Customer service: where small is truly mighty
A multinational corporation can produce beautiful things, have a massive marketing budget, win international advertising awards—and put a serious dent in its brand by failing to pay attention to its customers.

This is where the tiniest business can run circles around the big guys.

You make the policies; you are the CEO. You can answer the questions. You can fix things when they don’t go exactly right.

You can also learn from the dent-the-brand mistakes many small businesses make.

Mistake #1 — Was it something I said?
You’re in a locally owned furniture store. You’re nearly ready to buy; there’s just one question about delivery charges. The salesperson asks the owner, who is standing nearby, working on a computer. He doesn’t look at her when he answers her question. He doesn’t turn to acknowledge you, even though you’re only a few feet away, ready to give him your money. If the salesperson had been less fun to deal with, you’d walk out on the spot.

Turn it around — be the eccentric creative
If you have your own gig, the new normal is that you wear most of the hats (with the general exception of tax accounting). But that doesn’t work for everyone.

If you’re really lousy at sales, or truly just can’t deal with people, find someone who’s great at it. And stay out of sight. A little mystique adds to the flavour of your brand. Behaving like an arrogant jackass (or being too shy to talk to people) does not.

Mistake #2 — What’s wrong with this picture?
You’re in a high-end shop that sells fine craft and visual art. You come across a freestanding textile piece with a price tag of nearly $2000. The frame has come apart.

Turn it around — quality first, and always
If you don’t treat your work with respect, your customers will wonder if they’ll suffer the same fate. When you’re building your reputation, nothing gets treated like a throwaway. Not even your seconds, if you work in a medium where seconds happen (like a pottery studio).

Care about everything you sell. When you show your work like it’s top quality, you send a signal to your customers. That signal strengthens your brand.

Mistake #3 — Pardon me, are you in business?
You’re at a trade show. Two exhibitors are sitting in chairs at opposite sides of an 8 x 10-foot booth, chatting. You’d have to cross between them to go in. You suddenly feel like you’re interrupting dinner. You move on.

Turn it around — always act like a pro
I know creatives who sell their work at local farmers’ markets. I used to do it myself. Some think they don’t have to be professional because of the setting. While some venues are more casual than others, one simple fact remains: it’s you at that venue. The location doesn’t shape your brand, you do.

When you bring your best wherever you are, online or off, your customers notice.

Your brand is every experience your customers have with you and your business
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Everything you do, every piece of marketing material, every contact you have with a customer or potential customer, creates an experience. All those experiences either build or undermine your brand.

It’s up to you to make their experiences great.

Observation and critical thinking are powerful tools
Each of the stories above is true. They all happened to me, as a customer.

There’s a beautiful chair in my house because a fantastic salesperson allowed me to forget her obnoxious boss.

I’ve never been back to the shop that didn’t take care of the work it was selling.

Someone once dubbed me The Booth Nazi because I’m so committed to making a good impression. I remain unrepentant.

Paying attention to how you present yourself to your customers is one of the smartest investments you can make in your professional creative practice.

Have your say: What experiences have you had? Share your stories, good or bad, or add a tip to the list.

Money—it’s a complicated, emotional subject. It’s so easy to get your self-worth tied up in it, so easy to get intimidated, particularly when you ask people to give you their money in exchange for your work.

Sit with that for a minute. You ask people to give you their money in exchange for your work. Does that make you uneasy?

It shouldn’t. It’s how our economic system works, for the most part—money in exchange for a service, or something you can hold in your hands.

When an employer rents your time, you show up, do the work, go home, and repeat the process as often as necessary (or, depending on your disposition, as long as you can stand it). There might be complaints. There’s not enough money for the amount of work, responsibility, or stress that goes with the job. There’s no hesitation about wanting more.

When you sell what you create, there might be some frayed nerves when it comes to asking for money, at least until you get used to it.

So what’s the difference?

There’s nowhere to hide
When you work for someone else, you get to hide behind their name. Even if you screw up royally and get fired, your employer has to take the heat and deal with disgruntled customers. They get to take the deep breath and put the prices on the tags.

When it’s just you and your business, that safe zone is gone. It’s your neck stuck out there—it’s you the customers are judging—your ideas, your talent, your heart and soul. It can be pretty damn scary.

If you don’t ask for too much money, maybe they’ll go easy on you. So all of a sudden, money isn’t an exchange of value for value. It’s about approval. And you might do all kinds of stupid things to get it, because disapproval is a mighty unpleasant feeling.

The truth is, the decision to pull out the wallet is a form of approval no matter who’s buying what. Someone says, “I’d like to have that.” You do it when you buy, too.

Take refuge in the marketplace
When you get emotions tangled up with money, you forget you’re part of an established marketplace. There are prices in your medium that are already accepted by buyers. That ground has been broken. Depending on what you do, the range can be wide, depending on skill and reputation. But those numbers can help you get out of your spin. They can help you to stop thinking about approval and start thinking about business.

Ultimately, the right price is the one the market will support.

How does that feel?

Adjust your perceptions
Whether you work for someone else or are self-employed, you think about making money. That rings particularly true for creatives, but the thought needs to be expanded. While the work you produce is always most important, you do much more than that. You run a business, which involves heavy responsibility and requires a varied skill set. You’re not playing at it. It’s not an amusing little hobby.

How do you feel about money? Think about how you earn it.

Over to you: Do you get hung up about money? If you sell with confidence, how do you avoid the money jitters?