Any help on promoting a small business venture?

[Jariel]

Hey guys, it's been a long long time since I last checked in with this forum, but things are going great. I had a great time learning the art of seduction and self improvement from this forum and I can honestly say I achieved all of the goals I set for myself.

And now I have set myself a new target, to become successful in business. Unfortunately, I've never shown an interest in finances or business before and have missed out on a lot of fundamentals. I've been doing a lot of studying lately, followed a lot of great motivational programs and learned a lot of helpful information and I'm slowly starting to make things work. But really, what I need is somebody with experience in business who I can learn from.

Basically, I am a digital artist and designer. I've made quite a name for myself over the years, but have never really applied my skills to making money. I'm now turning my hand to commission work, painting custom portraits, retouching photos, makeovers, flyers, cd covers and general design work.

I see a lot of less experienced artists/designers making a good living from this and even going on to hire staff and set up companies. This tells me there is demand for what I'm doing. I'm also getting clients and they're all very satisfied with the work I do for them.

My main obstacle is promotion. I don't have an advertising budget and what advertising I've tried (google ads, Facebook ads and similar online campaigns) have failed.

I've got a website that draws in traffic (www.devotion-graphics.com) but it is currently designed around tutorials and does not target the type of people who are going to pay me for commissions. I'm in the process of revising my site so that it primarily focuses on the commission services. I'm hoping this will bring more custom my way.

But any help or general business advice would be very much appreciated! Alternatively, if you could direct me to a decent business related forum, that would be great.

Thanks for reading.

 

[SamTheHobit]

Cool website. Just too many sliders on the front page.

 

[Jariel]

Thanks mate. I agree on the sliders. I'm going to be ditching all of those in the new site and trying to simplify it a bit.

 

[backbreaker]

i admit i clicked on the link and expected some BS but i was blown away you have real talent.

i will keep you in mind here in the near future for design paces i have coming up. pm me for my personal email address

 

[Warrior74]

Who is paying you now? Do you know who they really are?

What's their income level, education level, where do they live? Market to their peers. Ask your current clients for referrals after they get through gushing over how much they love your work. Ask if it's okay to use their name so you can call up prospects and name drop. Get really social online with your current clients so people in their network can see you. Leave out your religious and political beliefs when online.

If you know who your ideal client is and everything about them, then you know where to concentrate your marketing efforts. An advertising budget is only for when your losing money. It means you don't know who you are marketing to and you need to figure that out. Because if you were making $20 per ever ad dollar spent, you'd spend a fvck ton of money to get more, there would be no such word asad budget. That's for people who aren't winning.

Good luck.

 

[Aristippus]

This is general information. I know nothing about the hows of marketing but I do know this. Marketing can make or break a business. In most cases marketing is what will determine whether you make a lot of money or not. You already have the talent (I'm taking your word for it.). If your business success were based solely on talent, you'd be making more money than the people less talented than you.

Do whatever you can to get the marketing aspect handled. It might mean hiring someone if you don't know what to do. Or taking the painful trial and error approach. I wish I could tell you more but unfortunately marketing isn't my specialty.