Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneurship’

I have just received an email from 37signals that gives the schedule for the SEED Conference, so I thought that I would share…

8:00 - 9:15 Registration and continental breakfast
9:15 - 10:00 Carlos Segura presentation
10:00 - 10:30 Audience Q&A for Carlos
10:30 - 10:45 Break
10:45 - 11:30 Jason Fried presentation
11:30 - Noon Audience Q&A for Jason
Noon - 1:15 Working lunch with Edward Lifson
1:15 - 2:00 Jim Coudal presentation
2:00 - 2:30 Audience Q&A for Jim
2:30 - 3:00 Break
3:00 - 4:30 Panel

I will be reporting on the conference, immediately following. If anyone else is going to be attending feel free to post in the comments below, maybe we can meet up!

Something I learned very quickly through freelancing is that being faster than the competition, cheaper, or more direct are not selling points for your services. While in theory these may seem like service benefits for customers, they do not work as a business model. I have taken the opportunity to translate what each of these statements really say to the client.

Let’s take a look back to two and half years ago. Back then I was a senior in College with one extra semester of school left to complete my degree. I had 3 co-op work experiences under my belt and a partially completed portfolio that needed to be refined and finalized. However, I was aware that if I wanted to stand out amongst other candidates in the job market, have some more real-world design projects in my book would help differentiate myself. So being recently turned on to Craigslist for researching potential apartments for my big move to the windy city in the upcoming months I thought to peruse the “gigs” section.

Up until this point I had enjoyed the Craigslist concept, a free open place to submit wanted ads. For physical objects such as products and real-estate this model seemed to be a legitimate Laissez-faire environment. However I soon realized this is not the same case for the creative gigs section. Numerous posts offered the promise of experience, and book building projects, however failed to offer any form of compensation. The ones that did offer compensation either did not offer enough to even be close to a respectable wage or were promising “profit sharing.” In the rare occasion that there was a request that was of enough compensation to consider doing, the details were always sketchy and not very promising.

I just recently purchased my tickets to the SEED Conference that is going to be held at IIT campus in Chicago on January 18th. Jason Fried, Carlos Segura and Jim Coudal are hosting the conference that is about discussions on design, entrepreneurship, and inspiration. As a designer and a self-proclaimed entrepreneur I can’t wait to see what these design greats have to offer. Apparently the first SEED Conference sold out extremely fast, and according to the blogosphere was a huge success. At only 145 attendees it should prove to be a very interesting and welcoming conference. I will be sure to post my review here after the event. As of writing there are still spots available, to sign-up visit the event page at: http://www.seedconference.com/

Freelanceswitch.com has been a great resource for me over the past couple of months when I first noticed it through a design inspiration site. Every article that they have posted has always served as a great resource, and now they are putting that knowledge into an amazing eBook. The book covers every aspect of freelancing, from establishing yourself as a brand, to setting your hourly rate. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to get started in freelancing, or even be more efficient and profitable if they already freelance.

Click here see the official product page and find out more!