It’s on in 2010

by Brian Casel  ·  1.4.2010  ·  Bits

Last week I posted about my non-work goals for 2010.  Now it’s time to cover 3 work-related goals for this year.

Launch my first product-based business

I’ve been hard at work preparing for the launch of ThemeJam, my first product-based business.  It’s something I’m extremely excited about and anxious to get off the ground in early 2010.  Aside from the enormous amount of (rewarding) work involved in designing and building WordPress themes, running a new startup selling digital products will be a huge learning experience for me.

I’ll be building and marketing a new brand from the ground up, which will likely involve quite a bit of experimentation and learning on the job.  And while I’ve developed E-Commerce sites for clients, this will be the first time I’m personally involved in tracking conversions, building a customer-base, and providing customer support (for products).  I’m very much looking forward to tackling these challenges.

Seek higher quality clients

On the CasJam Media front (my client business), I’d like to continue to grow my network of client referrals.  However, the overarching goal for 2010 is seek a higher quality client than in the past.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic clients over the course of my young freelance career.  But unfortunately I’ve had some who I regret taking on (which was the focus of my recent post, turning down client work).  In 2010, I’m not only seeking clients with bigger budgets, but those who truly understand the process and appreciate the benefits of good design.

How to do this?  It starts with continuously delivering great work.  Nothing is a better sales tool for a web designer than an outstanding portfolio.  Beyond that, there are few things I can do to step up my game:

  • Attend more conferences, meetups, and increase my offline professional networking.
  • Write more guest articles on larger blogs, establishing myself as an expert (I have a few scheduled to publish soon).
  • Market my services to businesses that are already doing well, but could use someone like me to bring their online presence to the next level.

Improve my personal branding

This will largely happen through this blog as I plan to continue posting about my behind-the-scenes thoughts on freelancing, business, and the web.  I signed on to project52, and I plan to live up to that challenge (at least one post per week for a year).

I hope to establish trust with a larger readership through providing real and valuable advice, pointers, inspiration, and/or ideas to the community.  Those of you who reached out to me via Twitter or elsewhere, know that I truly enjoy talking shop or exchanging ideas and I hope this shines through in my online persona.

Over to you…

Can you narrow your 2010 work-related goals to 2 or three big ones?  Do share in the comments (or pass along a link to your blog).

  • http://volomike.com/ Volomike

    I was going to suggest something to you that I saw in a video out of some devs in Philly who read the Four Hour Work Week. They said they started documenting how they do their sales and marketing stints, and then how they filter down the result to something they felt they could take action on.

    But that was step 1. Once they accomplished that process and had it documented, they applied a VA to the concept. They got on Twitter, found several VAs out of India, tried a few out, and then found one VA who could repeat this process properly for them, freeing them up from having to do it. And it was in the best interest of the VA to find them suitable work.

    So, from here on out, they are using the VA for sales leads so that they can focus on servicing more clients in less time, and so that they can have steady work without hassle.

  • http://www.briancasel.com/dev Brian

    Interesting stuff. I honestly haven’t put much outside resources on generating sales leads (for client work). Never spent on advertising or hires for “marketing” purposes. All of my work has come as a result of referrals, with some of it being generated from online job boards (like FreelanceSwitch).

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