Saving the pennies is something on every ones mind right now but even more so if you're a freelancer. I wanted to share some ideas to help us all make our money go a little further each month but would also love to here your tips too so remember to leave a comment!
1. Quit the gym! Summer is the perfect time to cancel your gym membership as you can make the most of the nice weather and start walking, running or cycling in the great outdoors. If it's the classes you love club together with some girl friends and buy some workout dvd's that you can all do together a couple of times a week. You'll get fit and have a laugh too! I love the Ministry of Sound workout series.
2. Sign up for as many pro discount schemes as you can. Click here to find out more.
3. Do your research so you can make educated decisions and get the most out of your budget when buying something new for your kit. Often impulse buys turn out to be a waste of money. Trawl makeup blogs, forums and sights like inmykit.com for recommendations.
4. Look out for discounts, multi-buys and budget disposable products and bulk buy. You can never have too many tissues, cotton pads, q-tips, wipes ect so stock up and save money in the long run if you come across a great offer.
5. Got something to celebrate? Lots of restaurants are offering great deals at the moment, particularly if you eat out mid week, so sign up to receive emails from your favourite restaurants and Google to see if there are any money off vouchers you can print off before you book a table for a special night out.
6. I recently discovered the designer outlet village, Bicester which is an hour away from me in Oxford. I now visit every few months to stock up on discounted products from Molton Brown, The White Company, The Cosmetics Store and Cath Kidston which I keep on hand for birthdays and any occasion that requires a gift. I rarely need to spend more than £10 on a gift (not that anyone would know) with a little though and some sensible shopping. Use Google to find your nearest designer outlet.
7. My latest money saving find has been Read It Swap It which you must sign up to if your are a book worm like me. The site puts you in touch with like minded people to swap your old books with and the best bit is all you pay is the postage. I just got The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee and only spent 90p at the post office!
8. I am a magazine junkie but have cut way back since discovering sites such as Design Scene, {a glamorous little side project}, deMode and Fashion-ation. I save images I want to keep for reference to my desktop and now I have a really great body of work to refer to when I need some inspiration.
9. Get yourself a Cafetiere, some really good coffee (no instant pls!), and some lovely big coffee cups and stop spending your hard earned cash in over priced coffee house chains. You can then have a gossip with your friends over coffee and a cake in the comfort of your own home.
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
The 3/50 Project
I have come across the 3/50 project on a few blogs recently and thought it was such a fab concept that I must spread the word and share it with my readers too.
Although the 3/50 project, which suggests you take $50 a month a spend it in three local, independent stores, is obviously geared towards helping businesses in America there is no reason why we cant all think a little more about where we spend our pennies and support independent retailers when we can. Read on to find out how the project works....
If any fellow bloggers would like to show their support for The 3/50 Project why not add their badge to your side bar? Click here to get your badge now.
Although the 3/50 project, which suggests you take $50 a month a spend it in three local, independent stores, is obviously geared towards helping businesses in America there is no reason why we cant all think a little more about where we spend our pennies and support independent retailers when we can. Read on to find out how the project works....
If any fellow bloggers would like to show their support for The 3/50 Project why not add their badge to your side bar? Click here to get your badge now.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
6 Things To Consider When Designing Your Business Cards
The main purpose of a business card is to communicate your contact details to someone in a clear, concise easy to read format.Your business cards are such an important tool as you never know when or where you are going to meet someone that might be interested in your services. If you getting chatting to someone at a party and they happen to be a photographer you will come across as professional if you can pull a nice card out your purse for them to keep rather than scrawling your email on a napkin.
Some people probably think it doesn’t really matter but when you work for yourself as a freelance artist you need to make every connection count and always want to leave people with the right impression that your organised, together and professional.
Here are a few things you should consider when designing your business cards.
What information should you have on your card?
This is probably obvious but make sure you include your name, job title, telephone no., email address and website. There's no need to list everything you do on your card, your job title is sufficient if your website lists your services. You don’t want someone to assume you don’t do something because its not on your card but neither do you want a list as long as your arm so keep it simple. If you don’t have a website, its not advisable to substitute a web address with a myspace profile or similar as it doesn’t come across as professional.
Images
Think carefully before adding an image to your business card. I personally think it makes more sense to keep it simple and leave pictures for comp cards but if you would like to add a sample of your work make sure it is a timeless image that you would still want someone to associate with you a year or more from now. Remember that people keep cards for a long time. Make sure that the image doesn’t interfere or detract from the text. A good place to put a picture is on the back of the card but be sure to use a landscape image if your card is printed in landscape. You probably need your card to be taken seriously and appeal to those in lots of different areas of your market, unless you want to carry around 10 different cards which is why I prefer not to use images. If you do want to create lots of different cards Moo.com could be a solution as they allow you to print several different pictures in each batch you order.
Size
It makes sense to use a standard card which is roughly 8.5cm x 5.5cm as this size, which is the size of a credit card, will fit nicely in a wallet, a business card file, Rolodex and in other words can be filed away and kept safe. I have been given cards that are too big for my business card file and they definitely go walk abouts when they cant be filed away properly.
Quality
Go for the best quality you can afford as a nice weigh stock with good clear printing will always make a better impression and appear more professional over a a blurred, flimsy, cheap card. There are lots of options, textures and finishes available when ordering your cards but don’t feel you have to go over board to impress. A nice thick white card stock will do just fine.
Fonts and colours.
The main objective is that your card is easy to read and pleasing to the eye so chose your colours and fonts with that in mind. This is also where your branding comes into play. It is a good idea to use the same text and colours as your website or comp cards so everything ties together and presents a professional front.
Free Templates
Most printers will offer a variety of free templates for you to add you contact details to but then you are in danger of having the same card as someone else in your market which is not a good thing. If you want to use a template chose a text based card with a plain background that you can customise the fonts and colours to create a card that is more unique to you.
Let me know if you have any tips of your own to add or a comment to make on business cards.
Related Posts
You can get 50% off your http://www.goodprint.com/ order when you enter MCH764 at the check out!
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Put your Goals, Dreams and Resolutions in Writing
2009 is just around the corner so what better time to start thinking about where you want your career to take you in the New Year. Taking the time to put some goals in writing can really give you direction and help keep you focused.
These questions should help get you started….
1. Where do you see your makeup career in the long-term?
2. What creative goals do you want to achieve over the next year?
3. What financial goals do you want to achieve over the next year? (Yearly/ Monthly/Weekly)
4. What will you experiment with in the coming year?
- What technical steps do you need to take in order to achieve your goals? This could be improving on or learning a new skill.
- What steps do you need to take on the creative front to achieve your goals?
- What changes do you need to make in your daily life (e.g. interaction with friends, family, p/t job) to make your career work?
- What marketing steps do you need to achieve your goals?
Set some time aside to regularly review your plan and check your progress.
Leave a comment and share a goal you set for 2009!
Read Devon Ellington's piece on Business Plans here which helped me put together the questions and points for this post…. http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/articles/business/writereality.htm
Further reading on writing informal business plans…
http://www.anti9to5guide.com/2007/01/08/happy-new-you-v20/
http://therenegadewriter.com/2006/11/26/business-plans-not-just-for-corporate-conglomerates-anymore/
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