Is this what you really wanted to do with your spouse when you got married? Really? Have some sex or something.

I’ve had friends and co-workers express amazement at how much I get done. I don’t think of myself as a super-human-always-on type person. I know people who make me look weak by comparison.

The Scoop:

What if I told you I have a secret that adds 28 hours to my week, pain free and without a time machine? Would you be interested in how I do it?

It’s simple. I stopped watching TV about 10 years ago. When I moved to Columbia, I didn’t move here with a TV, despite the urgings of friends, family, people on the street, etc. who all “had an extra TV they could give me.”

It wasn’t an ideological decision. It was a practical decision to get more things done in college. So don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those sucky hipsters in a coffee shop that takes every opportunity to mention, “…meh, I don’t watch TV.” In fact, if I’m someplace with TV and there’s a Dirty Jobs or James Bond marathon — I’m glued to it till someone peels me away. And I LOVE the NASA channel (I watch it MST3K style, but without the volume muted).

The average ‘merican watches 28 hours of TV per week. That’s like having a part time job. Is anyone else out there sickened by that number? 28 hours? Seriously?

When you don’t have a TV in your home, certain things happen:

You get 8ish hours of sleep because you’re not up watching Leno joke about… what everyone has been watching on TV all week.

Think about it. Seriously, when I watch those guys, I don’t get it because all of their jokes require you to be up to date with TV. If you don’t watch the things they assume you watch, would they still be funny?

Those four hours a day add up

I do my freelance, house remodeling, and spend time with my wife with that extra 28 hours.

If I find 8 billable hours per week, I can add a massive chunk to my regular income. Would you work an extra day per week to double your take home pay in exchange for not watching TV?

Part of the answer is lack of drive.

Often workmen never rise above whatever job they may have because they have no drive. They slow down, work slowly, poke around, sit down and rest as much as they can. In other words, they must have a boss over them to drive them, or they would probably starve. They would never become successful farmers—for a farmer, to succeed, must get up early and work late, and drive himself. That is one reason so many must work for others.

They cannot rely on themselves—they must be driven by one of more energy and purpose.

- Seven Laws of Success, Herbert W. Armstrong

“Only a fool learns from his mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto von Bismarck

• Don’t describe appetizers at a bar as “lite dinner”
• At a strange hotel, be sure to check the temperature on the fridge before filling it with food.
• When teaching a dance class, find a way to either get people involved in the class, or get them out of the area. That makes some people feel too self conscious.
• Keep water around at all times the same way you would zip ties.
• Be sure that your wife has Chapstick® of some form at all times.
• Don’t be afraid to go somewhere for quiet time to recharge for a bit before spending time with people. It’s better to miss a few minutes of the action than be annoyed all night.
• Confirm that a watch is actually working before you leave the store/city/state/country.
• When you plan a group outing/meal, be sure to REPEATEDLY ask about the menu items and ingredients and emphasize what isn’t acceptable fare.

Anyway, while explaining why we weren’t following the assumed “rules” for a design project, I said,

“It’s like this: you can spend your career doing only as you’re told, or you can do what you really think is right and what works. Those two paths lead very different places. The worst that can happen if you do what’s right is that you’ll occasionally get shot down. But hey, you did your bit for king and country, and you’ll still live to fight another day.”

Stay on target. Stay on target!

A vitally important concept to understand about the design business (or any business, for that matter) is this: Figure out what you’re good at, and do that to the best of your abilities.

(It’s probably what you make the most money at for the least amount of effort.)

You’d be surprised how hard it is for some businesses. It has to do with an idea that you have to do anything for money to survive, as opposed to building a good reputation in a viable field.

If you’re a good logo designer, design logos for a price commensurate with your work. Be infatuated with logos. Blog about logos. Read about logos. Explain how they work. Explain your process. Don’t be ashamed about being a logo designer. And don’t feel like you need to be a full service shop.

Eventually, you’ll develop a good model for working with clients. When you get outside that model to be accommodating for a new and exotic client, things get uncomfortable for everyone:

• You have to make new rules for a new business model
• All new painful mistakes have to be lived and worked through
• Time is lost trying to sort out new details and learn a new

When you branch out into new territory, you will have to be willing to lose more often. If you’re okay with that, great — go for it. But if you’re going to be frustrated by failure to the point that you despise what you do and the people you work for, don’t do it.

I’ve both seen this lesson in my day to day work, and have learned it as a freelancer as well. Some people live the lesson over and over, but never learn the lesson.

I recently launched a new website for Accreditation Readiness, a CARF accreditation consulting firm based in Columbia, Missouri.

The site features:

• Content Management System
• Blog
• Store
• Forums
• Email Newsletters
• Customer Resource Management

Your signature text is a perfect place to say all those things we get tired of saying.

How many emails a day do you send? Dozens? Each of those emails are opportunities to tell clients more about yourself or reinforce answers to their questions.

Don’t let your signature be the default text or no text. Do something with that space.

For example, you could sign off all your messages in a way to make sure clients know all your services and increase referrals.

Charlie Triplett
Graphic // Web // Logo // T-Shirt Designer
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Refer new clients and receive $100 cash for being part of my sales team.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
http://AlmostViral.com
Phone: 573-888-8888
Hours: 9-5, M-F

Change that to any one message you want your clients to know. You’ve also already answered the question of “When can I come pick it up?”

Customize signatures for different kinds of emails:

• Quotes and proposals
  • Detail how long the quote is valid
  • Explain the next steps to get started
• Existing customers
  • Offer incentives to generate referrals
  • Let them know what other services you offer
• Inquiries
  • Let them know what other services you offer
  • Give them a call to action to take the next step
• Approval required
  • Make sure the client understands what they’re responsible for
  • Explain the deadline you expect them to follow

Columbia, Missouri is ripe for people to do smart things with their marketing efforts. Let’s get in touch if you’d like some help with your design efforts.

A quote is given on a job with well defined specifications. For example: The website will contain 5 pages of content, feature a blog, and have a contact form.

A proposal is given when a client doesn’t have specifications, but is asking what solutions are suitable to accomplish realistic goals.

What that looks like in the designer’s mind is this:

• For a quote, the designer asks himself: “How much money can we make from this job and still be competitive?”
• For a proposal, the designer asks himself: “How do I solve this client’s problems in an economical way?”

Quotes for web design tend to emphasize pricing, because the client is looking to get this done as cheaply as possible. (But who isn’t?) The proposal tends to be clients that have seen your work and are convinced you’re a good fit for their ambitions.

I’ve been watching the web design field here in Columbia, Missouri since I graduated with an actual degree in design in 2003.

At that time, there were maybe five or six freelance designers in Columbia, the others were the larger agencies like Woodruff Sweitzer, Vangel, and IDP Group Guy.

Now a Google search for Web Design Columbia Mo returns about 20 ish companies apparently willing to do web design.

I do think that good web designers that raise the bar are a good thing. If we all do better work, it will increase the demand for good design.

But some of these “web design agencies” are really just a one man show that promises the moon, but can’t deliver without outsourcing to India or doing a half ass job. There’s no passion there, just a churn and burn strategy that is probably going to end with the designer hating their clients over and over, always wondering why they can’t do the kinds of work that really talented local people do every day.

(Some of them try to do the kinds of work I do by hiring me to do it for them.)

So, I decided to break out of CharlieCharlieCharlie and show them how looking like a big business is done in an honest way using fantastic resources.

I’ve created and launched http://almostviral.com to highlight what a design company should be:

• Honest
• Passionate
• Balanced

I’ll be writing more about these topics as time goes on, and developing AlmostViral with new features from scratch.

Stay Tuned!

Don’t ask when a project is due, that means different things to different people.

Instead, ask “When do you need the project in your hands?”, because then they actually think ahead about their personal involvement in the project.

For example, if you’re designing event t-shirts for someone, don’t ask them when they need the shirts. They’ll often say, “Well, the event is July 11th.” If you assume that’s when they need the shirts, you’re probably wrong. Chances are they need some time to sort, pack, arrange, or otherwise process the shirts for their own customers or attendees.

Asking the client, “When do you need the shirts in your hands?” helps them to think through all of the processes they need to finish to have a successful event.