Turning your Vision into Reality

I recently attended the last session of the inaugural West Island Leadership Development program, an initiative of the West Island Federation CJA that aims to foster future community leaders by training us about fundraising, entrepreneuring, and community activism. Guested by Dr. Ken Robertson, Director General of Champlain Regional College, the focus of the session concerned establishing a vision, and learning how to set goals, prioritize, and meet objectives.

I found this session particularly interesting because the issues covered not only applied to your career path (i.e. where do you see yourself in your job, or how do you envision your company's growth 5 years from now), but also to your everyday life.

There are 2 fundamental conclusions that Dr. Robertson conveyed, which I found particularly poignant:

1. Achieving future success is dependent on 2 things: the successful relationship building with others, such as your colleagues and friends; never forgetting to look back to see how you arrived to your current situation in the first place.
   
   Personally, I'm completely turned off by arrogance. I distate people who are so arrogant, they feel it necessary to belittle you in order to maintain their level of arrogance. This applies to people who do not feel it necessary to even speak to you if they feel you have nothing to contribute to their lives in any way. This also applied to people who have success dumped into their laps by either being born into a successful family, or marrying into one. People like that often develop a hoity-toity attitude which just completely sours my grapes. Thus, the true measure of success, in my opinion, is summarized by the first point.
   
2. The "finite" vs. the "infinite"
   
   Invariably, when trying to build yourself up, someone along the way will try to keep you down, either literally, or by verbal criticism. It's therefore important to never allow the finite to influence the possibilities of what you can do.
   
   For example, a violin has 4 strings and is 12" long. This is finite. However, for several hundreds of years, composers have been using the violin to create an infinite number of combinations of music, and are still doing so today.

Just think what you can do when your vision isn't hampered by the bounds of reality...

Being Unique as a Graphic Designer

I was recently asked the question about being a graphic designer, "Other than serving a niche market, how do you differentiate yourself from other designers or small design shops?"

Graphic design is a saturated field. But the bigger problem lies in getting recognized and hired in a flooded field of talent.

I find that graphic design is very much like acting -- you're only as good as your last performance. However, in addition to raw talent in what you do, what will set you apart from other designers is customer service.

Graphic design unfortunately suffers from a bit of a "bottom-feeder" syndrome in that everyone believes they can be a designer, but few actually can. With that said, the dollar figure attributed to graphic design tends to be quite low.

So to distinguish yourself from the pack, you must cater to your clients uniquely from the rest. Be good to your clients, treat them with the utmost respect, and they will respect you.

With respect comes repeat business.

Free Ways for Entrepreneurs to Network

In browsing through the internet today, I stumbled across a great resource for discovering groups of people with common interest who meet, yes, in the real world. While social networking is becoming more and more popular, meeting with someone face-to-face still ranks extremely high, if not appearing on the highest rung on the successful business ladder.

I've complied a short list of best resources for entrepreneurs to network (in no particular order):

1. MEETUP.COM: Meetup Groups meet face-to-face to pursue hobbies, network, get support, make friends, find playgroups or even change the world. What's interesting here is that while you can still meet and chat in a virtual world, the true power here lies with the ability to meet with the people you connect with in a real-world setting. So chances are while you've plugged your services online, you're way ahead of the game when meeting with potential clients at a later date. There's already that sense of familiarity... And yes, very often these group meetings are free.
   
2. LINKEDIN.COM: LinkedIn has been around for several years and has begun porting several features from the more common social community websites. The advantage of LinkedIn is that it's geared to drive more "professional" connections as opposed to social or friendship liaisons. LinkedIn also has a Q&A feature which lets you position yourself as an "expert" in your field depending on the number of questions you answer from the public and of course the quality of your answer. The trick is to always leave a link to your website as part of your signature. The disadvantage of LinkedIn is its lack of a portfolio feature, so if you're in a creative field, it difficult to directly expose your work.
   
3. FACEBOOK.COM: The most popular kid in school, Facebook provides a means of uploading and displaying our portfolio within a dedicated company group to which many of our contacts have willingly joined. As a result of our continued perserverance and belief in social marketing (and quite frankly, one of the best "free" forms of networking available to us), we've managed to connect with people that helped us secure projects with clients we would not have normally had the opportunity to work for -- case in point, SoftImage and Bell Canada.
   
4. BLOGGING: Red Dream Studios has a company blog, yes. It's used to expose what's going on at our company and showcase new designs as they are released, but to also educate about design and web practices, and how to use social media marketing to expose your company digitally throughout cyberspace. I think the real power of blogging isn't in the blog per se, but connecting it through various portals that index and scour blogs for relevant content such as Digg, Technorati, and StumbleUpon. By building communities who are "fans" of what you blog about, you inherently increase your relevance in the online world, and therefore that of your company's offerings.
   
5. BEHANCE.NET: Behance is portfolio/networking site for creatives. While there are others out there, this is one of the more ingenious ones. Not only can you expose your creative portfolio here, but it's also a warehouse of tips, tricks, links, and lets you collaborate on projects with other creative gurus around the world.
   
6. YOUR OWN WEBSITE: I hesitated about putting this one in because you typically have to pay a little for the server space to run a website, but it's of course a primary way to get your business known to the public. In short, if you're not on the web in this respect, there's very little hope that your business will succeed.
   
7. CLASSIFIED ADS: I find this a last resort to soliciting business because it's a little altruistic in my opinion. The most obvious choice here is to post a free ad on Craigslist in trying to promote your service offering even though it's a more ommon practice to ask for something on Craigslist.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it's a few good ones to get you started. If you have any success stories you'd like to share, please feel free to comment.

Visit my Meetup Profile here.
Visit my LinkedIn Profile here.
Visit my Facebook Group here.
Visit my Behance.net Profile here.

Marketing your Business on Zero Dollars per Day

This week, Red Dream Studios was in the fortunate position to be featured in 2 blogs talking about the benefits of using online social media networks to promote your company and its services. Because we spend little to no money on mainstream, traditional advertising programs, free services such as Facebook and LinkedIn have become popular means for us to promote ourselves.

The way in which we utilize these services were promoted and spoken about by Doug Williams, a Blogger, Business Consultant and President of the Web Marketing Company Doug Williams and Associates. Doug is also the author of Biz Blog Marketing, and is currently writing a follow up book in which Red Dream Studios will be featured as a case study of marketing on zero dollars.

Andrea J. Stenberg has over fifteen years of experience as a journalist and marketing professional and this week published a blog about how Baby Boomers use Facebook for marketing their small business. Although I'm in theory part of Generation X and not a Baby Boomer, Andrea wrote about how we have had success using Facebook to reach clients they wouldn’t have normally been successful at approaching using traditional means, such as SoftImage and Bell Canada.

We're very humbled by this recent attention but of course, we're always available to chat by the digital fireplace.

Virtual Networking, Working Virtually

Happy Easter, everyone. Since it's technically a holiday, we shouldn't be working, right? But that's the beauty of virtual networking. It works for you even when you're not.

Today I received an email from a potential client in New York who stumbled into an existing client, Christi Smith from PFF Entertainment, makers of the board games Pervartistry and Sexy Slang, at a networking function. This potential client mentioned to Christi that she was looking to produce a website and was soliciting referrals. Christi graciously recommended Red Dream Studios, afterwhich, the client emailed us for a quote immediately.

I find this fascinating:

• Most small companies would not be in a position to take a day trip across the contient just to meet with a potential client who has a modest budget to dedicate to their website.


• Most small companies would not be in a position to attend a well-todo networking function unless they were directly invited, particularly if their industry of work is already represented within the networking group.


• Because of our previous relationship, and ultimately, Christi's customer satisfaction, she acted as a virtual salesperson (or champion) on the behalf of Red Dream Studios.


• Christi "sold" our services at absolutely no cost to Red Dream Studios.


• Christi was able to meet dozens of people, and in an unsolicited manner, act as spokesperson for Red Dream Studios, in a situation where we would never have been able to directly interact with all these potential clients.

So all this to say is that virtual networking works for you virtually all the time, when you least expect it to do so. And this proves that customer satisfaction is among the highest priorities in the entrepreneurial handbook.

Gabbing 'bout Social Media Marketing

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ernesta Rossi, partner with Advantis Communications Inc., a marketing and PR company based in Markham, Ontario. We connected because I had answered a question of hers on the social networking site, LinkedIn, of which I've been a member for several years now -- and have only recently discovered a hidden networking power behind it, the Answers feature.

LinkedIn has typically been a resource for executives and business people to connect and network. For example, I recently have been connecting to former colleagues in order to keep them updated on my goings-on, particularly the fact that I'm now running my company, Red Dream Studios as a full-time venture.

Ernesta, and her company, are conducting a presentation this week on whether or not companies were using social media marketing tools to advance their businesses. She spotted the answer to a question that was posed to over 1 million LinkedIn professionals, to which I answered the following:

"As a small company, with a limited/non-existant budget for traditional, mainstream advertising, my company, Red Dream Studios, is using social media marketing as one of its primary ways of presenting its services, portfolio, messaging, and securing new clients. We've been relying principaly on LinkedIn and Facebook (and of course our own blog).

While LinkedIn provides us with exposure to the executives, Facebook provides a means of uploading and displaying our portfolio within a dedicated company group to which many of our contacts have willingly joined. As a result of our continued perserverance and belief in social marketing (and quite frankly, one of the best "free" forms of networking available to us), we've managed to connect with people that helped us secure projects with clients we would not have normally had the opportunity to work for -- case in point, SoftImage and Bell Canada.

Moreover, we've encouraged many of our clients (who are they themselves entrepreneurs) to use social marketing for their businesses. Since many of the media they expose on these sites has been created by us, we've been able to begin a sort of viral networking, exposing our works to way beyond traffic that visits our portfolio website, or to our clients directly. So in effect, our clients become virtual sales champions for our company and has resulted in propogated business."

Ernesta decided to contact me directly and we had a wonderful chat. During her presentation, she will be repeating much of what I've told her and will of course be referencing Red Dream Studios by name (another example of virtual networking). And what's even more exciting is that while we were talking, she happened to be perusing the Red Dream Studios website and noticed that I offer audio production and voiceover services. She then proceeded to tell me that her company is going to be offering some podcasting services and would need both audio production and voiceover services.

A very odd coincidence, but once again, a prime example of how social media marketing can result in connections with new clients and projects without direct solicitation or mainstream advertising.

Promoting your Business with Google Maps

Google has a great (free!) feature that I just recently learned about and have exploited to gain rank within Google searching. Within the Google Local Business Center, you can enter the name, coordinates, hours of operation, and other interesting tidbits about your business to help customers find you on Google Maps.

Here's how it works:



Use the Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they'll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even coupons to print out and bring to your shop.

When all the information is filled out, you will get a confirmation postcard from Google in the mail (how cool is that?!?) with a PIN number to confirm that you are who you say you are. Finally, searching for your company on Google Maps will present a wonderful listing about you and your company. There's an an option to post reviews of your work, which will hopefully help to solicity even more clients to your door.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

The Power of Social Networking (Part 2)

Another fantastic example of the power of social networking came yesterday when a former colleague of mine from at Matrox Graphics Inc. requested that he and I be LinkedIn. I've been using LinkedIn for many years now and am approaching 200 business contacts, most of whom are clients, or those who represent potential clients.

After seeing his list of connections, I noticed another former colleague from Matrox that I wasn't yet connected to and decided to link with her. When she was working at Matrox, she was the one of the heads of the Marketing department, and sure enough, she was still in a pretty prestigious position at a different company.

She accepted my LinkedIn request pretty quickly, but the amazing thing was that she sent me a message asking me whether or not Red Dream Studios could fulfill a bunch of graphic design requests... Her company was looking to outsource to a new company. Could the timing have been any more right?

So I was once again blown away by the power of social networking and its ability to connect to new business opportunities. It's no wonder why convential advertisers are scrambling... At least in my company's case, I haven't been resorting to it (yet...).

View my profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nealcaminsky

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

The Power of Social Networking (Part 1)

Today was a remarkable day for Red Dream Studios. Our company doesn't advertise in the conventional sense, at least, we spend no money to do so. Instead, we rely on networking, sales champions (word-of-mouth), and more recently, social networking to get our message across.

Face-to-face networking is paramount for the success of any company. Nothing is more powerful than a handshake.

However, when this is not possible, such as when catering to a potential client hundreds of miles away, you typically need to rely on a referral. Such was the case with the company, Balance Integration. Through a word-of-mouth referral by an extended family member, Tali Gillette (who's husband is a client), Balance Integration, a New York-based company dedicated to improving the company-employee relationship, chose Red Dream Studios to provide an overhaul to its corporate website. Coming to it in a semi-state of flux, we worked with existing content and design, added some of our own touches, programming, and Flash content to bring the site to its final, launchable state. Succeeding and a relatively short period of time, the Founder of Balance Integration, Tevis Gale (Trower), had this to say about us:

"It's always a relief when you find someone who seems to GET a project without ever having met or spent time with you. Neal really GOT our project from the very start - even though we brought him in after several headaches/turned nightmares with other providers. He and his team delivered on time, within budget, and with no static in the tweaking of our site to perfection. Having never even spoken to him on the telephone, I have to say that they have mastered understanding product specs and communicating clearly pixel to pixel. We love our new site!"

Wow... What a compliment. This is truly a fantastic testimonial to our efforts, and once again why client relations is key to a successful partnership. We'd like to think that from this moment on, Balance Integration will be one of our newest sales champions...

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.