Comparison is the thief of joy

As designers it can easily become an unhealthy obsession to know what other designers are doing and how they’re doing it. Sourcing any and all details about other designers to compare yourself to them. It’s natural to feel the need to compare yourself to someone else (to a point) and as designers it almost feels necessary to. But here’s what I’ve learned since then, you don’t know that person’s circumstance.

You don’t know their time commitment.

Maybe they are working part time and can only take on 3 projects a year. Maybe they are also tasked with doing home learning and have to split their time between work and home life. Maybe they’re battling with mental health and need more space in their calendar and are cutting back on taking client projects.

You don’t know if they’re profitable

Sure, I could charge $200 for a website and I bet I could fill a calendar up pretty freaking quickly. But then I’d be burnt out and broke. In the early days of Quill & Co when my prices where much lower I had a really high conversion rate from sales call to booking and I booked my calendar out much faster. Once I started to raise my prices, my booking rate slowed down drastically. It seemed like no one was booking me and this sent my ego spiraling. I saw everyone else around me working on so many different projects and showcasing dozens of projects in their end of year recap. I thought I was failing but when I really looked at my numbers I was making a lot more money than I had before by taking on a lot less clients.

Which brings me to my point of:

Why I don’t want to be “booked out”

No room for growth

If you’re booked out it means you’re at capacity. Which means there is no more room for growth and scaling – you’ve already hit your max. And while you absolutely don’t always need to be growing or scaling your business if you’re starting to notice that you’re getting “booked out” it might be time to reevaluate your business model. If you’re “booked out” you’re leaving money on the table and it’s time to think about building a team.

No room for surprise dream projects

These could be dream projects that you want to work on in your own business or it could be dream clients that pop-up. If your books are full and a dream client comes along, you don’t want to tell them that they’re going to have to wait months to work with you. As well as if an opportunity presents its self, or you want to implement new things that would help your business, you’re going to need room on your calendar to make these things happen.

No space on your calendar

I’m a big planner and often complain to Danny (my fiance) that I’m always living three months ahead of where we currently are living in time. I love to know what I’m currently working towards which means I have things plotted on my calendar. When you’re booked out months and months in advance though it makes it much harder to take a spur of the moment vacation or for unplanned things to come up (life happens). While I love to plan, I get stressed out when my calendar is filling up months out in advance because it takes away room for spontaneity.

If you’re feeling shackled to your calendar or like you can’t take time off from your business without losing income it’s probably time to reevaluate.

Wrapping up:

It’s important to keep in mind that this system and thought process is what I have found to work best for me. You may find that having your books full makes you feel secure for the next year or so and find my points to be irrelevant to you and your business. That’s perfectly fine! Make your calendar fit your needs, take what may apply to you and leave the rest.

If you’d like to learn more about how I plan my year to make space to work with my dream clients check out this blog post. Or if your calendar is looking a little too sparse at the moment check out this blog post on how to find clients.

The post Why I Never Want to be “Booked Out” appeared first on quillandco.design.

This process of figuring out what you want your business to look like doesn’t happen over night. You may have started your business with an idea of what you want to do, but as you start working with different types of people, on different types of projects, you will find these preferences.

I personally started Quill and Co. after taking on a project for a friend. So when I first started I took whatever projects I could get, not really sure what I wanted to focus on, or even realizing that I had the option to only take on projects that interested me. But that all changed when I started researching and understanding brand strategy. My ah-ha moment of THIS is what I want to do, what I am good at, and what excites me. After working with many different types of people, industries, and styles, I also came to find my target audience.

Once you figure out what it is you want to do and who you want to work with is when you can start to attract clients, but man does that take a long time to achieve.

Don’t become discouraged when people don’t come knocking on your door immediately, it takes time for you to make a name for yourself in order for clients to find you. So how do you go about getting the attention of this target audience that you know you want to work with when you haven’t exactly been targeting them yet?

Danial Mall has an amazing analogy that has forever changed how I see the search for clients as we strive to become that ‘go to’ person within your niche. This analogy is, as I refer to it: ‘magnets vs. archaeologist’ and can be found detailed in this article.

According to Daniel’s analogy:

There are two types of ways to search for clients, there are magnets and there are archaeologists. What does this mean?

How to become an archaeologist:

As I was mentioning, when just starting out clients don’t often just show up on your door step. You’ve got to go digging to find the people that you want to work with.

Here’s some ways to get started :

• What kind of people do you want to work with? Make a list of 20 people. Reach out to them.
• Ask your past clients if they know anyone that would be a good fit for your services?
• Dig around in Facebook groups that your ideal client would hang out in

How to become a magnet:

Once you’ve put in the effort to position yourself as an expert, people will start to recognize you, refer you, and respect you.

Here’s some ways to make that happen :

• Specialize and become known for something. This could be for working in a specific style, only working with a specific industry or type of client, specializing in a platform or software like Showit or Shopify.
• Practice your craft and be really good at what you do. It’s not as sexy as marketing, but practicing design and honing your craft is how you become known for your style and what you do
• Put yourself out there and actually be yourself. Your personality is what makes you magnetic and sets you apart from others!
• Give your clients an amazing experience so they refer people back to you. Hate focusing on marketing? Getting referrals from past clients is kind of like having the do your marketing for you!

Wrapping up

Obviously, to become the best in the world takes a lot of time…probably a lifetime.

So if you are short on time, or just starting out, become an archaeologist.

“For those of us who are still on our way to becoming magnets, we must dig to find good clients. Archaeologists survey for years to find the right digging sites, then spend more years carefully excavating.” – Daniel Mall

Your hard work of digging and testing the soil in multiple areas will pay off, so continue finding new sites as you search for your gold mine.

If you are ready to start planning to work with your dream clients check out this blog post. Ensure that you nail all your sales calls by checking out this blog post.

The post How to Find Clients appeared first on quillandco.design.

Sales calls go both ways. Not only are you pitching to work with the client but the client is also pitching to have you as their designer. They are just as lucky to work with you as you are to work with them. It’s important to keep this in mind when going into calls because when someone says no to working together on a project it’s not a rejection of you or your worth, it simply may not be the right fit for this particular project.

Which brings me to the key to nailing a sales call.

The number one key to sales: Confidence!!

Ooof, have I had some cringe-worthy sales call experiences.

When I first started Quill & Co. I had no idea how to run a sales call, a long with a lot of other different parts of the business. Over the years I’ve made a lot of mistakes, gotten in a lot of practice, and I am always still learning from each sales call that I do.

I remember one sales call in particular. It was one of my first ones. I got on a call with someone that needed branded social media templates. In those early days I would get on a sales call with anyone. It didn’t matter the size of the project or if they were a great fit. I was willing to take on any project.

She immediately took hold of the call, telling me exactly what she was looking for and then bluntly asked me “how much will that cost?”

I was put off guard, we hadn’t had a chance to talk about WHY she wanted these templates and what wasn’t working for her currently. But I didn’t push back or ask any additional questions. Instead a stuttered and sheepishly answered “I think I could do 15 editable templates for $150”

She immediately looked surprised, almost offended. And answered “Well I can get them a lot cheaper off of Canva”. I remember feeling really embarrassed and not sure how to answer back. I stammered something along the lines of “well…well… I can see what I can do”. I know I certainly didn’t address any objections or tell her next steps.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t my only sales call that went like that. And after many failed calls and hearing lots of “no’s” I started to realize a trend: my lack of confidence.

I wasn’t confident in taking charge of the call – I wouldn’t set an agenda and defer everything to the potential client.

I wasn’t comfortable addressing any of their objections if they came up. I would be passive and say “okay..I understand..”

And when it came time to talk actual numbers I would clam up. I would get sweaty or talk really fast just hoping that the call would be over soon.

Now that I’ve shared how I learned the hard way, allow me to give you some tips on how to be more confident in your sales calls so that you don’t have to learn the hard way like me…

How to get more confident on a sales call:

1. Practice with your partner, friend, roommate, who ever

The more you practice the better you will get. When I was first starting I would have my fiancé do practice sales calls with me. It can feel silly but it’s so worth it to go through all of the awkward, odd, or uncomfortable questions that could come up. Practice how you’ll address potential client’s objections or other sticky situations. Practice saying big numbers out loud. The more comfortable and normal if feels to say them the more confident they will come off during the call.

2. Do your research before hand

Make sure you go into the call prepared and ready. I am a trusty user of a sales script to reference before and during the call. Have a good idea what this script looks like so you can jump into the call to take control, allow the conversation to flow and feel natural but stay on course and make sure you discuss everything. It’s important to get to know things about the client, hop onto their socials, see if they post a lot about themselves or if they prefer to stay in the background, get to know their personality. Take a look at what design materials they’re currently working with, what their website looks like/if they have one, get to know their brand. Create a plan for what you’ll pitch to them and how best to go about it.

3. Step into higher you

Connect with yourself. Put together a list of affirmations that you need to hear and repeat them over and over again until you start to believe them, then don’t stop, keep giving yourself the assurance that you need. Visualize what you want the out come to be, picture yourself in the call with it going exactly how you hope it will. Meditate, give yourself time to breath and to connect with your inner-self. Don’t rush, slow down. And pamper yourself! Draw yourself a bath, paint your nails, do your make up, style your hair, put on an outfit that makes you feel like yourself, listen to your favorite song and dance around, do whatever it is that you need to feel ready.

Wrapping up

Confidence is something that takes time to build up in yourself, and it will fluctuate from time to time, it does for everyone. The important thing is learning to fake it in times when you don’t feel confident and building yourself back up.

I’ll let you in on the best kept secret of all time… no body knows what the hell they’re doing most of the time. That’s right, NO BODY. Including: Celebrities, fellow designers, the president, even your mom. I know shocker! They fooled you for all these years and you never suspected a thing.

Now it’s your turn! Lift you head up, be certain in your words and decisions, take hold of the situation, get to know your audience, and fool them all.

I’m all about sharing what I’ve learned over the years to help others so if you’re looking for more insight check out, this blog post: about planning to work with your dream clients, this blog post: on weather your website is actually working for you, and this blog post: as to why I stopped sending a branding questionnaire.

The post The Number One Thing to Nailing a Sales Call appeared first on quillandco.design.

Reflecting on the last year

In order to make the best decisions for the future it’s best to reflect on the past. Here’s a few questions I ask myself for reflecting.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. What’s the most important lesson I learned last year?
2. What went really well last year?
3. What did I enjoy the most? What do I want to call in more of?
4. What could I release from last year?

After you’ve taken account of what you want to release and what you want to keep, now you can start to plan to make sure everything is within alignment.

Setting intentions for the next year

As far as setting intentions goes, it’s important to determine what your wants/goals are and focus on them in a positive way. When you focus on a particular thing or person, you create a vibrational pull that attracts it or them toward you. I know it may sound a little woo-woo, and whether you believe in manifesting or the law of attraction, it never hurts to think positively and set goals. Think of it as a New Year’s resolution of sorts.

Big Picture Goals

For me, setting goals for a new year can feel really overwhelming. So first I like to think really big picture when setting goals and intentions for the future.

When I start planning, I like to think about big picture things, like how I want to feel in a new year or I like to pick an over-arching theme for the year (kind of like picking a word of the year).

For example, last year I wanted to end the year feeling more peaceful, relaxed, and I just wanted life to feel easier in general. And for me, that sounded like such a luxury! So my general theme for the year was “luxury” – and not in a way where it was an excuse to buy expensive things. So for the year, I would ask myself when making decisions “does this make my life feel more luxurious.”

Quarterly and Monthly Goals

This is usually when I start planning out my financial goals. I like to set a good, better, and best goal for my revenue for the year. These numbers can and SHOULD feel reallly freaking scary. But I truly believe that in order to reach your goals you first have to be 100% sure that it’s possible to actually reach them. If you have a shred of doubt that it won’t happen, you may end up self sabotaging.

So to make sure that I believe that these numbers are even possible, I divide my “best” goal by 4. This gives me the number that I general need to strive for each quarter. And from there I break it into monthly goals to make it even more attainable. From there I can plan out my marketing events, launches, or what I need to book that month in order to reach that goal.

Daily Goals

Now that you know what you need to be working towards each month, you can plan for what kind of actions you need to take each day.

Let’s say your goal is to hit a million dollars in revenue this year. You may be asking yourself, what kind of actions would “millionaire me” take each day? How would she show up? What kind of routines and behaviors would she have? Stepping into and “being” the person who has/does/achieves what you are hoping to do actively helps you become that person and make aligned decisions.

So if you were already hitting your goals, what would you be doing?

Getting clear on your goals in order to achieve them

Once you are crystal clear on the goals that you want to achieve the universe just seems to have a way of presenting them to you. It may sounds super woo-woo but I promise you- you just need to know exactly what you want, and ask for it. This can look like journaling, visualizing, or creating a vision board.

For me, personally, I do a lot of visualizing and writing down my goals. For example, I have a spreadsheet that I use to track all incoming revenue. On that spreadsheet I keep track of what is already accounted for and coming in, but I also mark down in that spreadsheet spaces for dream clients and the exact amount I want to book them for. Getting super clear on this helps me create the space and intentions for them to find me. It always help you narrow in on your marketing to attract those right fit clients as well as being more empowered to saying no to wrong-fit clients.

Practicing gratitude

The way to bring in more of what you want in your life is by practicing gratitude for what you already have. For me, manifesting or reaching your goals, isn’t just about getting MORE, it’s also about allowing yourself to experience joy for your current situation too. For me, being thankful for my past and current self for bringing me to who my future self will be is a BIG part of it.

Practicing gratitude for what you have right now can look like:

• Keeping a gratitude journal where you keep track of all of the things that you are grateful for
• Saying “thank you” to the universe for every thing that you receive whether its big or small
• Showing generosity to others. Letting the universe know that you have plenty to give opens you up to receiving more

Wrapping up

Overall being in a position of knowing what you want and working towards making those things happen and reserving space to welcome in those big dreams will always set you up for success. It will take time, patience, and a lot of work so don’t get frustrated when things take time. Focus on staying positive and practicing gratitude for everything that you have in your life currently and before you know it you’ll be hitting your milestones.

To find out more about milestone I was able to hit using this method check out our Year in Review: 2021.

The post How to Plan Your Year to Work with Dream Clients appeared first on quillandco.design.

I want you to know that it’s okay if you’re still catching your breath from these last couple of years. It’s been a rocking ride, for some more than others. So celebrate the moments of accomplishment twice as hard as a normal year.. because this was not a normal year.

Through it all, 2021 turned out to be a big year for us here at Quill & Co. I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Quill & Co Milestones

Brand Clarity Academy Revamp

Brand Clarity Academy has grown so much this year. We decided to revamp the course in July and launched again in August. After having the course for a year and hearing your feedback we made some adjustments. I never planned to create a course, but man I’m so glad that I did!

Seeing how this course has helped so many people across the world in just this one year has been surreal.

All of the countries from people that joined BCA this year:

Our Proudest Moments:

Launched a new website

Last year I was working on new branding for Quill & Co and early this year I launched the new website. It’s crazy looking back at the old website! I’m a strong believer that a designer needs to have strong branding for their self in order to offer design services for other brands. Just look at the comparison of the two websites, while I was so proud of my first website, this new site is so much more refined and professional.

Launched The Edit

The Edit is our bi-weekly newsletter to keep you up to date on all things Quill & Co plus a few fun extra elements (Such as a fun drink recipe and two things that I am currently loving.)

Hired First & Second Full Time Employees

As an awkward introvert that likes to hide behind her computer screen and design pretty things, bringing on full time support to Quill & Co is probably what pushed me the most outside of my comfort zone this year.

In April hired on our Design and Marketing Assistant : Rachel.

In October hired on our Operations Assistant : Alivia

And holy crap, I’m so glad I did! Both have been such an amazing addition and I’m so happy to have them supporting Quill & Co.

Launched Brand Magic Mentorship

In June, I launched a 1:1 mentorship for other designers. I had so much fun supporting other designers in a more intimate and hands-on way. I loved our bi-weekly calls and it was such a joy to review their work and really get in the trenches of their business with them. I’m hoping in 2022 I’ll be able to expand Brand Magic Mentorship.

Started to plan for something big we’re kicking off in Jan 2022

I have been wanting to host something big for awhile now, and now that I have a team to assist with that… early next year we have something big coming that you are not going to want to miss. Just know for now that it includes some of my favorite designers.

Set a goal to launch a new website template each month

With having a team now we are able to put out more content, so we set a big goal of launching a website template every month! So far we have kept that goal with the launch of Jolie & Jasper, Brick & Batten, and Sage & Spritz. We have more coming and can’t wait to see how people choose to use them!

You Understood The Assignment:

We are so proud of the website templates we have put out… but what makes us the most proud is seeing what you create with them!

We wanted to highlight a few of the recent websites created from our website templates in 2021:

Highlighted: OHN Design Studio | France and Jane | Dacre Co | Peacock & Dahlia | Wing Woman

The Content You Engaged with the most

Pinterest:

Instagram:

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