Business Tips

The Real Reason Why Your Emails for Design Jobs Are Ignored

May 24, 2016SheilaBusiness Tips, Freelancing, Marketing, Random2 college, design, email, etiquette, jobs, portfolio, students, work

Hey design students! Stop sending those lame job-seeking emails They say you’ve built a successful business when you start getting regular spam and solicitation requests. I say it’s when you get inundated with endless emails asking for employment. Around this time of year, right when the design students are putting away their graduation gowns, is when my inbox gets flooded with various cold email requests. (For those of you who don’t know, a cold email…

8 More Client Red Flags to Watch Out For

October 3, 2015SheilaBusiness Tips, Freelancing2 business, clients, contracts, design, freelancing, logo, red flags

Another article on red flags to watch out for with clients? I know what you’re thinking: man, she must really hate clients. But that’s not true. At all. Most of my clients I truly enjoy working with, and we have great relationships. Some I even meet for drinks! But the reason I do love the vast majority of my clients is because I try to be selective about whom I work with. Unfortunately, there are…

7 Signs That You Need to Redesign Your Website

September 8, 2015SheilaBranding, Business Tips, Web Design4 branding, competition, trends, website, website design

I just recently updated this website (do you like it? Leave me a comment!), and it got me thinking. Why exactly did I redesign my site? It’s a lot of work, it takes time, it’s a pain, things go wrong….yet I felt a pressing need to do it. No, I’m not one of those people who constantly has to update and change things. That’s my husband 😉 But there are important, legit reasons to consider when deciding…

Design is Not a Commodity

May 21, 2015SheilaBusiness Tips, Graphic Design11 business, cheap, commodity, contests, graphic design, logo, Logo Design, online

Unfortunately for me and my fellow designers, graphic design just happens to be one of those things that are starting to be considered a commodity. Which would be fine, but of course, it isn’t actually a commodity.

How to Get the Best Images for Your Business Marketing

February 24, 2015SheilaBusiness Tips, Freelancing, Marketing2 business, depositphoto, free, images, istockphoto, marketing, photography, photos, shutterstock, stock images, stock photos

The first question most people have when they start to think about images for a project they’re working on is, “Where will I find good images to use?” To answer that question we’ll start by looking at the four options for getting images, and what the pros and cons of each are. (I’ll give you a big hint: stock photos are one of them!) Option 1: Take your own photographs You can take your…

How to Effectively Use Social Media to Get Results

January 10, 2015SheilaBusiness Tips, Marketing2 business, clients, customers, followers, LinkedIn, marketing, social media, twitter

Everyone is going digital. There’s nothing earth-shattering about that. This makes being somewhat social media savvy is necessary to attracting new business from these potential clients. I know, I know, it was only a few months ago I was griping about the evils of jumping on the social media bandwagon. While I still think social media is not necessary for everyone, it still has its place in a healthy business’ overall marketing strategy. Through the…

How to Incorporate Good Design into Your Small Business

December 20, 2014SheilaBusiness Tips, Graphic Designbrochures, business goals, design, logo, marketing, website design, websites

Now that we’ve spent some time talking about why good design matters, let’s talk about how you can implement elements of good design in your business. The first step in thinking about good design is to remember that the big picture feeling is what you’re working towards. Before you begin developing or updating your design, make sure you’re taking the time to identify the core elements of your message. First things first An easy…

Why Good Design Matters

November 25, 2014SheilaBusiness Tips, Graphic Design3 clients, customers, design, graphic design, logo, value, website

Have you ever gone to a website or picked up a business card from a new company only to find yourself dissatisfied or uninterested? Me too. Which got me thinking… there’s a lot of talk about what you need to do to create a killer website, or a great logo. But why does good design even matter? Why do you need it? I’ll tell you why. There’s an intangible value to good graphic design. It’s more than getting…

“Can’t I Just Set Up My Own WordPress Site?”

October 28, 2014SheilaBusiness Tips, Graphic Design29 business goals, professional, websites, wordpress

I get this sort of question a lot. Sometimes, I’ll run into a potential client who understands they might need help with their logo, or brochure…but for some reason, they’d like to be a little more hands-on when it comes to their website. Especially once I mention that I use WordPress for all the websites that I do. “Oh, WordPress? I can do that.” There’s no point arguing, so after I chuckle to myself, I…

8 Reasons Why Design Contests Are Bad for Clients

September 29, 2014SheilaBusiness Tips, Graphic Design, Marketing9 cheap design, crowdsourcing, design, design contests, graphic design, logo, spec work

Last week we talked about the dangers of design contests for designers, which are usually pretty obvious. But for the clients that actually get work done from them, the dangers can be a little more elusive. If you are the owner of a start-up, or simply don’t know where to turn to find a decent design, I’m sure the allure of design contests sound pretty sweet. Heck, they sure market them enough to push anyone’s…

Category: Business Tips