Entrepreneur stops future"scope creep" takeovers through careful contract negotiations

Showcasing experienced entrepreneurs offers an added marketing communications or social media element to help promote their businesses. In addition, it provides a forum through which they can share solutions to unique business challenges that might be the answer to a similar challenge with which yet another entrepreneur is struggling. This openness of information flows with the following story offered by


Rose Kostan-Schwartz, owner
Creative Design Solutions
www.creative-dzyne.com
rose@creative-dzyne.com
847-367-9278

ABOUT MY BUSINESS
As a graphic designer, I partner with clients to help them review and evaluate their branding in order to create strong visual solutions that are deliverable to both print and monitor. Often, small businesses begin with no budget or have no training to recognize why they need one. They get their business up and running with some family member or friend creating their identity pieces. Before long, they realize who their competition is and how they need to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This is where I can do my best work for them.

MY UNIQUENESS
My uniqueness lies in my background as creative director for a direct marketing group before the era of digital design. I thoroughly understand the principles of graphic design having successfully moved into the age of electronic web design along with all other aspects of the medium. I realize the need for and have the skills to deliver creative for all communication media. When people talk about the best use of their dollars, most believe a website is all they need. I believe you need a mix of materials to promote your business including print and the electronic medium. A valued graphic designer is able to create promotions that thread image consistency through both media.

MY IDEAL CLIENT
In the small business arena, my ideal client would be those who have been in business at least five years, understand who their competition is, recognize that they need a budget, and will partner with me in determining what elements their long-range marketing programs may require. Beyond that, they must show a desire to work with me in analyzing what we've developed so we can plan future programs accordingly. For those younger start-ups who don’t quite yet fit these criteria, I help connect them with designers who specialize in that new start-up business category.

UNIQUE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
One of the most painful, yet helpful, lessons that I’ve learned was about “scope creep.” In my field, the ability to communicate succinctly with potential clients creates a real challenge. This experience came from one particular job that was the poster child for scope creep. I began working with an inventor who had a start-up business. In the beginning, we didn’t talk about every aspect of developing his product invention and my proposal reflected precisely what we did discuss. When I got more into the project, scope creep began taking over big time. I was providing creative four times beyond what was in the original contract and I wasn’t objecting. It had to stop and I needed professional advice as to how to stop it.

RESOLUTION
I took my dilemma to a business women’s round table whose members helped me understand that both parties needed to be happy. They made me realize that just because the full scope became unclear and that I was not asserting myself properly to say as much, there was still time and room to initiate a renegotiation. Feeling confident in taking this action, I contacted the Chicago Artists Coalition that referred me to the Lawyers for the Creative Arts. They reassured me that the steps I was going to take were not out of line. After my renegotiation, we finished the project to everyone’s satisfaction. And, the client was most enthusiastic in saying that he wanted me in on his next project. The experience made me take a hard look at the content of my basic contract and how I needed to put together future contracts so that scope creep won’t ever, again, run rampant.

Social networking referral turns into website solution for graphic designer

Showcasing experienced entrepreneurs offers an added marketing communications or social media element to help promote their businesses. In addition, it provides a forum through which they can share solutions to unique business challenges that might be the answer to a similar challenge with which yet another entrepreneur is struggling. This openness of information flows with the following story offered by

Jennifer Strezo
Principal Brand Designer
Red Seal Design
Jennifer@redsealdesign.com
http://linkedin.com/in/jenniferstrezo
www.redsealdesign.com
773-456-2732

ABOUT MY BUSINESS
Red Seal Design is a full-service graphic design company specializing in creating signature brands for small businesses. A signature brand is a company’s image or identity that appears on all of its sales and marketing materials. It includes the look of your logo, your brochures, your letterhead, business cards, website, PowerPoint™ presentations, direct mail, newsletters and the like. A signature brand gives companies a more professional look over something that they’ve tried to create themselves or have taken off the Internet. A signature brand will help to set a company apart from its competition and be immediately recognized and long remembered.

MY UNIQUENESS
We develop customer solutions for your communications materials based on the personality of your company. Red Seal Design doesn’t create a great-looking design without first learning what the image is that the company wants to portray. I begin with a series of basic questions regarding the client’s goals and target audience, but then move into more aesthetic questions pertaining to the client’s likes and dislikes, what adjectives would best describe the compeny, its core values and culture. In this way, my team can create a custom signature brand that truly reflects what the company is all about.

IDEAL CLIENT PROFILE
A perfect client for us would be your small business that has been operating for at least three years and in the beginning may have created their own brand identity or used some form of online template, but now is ready to move up to the next level of brand identity. With so many businesses struggling, today, many come to realize that they need to stand out from their competitors. That’s when they come to us for that professionally-designed custom signature brand.

UNIQUE CHALLENGE
Like most small businesses when they’re just starting out, I had limited funding. While I was able to design my own signature brand for all of my marketing materials, I still needed to hire someone to develop my website which I knew would cost thousands of dollars. The challenge was figuring out how to secure a great custom website design at minimal cost. At first, I attempted to create one on my own, but it was taking up too much of my time and was not getting me to where I needed to be. Meanwhile, I was losing potential business with no website to which I could direct prospective clients. So, after several months of frustration, I decided to seek the help of a professional web developer.

RESOLUTION
I turned to all of my contacts including those on LinkedIn™ and asked for some referrals. It so happened that a friend from college gave me the name of someone who was able to create economical custom websites by using free WordPress™ and Joomla!™ templates. Among the features that make these templates so attractive is that they allow the website owner to make his or her own website edits avoiding additional costs of having to call back the web developer to make them. This sounded perfect. As a result, I was able to design all of my web pages in Photoshop™ and my web developer found a suitable free template into which he could import all of my custom designs. So, after spending months trying to accomplish this on my own, my new found web developer was able to produce a new customized website for me in a couple of days for a fraction of the cost of HTML development. Meanwhile, he and I have created a partnership that now offers our clients economical custom website designs that focus on signature brands.

Editor's question: Who has struggled with developing their own brand identity? Who believes a fresh new signature brand will help better your position among your competitors - and how?

Graphic designer finally realizes she was destined to remain an entrepreneur

Showcasing entrepreneurs offers an added marketing communications or social media element to help promote their businesses. In addition, it provides a forum through which they can guide other aspiring business owners around avoidable obstacles and toward a path of attainable goals. Sharing their insights begins by hearing their stories like the one offered by

Dagmar Persons, Owner and Creative Director
Design & Art LLC
http://www.design-n-art.com/ - dagmar.dna@gmail.com
630-2202800

MY MOTIVATION
I had been an independent graphic designer up until nearly twelve years ago. Then what I considered to be a terrific opportunity arose which was to become a full-time employee of one of my major clients. After six years, the business folded and I was back to square one. After freelancing again for two years, an identical opportunity came up. So, once more, I worked for another large client for four more years only to see them file bankruptcy, as well. As a result, I am once more building up my own graphic design business – Design & Art, LLC. I specialize in all forms of branding campaigns, print medium design and website development for businesses of every size that would need brand identity and graphic design, catalog and packaging design or photo art direction, styling and illustration.

MY UNIQUENESS
Unlike graphic designers in the U.S. who need only study graphic design if that is their career path, European-educated designers, like myself, must study every art discipline including, sculpture, architectural drawing, ceramics, fine art along with graphic design. This deep understanding of the essence of art in advertising gives me a unique versatility that enables me to keep the customer's brand consistent throughout all media - print, web, packaging, Point-of-Purchase displays and exhibits.

IDEAL CLIENTS
As a result of my education, I am very comfortable working within all industries. The ideal client for Design & Art would be a business that needed graphic and web design, POP displays, graphics for a trade show booth, and accompanying trade show promotional collateral. To reach these prospects I’ve been doing serious networking and emailing to potential clients.

ADVICE TO SHARE
Entrepreneurs should consider becoming an LLC, as I did, primarily to protect their personal assets. However, be aware that it is not an inexpensive venture initially along with having to renew your status every year. What I have learned from my experience of going from freelancing to full-time employment and back a few times is that I should have remained a freelance graphic designer. I feel that if I had, I would be well established at this point with a solid client base of national brand companies that I once had. My advice to all budding entrepreneurs is that if you have a real passion for your profession, nothing should prevent you from pursuing it. Even if you are struggling in the beginning or at some points along the way, you will survive if you have a true passion for whatever it is you are doing.