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.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Yolanda A. Facio, Stacey Cornelius. Stacey Cornelius said: What one thing can you do to put some extra polish on your first impression? http://bit.ly/6srrKD [...]
Maybe it is time to rethink my website(www.whimrose.com), I actually had that long before my blog. I have had no business from the website since I quit advertising on Google and Yahoo.
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Hmm. There are lots of people with blogs you can connect with to get people interested in WhimRose. There’s definitely a market for what you make. And you have some good momentum going. What does your gut say?
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My gut told me at 3am this morning that maybe I need to somehow bring all these venues together and get more cohesive…I am feeling really scattered in too many different direction…I may need your professional help!
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Kathy, your gut is paying attention, isn’t it. And I guess it’s time for me to start thinking seriously about officially offering coaching services.
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Ditch the Clutter and Kathy’s feeling of being spread too thin really resonant with me.
I think it is a by-product of the swiftness and simplicity of social media and the Web in general. It has the tends to flutter our attention from one shiny object to the next.
Focus and synergy are big things in my 2010 plan. Good luck Kathy!
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Oh, Bill, shiny objects. I’m with you, all the way. Being self-employed on top of it really ices the cake. When you work for someone else, there’s structure in place. When you fly solo, you have to do the work as well as establish the structure. Your plate gets full very fast.
I think a lot of us share your plan for 2010.
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I agree, I feel like I am always scrambling to keep the money coming in from 3 or 4 different venues so that nothing seems to get 100% of my attention…and I wonder why I can’t FOCUS! My husband thinks I need to decide on one thing and but all my attention towards that “one thing”…I am just not sure that one thing will bring in enough income….and yes Bill I am distracted ALL day by the bright sparkles on the internet.
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
If you can make one thing generate enough income, great. If you need a couple of sources, it’s important to finesse them so they don’t take up too much time. You can think about time management, streamlining processes, hiring someone to do some parts, like bookkeeping.
Keeping to a schedule can help with focus.
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“Ditching the clutter” in my case includes sprucing up my home. I don’t have a studio but the look of my home has not reflected the same level of care as my photos. That is changing little by little.
A few months ago, I purchased an old, ugly wooden chest of drawers from a thrift store, thinking I could live with its awful reddish-brown stain. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I couldn’t and began refinishing it. Months and lots of hard work later, it’s my most beautiful piece of furniture.
Then I looked at my tattered old livingroom curtains–and ordered new ones. (No way was I to learn how to sew!)
The ugly chest of drawers and tawdry curtains bothered me–cluttered my thinking. They’re easy “fixes” and I’m thrilled with the results.
Stacey, you’re absolutely right about business cards. You might add that if anyone has them, s/he should take them EVERYwhere because you never know when you’ll meet someone to whom you want to give one. I keep a few in my wallet, camera bag, tripod bag, backpack.
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I’m with you, Sally – a messy environment seeps into my head. Even a small change makes a difference.
And you beat me to the punch about the business cards. You should always have them, just in case. Not to do a hard sell, but to invite someone who’s interested into your virtual studio or gallery. People enjoy that.
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