Freelancing: In Getting Work, Relationship Counts More Than Ever
Clients have a choice when selecting creative services: They can go the cheap route and buy a logo through a crowdsource or contest web site where
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ARTICLES.
Tips and Insights on Mission, Mindset, Mechanics, and Marketing for Freelance Creatives
GDPR Compliance Steps for US-Based Freelancers
The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation goes into full effect on May 25, 2018. The internet and blogdom are all abuzz about getting
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Creativity and Change
Creative thinking requires us to cease from thinking as we always have. This is neither automatic nor easy because we automatically default to doing that which requires the least amount of effort.
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Competence, Confidence and Baseball
One fact about playing baseball: To advance to the next base, you need to leave the one you’re on. Baseball forces you to advance to
Alvalyn Lundgren
Working Late: 5 Essential Boundaries for Freelancers
From time to time I’ll fire off an email to a client during the late evening or early morning hours. Occasionally, an immediate response comes back
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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
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Creating Lovability
How can you invest your product or service with “lovability” and create devotion in your customers? Here are some options: Love it yourself. If you’re
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How To Work With Clients
10 Best Practices For Building Reputation and Relationships When you accept a client’s project, you need to make it your own. While you’re not creating for
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Keeping Good Clients: 10 Ways To Build Loyalty
Most freelancers will agree that it’s easier to hold onto an established relationship than begin a new one. And it’s less work to retain a client
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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
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Five Ways To Say “No”
How to nicely turn away the wrong clients to say “yes” to the right ones. by Alvalyn Lundgren Having completed more than 42 years of
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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
How To Choose Good Clients
Good clients are integral to successful freelance projects and to your career overall. Beyond the project itself, a referral or recommendation from the right client can open doors
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Listening Is A Design Skill
Listening is related to empathy. Empathy is valuing another’s experience, and keeps the designer from creating something that is self-expressive.
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10 Items On My Don’t-Do List
I keep a Don’t-Do list. I spend most of my efforts on my to-do lists, agendas, and getting things done, but a few years ago I
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How To Attract Your Ideal Clients
First of all, let’s define who your ideal clients are. An ideal client is one for whom you do the kind of work you want to do, and
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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.
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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
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The Freelancer As Business Owner
When you start freelancing you become a business owner and are responsible for the success or failure of your enterprise. Honestly, it can go either way,
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7 Reasons Why Freelancers Should Not Discount
With value pricing for design and illustration projects, I am able to custom-tailor my services and fees to fit each client and project. But even
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Freelance or For Hire? Clarifying The Designer-Client Relationship
Misunderstandings can exist between clients and freelance designers regarding their working relationships. Questions of who owns what, what files are provided to the client, when and
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Being Remarkable
My friend, Mary, was in a community theatre production of The Mikado, and was asked to write her bio for the printed program. This being her first theatrical
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Designing For Non-Profits
A significant percentage of my clients are non-profit enterprises. I have had many opportunities to design campaign materials, annual reports, and graphic assets for non-profit
Alvalyn Lundgren