Price: $9.95

How to master those pesky business details
and focus on the design work you love best

Let’s face it, creative types aren’t often trained as business people. And if you’re like most designers we know, you’d rather spend your time crafting your next masterpiece than doing accounting or making pthe business details of your design service are giving you a headache, this transcript of Peleg Top’s 2-hour workshop “The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Design Shop” is for you. This quick-reading document explains in plain English exactly what business skills you need, and how to master them with a minimum of time and effort.

Peleg doesn’t have a business degree. He’s a designer who’s learned how to succeed in the business world through fifteen years of trial and error. In this exclusive transcript, he reveals the proven business strategies he wished someone had taught him when he started his design shop. You’ll learn how to master the critical administrative, financial, and marketing skills you need to make your business flourish.

Today you may cringe at the thought of taxes, paperwork, and self-promotion, but Peleg’s practical tips and professional insights make it easy to get it all under control.

“The workshop was great! Very informative. Many times I feel those
workshops are just basic common sense but this one was really helpful
and provided me with a lot of great business and pricing information.”
JoAnn Dickey

You’ll learn how to run your shop as a business, avoiding costly mistakes. You’ll also be amazed at how easy it becomes for you to run the day-to-day aspects of your business…leaving you free to spend more time on design work.

“I know how tough it can be to have a program run so smoothly. It was evident that your well-planned agenda, and listening to your students to know what will be helpful to them, really paid off in a perfectly run seminar. Enough time was devoted to all the right subjects, and there was plenty of room for discussion at any point. It all gave me plenty to contemplate, and many immediate actionable items.”

Shara Foldi, Unity Design, http://www.unitydesign.biz

Here are a few highlights of what you’ll learn in “The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Design Shop”:

• How much to charge for your services
• How to set up the administrative, financial, and marketing aspects of your business
• 4 types of people you must know to build a successful design business
• How to choose a business name that encourages clients to remember and hire you
• How your business can help you save money on taxes
• Easy steps to protect your business from audits and penalties
• How to protect your personal property if your business gets involved in a lawsuit
• When you can sell your services without charging sales tax, and when you can’t
• Why you need to mark up printing services you provide to your clients, and how much is reasonable to charge
• Why you need a separate phone line for your business (and why you shouldn’t answer it after hours)
• Why loan officers want you to have a business plan—even though they’ll probably never read it—and easy strategies for creating one
• 2 types of contracts that will make you look and be treated like a professional
  How to get an early warning that a client might cause trouble before you waste time doing work for them
• The best place to meet other creative people to collaborate with
• The best way to get answers about clients, contracts, or projects
• How to simplify your financial work
• How to pay yourself
• An indispensable “safety net” that can save your business if you have a financial emergency
• How to set up invoices to increase your chances of getting paid on time
• How to master essential bookkeeping skills even if you know nothing about accounting
• Which accounting software will do everything for you
• An easy way to improve your money management, both for your business and your personal life
• How to create estimates for clients without a lot of time and effort
• What different types of clients need when you provide an estimate
• An easy resource for keeping track of jobs, time, and costs
• How much credit to extend to your clients
• Why you should never take on a new client without getting 50% of your fee in advance
• Why you should accept credit cards, where you can find good credit card service, and how to pass service fees onto your clients
• What type of client will pay you higher fees…and pay you faster
• How to love the sales and marketing side of your business
• Why corporate clients will love working with you
  How to nurture relationships with your clients
• The single most effective marketing tool Peleg has every used…guaranteed to generate goodwill from your clients
• How to determine your marketing territory
• How to stand out from the crowd with specialization
• The difference between vertical and horizontal specialization
• Why clients prefer to work with specialists
• How to share your portfolio with clients
• Why you must have a website
• What clients look for on a website
  What clients don’t read on your website
• How to look professional online
• Why you don’t have to take a portfolio when you meet with new clients
• 5 essential tools you must have for effective networking
• Why silence doesn’t mean a client isn’t interested
  How to design an effective business card
• What to say when people ask what you do
• How to present yourself professionally in e-mail
• How to make it easy for clients to call you back
• How to follow up with prospects you meet
• How to stay current with the industries your clients are in
• How to get free publicity for your business
• Plus much more!

“The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Design Shop” contains invaluable tips and strategies that will help you build a strong, successful business—or improve an existing shop. Peleg’s practical tips will show you how to get organized, run efficiently, and boost your profits!

Price: $9.95