Business operations: Creating the Work & Getting the Gigs

[tommylogic]

its just "Fine tuning" its a method.. there's whole science. Like saying I wish I could make souflee.. and you jsut whip 3 eggs and fry it.. not the same thing at all. Just use your creative instict and take chancces

[strev]

Well.... I am getting into my CS3 programs (Dreamweaver & Flash) now as well as Quark interactive designer so I will be sending out emails with movement soon to see how thay compare to my current text only. But some clients like receiving a printed brochure, holding it and if they like it they may even pin it to their wall.

[Cwilk]

I know our company is very good (not the best) but reliable and good. So we've never had to advertise or make brochures to represent ourselves.

I'm not sure how we have gotten away with word-of-mouth advertising for our company all these years, but that's how we get clients.

What Strev mentioned earlier, Chambers and such do work. It's definitely not free (time is time), but your free time may pay off in the long run. We work with many nonprofits as well as Chambers and Visitor's Bureaus. People who are members of these type of groups will seek you out next time they need something done because they will already know you from a group you are common with. It's a comfort level.

Make your goal to not have to advertise yourself by paying money. I'm not saying that you shouldn't make brochures and postcards promoting yourself. But if you think about it, your business card goes a long way and you should always give them out like candy. Your business card (and you personally) are a clients first impression. Make your cards your promotional item.

[Cwilk]

Business Tip of the Day:

And yes Toon....I know I should be working. : )

Well, we just bought a house. We owned our house in Henderson, NV, so when we sold it and moved back to Cali, we knew that we would have to get our finances in order so we can buy a house again. It's been just about 2.5 years since we've owned.

When you're self-employed/own your own business, like my DH and I do, it might not be that easy to buy a house (especially with all the foreclosures happening because of greedy mortgage companies).

So here are some tips we have (and these may not pertain to the UK folks or others outside of the US).

1. Pay your taxes! This is the most important thing. Of course you want to pay as little as possible in taxes so your income also has to be as little as possible. I won't tell you how to do this...it's pretty much up to you. Being self-employed, you may need to prove that you pay taxes and doing a stated income or no doc loan keeps you from showing your taxes since you probably don't take a salary so Schedule C is important here. Your mortgage company may check with the goverment to see that you file a Schedule C.

2. Business License: Get one of these. You'll be asked to prove you're in business somehow. You won't be able to get one the day before you buy a house either. It just doesn't work that way.

3. Pay Your Bills on Time: Because if you don't, your credit score will reflect that you don't. And with a stated income/no doc loan, your interest rates are much higher if your FICO is less than 699.

4. Have a nice chunk of money for your down payment: Preferably 20% down so that you don't have to pay mortgage insurance. Mortgage insurance is a huge chunk of your house payment, so better to not have to pay it. Anything less than 20% down doesn't help you. If you have more than 10% to put down, check into an 80/10/10 loan. You may still be able to get rid of the mortgage insurance depending on the cost of your house.

5. Closing Costs: Don't forget to have this money in addition to your down payment. Sometimes people tend to forget about it and all of a sudden they'll need thousands of dollars to close escrow.

That pretty much sums everything up for a self-employed person to buy a house.

Hope this helps.