Being a solopreneur is awesome — freelancing in particular. You control what days you work. You set your own hours. You can wear whatever clothes (or lack thereof) you want. There’s no commute. You decide what work to take on and reject. You can sneak a snack or cat nap whenever you please (well, mostly). You can take days off … Read more
I received a question from a reader, related to the freedom customers have in leaving public feedback about a company. They wanted to know how a business owner should treat derogatory comments when they or their team have the ability to delete them. Their question would apply to any website or social media profile where you have censorship ability. Here … Read more
Before moving into a full-time writing career (with some consulting on the side), I ran a small PR firm. So I’m no stranger to using press releases. They’re still one of the most popular services I offer clients. In addition to being hired to write releases, I’m often asked to give feedback on releases business owners tried to write for … Read more
A few years back I started building an email list for one of my blogs. Rather than run a traditional manual newsletter as you might to promote a business, the email list was a way to let readers receive the latest blog posts via email. Now, I’ll admit it. I’m not a huge fan of email newsletters (and we’ll talk … Read more
If you work independently offering any kind of service, from freelance writing to financial consulting, you have to set your rates. How do you go about that? Here are a few things you should keep in mind when setting freelance rates or fees to avoid common mistakes.
Whether you’re selling products or services, you want your customers to love you, right? After all, happy customers are more likely to become repeat customers than unhappy ones. On top of that, when your customers love you they might just spread the word, driving referral purchases or at least new visitors that you can convert into more buyers. At the … Read more
Some folks have a glorified idea of what their life would be like if they could quit their job and start working for themselves, pursuing their passions as a business: sleeping in, working in their pajamas, being able to take a day off whenever they want to, having more vacation time, being home to take care of the kids after … Read more
There it was again — the inevitable *smack* of a newspaper on my dining table. Every time a certain family member came to visit, they flopped a newspaper down on my table. More specifically, it was the classifieds section, usually with a few jobs circled. They were often generic office jobs — this family member had given up on me … Read more
You finally took your first steps to becoming an independent consultant or freelance professional. You’ve gone through the legalities of forming your consulting firm or freelance business, set up a company website, designed business cards and had them printed. You’re ready to go. Yet you still haven’t quit your job to pursue independent consulting full-time. Why not? Because you don’t … Read more
Consider these three tips for better blogger relations before getting your company caught up in a negative blog storm (or missing out altogether).