A Key to Productivity: Do the Right Things
Productivity is a popular and expansive topic, and it’s also big business. From apps and books on the subject to courses and mastermind groups, tools
Alvalyn Lundgren
Facebook algorithm
ARTICLES.
Tips and Insights on Mission, Mindset, Mechanics, and Marketing for Freelance Creatives
How To Change Your Mind About Money: 5 Simple Ways To Deal With Fluctuating Freelance Income
One thing I struggled with in the past as an independent creative is money. I have a lot of experience with the all too common
Alvalyn Lundgren
Navigate Detours To Reach Your Destiny
Detours can be useful for preparation, refining, and strengthening skills, perceptions and insights – all which increase our ability to support and stand up under the “weight” of our destinies. If we’re not strong enough to carry something, we will be overwhelmed by it.
Alvalyn Lundgren
How to Save on Gasoline by Freelancing
You probably already know that you can deduct mileage as a business expense. But did you know that, if you work from home, all mileage
Alvalyn Lundgren
Your Website’s Magnificent 7
Like any design, websites are experienced. Your goal should be to provide the best experience to the largest percentage of people who visit your site.
Alvalyn Lundgren
The 7 Basic Elements of Your Brand Strategy
Simply creating graphic assets and promotional materials is not enough to manage your brand. You need a strategy — a plan, method, or series of actions for obtaining a specific goal or result. Here are 7 basic elements to get started.
Alvalyn Lundgren
How Brands Are Built
People connect with brands the same way they connect with people. Brands cannot be developed and maintained without design. Branding is not design, but it
Alvalyn Lundgren
A 5-Point Tune Up For Your Freelance Business
As with vehicles, your freelance business needs regular tune-ups to ensure smooth performance and prevent breakdowns. If you’re the owner of an independent creative services
Alvalyn Lundgren
Advice For Emerging Designers
…your process of emerging from school into the (design) profession needs to be as carefully framed and designed as any of your projects.
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Advice For Clients: A Designer’s Value
Without the aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine, producing effects without substance, form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form. –Paul Rand
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7 Pointers to Rock Your Social Media Marketing
To begin with, social media is not about selling, but about conversations and providing value. Be knowable, likable and trustworthy. To make the most of
Alvalyn Lundgren
Maintaining Long-Term Client Relationships
When it comes to clients, it is better to pursue relationships instead of projects. We’ll build our businesses more successfully via relationships and connections, not
Alvalyn Lundgren
Why Freelancers Should Not Pitch
As an independent creative, you get to decide how you will attract clients and projects. One option is via Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Whether or
Alvalyn Lundgren
159. To Quit, Or Not To Quit
How do you know if you should quit or not? Sometimes quitting is in fact, the wise and right option. Freelancing isn’t easy. It takes courage and tenacity to push through. It starts out being fun, like a great adventure, especially when you land your first couple of clients and get paid for the projects. But when obstacles and opposition show up, what will you choose?
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Designing a Successful Year
Each December I take a couple weeks off to celebrate the holidays and go through a visioning and goal-setting process in preparation for the new
Alvalyn Lundgren
Do Freelancers Need Business Insurance?
One thing that’s great about flying solo as a freelancer is all the freedom you have in who you work with, where, when and how
Alvalyn Lundgren
Keys to Building a Better Portfolio
Art and design students focus on developing their portfolios during the final terms of their education. The portfolio is the most important tool when entering
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Designer and the Relief Pitcher
If you know me well, you know that baseball is my favorite sport, and I often employ baseball analogies to explain concepts to students and
Alvalyn Lundgren
Making the Most of a Creative Review
You can get more out of a creative review than just a go-ahead to move to the next phase of the project. In coming together
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Work With Purchase Orders
You’ve landed a highly-desired big name client and they’ve sent you a purchase order. What is a purchase order, and how do you work with
Alvalyn Lundgren
Why You Need To Love Your Tools
A colleague recently switched from the PC to the Mac, from Windows and Android to OS X and iOS. There’s always a learning curve when
Alvalyn Lundgren
Loving It: Seduction, Satisfaction and Graphic Culture
To be promoted in our design-driven culture, a product must be packaged in such a way that it becomes meaningful to the person using it, so that they become an evangelist for it. This requires thoughtful planning and execution of a design strategy
Alvalyn Lundgren
5 Limiting Lies Freelancers Should Stop Believing
Successful soloism is about 80% mindset and 20% mechanics. I’ve learned from experience that you can get the mechanics right, but still not be thinking right. Much of what holds us back as creatives and independent business owners is our mindset.
Alvalyn Lundgren
I’m Not That Kind of Girl: Manage Perceptions To Do The Work You Love
Let’s begin with the premise that design, illustration and photography are service professions, and that being a professional means you’re in business. You’re making a
Alvalyn Lundgren