I understand the concern of a company not wanting to pay out large amounts of cash up front, wait no I don’t, and here is why. When I start a project with someone think of that first payment as a retainer, deposit, or good faith to get you started. If you are working for a company and are not on their pay roll this is your salary. It is my salary and how I pay my bills.

Payments

There are a few ways I normally offer to do payment plans.

• 50% up front and once it’s half way done another 25% and then the final 25% before the project is handed over to the client with a signed contract saying they approve the site and no more changes are needed.
• Monthly payments (good luck with this one unless you set their credit card up on auto payment)
• Weekly payments (again, good luck)
• Payments in fourths (25% up front and then another twenty-five percent once you’ve reached certain milestones)
• Hourly rate which is paid out weekly, monthly and often with a retainer
• Monthly retainer (I prefer this one, with an up front advance like a lease on my time.)
• Cash – BAD IDEA. Can’t track it, prove it was sent, prove it wasn’t sent, and leaves no paper trail (no pun intended).

Payment Options

• Check – If you can ever get them to send it to you this is a nice option, if it doesn’t bounce because you don’t have to pay fees to cash it (well except your business banking fees).
• Paypal - Convenient for receiving money online. You are initially capped at taking out $500/month unless you prove who you are. Receiving auto payments from this service is expensive. If you are sending goods, make sure your descriptions are thorough or else your buyer can claim it was grossly mis-represented and Paypal will always side with the buyer on this one. Contracts are there to save your ass, so don’t half-ass them.
• Google Checkout - Very similar to Paypal, and occasionally slightly cheaper on how much their rape your paychecks. Both programs take somewhere in the 2-4% range from whatever money you receive.
• Money Order or Wire Transfer – I refuse to get paid via this way. It’s all around inconvenient for both parties in my opinion.
• Various online checkout services that let you receive auto payments, credit cards, e-checks, and debit cards are convenient but expensive if you don’t make over $4000 gross each month. The setup fee averages about $90 with an average monthly fee between $40-$130 and sometimes they also do per-transaction fees or percentage of money received.

Considerations

• Late Fees - some states restrict how much you can bill an individual, so make sure their company is legitimately registered with an EIN number from the state.
• Small Claims Court – If you’re client refuses to pay you, this is a last line of defense for getting that money they owe you. Make sure you have a contract, any emails affirming they owe you and the project, and warning letters. You may want a lawyer if the bills exceed $5000. Remember if you are suing a business and not a person, the business can claim bankruptcy without hurting that person’s credit, so try not to get to the point where they owe you crazy amounts of cash.
• Creditors - They will want a percentage of whatever money they recover, which you should just accept if you can’t get the money yourself. Some money is better than no money right? They may also want an upfront or retainer fee.
• Copyright & Intellectual Property - Who owns the right to the work you’ve done pre-payment and when the work is finished? This includes brainstorming and training (you may want to say so in your contract). So if they don’t pay you, they have no right to use that information or hire another company to take the ideas or work you’ve done for them and give it to someone else.
• Money Lost – This is important to put into contracts with contractors and clients. Basically if you want paid for money you could have made but didn’t because of all the time you had to waste hunting them down for payment, or time you spent working with them and then they play the hide and seek game add in fees, court costs, lawyer fees, and any other fees you would want them to pay for negligence. In the case of contractors, what if they dilly dally, are inefficient, constantly give you poor-quality work, or do something in a meeting that is so embarrassing you lose a client? That information can also go into contracts.
• NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) – What can you talk about or not talk about when a project is finished, when you can talk about it, how that information can be used in future projects, and whether or not you are allowed to outsource work to other contractors or companies.

Thoughts? Recommendations? We live, we learn, and share that information to help others avoid the same mistakes and snake bites. My biggest snake bite is the client who let’s me finish their work then goes MIA on paying me.

My Goals and where I see myself

I’ve been evaluating my life goals and have decided I’d like to go back to working for the right company. I would like to stay in either technology or aviation. My primary goals include public speaking, helping a company grow, expanding my own skills, traveling A LOT and finishing my pilots license. The ideal job would place me in the heart of the social media world, managing talented individuals, blogging a lot (preferably with an editor to review all my poor grammar and spelling) and traveling to represent a company.

Click here to download my resume as a .page

Click here to download my resume as a .PDF

Where I’d like to end up, and doing what..

I’d be interested in leveraging my skills as community manager, doing strategy, project management or anything related to the aviation industry. The ideal company is fun, upbeat, fast paced, and still growing. I’m thinking a company that resembles the atmosphere of Google, Zappos, Amazon, Rackspace, Groupon, Sears, Boeing, Cessna, Emery Riddle,  OshKosh (the EAA AirVenture Convention – not the toddler clothing), Rolls Royce (they do make the Gulf Stream), or a cool new start-up would be ideal. I love Minneapolis & would be open to staying here or moving to the following places: Seattle, Silicon Valley, Texas, England, or Francisco, CA. For the right company I can be talked into just about anywhere.

My Experience

I have experience in project management, coordination, new business, etiquette, aviation technology, web design, marketing, search engine optimization, & social media. You can view videos of me teaching tutorials on all of those things at AgencyCouture.com/videos.

View my complete resume on LinkedIn.

Desarae Veit’s Bio

Desarae Veit is a consultant and speaker. Her company Agency Couture, LLC. helps businesses and social causes raise their visibility and generate leads through smarter marketing, branding, web design and social media. In addition, Desarae provides online etiquette training, keynote presentations and workshops to business owners, job seekers and ladder climbers on the process of leveraging personal branding online and offline.

Desarae is the co-founder of Sniki.org, a social media wiki that was commissioned by the United States Department of Defense, National Defense Academy. She is also the president of Agency Couture, a virtual interactive agency based out of the Twin Cities.

She earned her first degree, an Associates in Science with emphasis in Marine Biology, Radio Television Broadcasting and Aviation Technology, two weeks prior to graduating high school. Her second degree, a BA in graphic arts with a minor in military science, is from Iowa State University. Desarae is a regular blog contributor at SassyStylishGeek.com and DesaraeVeit.com, about online marketing, gadgets, fashion, web design and geek news.

For more info. visit http://DesaraeVeit.com or find Desarae’s profile on Twitter (@DesaraeV).

Desarae is responsible for solving complex design and development problems while connecting clients’ to the target audience. She oversees design development and strategic direction for campaigns. She has over 5 years of marketing and design experience working on accounts like Best Buy, Lawry’s, P.B.Loco, Premier Mounts, Express Handymen, The Occassions Group and 3M. Her corporate and agency experience includes Gage Marketing, Risdall, Midwest Flying Services, Us Marketing & Promotions, and the Des Moines International Airport. While at MFE, she managed over 100 affiliates, created e-newsletters on loyalty programs, expanded & managed web site remodel, creative direction, and national marketing campaigns. Desarae’s greatest asset is her enthusiasm to work.

Recommendations (pulled directly from my LinkedIn page)

Intern at Gage

“Desarae was fresh out of college when we had her come join our team. She was hired out of a large pool of applicants because of her passion and desire to work in the business and learn from the team around her. She was more than willing to pitch in on anything and amazed me at her ability to fit in at all levels of the business. Her energy was second to none.” November 6, 2007

michael kraabel , Interactive Creative Director , Gage
managed Desarae at Gage

Get to know me in under 3 minutes…

When I was younger my parents sent me to all kinds of etiquette and leadership building camps, classes and workshops. I grew up in clubs like 4-H, Girl Scouts, FFA, IAYI, sports, and chess clubs. This is where you ask me, “Why are you listing off your past when I thought this post was about management.” Don’t worry I have a point and I’m getting there. These clubs all have a few things in common: leadership, commitment, team work, and a sense of etiquette. These organizations also all like to teach people through exercises.

In my first assistant manager position, my boss told me that I needed to like our employees, be friendly, but not be their friend. Any time he wanted to teach me something he’d say, “Monkey see, monkey do.” That statement is further articulated by an excerpt I recently read in Coaching and Mentoring for Dummies:

“Show me a manager who, rather than face a problem, looks to find blame when problems occur, and I’ll show you a group of defensive employees who often walk on eggshells. On the flip side, show me a manager who, rather than place blame, always avoids dealing with problems, and I’ll show you a group of frustrated employees working in chaos. And another example: Show me a manager who openly complains about management whenever he gets frustrated about something in his job, and I’ll show you a group that frequetly whines and complains, especially about its manager.

These examples illustrate how the tone-setter role can come back to haunt you as a manager. You need to stay aware that your own faults band weaknesses may be magnified within the staff you manage.”

Another reason why hiring friends or family can be a big no-no for people who aren’t very good at controlling their mouths and emotions. Just because the work day ends, doesn’t mean they will forget how you act outside of work.

How your employees work and conduct themselves is a direct reflection of management. If you have a manageable employee, but they are performing poorly, it’s look inwardly prior to counseling them. If you see common problems in all your employees and staff, it may have something to do with your own process.

I’m VERY analytical and always over-thinking my process, trying to improve and worrying about being a good manager. Rethinking and focusing can sometimes slow down the growth process, but if you don’t think about it at all your not likely to grow either. So I’ve began breaking down what my responsibilities are at Agency Couture.

From the 500 foot view:

• Project Manager
• New Business (sales and prospecting)
• Organization Communication Strategist
• Designer
• Front-end Programmer
• Search Engine Optimization Strategist
• Mentor/Teacher
• HR
• Book keeping
• Team Leader
• Event Planner
• Public Speaker

I perform ALL of those roles on any given week. So if you are ever wondering why I’m stressed, yes it’s my own fault. Which leads me to the next step in improving ourselves, listing our known faults and strengths. For the purpose of this post, let’s only focus on the project manager portion of the 500 foot view.

My strengths/weaknesses in project management:

• I love organization and process
• I’m not always good at developing the process
• I love making lists
• Sometimes my lists go into too much detail
• I enjoy collaborating with others
• I’d like to think I’m solutions oriented
• Recognizing good performance in others
• As an entrepreneur you seldom get direct performance reviews from others, which means you have to be introspective. Constructive criticism that isn’t too bold is hard to come by.
• It can be hard for me to process criticism without having it reiterated to me more then once.

I have more but for the sake of this post, let’s leave it at that. The next step I took was to briefly layout an overview template of what I would like my management process to look like. It is still a work in progress but looks like this:

Planning
•    Set schedules milestones with others, write them into proposals
•    Approve proposals
•    Send to client
Goal Setting
•
Performance Feedback
•    Listen, take notes, refrain from being judgemental.
•    Use my team to develop performance feedback solutions for myself and themselves
•    Stay flexible and open minded.

Dealing with Performance issues
•    Solutions oriented
•    Map out plans for improvement
•    Stay calm under pressure. Don’t place blame, just develop a solution and talk about it.

Delegating Tasks
•    Maximize resources
•    Increase productivity
•    Provide support
•    Let people handle jobs and hold them accountable
•    Encourage employees to take ownership in their involvement so that I don’t need to play micro-manager or babysitter.

Mentoring and Staff Development
•    Employee learning and growth
•    Supports training

Knowing what you want is half the battle. The next step is to create processes to prevent consistent problems from continuing. I’m not going to layout my entire process for you, but will give you one example. If your employees are consistently missing deadlines you should consider the following:

• Are you setting schedules? Are they written down at the very beginning of the project? Do they have a copy?
• Are you holding them accountable for the schedule? What incentives or penalties are in place?
• Are you putting too much on their plate at one time?
• Are the tasks broken down into action items or just vague wish lists?
• Perhaps giving them a weeks worth of tasks is better then the full month.
• Are you available when they need you?
• Are you correcting all the employee problems – for them?

Again that may not be everything you need to consider, but it’s a good start. What do you think? Am I missing anything? How do you handle your management styles? Do you ever wonder if you are a good manager?

Happy co-working.

With the permission of the recipient of this email I’ve posted this email in its entirety but have omitted her name for privacy reasons. We’ll call this person Sarah just for the sake of having a name on the document.

I can sit down and put together a more concrete plan with you but at
some point well need to do at least one call. It really shouldn’t take
too much time to layout what I need but to be honest my inbox gets
overwhelmingly full. I’ll do my best to be accommodating and not take
too much of your time.

My company normally builds sites for companies and social causes with
a set fee based on goals and site functionality or we decide on a
retainer budget and build the site then offer ongoing recommendations
on strategy. I say “we” because I own an LLC called Agency Couture
it’s a virtual agency made up of 30 freelancers all over the USA (I
refuse to offshore).

What we do is build integrated strategies that think of the site as a
storefront or brochure for sales and personal branding. Then optimize
the site as a passive agressive way of reaching people, or offering
them a faster mode to find your site higher on search engines. Frankly
with all the videos you put out this is almost a moot point but
understanding how it works and being proactive can really make a big
difference.

The next step I think you already have covered is online promotion by
leveraging social media. I don’t mean that in the spammy guru kind of
broadcast marketer way but let’s face it if you set up a fan site and
people follow or like it they probably, with in reason, want updated
when you make new makeup how to videos or have something interesting
to share.

I think the trick for you is offering a little bit extra like
customizing those pages (facebook, YouTube, Twitter, myspace) and
branding them to all look the same. You already do a good job of
staying consistant with your bright rainbow colors, using the same
font on your sites as you do when you end your videos etc. If you’d
like we can keep that or we can show you a few different design ideas.
It’s really up to you.

People love you for your personality but I like to think of some of
these aesthetic effects as icing on a cake or in your case thing of it
as professionally done make up vs. a Mary Kay party: you’re going to
be a beautiful girl either way but the tools you use do make a
difference but you can’t cover up an ugly sole. In your case the
content is great, I’m just offering professional makeup.

At this point I’m not sure what you can afford and I’m used to working
with corporate clients and small luxury businesses so I’ve been on
both sides of people with lots of money and people who can barely
afford anything. I really don’t want to scare you with a number. So
I’ll lay my cards on the table then if you’d like my services offer me
a budget and let me put a link to my company on your site and I’ll
help you for whatever you think is fair. I have a lot of ideas and
it’s not that I can’t get clients but lately the ones with money, I
just don’t believe in their cause. I love working for myself but
decided I need to switch from companies and start actively pursuing
clients I’m proud of. Honestly your the first one ever I haven’t
recieved via referral or someone emailing me.

Step 1. Pick a budget whether it’s 1 time fee, pay per performance or
a monthly retainer.

Then I’ll send you an official proposal. You accept. I start work asap.

Step 2. Download dropbox for file sharing. Bit.ly/desaraevdropbox

I’ll also send you a login for basecamp. It’s our project management
tool (where I store transcripts, meeting notes, ideas, and
future/completed to-do lists or milestones.

Send me your hosting FTP username, password and hosting company login
information. We also do hosting but you don’t have to use my company.
We resell rackspace and godaddy. Your hosting just needs to be a Linux
server with php5/mysql.

Step 3. Put together a folder in dropbox with four other subfolders.

1. Folder full of screenshots of websites, magazines, or pictures that
you just like the color scheme.

2. A folder full of screenshots for sites that you like the layout.

3. Screenshots of sites with any special icons, buttons or
functionality that you like. (examples would be sites with video,
rotating banners, cool social media icons, banner ad layouts that you
like, tag clouds, contact forms)

4. Make a folder of sites you don’t like for any reason. Especially if
you think they are pretty but just not you.

if you don’t know how to do screenshots let me know or just download
pizzaz (it’s free).

4. Well need to do a quick phone call to set goals for your site and
determine what you’ll consider a success. We’ll also review how you
choice a couple of the pictures in your folders.  You’ll tell me any
last minute details you’d like to see integrated into your site. Tell
me a couple things you don’t want to see.

5. Send me a list of pages you want on your site. Ie. Home, about,
services, glaminar workshops, contact page, blog

6. I’ll design 3 seperate site layouts. You tell me what you like and
dislike about each, be brutally honest.

7. Redesign 2 new layouts, you pick one.

8. We don’t talk for 2-3 weeks while I code your site. And just when
you think I’ve disappeared I re-emerge to show off the masterpiece.
You look at it, tear it appart with revisions. I take a week and a
half to fix it and then you let me know if their is anything else you
see that needs changed. (If I’m not overloaded with clients we can
multitasking during this step and the next two)

9. I’ll setup all your custom email addresses. I’d recommend getting a
gmail address, import your hotmail and yahoo emails then I’ll make it
so that your gmail looks just like your website ie.
[email protected] or [email protected] etc.

10.) Design/customize Twitter, facebook and YouTube backgrounds &
profiles to match your beautiful new site.

11. other stuff: Talk about ideas for custom tabs on facebook,
customize myspace, give makeup advice on linkedin, design an email
newsletter, develop swag items to sell on your site (like shirts,
Sarah makeup cases, Sarah compact mirrors, shirts ripped and made by
Sarah- love that video btw but my shirts didn’t look as good as
yours, mugs, stickers, tattoos, armbands etc. – you name it I’ll find
someone who can make it for us.. Minus those ripped t’s that’s all
you)

12. Ongoing I can help you with:
- tracking your site analytics
- giving you ideas on how you can optimize content for google
- give you tips on new sites or cool new online innovations (I go to A
LOT of geeky events every week to step up on my industry)
- design new things you may need like endings for videos, business
cards, swag, banners, email newsletters
- update your site for security updates, new browsers or just fix the
occassional Oops when you mess with something on purpose or
accidentily.
- help you update your site so you don’t have as many of the
afformentioned “oops” problems
- come up with more cool random ideas and share them with you (trust
me this is only the tip of the ice berg)
- help you get your videos on iTunes
- tell you about cool things people like you are doing: (ijustine has
a customized YouTube header, you can make interactive videos on
YouTube, if you sign up for affilate programs you could add links to
your blog about the makeup and products you mention but get paid for
it.. Not in a scammy way just in a “I’m sharing something that I like
but happen to get a little money for sharing it with you” kind of
way.)
- help you set up more events and share with you things I’ve learned
from planning events and how you can integrate social media to make
your events even better.
- help you find sponsors, media interest, send out direct mail
advertising, set up contests online, and try to be original

What I won’t do:
- pay per click
- media buying
- traditional pr
- spam people
- anything I think will seem spammy or make people hate us
- do my best to be honest and innovative
- pretend to know everything.. I know a lot but despite myself have
lots more to learn so I’ll do my best to continue reading and going to
weekly events
- do it all myself: I can’t/won’t but if we don’t have the budget to
hire other people I’ll do my best to give you lots of viable options
-answer the phone 24/7: I work for myself and frankly don’t get paid
near as much as I used to at agencies but I do work hard. Leave me a
message and I’ll figure out your problem and always do my best to get
back to you. Just remember I have lots of clients, events to attend
but their is only one me.. I strive to someday get a social live in
the mix
- sometimes I wake up early other days I have so much work I stay up a
full 20 hours and go to bed at 8am, it’s the nature if the beast
working for yourself
- I’m not a very good copy writer or programmer, but can pass some
intermediate skills on both. I’d recommend giving me a budget for
these things if you want them done but if that’s not in the cards I’ll
do my best. I have copy writers and coders on staff but they won’t
work for free.
- no flash coding option b. Is a mix of Ajax, java script and php ..
If that all sounds like a scary geek foriegn language let me know and
I’ll explain.

Lastly if your going to pay me.. I send out invoices on the 20th of
every month and expect paid no later then the 1st. If you dint contact
me before then with a good excuse I charge late fees and for ling term
noshiws I reserve the right to pull down sites after 3 months of no
payment. Not that I’ll do that, it would be a first. It’s just if I
expect an icon and you don’t deliver I go hungry, so better to warn me
so I can find alternative ways to keep my roof and fridge.

I’m sure I missed a few steps and I’m sorry if I overwhelmed you with
information or lost you in this long email. You wont be the first or
last person to glaze over when I go over my ideas for them and start
setting up strategy for a project. I hope we get to work together and
apologize for any poor grammar, I typed this up on my iPhone before
bed thinking I’d just tell you I’ll send you something tomorrow but
got excited and just laid out my whole plan instead.

Desarae A. Veit
Agency Couture

Still in search of a wonderful new intern. Interested? Keep in mind it’s not paid, but if that doesn’t scare you away here is what we’ll do for you in return: help you develop a portfolio, a real one not some school one that a teacher says looks pretty but really wont get you a job. We’ll help you build a professional looking website and host it for you for free while you intern with us plus multiply however long you work with us. We’ll let you change your mind if we don’t seem like a fit after the first month, but after that 30 day mark please plan on committing a minimum of 20 hours a week for the next 6 months. During that time we’ll critique your work, give you the chance to work on REAL projects and even introduce you to a client or two. We get a lot of free books thanks to Desarae’s blog so we’ll loan you a few, but you need to write a blog post a week about what you learned.

So what will this intern do you ask? Good question. Lots of stuff so we wont name everything in this note, but just to give you a few ideas. We’ll customize the internship to fit the right person. Want to be a programmer? Great. Designer? Check. Project manager who knows a bit about strategy? We got you covered. This person will learn a little bit of everything but should ideally have a focus on one subject. Then we’ll dive in and try to iron out your edges like a fine tuned sculpture that would make even D’vinci proud.

So that last paragraph wasn’t specific enough? Ok, we’ll teach you about time management, project management, how to use some of the tools of the trade, how to write a nice proposal, bring you to a few meetings, maybe make you run errands once in a while, have you sign us up for local events and then take you with, if your of age we might even buy you a beer or two, we’ll work at coffee shops and at CoCoMSP, you’ll help us setup events, promote clients and events, and even join in brainstorming and strategy sessions, we’ll do team building exercises, build websites, teach you about SEO, and how to manage online metrics. If you are a journalism major we might have you double check our writing.

In the end you’ll leave us a little smarter, better prepared to apply for a job at a corporate office or an agency. Plus your summer or fall wont be spent at a coffee shop that doesn’t look good on your resume. Ok, maybe it will be spent at a coffee shop, but unless you get a second job it wont be behind the counter. Still interested? Email Employment {at} AgencyCouture dot com or DesaraeV {At} AgencyCouture.com

Chris,

I have a few thoughts on your site. I considered emailing this to you, but figured you would be more likely to read it if you found it on Twitter than if it got shoved between the millions of emails you receive every day. Take these nuggets with a grain of salt, as I’m sure you have far more experience in strategy then I do but I’ve always loved your work and wanted to share these ideas with you even before your mass-brogan rebranding.

• I’m not sure why you only use Twitter and only at the bottom of your blog posts but why not download another plugin like what wordpress uses to allow people to promote your articles via Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, Linkedin or Digg?
• I only read your blog posts via email, it loses a lot of the experience you get from your new site design. Why not add a few cute buttons at the bottom of each post for connecting with you as a speaker, learning more about NML, or sending you a new blog idea.
• What if you let readers respond to your blog posts with comments via email? I’m sure this would take a little effort on behalf of a very smart programmer, but I know it is doable.
• I wish that all the books you recommended, you would make a list. Perhaps using Shelfari. It’s a great tool, your already signed-up and it’s free for readers to use. Plus I’m sure you could give them an incentive to help you if you asked the Shelfari team to integrate something where all the books you refer have Amazon sells links or something. If anyone could pull off that connection, it’s you.
• Sell less, share more. I love 99.9% of your ideas, but lately a few have seemed more salesy then should be. I don’t mind you making money off posts or even making money off things I click on, but just my thoughts. But hey, opinions are like assholes and everyone has one. Take mine with a grain of salt, it’s not that I don’t love your work.
• I love a lot of the recent business advice. As a small business/virtual agency owner.. I need all those tips I can get and I implement most of what you say either for myself or for my clients. I guess I’ve never told you, but THANKS. Keep ‘em coming.
• When you do book reviews, maybe even give us a couple of the key nuggets. I read a lot, and with a lot of the recent free books from blogging, I’ve found myself swimming in a plethora of knowledge. So if you can summarize some of the good stuff, that is awesome. I’ll probably still read the book eventually, but at least then it helps me sooner then later.
• I’ve been thinking this for about a year, I’d like to help you rebrand your Youtube background. It should match your site. If your interested I’d love to help. I’d even be willing to do it in exchange for just one of those square ad spaces on your site, frankly that would probably help me more then any small chunk of change you’d probably pay me for designing it anyway.
• If you optimized some of your Youtube videos it would be easier to search for you. Do this by adding fuller descriptions. Besides the sooner you do that, the sooner your loyal fans will subscribe to it and then you can apply for YouTube partner and make money from them watching. Not that you need more money, but it’s just a thought.
• Once you become a Youtube partner you can customize your page even more. A beautiful example is iJustine’s page.
• Other video thoughts:
⁃ Make a page on your site just for videos so they are easy to search.
⁃ Once you do the page for videos you can turn them into a podcast so people on itunes can find you.
⁃ Encourage people to visit your channel if you want comments or ratings, I’m not sure how you do this without being spammy or sales but maybe its as simple as just saying, ” if you want to see more videos like this go to…”
⁃ You could just make videos a popup, open in a new tab or iframe of youtube that way people can comments and like the videos without navigating from your site. I wouldn’t recommend doing the iframe, they are bad.. but it is an option.
• I liked your old logo better. This one doesn’t seem as conversational, which is more of what you stand for. Love the new colors though.
• Why don’t you list all your upcoming speaking gigs on your site?
• You mention Third Tribe a lot lately, but it’s sparsely anywhere advertised on your site.. just saying.
• Why are you only listing twitter on your site? Do you not find the other networks relevant?
• Why isn’t your book featured on your site anymore?
• I’d love to see a blog post on the top 10 coolest ways you’ve seen a person use social media for personal branding.
• Are you passive or aggressive about choosing which clients you would like to work with? In the past I’ve been passive, but in the past month I’ve made an effort to send out emails like this. Emails with my ideas for people online who I really love what they are doing but have a few ideas for enhancing what they are already doing. My first email like this was to a women named Kandee Johnson, she does make-up how to videos. I hope we get to work together because I love what she is doing on YouTube but her site doesn’t match her wonderful, bubbly, well-put together self. My analogy for what I’d like to offer is this: Think of the aesthetic of make up, I’m offering design and a few strategy tips to help enhance what you already do. It’s like the skeleton or sole of your business and let’s face it if someone is ugly on the inside, their is nothing I can do to permanently hide on the outside. So, Chris, I’d love to hear how you choose YOUR clients. I’ve made the mistake of letting them come to me in the past and at this point I figure I’m not making nearly as much money as I used to make at agencies, so if I’m going to do this thing I might as well choose who I want to work with vs. be unhappy when I don’t believe in selling toilet boles to crabby people who ask for the moon but pay me in dirt.
• Why not add a custom tab on Facebook (to both your personal profile and business ones) for cool new projects like Third Tribe, Trust Agents, NML, etc. Do this using FBML. It works just like HTML/Java script. Let me know if you need help.
• On NML’s business page why not add your contact info or website link where this is: New Marketing Labs is a premier digital marketing, strategy planning and social community engagement firm. Let’s face it, not everyone is tech savvy. Even some of your fans. So having that information easily available is nice.
• Why not have all your upcoming events listed on NML’s Facebook page?
• Why do you have notes on the NML facebook page tabs twice? The “Boxes” tabs seems unnecessary. You’re also not using the discussions tab and people seem to comment more on posts then that anyway. Maybe just remove what is clutter.
• Add, tag, and use descriptions in photos. Maybe think about more ways to use the photos area. Connect with people you met at events? Encourage fans to add photos? Add portfolio examples? Maybe under notes add case studies? This is a good place to pull a lot of that stuff together.
• I’m going to be a hypocrite here and say that a few of your photos are really pixelated. Your logo in particular gets stretched a lot.
• Do you do any banner advertising or advertising in general? With what?
• You should have someone video tape some of your speeches and add it to YouTube. It may make you change them up more often, and even if you kept the same speech for a year I still would have came but would be nice.
• Maybe rather then categorize all your posts by date (or keep that but add a few other things like: case studies, business ideas, book reviews, or just when you write a post like those have a button that says see more like these… for people who only want that type of your posts. Plus this will let you see what people are REALLY interested in. Also make it easier to sort through.
• Recommend more events for business owners or geeks to attend and recommend early enough where I can still get a ticket. Although, I have a feeling I can’t afford most of the events you go to.
• What kind of associations do you use to find speaking gigs?
• Blog post idea: How to organize your database. I have so many connections and people I mean to follow up with but it is overwhelming.
• How do you jump from freelancer to small business owner to making the next step between the hump of having 15 employees which is semi-manageable to more? Is it even necessary?
• You should write a post on the initial steps to starting a business. Ie. Get your LLC, get business insurance, build website, decide on niche, do marketing of some sort, how to choose who to hire and when to fire.

I know you are busy so I’m sorry this got long, but there is my feedback. I’ve been reading your blog for a little over 3 years now, and if I never comment again there is all my feedback.

Best wishes,

Desarae A. Veit
Agency Couture