Million dollar ideas come to a lot of people — so why not YOU. The trick is, you need some type of system to capture these elusive “slippery fish.”
There was an article in Wired magazine titled, “Eureka.” It profiled a number of prominent people and where and when they received their breakthrough inspiration.
For example, J.K. Rowling received the idea for Harry Potter almost immediately on a stalled train on route from Manchester to London.
Authur Fry received the idea for sticky notes while singing in a church choir. And Reed Hastings came upon the idea for Netflix while upset over a late fee in his local video store.
The lesson here? You never know when inspiration might strike — so you need to be prepared to catch these often elusive and fleeting ideas.
One of my favorite (and I guess old fashioned) ways is to record notes in one of those moleskin notebooks. I like the fact they are fairly small, hard-bound and portable. I take it everywhere.
Other folks prefer to use a voice recorder which can capture your ideas quicker than writing.
Keep in mind, ideas do not often come fully formed. They often arrive in bits and fragments — so be sure to record them anyway. A key in this process is not to be too judgmental about your ideas. If you have one worth noting just write it down and forget about it.
Note: for those just starting: it’s a good idea to try to make notes at least 3-4 x per day. Even if you have nothing *seeemingly* noteworthy to jot down just put something down anyway.
The important thing is that it “programs” you into the HABIT of physically accessing your notebook and writing (or recording).
Who knows, your million dollar idea could happen TODAY while picking up the newspaper or a quick walk around the block.
So why not create a “Super Bowl-like” event for yourself or your firm?
Now an event can mean many things, like: a gathering, a parade, a book signing, a contest, a conference, a seminar, an awards presentation, or an online event among others.
For example, not long ago I held an Arbor Day event. I ordered a few hundred “trees in a tube” and gave them out on Arbor Day. it was a smashing success with nice publicity to boot.
There are a number of odd and unique holiday calendars
on that you can revolve an event around.
What about an event for “Thomas Crapper Day” or “Squirrel Awareness Month” or “Elvis Week” – the possibilities are endless.
Most importantly, these “events” do not just happen but take a good deal of planning so take the time to plan them correctly and put them on the calendar.
Suggestion:
Plan to do a number of these for your design firm. Perhaps try to do 1 per quarter.
These “events” can pack an amazing punch. Not only do you get new customers, new friends, publicity, good-will in your community, camaraderie with your design team, you will also have a boatload of fun.
Think about this: How often do you encourage your design staff or those that report to you? What about someone who sends you a portfolio link, or kind phone message or writes you a thoughtful note or email.
What do you do? Blow it off? Give it to someone else to do?
I found this little blurb a while back by Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group, who addresses these various questions:
“I turn people down with extreme difficulty sometimes, because the people I’m saying no to are people I don’t want to discourage. And it should be difficult. Saying no shouldn’t be an easy thing to do, and you have to be good at it.
I often used to dodge doing it myself, and hide behind other people and delegate it, but if you’re the boss, that isn’t the right thing to do.
I remember I was a 15 year old asking Vanessa Redgrave or James Baldwin for an interview, and the fact that they took the time to respond meant an enormous amount to me. It inspired me. So it’s extremely important to respond to people, and to give them encouragement if you’re a leader.
And if you’re actually turning people down, if you must say no, whether it’s for a job or a promotion or an idea they’re proposing to you, take the time to do it yourself.
I met two big San Francisco entrepreneurs recently, and they said they get e-mail like this too, but they just dump it all in the dustbin. They don’t try to answer at all. I asked them why, and they said, “The time we spend responding could be used to create something of value for our business.”
That may well be pragmatically right, but I still think it’s morally wrong, and I suspect that anything that is morally wrong is ultimately bad for business”
Take the time to inventory your current skill set at least every 6 months. Then make a plan to upgrade and/or learn new skills. Here’s a few suggestions to help.
What skill set do you currently have a designer or design manager? Are your skills up-to-date with the latest Adobe Creative Suite? Do you have skills with Flash and other multimedia applications? What about presentation skills?
In my opinion, you really need to be *constantly* updating (and upgrading) your skill set.
Best way to do this is to make a written list of all the skills you currently possess. Then make a list of the skills you would like to learn/improve in the next 6 months.
It could be learning/improving in any number of areas including: presentations, public speaking, persuasion, video, advanced Photoshop, CSS, mobile design or others.
I believe it is important to give yourself a time frame to complete. It really helps to focus and increases your motivation.
Most importantly do something TODAY to start moving in that direction. Whether it is calling a local college for a course schedule, ordering a book from Amazon.com, taking some online training modules from Lynda.com or something else. Movement is key.
I always like to think that you get somewhere in 6 months anyway so why not improve/learn along the way.
You’ll look back 6 months from now and be pleasantly surprised at the progress you’ve made.
Get Over US$1 Million Dollars Worth Of Sales Expertise
As you know, we’re always on the lookout for ways to help you improve your business and maximize your success through resources and content. Today, we’re writing to let you know about something which could potentially have a dramatic impact on your business, it’s called the Million Dollar Challenge.
The Million Dollar Challenge is a fabulous collaborative program put together by a business TV channel. It provides a select group of businesses with the opportunity to get access to world-leading advice from top experts, as well as tailored campaigns and marketing resources for their business, on a risk free basis.
During a global “recession” this is surely something worth investigating.
We’ve looked into this further, and we’re mighty impressed. It is something which is perfectly aligned for any business which has a solid product, service or model, but is just not growing fast enough. It’s also perfect for a business which is frustrated by failed attempts at business development, or is concerned about ROI from marketing efforts.
Current participants range from a high-end software company to an executive search firm. There are also SME’s on the Million Dollar Challenge.
We asked yourBusinessChannel if we could tell all of our contacts about this program. They’ve set up an explanatory video for you to view here. If you are interested, you can also answer a few simple questions online to apply straight away.
This is a great video and really gets to the point of clients abusing vendors and service providers. I am sure every designer has had this happen to them more than once.
A smooth, efficient and reliable design business is often the result of implementing smart business systems. Does this sound like your firm?
Implementing reliable business systems is one area where I wish I put a little more emphasis when first starting my business. Besides doing all the design there was often little time left for the business end (billing, marketing, contracts, etc.) and putting reliable systems in place.
Why is this important? For a number of reasons, the first being it can free you up from having to do/create repeatable actions. If there is no process in place you tend to do things a bit differently each time.
Second, you want to shift your paradigm from working in the business” to working “on the business”. This means you want to shift your mentality to having systems in place (like a franchise) so it can operate independent of you.
So start to investigate what “systems” you have in place. Make a list, then try to identify a system (or procedure) that can automate it.
Examples of ways to automate include: using templates, process automation apps, autoresponders, defined roles & responsibilities and automatic payments among many others.
And a system does not have to mean a $4000 CRM software solution, it can mean hiring your sister to do your books on a defined basis or giving regular work to a virtual assistant. An added bonus is that a highly systematized business is much more valuable if you ever consider selling it.
Another company doing logos on the cheap ( http://logotournament.com/ ). I guess what really chaps my tail is that designers are dumb enough to sign up for this low pay junk or no pay at all competitions. Are they really that desperate to get money for their work that they will submit logo designs and hope to get selected so they can earn a measly $200 to $300? Now I am starting to think the designers are to blame and not these site creators, or maybe it is a little bit of both causing these troubled times in our industry.
My favorite comment on the home page of this site is “See your first company logos within hours, not weeks.” Well heck and shucky darn, what a bargain, I can get a logo in hours compared to a real designer who would actually put some freaking effort into the design, research and do true branding studies.
Okay, one more funny comment, “No Photoshop/PSD logo designers allowed. We are professional logo design community and strongly believe that a logo must come in a true vector format.” Well, if only having your logo in EPS format makes your logo a good logo, then I guess they are right. What the heck about research and development, what about time to understand your client and their business?
For the same effort you put into signing up for one of these competions, you could spend that same time getting quality higher paying clients in your own local community or surrounding towns. I just cannot see how this could be beneficial, it is just hoping again for Blue Sky to come raining down on you with cash from the heavens. Good luck with that, because even if you did get paid by this site and their client for your logo, you are coming out on the short end of the stick and worked your butt off for just a few bucks.
Overall, you would be better off submitting your designs to stock and template sites, you would get a better return on your time and could sell more than just one logo.
Well, I just got off the phone with a total idiot. They wanted to create a networking site for realtors where an agent can signup and create a profile and have direct engagements with other agents through different email lists and groups. Basically a dumb down version of Facebook. I chatted with him a little and then came the words “donate my time”. Then the conversation went on where I would donate my time now and then once the site started to get traffic, then they would solicit home inspectors to buy ads and then I would get a cut of those ad sales.
Needless to say, I told him there was no way I could donate my time on such a massive project. I explained that he would be looking at $15,000 to $20,000 minimum for developing, designing and branding such a site. Which technically, that is on the cheap side of the fence too.
I then proceeded to tell him that I do not work on Blue Sky promises and that I could only do the work if they were willing to pay for it. Of course he said no (and he seemed to get mad a little), and then I told him that no designer in their right mind would do such a large amount of work for free in hopes to get future work and income based off of an idea that might or might not work. And, then I hung up on him!
I know hanging up on someone is rude, but I have to say this, I am dang tired of dealing with these types of idiots and have no patience for them. I am not burning any bridges since there were no bridges to burn. Besides, who needs referrals from clients like this? Not me! I can just see it now, everyone they refer to me for a Web site design project will want free design work and if the site does well, they will pay me then. What a freaking joke!!!!!
It is time to stand your ground as a designer and blow these people off and laugh in their face. These people are not just ignorant, but they are flat out scammers looking for a free ride! They pray on desperate designers looking to build their portfolios with the promise of blue sky when in reality, the sky is black and dark with doom and financial ruin.
Stay far away from these “evil doers”. Use that time to get real clients that are willing to pay you real money for your hard work.
