Whenever another designer reads or hears about my 2-week design process, one question inevitably pops up.
How do you get your clients to finish their homework or provide feedback in time?
It all boils down to communication.
Poor communication can ruin client timelines, client relationships, and the overall client experience. But great communication keeps your process running like a well-oiled machine and keeps everyone happy.
And this is true for any service-based business; not just graphic designers.
So today Iām not only going into more detail on how I get my clients to return their homework in time; Iām sharing 5 helpful tips for how you can improve your client communication on all fronts.
1 | Provide plenty of time
If you have homework for your client to finish at the outset of a project or you need thoughtful feedback on a draft or revision, you have to give them adequate time.
I book clients far in advance from their projectās start date, so they have months and months to work on their branding and website questionnaires ahead of time.
But even if you arenāt booking far in advance, consider creating buffer room in between bookings and start dates. Not only will this give them time to work through homework at the outset of the project, but it will create a little anticipation and excitement on the clientās end when your start date rolls around.
If youāre struggling to get clients to get back to you in a timely manner, you might also add buffer room in your client process to account for response times on drafts and revisions.
2 | Provide reasons
Sometimes we get so accustomed to our own process that we forget how new and unfamiliar it is to our clients.
In order for your clients to respect and follow the steps in your process, they have to understand them. And thatās where great communication can make all the difference.
Often times the most seemingly simple and straightforward item is usually foreign to your clients, so go in depth and patiently walk through each step.
Take the time at the outset of a project to explain the importance of client homework, honest feedback, revisions, inspiration boards, etc.
Not only will this help clients understand you and take you more seriously, but it will increase their trust because theyāll see that youāve thoughtfully streamlined your process and have taken each step into consideration.
3 | Provide incentives and accountability
Weāre more likely to get stuff done and stay on task if thereās an incentive.
So last year I started sending my clients a $25 Starbucks e-giftcard a week or two after they booked a spot in my design queue with the note, āāBranding homeworkā can sound kind of daunting, canāt it? Hereās a little something to make the process more enjoyable. Happy brainstorming!ā
Not only is it unexpected, but it reminds them of their client homework and gives them an incentive to set aside time and work on it.
So consider ways that you can incentivise your client process, whether itās through a Starbucks gift card, a printed notebook, or something creative you come up with on your own. Think about the steps of your process your clients seem to struggle with the most and think of ways that you can create more excitement around them.
We also work a little faster and more diligently if we know thereās someone looking over our shoulder.
I set all of my client homework up in a Google Doc so that both my client and I have access.
This not only allows my clients to continue to make tweaks up until the project begins, but it allows me to peek in a week or two beforehand to make sure that itās getting done. If theyāre falling behind, Iāll send them a friendly reminder in an email.
4 | Provide expectations
If communication is lacking or poor, itās your fault; not your clientās. And it usually boils down to failing to set expectations at the outset of a project.
Along with providing reasons for what you do and why you do it, itās also important to set parameters for what you expect from your client and when you expect it.
Remember that they probably havenāt worked with someone like you before or if they have, the process may have been different.
So give them timelines and due dates. Tell them when you expect feedback and client homework.
I make it a practice to not only go over expectations and timelines before the project begins, but to remind my clients of the next step after each part of the process is checked off.
If my client just approved their inspiration board, I remind them that Iāll be working on logo concepts over the next 2 days and they can expect to see 3 distinct logo options by the end of the second day. When I email them those 3 logo options, I ask them to look them over and give me in-depth feedback about what they like and donāt like about each one by the next morning.
If youāre having trouble getting clients to respond to you in a timely manner, expectations might be lacking. Be sure to set clear expectations not only at the outset of the project, but throughout the entire process. Explain the importance of each step and educate them along the way.
5 | Provide encouragement
Because many of your clients havenāt worked with you before, they might feel a little uneasy and unsure about the whole process. They donāt know whatās normal and what isnāt normal.
So encourage them.
Reassure them that they arenāt crazy for writing you an extra email with more feedback or they arenāt the only one thatās struggled to decide between 2 concepts. Bear with them and walk them through each step.
Because while your job may be to create a beautiful website or capture their wedding day, you have a great opportunity to build relationships and make a lasting difference that extends beyond your services. The way you treat others can go a long way.
And when you mess up some part of your process - because weāre human and it happens from time to time - your clients will be much more likely to give you grace if youāve been patient with them and encouraged them along the way.
Remember, client communication is your responsibility.
Take the steps necessary to make sure you give your client the best experience possible by providing time, reasons, incentives, accountability, expectations, and encouragement.
How do you ensure that your clients get homework and feedback to you in a timely manner? What tips have helped you improve your client communication?
You can do a killer job on all of the steps weāve covered over the past 3 weeks.
But if your photos are amateur or inconsistent with the rest of your brand, your brand will fall short. Every. Single. Time.
This post is part of Elle & Companyās 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
Your colors are all set! Now itās time to dive into fonts.
But finding, choosing, and pairing fonts for your brand isnāt as simple as grabbing Comic Sans and Baskerville from the list of included fonts on your computer and calling it a day.
Actually, please donāt use Comic Sans as a brand font. Ever.
Todayās action step and blog post will walk you through what to consider and how to go about choosing fonts for your one-of-a-kind brand.
This post is part of Elle & Companyās 4-week Brand Challenge. Click here to see more details, sign up, and access the free workbook.
āA goal without a plan is just a wish.ā ā Antoine de Saint-ExupĆ©ry
I always start out the year with high hopes and great aspirations (as evidenced by my last few blog posts and emails).
I love planning and goal setting, but itās often the easiest part of the process. Itās fun scheming up ideas and making plans; itās much harder to actually take action and bring them to fruition.
So in todayās post, Iām following up on my goals and plans from last year and giving you a transparent look at how they panned out.
The New Year marks a clean slate. Itās prime time for planning and goal setting, and while you may plan and set goals with good intentions, you wonāt be able to carry them out if you arenāt productive. So in this first Ellechat podcast episode of 2019, Iām sharing 7 of my best productivity tips to help you start this year off on the right foot and actually make progress toward your business goals.
Itās that time of year!
Tomorrow marks the start of 2019 and I donāt know about you, but Iām ready for the fresh start and clean slate that January 1st brings.
Iāve tried my hand at many different goal-setting planners, journals, and apps for both business and personal use in the past, like the Best Self Journal, Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets, and the 5 Second Journal. And all of them worked well for the season I used them in.
But this year Iām paring down and taking a slightly different approach to setting goals, mapping out my time, and keeping up with my schedule.
I know thereās nothing magical about January 1st.
But every time December rolls around, I canāt help but look forward to the fresh start that a new year brings. Especially this year.
2018 was a year of many firsts for us with having our first baby and buying/renovating our first house, and I underestimated how long it would take to get into a regular rhythm for Elle & Company.
Now that my son is 8 months old and weāre all moved into our house, I finally feel like weāre reaching a new normal. The new year couldnāt be coming at a better time.
But before I dive into some exciting new ideas and projects, there are 7 things Iām doing to tie up loose ends, cap off the year, and start 2019 with a clean slate.
Hi! My name is Marisa and I am one of Laurenās assistants. I graduated with my degree in Public Relations and Marketing in 2015. I currently work full time as a Communications/Marketing Specialist in higher education (at my alma mater) and work for Elle & Company as the Content Marketing Manager part time.
Like you, I used to avidly read the Elle & Company blog.
I first stumbled across Elle & Company in the Fall of 2015 when I was researching SEO for Squarespace.
I came across The Truth About Squarespace SEO blog post and instantly become obsessed with reading all of Laurenās blog posts and soaking in her colorful graphic design style all over her website.
As I continued to devour blog posts, I came across 20 Business Tasks You Could Be Delegating and I thought to myself, āHey! I could do/have done all of this stuff.ā
In a moment of bravery, I reached out to Lauren, pitched myself, and asked her if she needed an assistant. At the time, she had just hired her first assistant, Jenny, and wasnāt looking to hire someone else so quickly.
So I continued to read her blog posts and newsletters, I subscribed to the Library, and I tuned into Ellechats when I could.
About a year went by and Lauren had just launched her Freelance Academy course for the first time and I wondered if she could use any extra help. So I emailed her again, thinking it would be a long shot.
But to my surprise she emailed me back within an hour with the craziest story! She had been meaning to reach out to me for weeks to see if I might still be interested in the assistant position - she even had the email sitting in her drafts folder but had been too busy to push send.
Before I started freelancing for Elle & Company, I was so curious as to how Lauren ran things behind the scenes and always wished she would share more āintimate business detailsā. Now that Iām on the other side, I constantly see requests from readers for this very thing. So today Iām taking you ābehind the scenesā to talk to you about Elle & Company from my perspective.
There are a lot of great tools and apps out there to help you manage an online business. So many, in fact, that it can be hard to know which ones to use!
And thatās probably why I receive so many questions related to the tools and resources I use and recommend for starting and scaling an online business.
Iām a big fan of sharing tools that work and donāt work for me. But nonetheless, Iāve curated a list of my most highly recommend tools and resources for an online business so you can view them all in one place.
In all transparency, I do receive compensation for mentioning some of these resources and any commission I earn comes at no additional cost to you. But I never recommend tools that I donāt use, love, and believe to be extremely beneficial for starting and scaling an online business.
Have you ever been scrolling through Buzzfeed or Facebook and got sucked into taking a quiz about āWhich Friends Character Are You?ā or āWhat City Should You Actually Live In?ā
Quizzes can be addicting because when taken, with a grain of salt, quizzes can give you insights about yourself. And we love learning more about ourselves and our preferences.
So itās no wonder that businesses are now creating quizzes similar to those found on Buzzfeed and Facebook as a means for generating leads, driving traffic, and segmenting your audience.
I recently jumped on the quiz as a content upgrade bandwagon and created my āWhich Squarespace template is right for you?ā quiz. I used Interact to create it and in this post, Iām taking you behind my screen to show you how I did it.
Thereās been a shift happening in the creative industry. Maybe youāve noticed.
Less and less people are interested in courses and online workshops.
It might be because theyāre overdone, or it might be because people believe they can find the information for free through blogs and other resources. But whatever the case, courses are dying down. So where does that leave us?
Software as a service (SaaS) is the new wave of passive income, and many people have already gotten on board. Including Sai Hossain, the CEO & Founder of Crowdcast.
In this weekās Ellechat episode, Sai is joining me to share how he came up with Crowdcast, how he brought this platform to life, and where his business is headed in the future.
Iām back!
After a restful 3 months of maternity leave with my baby boy, Iām slowly easing back into the swing of things with Elle & Company.
And as you may have noticed, things look a little different around here!
There are all kinds of website and content updates to share, and many of you have asked me what my plans are for running a business while staying home with a little one.
Iām excited to fill you in on all of the above!
Weāre a little less than 2 weeks from our baby boyās due date!
And while Iāve shared about my pregnancy a little bit on social media and in my newsletter, I think this might be the first time Iāve mentioned it on the blog.
Iām thrilled to embark on this new chapter and plan to take 3 months off to soak it all in and adjust to life with a little one.
I have exciting plans for my return (like website updates and a new Squarespace series!), but I wanted to share how Iām preparing for some time away before I disappear for a few months.
I took a break from my business in December.
And I had a realization.
What I've been doing up until this point has gotten my business to where it is today. But it won't get my business to the next level.
So I decided that I wanted to do some things differently.
Iām sharing a sneak peek at whatās coming up for Elle & Company in 2018 and the big changes Iām making to my business.
These changes arenāt a step-by-step plan at what you should be doing. Instead, theyāre a preview of what you can look forward to. Iām going to be sharing why Iām switching things up and making adjustments so that you can utilize those lessons in your own business.
This year will definitely look different, but Iām excited to share my plan with you.
Sheās mastermind behind the popular PowerSheets goal setting planner and the author of two books, Make It Happen and Cultivate.
Sheās the business woman behind Cultivate What Matters, but sheās also a wife and a mom to three small kids.
She leads a growing team of talented women, sheās in the process of writing her third book, she just started homeschooling...and somehow she manages to keep it all together!
Thereās something about business owners who not only balance #allthethings well, but who are intentional and purposeful in what they do and why they do it.
So as I was thinking about prospective Ellechat guests this fall, Lara Casey was easily one of the first people who came to mind.
Last week I shared about my seemingly crazy experiment of deleting 7,000 subscribers from my list.
Long story short, itās good to clean out your list every so often to make sure your emails are landing in the inboxes of people who want to receive them.
But once your list is āclean,ā itās time to take the proper measures to make sure your list is effective.
Email segmentation can be the primary difference between a list that converts and one that results in low open rates and a lack of engagement.
It isnāt enough to simply build your list; you have to be smart about how you organize it and use it.
Thankfully, ConvertKit makes segmentation a breeze.
For most service-based businesses, a portfolio provides proof that youāre the right person for the job.
Whether youāre a graphic designer whoās showcasing brands and websites, a photographer whoās showcasing weddings and engagements, or a coach who helps entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level, you need a portfolio to showcase your past work and build trust with potential clients.
But how do you create one?
You might have clicked on this post thinking I was going to talk about photos and layout. And while those are important to the overall look of your portfolio, Iām not going to cover that in this post.
Not only is that a no-brainer, but every other portfolio post puts the primary amount of attention on photos and many of you reading this offer non-visual services like coaching and consulting.
I wrote this post with the hope that you would begin to think differently about your portfolio.
So instead, Iām sharing 5 ways to strategically build your portfolio that everyone else isnāt talking aboutā¦ yet.
I know the title of this Ellechat sounds crazy. We all try so hard to grow our lists; why would I ever delete over 30% of my subscribers?!
No it wasnāt by accident. It was a strategic move thatās actually helped my list and increased my engagement. And I have the stats to prove it.
Iām shared those stats, along with the reasoning behind this seemingly crazy move, in this weekās Ellechat.
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Online content libraries are a great way to bring in recurring passive income each month.
Subscribers join your library for a monthly fee, have ongoing access to all of the resources, and you receive a steady monthly payout - all without doing too much extra work, other than adding a couple new items each month.
Online libraries are also a fantastic incentive for people to subscribe to your list if youāre hoping to give the content away for free.
But as with any new digital offering, it can be a headache trying to figure out how to set up a new content library from scratch.
I remember all too well. Three years ago I setup my own online subscription library (creatively named The Library), and hereās exactly how I did it.
Pricing, branding, finding clients, bookkeeping, marketing - there are many hurdles to starting a business. But one of the biggest hurdles can often be ourselves.
Are perfectionism, procrastination, and comparison holding you back from launching and building your creative business?
If so, Iām sharing how Iāve learned to deal with all of the above in the last 4 years since starting Elle & Company in this Ellechat.
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The key to freelance freedom lies in the ability to book clients in advance.
By having a waiting list of clients who are chomping at the bit to work with you, youāre able to knock over a bunch of hurdles that are standing between you and your biggest goals.
- Want to make more money so you can quit your day job and pursue your passion full-time? Book clients in advance.
- Want to bring in a stable income and have better job security as a service-based business? Book clients in advance.
- Want to pursue your business on your own terms instead of working 12+ hour days? Book clients in advance.
But how do you get to the point where you can start a client waiting list? And how do you manage it after you started it?
Iām sharing what Iāve learned from creating and managing a waiting list of over 250+ prospective design clients in this post.
What comes to mind when you hear the word āwebinar"?
Due to either tuning into a webinar or trying to host one yourself, you probably think of an hour-long live video stream of helpful information....that eventually ends in a sales pitch.
Weāve been conditioned to believe that the only way to use a webinar for our business is to sell. (And I donāt know about you, but thatās annoying from an attendee perspective and overwhelming from a host perspective!)
But webinars donāt have to be used solely for promotion. They donāt have to be hosted once in a blue moon. And they definitely donāt have to be salesy.
A non-salesy weekly webinar series can not only benefit but transform your business.
Running an online business has numerous benefits (less overhead, more flexibility, the ability to work from home, the potential for passive income).
But it comes with its own share of struggles. The biggest one, Iāve found, being a lack of community and interaction with other people.
Weāre unable to see the faces of those who are reading our posts, tuning into our webinars, and following along on social media. Itās more challenging to get to know people when you arenāt seeing them and interacting in person.
But all hope isnāt lost!
The internet actually allows us more opportunities to build and foster community around our businesses; we just have to know where to look for them.
So you launched your website.
You spent a bunch of time perfecting the design, layout, photos, and copy, and you even have your blog up and running.
You check your analytics to see how many people are flooding into your site day after day, but the numbers are few. Where is everyone?
Itās easy to get discouraged. Especially when a higher number of visitors has the potential to open doors down the road, whether itās a sponsorship opportunity, collaboration, job offer, book deal, or a new client.
But over the years, I've discovered 12 proven ways to drive traffic to your website today, and I'm sharing them all in this post.
There are so many plates that you have to keep spinning when you run a business, from keeping track of client projects to marketing and promotion to administrative tasks and everything in between.
Itās impossible to keep up with all of these tasks from memory.
And as much as I love traditional paper planners, itās difficult to keep up with them all in there, too, especially if you have a team.
Thatās where a project management system like Asana can be life changing; it acts as a homebase for all of the tasks involved in running your business.
But just like any app, it takes some time to learn how to use Asana effectively.
So today Iām inviting you behind the screen to show you exactly how to set up Asana from scratch.
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One of the hardest decisions when running a business is determining which apps, tools, and services are worth worth spending money on.
Especially when youāre just starting out on a tight budget.
Is there a cheaper option?
Am I really going to use this?
Is this a reasonable price?
Iāve seen a lot of questions about business expenses and apps worth spending money on in the Elle & Company Community, and after almost four years of entrepreneurship, I thought it would be helpful to give you a sneak peek at what I spend money on each month for my business.
Iāve done a lot of paring down over the past year to the essentials, and I believe these expenses are worth every penny!
In the throes of designing, launching, and growing your business, it can be hard to find clear-cut direction.
Blog posts and webinars are helpful, but it takes work on your part to apply the content and personalize it to your business.
Courses dive deeper into content, but youāre often one of many students taking part.
Mastermind groups and Facebook groups are great for gaining feedback, but others in the group donāt have the time to sit down with you and come up with a customized plan for your business (let alone hold you accountable to all the steps).
But business coaching is the best of all worlds.
Thereās plenty of talk out there about marketing your products and services, but a lot of expert launch strategies involve intense email sequences (that often overwhelm your list), pay-per-click Facebook ads, lots of bonuses, product bundles, and so on.
And while they may be helpful for some, these strategies can quickly get complicated and overwhelming for most creative business owners, especially those who are a one-man team.
Launches donāt have to be complicated, salesy, or manipulative.
If youāre preparing to launch a new offering - whether itās a service or a product - youāll walk away from this Ellechat with a new perspective on launches and gain some tangible steps for successfully promoting your new idea to your audience.
So often in business (and really, in life) we look to the experience and expertise of others.
We want to learn from those whoāve gone before us in order to avoid their mistakes and chase after the things that worked for them.
Especially in times of doubt.
I rounded up 50 quotes from successful business owners and shared them on the blog a couple years ago, and Iāve referred back to them regularly.
So I thought it was about time to round up some more.
If you need a little extra motivation and encouragement, these quotes from successful business people whoāve gone before us should do the trick.
Creative entrepreneurs play many roles and wear many hats.
So itās inevitable that at some point, you might consider lessening your load and delegating tasks by bringing on the help of an assistant.
Whether hiring an assistant is in your near or distant future, you probably have a lot of questions.
- When is the best time to bring on an assistant?
- How do I find the right person?
- How much do I pay them?
- What are some best practices for training them?
- How do I maintain a good working relationship?
To be honest, this is a topic I'm still exploring, but I have a lot to share from my experiences of hiring 2 part-time assistants in the past 2 years.
Itās been a minute since I posted here.
I could tell you that I traveled the world, worked on some big secret project, or had another baby. All sound like exciting, legitimate reasons for disappearing for 5 months.
But the truth is that I needed a break from all the noise.
We live in a world of constant notifications, influx of information, posts, tweets, videos, ads, emails, and texts.
Our lives are spent looking at screens, whether weāre working on a computer, watching TV, or staring at our smartphones for an average of 5.5 hours a day (thatās a true statistic, by the way).
Weāre ādigitally caffeinated,ā wired on the messages, entertainment, and information that are always at our fingertips.
And as a business owner I felt the pressure of not only keeping up with the noise, but contributing to it.
With the increasingly louder āhumā of the digital world building in the background, I was also trying to figure out what life looked like not only as a business owner, but as a new mom and a pastorās wife.
I needed time to get my priorities in order, find a new rhythm, and gain some clarity about what Elle & Company would look like in this new season.
So I went dark.