business
Boost Your Profits With Mark Ups
A mark up, also known as percentage over cost, is one way you can increase your freelance revenue. Marking up is a common business practice,
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How To Change Your Mind About Money: 5 Simple Ways To Deal With Fluctuating Freelance Income
One thing I struggled with in the past as an independent creative is money. I have a lot of experience with the all too common
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How’s Business? Five Tested Ways To Help Your Freelance Business Thrive
Did you know that your creative business thrives because of how you do business and not because of the quality of your work or your
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Debt, Taxes and Your Freelance Business: 2017 Tax Reform Bill
I’m a sole proprietor working with businesses and organizations, and so, like you, I had some concern about how the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Twelve Books To Boost Your Creative Business
It’s widely acknowledged that there is a direct correlation between reading and success. But it’s not the amount you read, it’s what you read. There’s
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Try This Easy, 8-Point Tune-Up For Your Freelance Business
Every business needs regularly-scheduled tune-ups. Just like with automobile maintenance, tune-ups keep things running smoothly. They’re most effective in maintaining performance when they’re done regularly.
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Firing A Non-paying Client Is Not Burning A Bridge
From the Freelance Road Trip mailbag: A Freelance Road Trip (FRT) member shared an experience with a non-paying client. The member gave me permission to
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How To Build An Effective Professional Network
When you’re in business (and freelancers are in business), you build reputation through social and in-person networking. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a network is a
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Creative Freelancer Q&A: What Do You Do About Scope Creep?
What do you do about scope creep? Should you avoid it? Should you agree to it? The affect of scope creep — when a scope of work
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advice
12 Questions You Need to Ask Every Client BEFORE You Accept Their Project
Have you ever gotten involved on a project and then realized that neither the project nor the client is ideal? The project that was going to
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Creating Freelance Road Trip
Filling the Gap Between School and Career So you’ve gone through school and developed a creative portfolio. You’ve tweaked it up one side down the
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Tactics for Better Business Networking
If you are a self-employed creative, business networking is a significant part of your marketing mix. While designers, illustrators and photographers naturally get together with other creatives for mutual support and trend
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Creative Freelancer Q&A: Do Business, Not Favors!!!
Avoid awkward moments and misunderstandings about getting paid for your freelance work. Prepare written agreements for each client that outlines the type of work you will do, how much you will charge for it, and how you want to be paid. You cannot make a living by doing favors.
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How To Get Clients To Pay You
What do you do when you a client refuses to pay you? According to Freelancers Union nearly 50% of freelancers were stiffed by clients in the past 12
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Advice for Freelancers: On Being an Owner
Ownership is simply the idea that something belongs to someone. In the case of your freelance business, you own it. It belongs to you. You
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How To Work With Clients
10 Best Practices For Building Reputation and Relationships When you accept a client’s project, you make it your own. You’re not creating for yourself. Even so,
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Find Your “Why” to Achieve Your Goals
You need to identify what’s at stake. I often reflect on how blessed I am to work the way I’ve always wanted to — independently, and why
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How to Save on Gasoline by Freelancing
You probably already know that you can deduct mileage as a business expense. But did you know that, if you work from home, all mileage
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
7 Places to Find Freelance Clients Online and Offline
One of the huge differences between a salaried worker and a freelancer is that freelancers need to always be looking for work. Freelance work consists
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Budget For A Design Project
To answer the question, “How much will it cost?”, the question, “What do you want to accomplish?” needs to be asked first. Clients are often in the dark
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
How To Choose Good Clients
Good clients are integral to successful freelance projects and to your career overall. Beyond the project itself, a referral or recommendation from the right client can open doors
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Manage Your Brand
In Part 1 of this article I focused on what a brand is, and the visual and conceptual components of an effective brand. Brand is
Alvalyn Lundgren
5 Reasons Why I Can’t Be Your Designer
I wish I hadn’t said, “Yes” to certain design projects. It’s not that the projects were a problem, but something about the clients’ approaches, actions or expectations
Alvalyn Lundgren
How to Avoid Spam in Your Blog Comments
One thing I really appreciate about using WordPress for my website platform is the multitude of time-saving plug-ins available. One plug-in I really appreciate is Akismet. Akismet recognizes and
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Value of the Design Brief
Recently, I met with a start-up business. As we discussed the scope of work and began putting the design brief together, it became clear that
Alvalyn Lundgren
8 Ways to Cut the Cost of Design
Every design project includes a punch list of required deliverables and a budget. When the budget does not allow for the creation of all these items,
Alvalyn Lundgren
They’ll Notice
Start-up businesses and organizations tend to hold themselves back in terms of establishing reputation and solidity by under-budgeting and under-investing in the brand-building graphics and
Alvalyn Lundgren
Freedom Through Boundaries
During a downhill event at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, a contestant wiped out against the fence because she lost her footing on a turn.
Alvalyn Lundgren
advice
Advice For Emerging Designers
…your process of emerging from school into the (design) profession needs to be as carefully framed and designed as any of your projects.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Maintaining Long-Term Client Relationships
When it comes to clients, it is better to pursue relationships instead of projects. We’ll build our businesses more successfully via relationships and connections, not
Alvalyn Lundgren
Freelance or For Hire? Clarifying The Designer-Client Relationship
Misunderstandings can exist between clients and freelance designers regarding their working relationships. Questions of who owns what, what files are provided to the client, when and
Alvalyn Lundgren
After Your Mark Is Made: Comparing Trademark and Copyright
The essential difference between copyright and trademark can be summed up this way: copyright protects the person while trademark protects the property.
Alvalyn Lundgren
I’m Not That Kind of Girl: Manage Perceptions To Do The Work You Love
Let’s begin with the premise that design, illustration and photography are service professions, and that being a professional means you’re in business. You’re making a
Alvalyn Lundgren
Briefly Stated: The Advantages of Getting It In Writing
Before working with a designer, a client should prepare for that relationship. Often, businesses will request a web site or a logo – a single
Alvalyn Lundgren
Spec Work Is Gambling
Working on spec directly contradicts good business practices and does not even promise payment for work performed.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Red Flags: Fire When Ready
Not every client relationship is a good fit, and it’s just good business to separate.
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Great Idea Viability Test
Some ideas look really good in your head but when you get them down on paper and begin to develop a strategy, the flaws become apparent.
Alvalyn Lundgren
How Much Will It Cost?
All too often a business or organization seeks a designer to execute an untested, unrefined idea as quickly and cheaply as possible. A business that’s design-oriented will not regard design as an afterthought but as the basis for its marketing communications and brand awareness.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Job Listings and Special Considerations
If a hiring firm wants to give special consideration to candidates from a specific school, that’s its right. But then it should carry on its notification processes within the sphere of that school’s alumni and career counseling office
Alvalyn Lundgren
When It’s Time To Let Go
Being effective involves doing the right thing at the right time in the right place.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Loving It: Seduction, Satisfaction and Graphic Culture
To be promoted in our design-driven culture, a product must be packaged in such a way that it becomes meaningful to the person using it, so that they become an evangelist for it. This requires thoughtful planning and execution of a design strategy
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
The Internship Epidemic
It is the responsibility of design professionals, teachers and school administrators to value the next generation of designers so that the profession is respected, appreciated and thrives. Unpaid internships won’t accomplish that.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Email Scams Target Web Designers
Commenting on this article is currently closed. Previously-posted comments are full of helpful details. Please read to the end for the latest updates. Designers
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Elements of a Real Designer
I teach a course at UCLA Extension called Elements of Design. It deals with the stuff design is made of. Things like balance, gestalt theory,
Alvalyn Lundgren
Design As Your Ambassador
Graphic design represents ideas and values. A design is not in itself the idea, but the expression of it. Design points to something greater than
Alvalyn Lundgren
Freelancing: In Getting Work, Relationship Counts More Than Ever
Clients have a choice when selecting creative services: They can go the cheap route and buy a logo through a crowdsource or contest web site where
Alvalyn Lundgren
Unpaid Internships Are A Form of Spec Work
Why is spec work so prevalent in the design profession when it’s not in other professions? Increasingly, companies – creative businesses included – are offering
Alvalyn Lundgren