How 3 Pennies Changed My Life

This is a declaration of a strong change of direction.

As those of you who have actually followed this blog previously have undoubtedly noticed, I haven't posted in a very long time despite my best efforts to stick to posting. I'm not going to bore you with excuses because I have more important information to share with you right now.

Before I tell you about my new focus let me try to explain where it came from. Two out of my last three attempts at freelance artwork have failed miserably. By failed I mean I put hard work into designs for clients that ultimately rejected the work I was doing/had done and decided to go to other artists to fulfill their needs without notifying me of their change of heart or compensating me for the work I had done. I have no ill feelings towards them or their decisions what-so-ever but the circumstances left me in a very deep rut of self reflection. So here are the decisions I've made as a result of my failed freelance artwork.

1. I do not have the patience to teach a client sound marketing strategy.
2. I refuse to treat logo design as anything less than a strategic marketing symbol and I refuse to compromise on my pillars of logo design.
3. I will not work with any clients in the future that seem even remotely unsure of what they want.
4. I will only work with one client per project. Meaning I will not try to simultaneously please two clients that have different visions of what they want with the same design.
5. I will not work for free. My design services come with a $100 non-refundable up front fee regardless of any circumstances. This fee or a portion of it may be deducted from the total cost of the sale if negotiated, but will not be refunded in the event of a dissatisfied client or a client choosing to go with someone else's services. Any serious client will see this as more than reasonable  .
6. Until further notice, I will ONLY work with clients by a referral basis and after extensive review.

In short, I really don't plan on doing much freelance work in the future. If future attempts go more smoothly I may change this stance, but for now I really don't have the time to be working on building other people's wealth for a modest one time fee.

Such strong words from such a modest, weak minded, push over right? But wait, there's more! So far I have explained my new disposition towards freelance work, but I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how I am going to turn my life around. Obviously I can't be a delivery driver forever and I certainly don't want to be working my way up the ladder of pizza company enslavement. I now know that I don't really want to be doing "for hire" work either. Not only would my income be strictly tied to a 'dollars for labor' trade but it would be a never ending battle with wishy-washy clients. I'm not the only one in my inner circle in this position, either. There are others who can't sustain themselves doing what they are doing but they aren't sure how they are going to change for the better. I also have deadlines to make decisions fast approaching. I have to decide if and where I am going to move in a very short time and the consequences of the move are very far reaching no matter what I decide.

The other day I logged into my blogger just to post the images of the last logo I had finished and I was looking through my statistics to lament how I hadn't gotten any real views since I stopped posting. While looking through my stats I found something that completely changed my outlook. This blog has made me money! 3 pennies to be exact. Such a small and seemingly insignificant amount, but you have to realize, that's 3 pennies more than I have earned from my last two clients and I didn't even have to do anything. Its a very modest beginning but it means more to me than you can understand. This means I have something I can do right now from anywhere in the world and be actively building my own future. Its something that won't diminish if I move and doesn't hinge on variables that will be changing in the very near future.

So here is the current plan:
1. I'm going to revamp the nature of this blog since freelance work is at least temporarily being phased out of the picture.
2. I'm going to re-commit to posting (not exactly daily posting) with a new focus on creating material that's less about me and more about bringing value to other people's lives.
3. I'm going to be alpha testing a whole lot of different strategies and ideas while the variables in my near future sort themselves out.

And now you know...

Utter Failure

Today I worked 11 hours at Domino's (from open till near close). Bright side: 3 hours of overtime pay and I walked out of the store with 90$ in my pocket from tips and mileage. Crap side: another day has gone by where I haven't managed to get anything truly significant done.

I've had too many of these in the last two weeks. I need to step it up somehow. Dig in a little deeper, be a little more focused, w/e it takes. I've already pretty much flopped on the drawing of the day posts. blah. Now I feel like I'm stagnating. Slowing down is not an option. I know myself too well and if I don't pick up the pace I will quit soon.

Things I resolve to get done this week:
Get a friggen hair cut. I'm starting to look like Chewbacca's bald faced cousin or something.
Post a drawing of the day post every day.
Finish Jacci's logo design
Don't explode with frustration

If I can manage to get at least this much done this week, I will consider the pace to have begun to hasten back to what it was a little while ago.

On a slightly related topic: It's becomming very apparent that I can't do this alone and I need help getting tasks done. However I face two significant issues. I can't pay anyone. Not a lot of people are willing to work for free on a highly probable to fail enterprise. The other is that I have people willing to help, but I find myself clinging on to the tasks. I can't just give away the drawing portion of the blog or the design aspect of the logo at the moment. ... actually I could give away the design aspect of the logo, but I know I would give the money to the employee and keep none for myself and then I wouldn't really be getting anywhere with my business. I find myself in need of individuals with particular skills (editing(writing), legal knowledge, creativity, design, software specific skills, etc etc.) but unable to afford those skills. Dominos doesn't seem to be paying me enough to finance this endeavor but really there isn't a job on the planet that would. The ones that would pay enough would consume all my time completely.

DoTD #2

So as I was browsing the web trying to come up with ideas of something to draw I decided that I want to get good at digital painting. This is something that I could REALLY use some work on since my digital painting skills are virtually non-existent.

I found this image that I am using for reference: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cubdagTiRHE/0.jpg

And since this might as well be my first attempt at trying to paint something in photoshop decently. I'm cheating like crazy. Mr. Missal used to always say that all artists are cheating lying stealers.

Anyways I'm uploading my WIP (work in progress) in place of my DoTD (drawing of the day)

If anyone knows of any quality free tutorials out there for this sort of thing, I'd be greatly appreciative. Thanks in Advance.

Project Assessment Form (Super Rough Draft)

To begin this post I must first apologize for it being a day late. The night before last I didn't get to bed until around 3am due to work reasons and the next day I woke up went straight to work, came home and fell asleep before finishing this post.

I am really going to need a lot of feedback on this one (Please and Thank You). This project has gotten me all sorts of depressed since it required me to spend a whole lot of time and attention dedicated to everything I don't have figured out yet. I don't know how much I want to charge for every service, I don't know which services I do and don't want to offer, I don't know how much it's going to cost me to offer every service, I don't know what the best way to organize this form is, and I dont know if I should split this thing into packages or do everything on a per client per project basis.

What am I even talking about, you ask? Well I needed to create a project assessment form that I could take to clients and fill out during our first meeting so I could quickly get a handle of everything the client needs and quickly work up an appropriate price for the service. This form is more or less a giant check list of what the client needs produced along with a set price for each service (or in cases where a set price is infeasible, a blank space to fill in information relevant to pricing). At the bottom there is a place to tally up the total cost (or give a best estimate). Creating this form is very challenging because there are a lot of variables to consider when setting my pricing, and that doesn't even address the issues with organizing the form to avoid redundancy.

Enough talking, here is the first draft:

 

 Obviously I have a lot of work cut out for me. Any suggestions for how I should arrange the form? Am I missing key variables?

Branding 101

What is a Brand? 

Let me begin to answer this question with another question: What is a name? What is your name? A name is a word with a written and spoken form that is attached to an object to identify it. A name is a sound, but more importantly, it's an identity. A name is what the name represents. Likewise, a brand which consists of symbols, color schemes, catchy slogans, and a promise of a unique point of difference, is a business's identity. A brand is more than just colors and slogans, it's a reputation. If I mention the name Ghandi, people don't think of the word, they think of the man it represents, and ALL of the attributes they have associated with the man through his actions. When a consumer sees a popular logo, they don't just see a fancy symbol, they see their interactions with the company that symbol represents.

Why You Need a Brand:

Without a brand, the consumer doesn't know who you are, or why they should do business with you. 

Branding is a two sided method of setting yourself apart from the crowd.. The first side is the name. Everyone needs a name. If every burger franchise were named McDonalds, how would we know which one sold Big Mac's and which one sold Whoppers? The second side is the entity the name describes and more importantly, the reputation it has earned for itself. If Burger King and McDonalds both had the same menu, why would it matter which one we go to? A good brand emphasizes what makes a company unique and tells the consumer why they should choose one business over the competition.

Aspects of a Strong Brand

•  Logo (symbol)
• A logo is an emblem that represents a business. There are many aspects that effect the quality of a good logo. (see my blog: "The 7 Pillars of Good Logo Design")
• Color Scheme
• A color scheme (in reference to branding) is a set of colors that represent your brand. Your color scheme should be incorporated into your logo, your website, your physical store, your employee's uniforms, your business cards, your dvd's, and everything else that you ever do. Your color scheme should also be researched and chosen carefully to best suit your psychological and emotional message.
• Unique Point of Difference
• This is your promise. Ultimately, every aspect of your brand is to build and reinforce this one idea: Why the consumer should choose you. Your unique point of difference should be what you do differently than everyone else to make your product better. This aspect of your brand is built best with actions, not words. Everyone can play lip service to an idea all day long, but what customers remember from their business with you, is what really matters at the end of the day.
• Slogans
• Slogans are an easy way to help identify and strengthen your unique point of difference. A Good example would be Burger King's, "Have it your way." The slogan tells the customer what the business is doing to set themselves apart. A slogan is a promise in word form. A promise that should never be broken.

What Doesn't Google Do?

Yesterday I built a mobile version of my website and I edited the mobile version of this blog. Then I set up a Google Analytics account and attached it to my website so I could monitor my traffic. I've already been using Blogger's Google Analytics to monitor my blog traffic for a few weeks now (To my reader in Canada: you rock!). Yesterday I also gave my girlfriend an Acer tablet with droid (Google) software that she can sync to her droid(Google) phone. Suddenly it hit me. What Doesn't Google Do?

I currently have a Google+ account, A Blogger Account, two Youtube Accounts, and a Google Analytics account. I don't have a droid phone or tablet, but If I ever feel like getting a smart phone or a tablet, Droid is definitely the OS I want them to have. I feel like a walking, talking, billboard for Google. But how could I not be? Google is the company that actually took the initiative to build a self driving car. Google made it easy for people to share video on the internet for free and then made it easy to make money off of sharing videos on the internet for free. Google went public via a Dutch Auction instead of the traditional IPO. Google is looking into (or already is) investing billions of dollars into space exploration. Google has their eye on the ball, and they are playing the game better than everyone else. Not only that, but they manage to play the game without playing dirty. If your going to bet on a horse race, you might as well bet on the horse that wants to win the most.

From a business perspective, going any other route than using Google's free services would be foolish. Google does it better and for the best price: free. It's hard to compete with that. Google also builds its business model around the success of its users. If Youtube channels didn't direct a lot of traffic and thus a lot of advertising dollars, the website would fail. That's why Google goes to great lengths to provide valuable resources and tools to it's users to make them successful. Google has no incentive to abuse it's users and has all the reason in the world to help make them successful. If you're getting into business, that is exactly the kind of partnership you should be seeking out.