If CFC 2012 is starting to feel far away and you haven't even made headway turning your notes into an actual to do list, here are two more lists of "action items" to motivate you and perhaps serve as models:
Laura Foley (famous for helping her clients cheat death by PowerPoint) organized her CFC 2012 Action Items by speaker and put them into Evernote:
- Luke Mysse: Form an advisory board and be able to report results by CFC 2013.
- David Baker: If you've been doing this for a while and you're not rich, you're doing it wrong. By CFC 2013 show steady income growth. Write and pubish a book by September 30.
- Allen Murabyashi: Using the model of the new marketing funnel, get more existing clients to spread the love. By the end of next week, improve my site's rankings with SEO and install Google Analytics.
- Marcia Hoeck: Develop the right mindset. Don't be the order taker, be the collaborative problem solver. Immediately change the tone of my cold calls and emails.
- Sarah Durham: By the end of next week complete the salary worksheet. Also, track my time throughout the day to get a handle on time-wasting activities.
- Patrick McNeil: On Monday implement Lastpass on the iPad, If This Then That, and Right Inbox. Look into hiring an ODesk employee to go through Mass High Tech to determine a likely prospect list.
(Laura, how have you done so far with these action items, especially the book you want to publish?)
Jenn David of Jenn David Design (and one of our courageous 5-minute speakers) shares her lengthy list of ACTION ITEMS:
- calculate hourly rate, overhead, etc
- Google cost of business calculator
- See Sarah Durham's handout
- add fields to inquiry form - budget if so what? timeline if so what?
- get serious about doing monthly or every 2 months newsletter - give something to the client for free - emails with content - real content that helps the client, so recipient will trust you - not just to sell but to help - help them for free then charge a lot of money when you personalize it for them
- join groups on linkedin that you want to attract business from, comment & advise and become an expert - even if aren't active in the group, having it on your profile helps others looking for your services.
- track time and billing better & track by admin, design, etc
- keep running list of standard projects and do average
- change proposals - remove contract, divide up into Break down Assignment - What we'll deliver - What you'll provide (eg one primary contact to consolidate feedback)
- put prepayment for work in a separate account, don't spend it until the work is done
- think about something I can do that would go viral
- build your SEO - SEOmoz.org/Beginner's Guide to SEO
- use analytics and feedback to understand your business - look at your metrics weekly
- measure, analyze and tweak
- photoshelter.com/mkt/research
- join CFC group on linkedin - done!
- volunteer to be a guest blogger on Ilise's blog - done! Working on the text next.
- CSS3 visual quickstart guide
- experiment with hand lettering, screen printing, letterpress
- design a package everyday for a year blog?
- make your own alphabet out of something (eg pasta, bandaids)
(Jenn, are you checking things off this list? Has it been whittled down at all since CFC?)
And what about the rest of you? Add your lists and your process here for others to learn from.
Love it! So glad I am not alone