time to go more deeply into is referral sources for creatives, in particular, PR firms.

More and more of my clients are nurturing partnerships with PR firms, especially ones that focus on their target market. These PR firms bring them in on the creative aspects of the projects (writing, design, web) because they don't do it themselves.

This is an especially good way for creatives to find good prospects with budgets (sometimes really healthy ones!); because any company who is already paying a retainer to a PR firm has money to spend on creative. So, in essence, the PR firm is qualifying your market for you.
(More of this type of juicy info here: http://www.howbookstore.com/product/right-prospects )

So check out the Public Relations Society of America and see if there is a local chapter near you. Get involved and develop your own partnerships.

Anyone out there doing this already? If so, what suggestions do you have to offer?

Audience first, book second

New York City was host last weekend to the Writer’s Digest Conference on The Business of Getting Published and I dropped in to see how the freelance life overlaps with all different types of writers. (BTW,  it’s not too late to learn from the experience. Every session was covered on the live blog here: http://writersdigestconference.blogspot.com/)

The overlap was immediately evident. Jane Friedman, Publisher and Editorial Director of Writer’s Digest, spoke on Deciding the Best Publishing Route for You and one of the points she made is this: audience first, book second.

In other words, the core of her message is essentially the same as mine: focus, focus, focus – in this case on your “readership”– which is really just another way of saying, “your target market.”

However, I think it may be a little trickier for fiction and non-fiction writers. They/you get absorbed by the more personal material and imagine (perhaps rightly so) that almost anyone could be interested and therefore part of the readership. But the real question is: who is most likely to be? Who is most likely to appreciate your point of view? To identify with your characters or situations? To share your sense of humor or understand your pathos?

If you can figure out who they are and push your ideas out to them, building a platform or readership or fan base or group of followers, then you have something to work with.

So once again, everything flows from the market.

What I mean when I say "Choose A Market"

I realized the other day, while doing a free mentoring session with one of this year's CFC attendees, that when I advise someone to "choose a market" to focus on, I'm not explaining clearly enough what I mean by that.

I will be elaborating on this in great, great detail, later tonight on the CFC webcast, Finding and Reaching the Right Prospects -- (and if you can't make it tonight or are reading this after the fact, it's not too late; you can still watch it on demand) -- but in a nutshell, what I mean is this:

Choosing a market takes some time (sometimes years) but here's how you begin.
Make a list of 10-20 possible markets you could focus on. Then analyze which ones are the lowest hanging fruit for you. This is important because we want to have some success at the beginning, to build confidence and get some momentum.

Whittle your list down to 2-3 markets to begin exploring.

"Exploring" is the operative word here. Through this process of exploration (talking to people, calling, emailing, networking, etc), you will reach the actual people in these markets and get a sense of whether it's a viable market for you. (In other words, do they need your services?) If so, keep going. If not, choose another to "explore."

Make sense?

When the prospect doesn't have enough money...

I can tell, from the many messages I've received from CFC attendees since the conference ended on August 28, that the high of inspiration has started to dissipate and what has followed is a sense of overwhelm -- not knowing where to begin or what to do first with all the information and new ideas they've brought back.

That's why, in the bonus wrap-up webcast I gave yesterday, my goal was to calm everyone down and help put the focus on the most important tasks, which I broke out into 4 areas: Follow up, Marketing, Pricing and Running Your Business.

I especially wanted to make sure no one had forgotten one of the golden nuggets that came from Petrula Vrontikis' presentation, "What Will Your Freelance Business Be When It Grows Up."

Petrula told us exactly what to say when your client's budget is too low. Instead of slashing your prices, you say to them, "I'm sorry but you haven't allocated enough resources to this project." This implies quite clearly that the reason you can't do it for that price is not because of your high prices but because of their budget.

Has anyone tried using this yet? And if so, how's it going?

Initiating (instead of avoiding) “The Money Conversation”

We are overwhelmed by the email messages and thank you notes from CFC attendees gushing about what they learned at the conference last week. And while a lot of it is testimonial material, some of it is actually very instructive. Here, from Chicago-based, Natalia Botero-Nevin of Botero Design is one of those. Natalia took advice she heard at CFC and, instead of avoiding “the money conversation” with a brand new client a week after the event, initiated it! Read on to find out how it went. And if you have trouble with this issue, check out the CFC webinar series, “Taking Control of The Money Conversation.” It kicks off on Sept. 23. (And if you’re not free that day or time to listen live, all CFC webinars (past and future) are available to watch at your convenience). Details here: www.howbookstore.com/product/controlling-the-money-conversation
 
"This year's CFC was simply amazing!  I attended last year, so I was a bit hesitant to attend this year again, but I am VERY glad I went. Even though some of the topics were similar, you and your business are different each year.  Last year, I'd been in business for less than a year and I felt very overwhelmed after I left the conference.  I tried to focus on a few things, including:

• My contract (I didn't have one prior to CFC 08 - I know, pretty bad!  I have one now.)
• Getting my website up and running (launched in December)
• Charging what I was worth (I doubled my pricing after I left CFC 08) 

This year, I felt more confident and less frantic, so I was ready and open to other things.  This year I heard all about how to talk to clients about money (which didn't resonate last year), how not to hide behind proposals and to discuss them over the phone instead.   

I actually did that with a brand new client last week and I have to say that IT WORKS!!!  We spoke for an hour and I learned so much about her and her business.  By the end, I felt like I was talking to a friend rather than a brand new client and we ended the conversation with that "Heck, yeah!" Peleg was talking about.  It was great!   :)   

Yes, I won't lie, I was very afraid at first, but am I glad I did it.  I felt in control, and for once, I'm going to write a "recap" and not a "proposal."  She's thrilled and can't wait to start working with me, and I can't wait to work with her also!  This made me realize that this is why I started my own business, I love doing what I do, but I also love helping people like her start their own businesses and make their dreams a reality.”

Has anyone else taken control of the Money Conversation yet?

 

Sharing the CFC Love

A full week after the conference ended, and we're still seeing all of your blog posts, recaps, photos and comments. Thank you!!

We've been posting links from the CFC Facebook group (please join, if you haven't yet). Also, be sure to join us on LinkedIn, if that's more your cup of tea, social media-speaking. 

In the meantime, here's a roundup of some of the blog posts we know about. If you've also posted about your CFC experience, please let us know by commenting here and adding your link to the Facebook group.

Freelance writer Alisa Bonsignore comments about the experience of attending CFC two years in a row on her blog, Miscellania.

Check out an extensive post with images from illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt.

Designer Heather Parlato has posted four—count 'em, four!—entries about CFC on her Parlato Design Studio blog. 

And then there's Lydia Varesco, who's added five CFC recaps on her blog, The Bright Spot.

Please let us know if you've shared your conference experience on your own blog, Flickr, whatever! Thanks for sharing!

Freelancers: United, Not Isolated at CFC 09

We’re still flying high from an exhilarating time in San Diego at the 2nd Annual Creative Freelancer Conference.

It was non-stop networking that had freelancers feeling “united, rather than isolated” and everyone left with a “truckload of tools and resources.” (I’m quoting from the actual email messages we received so far.)

The best part, by far, was the people who attended. We had the cream of the freelancer crop in the house!  I even think the recession was a good thing because it weeded out less serious freelancers; the ones who showed up were hungry for help and eager to connect. And from a presenter’s point of view, there is nothing better than speaking to a group of people who really want to learn.

We’ll post a wrap up of CFC on the WWW next week (so if you’re planning to write something, do it soon and send us the link), but for now, here is Alisa Bonsignore’s blog post that pretty much sums up what she got out of it: http://www.bonsignore.com/alisa/2009/09/business-of-being-creative.html

You can also keep up to date on the Twitter stream, which is still flowing. Just go to http://search.twitter.com/ and type in "#cfconf"

And here’s a question for attendees: Did we give you enough down time or do you like that we had something planned from sunrise beyond sunset to get your time and money’s worth? If you were there, please let us know.