Ignoring Your Competition

It’s Not You, It’s Me (How to Break Up with Your Competitive Spirit) Creative freelancers confide in me on a daily basis and there’s a common theme among those who are struggling: they spend valuable time, energy, and resources concerning themselves with what their competition is doing. On the flip side, those who are thriving don’t even have competitors on their radar; in fact, their real competition is most likely their peers, if not their closest friends. Successful creative freelancers focus on what they do best— period. David duChemin on Real Photographers: “Digital did not kill our business. Our failure …

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Growing Your Creative Niche

You want better clients. I know you do… but you know the game, this won’t happen magically. You have to earn it and sometimes it’s your earnings that you feel will suffer if you limit your portfolio, your networking, or your business model. Your bank account probably tells you to take any gig you can get, and though you may simply be striving to pay the next bill, know this: desperate acts won’t help you build a better business. Your future success, as well as your creative legacy, demands so much more from you. Or dare I say… less. A …

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Finding New Clients

No matter one’s geographic market, genre, or niche, the cliché saying, “It’s not how good you are but who you know,” is a lot more true than most emerging creatives would like to admit. I’ve heard a lot of whining over the years about how some guy got some gig just because he knew some dude. Well of course he did! The buyer felt that they could trust that relationship enough to move forward. Welcome to the ‘land of the real’ my friend (yep, that’s a Matrix movie reference 🙂 Creative freelancers gain more quality leads and better client engagements …

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