Happy new year to all Graphic Define readers! Its been a great 2006 and I really want to thank you all for your warm words of encouragement over the year. With that said, I promise that 2007 is going to be even better for Graphic Define and its readers!

New Speaking Engagements

FITC
“The Secret to Writing Killer Proposals”

Proposal writing is often seen as a black art that, frankly, often scares and stuns many creative business owners. This session will break down the myths and stereotypes of proposal writing and present a new, fun, and productive approach to getting a proposal done well and on time. We will discuss various proposal formats, examine style, examine functionality, contemplate the difference between an estimate vs. proposal vs. contract, and if possible, look at numerous examples of well designed and written proposals. Other topics such as scheduling, estimating and handling negotiations will be discussed as well.

How Design Conference
“Everything I Wish I Knew Before Running a Design Studio”

Consultant Daniel Schutzsmith is on a mission to “evangelize management standards and efficient business processes to the graphic design industry,” and he’s bringing his crusade to the HOW Conference. Join this former business manager at NYC design studio The Chopping Block for a session packed with tips to bolster the success of your design business. He’ll cover topics such as:

• building client relationships
• invoicing and billing
• managing employees
• obtaining new business
• improving workflow through standardization

New Format

Graphic Define Magazine
Later this month, this blog will be transformed into an e-zine full of articles, reviews, and tips that all focus on helping creative professionals understand the business side of things. Another major change will be the addition of many other authors and guest writers to the site. My main purpose for evolving the blog like this is to make sure that Graphic Define is not just centered around one person’s opinion, but rather, I want it to provide many different points of view to the same problems that we all face. None of us tackle the same problem in the exact same way, so this diversity is what I believe will truly make us all a bit more understanding of the options we have in running our businesses. If you have an article idea or know of someone who should definitely be asked to participate as a regular author then please let me know.

Graphic Define Consulting
After much consideration, and after talking it over with many of my close friends and colleagues, I will be opening Graphic Define Consulting effective immediately. Graphic Define Consulting provides design studios (web and graphic) with hands-on advice to help them develop a marketing plan, define their project management process, establish a new business protocol for filtering and handling new opportunities, create studio standards, and put proper resource management practices in place. If this sounds like something you’re looking to focus on in the new year, then feel free to get in touch and I’ll show you how Graphic Define Consulting can help.

New Ventures

At my speaking engagements in 2006, I was able to sit down with many new and veteran readers of Graphic Define to find out what would help them most on a day-to-day basis. The main things that kept coming up were:

• Hands-on Workshops :
  I was quite surprised to find out that many attendees had hoped to get a little bit more hands-on than my presentations allowed. The following topics kept coming up as the most important workshops people want to attend: Proposal Writing, Developing a Marketing Plan, Making a New Business Plan of Attack, and Managing a Project From Start to Finish. I’m still working on the logistics of how the workshops will work - many suggested online presentations to save travel time and costs while others suggested weekend workshops to also provide attendees with the ability to have a “town meeting” of sorts to hear how other studios deal with the same business issues.
• Worksheets :
  In the Fall of 2006 I had the privilege of teaching a brand new course I developed at SVA called The Business of Studio. What I found was that lectures and presentations were helpful to the students but the most helpful aspect of the course ended up being the worksheets they received every week to help them on the topic we covered. Everything from a Project Pricing Estimating Sheet, Project Scope Sheet, Opportunity/Lead Qualifier and the like were handed out to the students. I plan on providing similar worksheets to Graphic Define readers so that you can also benefit from these handouts.
• And More :
  There are also some other plans I have which I don’t want to share until they are completely planned out. What I can tell you is that, if I can pull them off, we’ll all have an abundance of terrific tools to make running a studio so much easier.

Happy New Year!