We’ve decided to concentrate on one market right now and need some raw materials to help us build our “machine.” We need some actual examples, albeit however abbreviated, to show industry execs….hopefully getting some support and resources and maybe even a partnership of sorts.

But that is all a long ways off. Or so it seems. Right now, I am trying to put together some timeline based prototypes to show some schools. We would like to partner with a few of them starting in January…thereby acquiring that raw material I just spoke of. I realize this post is not very informative, but it’s really all I can say at this point.

So other things have to go to the back burner for now – unfortunately one of those things is working on my freelance business and website. I can’t put it off too long because, did I mention many time in previous posts?? I need some income actually coming IN. Gotta focus and get serious…too much to do but it’s also very exciting.

The next few weeks, I will be cleaning up the sites I have designed and design more. I plan on offering a variety of sites from very simple HTML sites, to more intricate HTML sites, sites with Flash menus and full-Flash websites. I am designing into the sites, ways for the client to upkeep the website themselves, if that is what they want to do. I am also designing the website for the business.

The next step after that will be to figure out a marketing plan.

Trying to narrow it down to the services I can offer,  and looking companies versus one-person operation, it seems like the rates are somewhere between $25 to $75 per hour for someone with my skill-set and experience. But that is still a HUGE difference.

One suggestion that many sites give is to figure out your salary, cost of doing business, etc. and then divide it appropriately to get to your hourly rate. All well and good. But I don’t think anyone will pay me $500 an hour {ha ha, kidding really}. But still, the truth is, just because I NEED and want to make a certain amount doesn’t mean I’ll get it.

I think the difficult part of this is going back to the point where I stated in a previous post that I have a hard time tooting my own horn. I also sometimes think that what I do isn’t good enough or that hard to do. Which is really ridiculous. Just because something comes relatively easy to me doesn’t mean it’s worthless  or worth LESS. It just comes easy to me!! Hurray. Celebrate it and market it…but it’s easier at first for me to devalue it. Deep breaths. I’ll figure this out somehow.

• Recruitment agencies – basically you work for the agency and they find you temporary and contract work. Problem is, you have to take a cut in hourly rate because the have to tack on I guess about 20% over and above your going rate.
• Obviously, my greatest strength right now is as a web designer. However, I don’t know that I want to market myself as a designer who creates custom, unique websites for each client. But there are other alternatives, like marketing website packages that I have already developed, “canned” so to speak;  and marketing/selling them to small businesses, artists and individuals. That way, the prices for the sites can be lower (because they aren’t 100% unique) so the time is also cut down on the customization – a win-win for me and the potential client. It would be sort of like buying a website “off the rack” as opposed to haute couture (made to order).
• Selling illustrations to stock photography sites

I need to add some animation and illustration work to the portfolio. Also, I think it would be a good idea to start a database of all the companies “out there.” I am limited as to where I can apply because Mark needs to be in either Houston, NYC or Chicago for his job.

Since I don’t have a degree, it probably wouldn’t hurt to get an ACE certification in either Flash or Photoshop. That’s a big one, because I’ve always sucked at standardized tests.

I mentioned in a previous post something about a skinny book. What is it? I got the idea from Sally Jean; she calls it a “book-book.” I took a workshop with her and bought her book where she mentions it. Quite frankly, the term “book-book” seems a bit juvenile for me; but I liked the idea of it. So its the same concept, and I take no credit for “inventing” it. I just call mine a skinny-book.

First, what is it? Go to your local Kinkos and purchase 50 pages of plain white paper and have them cut in half length-wise. Have them cut a nice bright colored piece of thick card stock in half as well for the cover, and then ask them to bind the entire thing for you. Personally, I prefer the black spiral binder as it allows the book’s pages to fold easily back onto themselves and you can lie the book down flat on the table. Now you have a hundred-page 4.25 by ll-inch spiral bound book, ready for you to write your ideas and thoughts.

Now, keep the book with you and write your notes, ideas and epiphanies in, whenever and wherever they come. Like Sally Jean suggests, date the cover of your book from when you start writing in it to when you stop. Its also nice to leave a couple of pages blank in the front so when you’re done, you can write a “table of contents” of all the content inside once the book is filled. Keep the books around as you’ll be amazed as to how often you refer back to them. The cost of the book is between $8-$10, depending on how many pages they put in (sometimes I put more) and the quality of paper used. I don’t like it to be too thin or cheap as I like to write with the permanent thin markers and they tend to bleed through.

It’s also a good idea to change the color of the covers, if possible, whenever you create a new one. I am a very visual person and will remember writing something in the yellow skinny-book as to opposed to the one three months ago.

Why do I like the size of the skinny book? I mean why not just buy a notebook and write in it?

• The thinness of the book fits very neatly in my purse.
• On pages that are too wide (like a regular piece of paper) my writing tends to slant and get very messy
• There is something nice about writing on such a narrow piece of paper. I don’t get lost in my thoughts and I can more easily FIND the stuff I’ve written before. I mean think about it. Magazines and newspapers are written in thin columns. It is much easier on the eyes not to have to move so far from left to right when you read (and write!)
• I have a tendency towards ADD (or at least getting very distracted with “shiny things”); somehow the narrower width of the page helps overcome this.