So you’ve had a little time to banish objections and self-made intimidation. This next part is simple—come up with one thing to improve your first impression. One. Here are a few ideas to get you going:

Firm up your handshake

Take a look at your business card (do you have a business card?). Does it feel like you? Is it still fresh, or does it feel stale, or maybe even generic? Are you proud to put it in someone’s hand? Does it fit in with everything else you use to promote your work?

Spruce up your retail or trade show booth (or your studio, storefront or home office). Update the colour of the backdrop, clean up your signage, or think about some new display props. If you’re showing your work on pegboard, this is the year to get rid of it. Pegboard is for hanging tools.

If you don’t have one already, or if your existing one needs a facelift, get a logo. You can use it for your website, your social media presence, your business card, and your packaging. That’s a huge bang for your buck. So get a good one.

Establish your online brand

Ditch the free blog and get your own domain. Putting down virtual stakes gives the impression of solidity. There are plenty of low-cost hosting plans out there, and many allow you to easily import an existing blog.

Maybe it’s time you got a website. Not everybody needs one (yes, I know, it’s heresy to utter those words online. I’m done following the herd). If you have a successful bricks-and-mortar business, you might not need a website. The Yellow Pages Online might do the trick. Do some research and make a smart decision. If you have enough clients through word of mouth, you might use social media instead. If you’re an artist, a blog might be the perfect one-stop-shopping solution—with your own domain name. Ahem.

A well-designed website makes a powerful first impression. Particularly if you’re telling people how creative you are.

Decide what kind of social networking works best for you—Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, all of the above, one of them, or none. Planting your flag in more than one place gives more people a chance to find you.

Before you say, “None,” I double-dog dare you to have a look at Twitter. There is a staggering amount of information being shared, and plenty of it for creatives, even the fine art crowd. The Museum of Modern Art is on Twitter. You don’t need an account to take a look.

Ditch the clutter

If you have a social media account you haven’t done anything with, use it or lose it—by choice. Don’t hang onto an inactive account “just in case.” That’s fear. Getting rid of things you don’t use helps clear your head.

If your last blog post was in October… you know what to do. Stale blogs aren’t the mark of a pro. Stale blogs are flaky.

If your customers visit your studio, tidy it up. Total cost: zero dollars.

There. A short list of possibilities. Find one thing. Then do it.

What’s on your list that you can do right now? What’s on your list that you think can’t be done? How can I help you kick over your roadblocks? Leave a comment below, or send an email from the Contact page.