email answered on “The Bob Pritchard Radio Show”
Our second email is from Alison Toomey who has a graphics studio near Chicago.
Alison writes… Thanks for your show, it is a great help to small businesses like me who can’t afford to hire the expertise you provide. I also bought your book, and I’m loving it.
Your interview with Rick, the graphic artist last week was terrific. We are often forgotten, or at least, seldom acknowledged part of the advertising industry, yet I believe we are very important. Rick is very well established with global clients but for someone small like I am, how do I get my name out there to get work. Thanks for your help Bob.
Alison, that is a very common question. The first thing to do is to make sure that all the businesses in your area, particularly the advertising agencies and PR companies have your portfolio. Then…… I would phone them all and speak personally to the most appropriate person. Because businesses are now becoming global you should not confine your canvassing to just your immediate area. For example, Rick the Graphic Artist I am using for one of my UK clients is from Chicago and I tracked him down in New Zealand and I am in Los Angeles. How global is that?
Another avenue you should consider is elance. For those of you who do not know elance, it is a site where people go to find people to get work done. For example, if you want to write a book about elephants, you list it on elance and you will get 50 people who will write the book on elephants for you….. and it is remarkably inexpensive.
I have frequently used elance to find a number of services such as graphic artists, and I detail what I require and I usually got 30-50 submissions from people worldwide who also send me their portfolios.
You should certainly list yourself on elance, you could get a lot of work from it.