“Ugh, I just don’t care about what you had for breakfast!!”

Have you ever heard anyone say something like that about Facebook or Twitter? I know a sizable group of people who cannot understand the “me, me, me” aspect of social media. They don’t want to jump on Twitter or Facebook, because they don’t feel they have anything to say that would matter to their audience of friends and acquaintances.

They recognize that it can be really rude and self-absorbed to do nothing but talk about yourself, when your audience isn’t interested in hearing about your latest snack or TV obsession or how much you drank last night. But, many people make the same sort of mistakes on the homepage of their business website.

“We’ve worked with these great companies! We are awesome! Buy from us!” We, we, we!

You at least know the people on Facebook that you’re bragging to, but on a homepage, you’re bragging to total strangers. Think about what’s important to you when you visit a new site. You are trying to decide (quickly) if this company offers what you’re looking to buy. Do they look trustworthy? Can you quickly find what you’re looking for? If they past the initial sniff test, do you know where you should go next?

What you think is the most important thing to tell your customers on your homepage may not be the same information that they think is most important. Try to imagine your ideal customer, and think about what they want to know. If you can design your web presence around the needs of your ideal customer, you will be far more successful than designing it around your own needs and personal preferences.

Remember, it’s not about you.

Recommended reading:
Rethink Your Web Presence by Chris Brogan

7 ways your homepage is like a first date by Lisa Barone on Outspoken Media

Who wouldn’t want to be an emperor? Spreading your ideas and messages through the world, and kicking butt every step of the way? We’ve all heard that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and creating a successful lifestyle business follows the same idea. Plus, creating and running your own business can be pretty damn scary.

But, Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit puts a really fun spin on the idea of creating and running your own business. He has put together a product that includes “the business know-how, real-life case studies and daily steps designed to help you build your empire in one year or less.”

I haven’t pretended to be a fictitious character in a long time, but picking between playing “Alexander the Great,” “Hail, Caesar,” and “Emperor-in-Training” (the 3 pricing levels) made for a really fun shopping experience. If you’re in the business of selling anything, I recommend taking a look at Chris’ store. He makes the shopping experience fun and exciting. It’s riddled with great copy and cool design. I think you could learn a thing or two from just browsing around his store.

So, why did I buy the EBK?

Personally, I was really impressed with the way Chris presents himself and his business, and I thought I could learn a lot from him. I was really intrigued by the idea of other entrepreneurs opening up about how much money they make, the mistakes they’ve made, and sharing their best tips for success.

One thing I’ve seen already is that being a one-person business can be really lonely. I’ve lost the collective knowledge of working with a group of co-workers, and I most business people aren’t very keen on telling you how much money they made last year, how much they expect to make this year, and how they make a profit on their products. It’s sort of a taboo subject, but it’s crucial to learn and understand these aspects of business in order to succeed.

I didn’t take any business courses in college, and I figured this would be a much less-expensive option than going back to school.

What comes in the kit?

• An email each day, for 365 days
• 15 case studies from entrepreneurs earning $50,000-$150,000 a year in net income, and have no more than three employees
• 6 in-depth video interviews
• 9 short videos on tools and tips
• Product launch tips
• A recording of “No question left behind” webinar
• and more…

…and what have I learned so far?

A lot, and I’m only on day 42 of 365 in the email series. I don’t want to give away the content of the kit, but here is one of my favorite tips that has really stuck out for me.

“Service providers, let me pay you.”

A little industry secret: Most designers HATE pricing projects. Actually, I’ll go so far as to say that every designer I know hates pricing projects. Every job is custom-priced, depending on a ridiculous number of variables. As a designer, pricing a project based on the specific details makes sense to me.  Variables like timeline, end deliverables, complexity of information, etc all factor into the price I quote. But, if  I were a potential customer, this would drive me nuts.

Cue the lightbulb moment.

I research online first for almost everything I buy. And if it’s for a service, especially one I’m not familiar with, the first thing I’m trying to decide is if I can afford this person/business. Their credentials/portfolio/etc. could be awesome, but if they are out of my price range, I could care less.  No prices listed? Call for quote? Click, click, back to Google I go.

I’m always interested in finding new clients, and I’d love if some of those leads were generated from my website. So, the EBK has inspired me to completely restructure my website, services and portfolio. I’m in the process of developing base “packages” that you can shop through. These packages will have set prices that you can buy right away if you’d like, via PayPal. The goal is to make it easy for your customers to pay you, which goes against everything in my industry, but makes perfect sense from a general seller-buyer relationship.

Interested?

Maybe the EBK sounds like a good fit for you. It’s not aimed at any one industry, which is another really cool thing about it. I’ve learned from a ketubah maker and a raw foods witch and all sorts of other cool people. Anywho, it’s on sale today through tomorrow (Wednesday, May 18) at 11:00am CST. One day only.

I (temporarily) fell off the blogging wagon, but I’m hopping right back on. For now, I am committing to a Tuesday + Friday publishing schedule, with a goal of increasing it to three times per week later on.

What have I been up to?

The short answer: reading, learning and brainstorming (and client work, of course).

The longer answer: I have been spending a lot of time focusing and redefining my business. This journey began about 8 months ago at the Creative Freelancer Conference. At the end of the conference, we each wrote down “Things I’m committed to doing for my business in the next six months” on a card. The conference leaders would mail us the cards in about six months, as a friendly reminder of our goals.

I received mine in the mail about a week ago:

Guess what? I am working from my own office, which I absolutely love. I have spent the last six months developing a marketing strategy. My website and resume are current, sans one recent project. I (obviously) started a blog, and I am putting the finishing touches on my e-newsletter. (I’m working on the sign-up form for the newsletter, but you can also email me to get on the list.)

Looking at this list gave me a huge boost of confidence, because when I wrote those goals, I thought I might accomplish two of them, at most.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll talk more about how I’ve made it this far (it involves a lot of reading and asking for help) and where I’m headed next (including new services!). I’m really excited to share my new goals with you.

One thing that has been instrumental in developing these new goals is my Empire Building Kit series from Chris Guillebeau. Days 1 through 41 of the 365-day EBK course have seriously rocked my socks. I wanted to mention the EBK today because it goes on sale tomorrow for another 24-hour launch, which is the first time it’s been available for sale since I bought it. If you have your own small business, or are interested in starting one, I highly recommend checking it out. I’ll talk more about what I learned from it tomorrow.  Feel free to comment or email me with questions too.

Thanks for sticking around through the post drought. I really appreciate it.