Would you like to see your business running like clockwork while you're off vacationing at the beach, the mountains, or overseas?

One thing which sets apart a successful business from an unsuccessful one is the use of systems and processes. If you want to get to the point where you can work on your business and not always have to work in it, you need to develop systems and process, i.e., a step-by-step checklist, for each business function and activity, and then implement them.

Everything from product development to marketing to invoicing to customer service needs a simple system. Once you've created this systems and processes and yes you know it's work and you'll be able to save a ton of time and effort.

Imagine you wanted to go on a relaxing vacation and you wanted to outsource much of what you do as soon as possible, but you wanted to be sure everything got done correctly-just the way you like it. First, you would need to list all of the systems you use in your business.

...

How to make branding work for Creatives with David Fernandez

 Business for Creatives Podcast #EP03 - David Fernandez

Watch the rest of the interview over at:  https://youtu.be/SgpEgiRD8tw

Listen & Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/den-lennie

Subscribe on iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/business-for-creatives-podcast/id1435564760?mt=2

Are you struggling with how to position your brand and don’t know which direction to go? You might be asking, how important is branding for my creative business? In this episode, David Fernandez, of Evolv Design, shares his secrets on how branding is not solely for big brands and why you as a business should care about your brand. David also dives deep into the how you can use branding to build trust with your target market resulting in more clients.

Turn the volume up, listen and take notes on this episode!

What you will learn in this episode…

• ...

Creativity is not an excuse to be disorganised 

I often hear people in the creative space talking about how messy and disorganized they are. 

I am guilty of this.... and to some degree, I used to wear it as a badge of creative honour.

I would stubbornly refuse to do certain tasks, especially anything around tracking and spreadsheets, citing "I'm a creative"

 But it's no excuse...

The more chaotic your life is, does not make you more creative, in fact, the opposite happens.  Chaos will likely mean that you might forget to invoice a client or worse forget to pay you tax...  neither are ideal.

What I've discovered is that the more disciplined you are, the less stress you experience and the more space you create for creative thinking.

I used to think that I had this excuse for being creative that's why everything was always a mess.

But an actual fact the more organised you are the more clear you are about where you're going and what...

What is the DIY Hole? And why you should avoid it...

When you are starting out in business you have no choice but to do everything yourself.

And then what happens is you develop this really good set of skills around being really good at doing lots of things. You have to because you have no money and stuff needs doing.


But as you scale or as you start to think about growth, you simply can't continue to do everything yourself.

Now as a creative, or as a video producer that can mean you do your own shooting you do your own editing. You may be reluctant to hire an editor because you think “well that's margin I could keep for myself and I'm pretty good at it and I'm quick... “

There's a lot of tasks that you are currently doing that are not the highest and best use of your time.

And if you continue to do them, you'll get stuck in this DIY hole where you do everything yourself.

When you actually monitor how you spend your time It's incredible how much time you...

Have you ever had someone says to you:

“Can I have a discount”?

This is a common question.

Have you ever had a situation where a client says can I have a discount?

Well here's what you say to them.

My preferred solution is “why do you want a discount?”

And say nothing. Let them do the talking.

Some days people just ask for a discount.

What you can say is, “we don't tend to discount because our pricing is very fair and it's well considered from the outset”.

The only time in which we consider discounting is if there was a volume of work that would allow us to scale our opportunities and replicate some processes and that could reduce our costs internally.

If someone wants to make 5 films over a set period then we're happy to consider discounting the fifth film by a percentage.

But in general, I don't like to discount.

I just think it kind of sets the wrong tone from the outset.

And when you push back and say you know “why is it you want...

The Long Term Mindset you Need to adopt to make it as a Filmmaker with Matt Jeppsen

Business for Creatives Podcast #EP02 - Matthew Jeppsen

Watch the rest of the interview over at: https://youtu.be/KPZwYuk3bc8

Listen & Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/den-lennie

Subscribe on iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/business-for-creatives-podcast/id1435564760?mt=2

Many people endure taking more work than they can handle. How do you go about taking a full month vacation but still earn a decent amount of money?

Today, you will learn how to work within your capacity and escape working with resentment and burnout. Matt Jeppsen shares actionable steps that every filmmaker must know. He discusses the tricks on how to live a less stressful life, balance work and family, all while protecting yourself as a business owner for future projects.

What you will learn in this episode is…

• How Matt overcame the shift from adaptors to...

How to handle price objections from clients

What you say to a client when they say “oh, you seem expensive”?

So you submit a quote to a prospect then you either

 1. either hear nothing

or

2. they say “hey it seems a bit expensive”.

What do you say in that circumstance?

Well, again it generally comes down to the relationship and the pre-frame.

But what you can say is: “well when you say expensive, compared to what”?

That's a great way to respond.

Open up the conversation.

You know a deal is never a black-and-white, yes or no decision.

There are usually layers and there are potential reasons why they have to stick to a certain budget.

But if you don't open up the communication have the conversation and it's very difficult to actively find a way to find that a middle ground.

So ask them what it is they're looking to achieve?

Why is they think is expensive because generally what that means that...

How to respond when someone says: "Hey we have a cheaper quote, can you match it...?"

Today I want to talk about what you say if a client says "hey we've got another quote can you match it?"

You've probably been in the situation where a client's come back to your prospective client and said look we've got another quote and it's a bit cheaper and can you match it?

The question is what do you say in those circumstances and it very much depends on your relationship with the client.

What I tend to find is and not enough film makers and creators have a strong enough relationship with a client upfront. So when it comes to discussions around price, everyone drops their trousers and goes "yeah I'll match the price".

You've got to consider what do you want from the project.

If you're someone that offers a very unique service then why should you discount your prices?

If you're competing with someone who's going to deliver a lesser service why should you compete with them?

The...

How to get paid on time

One of my clients in The 6-Figure Filmmakers asked this question of the day and I thought it was really gonna be helpful to share it with you and it's all about getting paid.

Now generally speaking creatives are not very good at asking about the money upfront and this is where I think most people are making a massive mistake.

If you have a conversation with your client at the early stage when you're discussing the creative and you say:

“...look Bob and we're a small company we're not a bank, we promise we'll deliver you an amazing product and we'll do it on time and we'll do everything that you've asked for in your brief. Can we just ask one thing in return? would you make sure we get paid on time? The 50% up front and then we deliver the final video the remaining 50%. We don't to wait a week ten days two weeks because it really affects our cash flow. Is that cool? Is that an agreement we can come to upfront? “

And generally speaking, people will...

How to qualify a prospect up front before you start doing any work.

I was on a coaching call last week with one of my F8 Accelerator clients.

We were discussing the amount of time he was spending putting proposals together and then not always winning the jobs.

One of the things we discovered was that there just wasn't enough pre-qualification going on. If you don't pre-qualify a prospect upfront you are driving blind 

What is pre-qualification?

In its most basic form it's simply asking the client do they have a budget in mind?

In most cases, they won't tell you how much they've got.

But what you can say is look we're probably not going to be the cheapest quote you're gonna get. So what are you looking for you're looking for speed are you looking for quality or are you looking for the price because generally speaking, you can pick two of the three.

Now we tend to work at the higher end of the market think of us as more of your Mercedes-Benz than your Ford Falcon, so just let me...