creative briefing

As part of FreelanceSwitch’s launch of its new Forums (which is a great resource for freelancers to share and learn from each other), it held a contest that asked “What’s The Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned About Freelancing?“. The prize? A copy of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss.

Being the ambitious and involved freelancer/creative entrepreneur I am, I decided to submit my 2 cents. About 10 minutes ago, I excitedly received an email from Cyan from FSw that I had won myself a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek! :)

Here’s my entry and those of the 4 other winners:

Verne:
The most important lesson I’ve learned about freelancing is that it’s just as much about love as it is about talent. It’s that simple. Your passion for the work you do supersedes all other aspects of your freelancer life. If you don’t love what you do, everything will be strictly transactional (read: meaningless). If you do, it becomes a dream come true!

So I guess the lesson is: love what you do, or don’t do it at all. If you love it, you’ll work hard, you’ll succeed, and you’ll enjoy the fruits of your labour (what I like to call your Return on Entrepreneurship – or in this case, Return on Freelancing). A simple concept, but one that I think applies to all aspects of life.

unnikrishna:
Whether it is a small job or a big project, before i start working on it i realised i have to get a written creative brief approved (bullet points will do). If the client does not know how to brief me then after the first meeting, i myself write a creative brief and ask the client to agree on it. If you start with out a creative brief approved then you are shooting in the dark!

Penny:
Freelancing (or working for yourself) is the only career where you have the ability to say “No.” In every other job, you may be able to say “yes” to many things, at many levels, but you can’t say “No, we should not do that.” There is always someone – a boss, a board of directors, stock holders or investors who can overrule you.

Saying, “No,” to a client, project or request, when you know it is the right decision or when your gut tells you something is not right, is an important skill. Learning to say it in a way that does not harm relationships is one key to freelance success.

rhysyngsun:
Never agree to anything over the phone. There’s no record of what was said and things that get forgotten can lead to disputes later on. Also, if either or both of you are mobile and have poor signals sometimes critical words can get cut out. If there is a need for communication via phone always tell the client that you will write up what you talked about email it to him so he can confirm it for your records and to clarify anything that may be incorrect before moving on.

chris-vwd:
Respect your boss!

I’d like to share some link love with the other winners, but none of them seem to have their websites in their profiles. Plus, they weren’t linked in the post that announced the winners. (If you’re listed above, leave me a comment and tell me your link!)

I’ve heard great things about the book and it comes just in time for the next stage of my entrepreneurial adventure. I look forward to reading it!

Every so often, my creative marketing agency does a call-out on various job boards and forums to bring in some new talent to work on upcoming projects and initiatives. Whether we post on design-specific job boards like FSw Jobs, Krop, or FlashinTO, or on more generic boards like CraigsList, we always seem to get a nice pool of respondents. However, like anyone in HR can attest to, only a small handful ever end up actually being considered.

The ones that don’t make it past the cut form a nice collection application faux-pas. Some are mind-blowing. Some are sad. Some are just plain funny. In light of one of our recent call-outs for creative talent, I thought I would shed some light on some of the things that get an application a line by-pass… to the garbage. Here are 7 ways to not get a job.

Read the rest of this entry >

You might have noticed that the site was down for a good part of the day. It caught me by surprise this morning as well, and only after submitting a ticket in the afternoon to my host midPhase was I alerted that:

At 9:45AM CST we experienced complete connectivity loss with our upstream providers. While most of that connectivity has been restored at this point, we are still working to restore connectivity to a few cabs.

You’d think that as a customer, you would get a notice of something like this without having to submit a ticket. midPhase would probably also save themselves a lot of trouble from answering all the tickets by just sending out a mass email to its affected customers.

It’s funny (or sad) how so many companies, who would otherwise be considered exceptional, often forget the importance of customer service. You can offer a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, but it’s during that 0.1% that your customer service really matters.

In any case, your regularly scheduled blogging will now resume. :)

On any given day, I write a lot. From well-crafted emails to strategic creative briefs to catchy marketing copy and taglines, writing happens to be a big part of my life, and thankfully, one aspect that I also thoroughly enjoy. However, authoring creativebriefing.com is really my first attempt at free-form creative writing.

What I’ve learned throughout this process is that writing for yourself and writing for an audience is very different. What’s more, I’ve learned that writing for email recipients, designers, consumers, and blog readers are all very distinctly unique arts as well.

So my question to everyone is this: what helps you be a better creative writer? I’d really be interested in reading about the things that have helped you craft the written masterpieces that continue to entertain and inspire your readers (whether it be for your blog or some other medium).

I’ve come across a handful of exceptional writing and I’ve been fortunate enough to even know a few exceptional writers (to name a few: Gizelle Lau, Satish Kanwar, Andrew Peek). It’s time to share your secrets!

My prescription? Read. A lot.

What’s yours? 

If I get enough responses I’ll consolidate everything into a nice and friendly list, so comment away!

35 days have passed since the launch of this blog, and in that time, I am happy to have written 17 marketing, design, and entrepreneur-focused articles. There is still a long way to go in building up my readerbase and subscriberbase to a healthy number, but I was pleased to see that over the course of this maiden month, traffic did indeed steadily increase.

Naturally, like all things, creativebriefing.com is about growth and improvement. I hope to continue developing my abilities to entertain readers through my writing and insight, while in return, I hope to hear some feedback on how I can do that more effectively.

In the mean time, here’s a recap of this first month’s best posts:

Project: Home Office
I received a lot of great recommendations from different people on what to include in my creative haven (aka my soon-to-be home office). I’ll soon be writing a follow-up to this post to consolidate my shopping list and to once again call for more feedback. Feel free to keep adding to the list!

Branded Comments
I carried on a great discussion with graphic designer David Airey on the topic of branding your comments and avatars on blogs. Is it spam? Does it work? Does it deteriorate the concept of personal interaction that is the premise of blogging and today’s online social tools? You be the judge.

Non-traditional marketing
An interesting case of non-traditional marketing using a high-reach marketing medium. Too bad nobody knows what they’re selling.

5 ways to improve your agency relationship
The one that started it all! A quick and dirty list of 5 things anybody working with a creative agency should know. Don’t be labelled as a ‘delinquent’ client! Brighten your agency’s day with these 5 simple tips.

Return on Entrepreneurship
This is a recent post that hasn’t quite made it to the top 5 list, but it’s a personal favourite. It takes a lot to leap into an entrepreneurial career, but man does it feel great. This post is a reflection of my celebration of entrepreneurship. If you’re an entrepreneur or a freelancer, then I want to hear about your ROE!

Thanks to all those who have contributed to the growth of creativebriefing.com in this first month! I hope you’ll continue to support this blog by subscribing to its RSS and by leaving your comments!