₦airaland Forum

Brandnew2:
Can any graphic artist out there create an e-book cover FOR ME? YOU WILL BE HANDSOMELY REWARDED.

The email associated with my account ain't working that's why I said you should use the details on my signature.
Mail me @ xchipgraphics@gmail.com.

Regards.

I'll say... Exclusively Awesome.

Brandnew2:
Can any graphic artist out there create an e-book cover FOR ME? YOU WILL BE HANDSOMELY REWARDED.

Get in touch. Details are on my signature.

Wrong reflection.

Your (supposed) sun has thick lines and the inside is empty.

MTN IS SO WICKED Haba!
I received a message from MTN this Morning saying:
"Know interesting facts about your country. text NIG to 32050... N100 per day"
And as a patriotic citizen of Nigeria, I decided to know more facts about my country. I subscribed and immediately they deducted N100 from my account.
The 1st Fact I received was: "Do you know that the Nigeria national flag has two colours which are green and white". ( Cold set in )
Secondly they sent: "Do you know that the first letter of Nigeria is N?"
( I begin to develop headache)
Thirdly was: "Do you know that river Niger is in Nigeria?"

Running a freelance design business is one of the most fulfilling careers you can embark on.
Think about it – you spend some time honing your design skills, and then use your skills to make an income, hopefully enough to support yourself full-time. And beyond doing work that you’re passionate about, you also have the luxury of working remotely from virtually anywhere in the world.
Who wouldn’t love it right?!
Mmm, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but it doesn’t quite work that way.

While running a freelance design business is an exciting and flexible career choice, it comes with some obstacles which can dramatically increase your anxiety levels.
Freelancing is a legitimate business model, which means you need to treat it like a business. Here’s a brief look at the various roles you need to fulfil in your day-to-day operations:

*.The CEO– the person who does the strategic thinking and calls all of the shots.
*.The Designer– the person who actually puts in the work and ships client projects.
*.The CFO– the person who manages all of the finances for the business.
*.The HR Manager– the person who manages all of the people you bring in to help grow your business.
*.The Administration Assistant– the person who takes care of all of the emails, bookings, file management to ensure things are in order.
*.The Marketing Manager– the person who actively markets your business to ensure you always have new leads coming in.
There are 6 main roles in total, and in case you haven’t picked up on it already,youare all of these roles. I don’t want to freak you out, but this is the reality.

The problem is then finding time to do more design work. As the more design you do for the clients, the better you get at design, the more testimonials you receive, the more opportunities for referrals, the more you have to showcase in your portfolio and the more money you can ultimately make.

So how do you create more time to do design work? Outsource everything else? This could work, however it can be quite expensive to outsource 5 different roles when you’re still trying to support yourself!
The next option is to leverage your time by creating bulletproof systems. And that’s what I’m here to teach you today.
Let’s get into it.

System #1 – Client intake and communication
The objective of this system is to save time whilst increasing your new client conversion rates.
How do you do that?
By creating a new client checklist.
Pick up a pencil and write down all of the communication points from the moment a prospective client contacts you through till the start of your project. It might look something like this:
1.Respond to inquiry
2.Book consultation
3.Initial client consult
4.Send proposal and invoice
5.Follow up
6.Send receipt
7.Confirm project start date
8.Project commences
Once you’ve created the list, you can start to make improvements to your intake process. For example, you might find that your last email in response to a new inquiry worked really well. So you might decide to turn that email into a template that you can use in the future.
Same thing goes for your client consult meeting. Is there anything you need to get out of the meeting? If so, create your own personal agenda document to use as a reference.
You might identify that you’re spending too much time trying to book prospective clients for a meeting (particularly with different time zones!), so you could use scheduling software like Calendly to streamline your booking process.
These are just a few ideas to get you started.
First things first though: create your list. Then focus on optimising each point of communication.

System #2 – Financial management
It’s time to put on your CFO hat and think about your money. Having a financial system is important for 2 main reasons: compliance and decision making.
Compliance is basically your tax obligations to the government. You need to have your books in order to ensure you meet your obligations (and to keep your accountant happy!).
Having perspective of your income and expenses also allows you to make strategic decisions. For example, from your records, you may realise that you’re spending too muchon software products. From here you can make a decision to cut down or look for other alternatives.
So how do you go about setting up a finance system?
Simple: skip, paper folders and spreadsheets and use accounting software. There are a tons of apps on the market, including Freshbooks, Quickbooks, Xero, and Less Accounting. However, if you’re new to this, I recommend you start with a free and easy-to-use app called Wave.
Whichever app you use, make sure to link your bank accounts to the software (if possible) so your transactions automatically appear.
You can also use the app to see how much you’re spending and earning in different areas, as well as invoicing and receipting.

System #3 – Contact management
One question that stomps most my clients is:
Do you have a system of contacting your past clients?
More often than not, the answer is no.
This doesn’t just apply to past clients. Having a contact management system, ensures that you are building profitable relationships to help grow your business. Whether it’s your clients, peers, mentors or influencers, being intentional about networking will do wonders when running a freelance design business.
For contact management, I like to use a tool called Nimble. This is a great app as its main function is to encourage you to keep in touch with your network. You simply add clients and set the frequency of contact, whether it’s every week, month or year.
A contact could simply be an email, or a tweet. Either way, it tells you when you need to reach out based on the frequency that you’ve set.
And the best part is that you don’t have to worry about entering notes like you would with most CRM systems.
So sign up and start connecting!

System #4 – Administration
To be honest, I think admin tasks are the biggest time-wastersin your business. But often we spend a large chunk of our time doing it.
That’s why you need a solid system for admin management.
Administrative tasks include emails, file management and task management. Here’s a quick breakdown of systems you can implement for each area.
Email management
The concept behind email management is the ability to turn an email into a task and archive the rest.
Simple.
So if you’re using Gmail, use the to-dos function (star icon) to tag important email that need to be actioned. Then archive the rest.
Or if you’re using higher level software like IQTELL, there are built-in features that enable you to quickly add emails to task lists and existing projects. But don’t forget to archive the rest! You want to keep your inbox clean.
File management
This one is quite easy.
My system involves the use of cloud storage. I use Dropbox for large and archived files, whilst using Google Drive for live documents – projects that I’m currently working on.
The main thing here is to ensure that you have organised all of your files into their relevant folders. There’s nothing worse than spending 10 minutes trying to find a document!
Task management
There is so much talk online about what productivity app to use. (I know this because I used to be one of those productivity app junkies.)
What I realized is that they all pretty much do the same thing and are only really effective for recording projects. So now my system involves a task management app like Wunderlist or Basecamp to record my projects and all of the related tasks.
Then I use pen and paper to list everything I need to do today.
After all of the apps and programs I’ve tested, pen and paper still seems to be the most powerful method for task management.

System #5 – Marketing
Once you find a few marketing strategies that work for you, the next step is to turn those strategies into a marketing system.
For example, if you identify that you’re getting 30% of your leads from social media activity, then you need to turn your social media tacticinto a system.
You need to answer the following questions to create a process for your social media marketing.
*.Have you created a list of content ideas for each social platform?
*.Have you signed up for a social media management tool like Buffer or Hootsuite?
*.Have you determined how often you want to post on each platform?
*.Have you determined the best times to post on each platform?
*.How often will you schedule posts in advance?

By answering these questions, you’re forced to think about your process for content creation. And like your client intake checklist, having a system in place allows you to identify the breakdowns and make improvements.
The same concept can be applied to all of your marketing strategies, whether it’s blogging, social media or email marketing.
Are you ready to free up your time?

These systems are not complicated, but they do require commitment. I suggest you start by allocating 30 minutes a day to implement these strategies. Before you know it, your business will be running smoothly and you will feel fantastic.

Source: http://www.graphicdesignblender.com/5-systems-that-will-turn-your-freelance-design-business-into-a-well-oiled-machine

The government announced that if you have 5 children your salary will be increased by 50 percent.
A man heard the news and said to his wife, "Darling, I have a kid with my girlfriend. I'm going to bring him so we can add him to our 4 kids."
When he came back, he saw only one of his children remaining. He asked, "where are the others?"
His wife replied, you are not the only one who heard the news, "THEIR FATHERS HAVE COME FOR THEM!"

A little boy wanted 10,000naira badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happen. Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the 10,000naira. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to God, from Nigeria, they decided to send it to the Nigerian President. The president was so impressed, touched and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy 500naira. The President thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.
The little boy was delighted with the 500naira and he sat down to write a thank you note to God. It reads: “Dear God, Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Abuja. And as usual, those crooks deducted 9500naira.”

One word for this boy

One of our co-workers went missing
for a few hours and we tore up the
place looking for him.

The boss
finally found him fast asleep. Rather
than waking him, he quietly placed a
note on the man's chest:





"As long as you're asleep, you have a
job but as soon as you wake up,
you're fired!"

So on his first day at school, the first class was English Language. The teacher called on Akpos and asked him:-
Teacher: Akpos, make a Sentence with “Big”
Akpors: The Ram Is Big
Teacher: Make it longer
Akpos: The Ram is big ooooooo Teacher was like , “WHAAAAAT!!!!”.The Teacher recovered and continued with his questions: - Teacher: Behind every successful man there is a woman. What do we learn from this?
Akpors: We should stop wasting time in studies and find that WOMAN Teacher: Get out of my Class, Akpos Akpos bounced out of the class, not sure what to do. Somehow, he made his way to the library. Once inside, he spotted a very pretty girl reading quietly. He quickly approached her and started wooing her right in the library. Oh Akpos! After some minutes, the girl got angry and shouted, “Will you please leave me alone so that I can concentrate? Everybody turned and looked at Akpos. So what did Akpos do? Akpos gazed her intently and replied in a loud voice: “I will not leave you alone until you accept Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour!”

Johnny was on high speed, he got to an
Armycheckpoint without slowing down, so
they told him to park his car and ordered him
to carry 1,000 blocks from one Side of the
road to the other side. After carrying 990
blocks, Johnny noticed that their boss was his
Primary School classmate Akpos, so Johnny
went to complain to him, The boss, Akpos
was really angry with what his Boys did to his
Long time classmate, So he asked Johnny
"have you started carrying the blocks?"
Johnny answered ''I have carried 990 already,
Akpos said" Please don't be angry, 'RETURN
THEM BACK TOWHERE YOU CARRIED THEM'
ONE WORD FOR AKPOS

Nice one.
Not a fan of Google maps.
Not gotten to use it.

erad:
LOL... I dare not.

Everything is fine on this end.

Alright. Keep it going.

erad:
Funny dude.

Hope you are good and work is going well.

Peace.

Not been bad. And yours?

If you delete this one, I go resign.

Can't seem to figure it out.

Seen it. Liar.

Ok . Seen. Bookmarked.

Mind blowing works.

erad: You are mistaken if you think I'll exchange words with you so you can elaborate more on playing victim.

I will feel guilty if I didn't mete out the same treatment to similar post(er)s. It shows I have nothing against you, didn't even know it was your post until I went back to check after reading this comment.

You should be the one to grow up and stop throlling on threads with "ok" all in a bid to keep space, I think you are better than that, I KNOW YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT.

Mister, you can't force words outta my mouth. I reply with whatever thing I wish to as long as I do not use the wrong words.
Replying with "OK" is not against the rules of nairaland.com If it is, please, refer me to where it's stated so that I can correct myself.

erad, you had no reason whatsoever to hide my comment.

But, whichever way, just know that it's a childish attitude to keep repeating this ill act of yours just 'cause you're a mod.

Grow up.

After all said and done, the Track finally drops. MC swagger let's go of his Maiden track(lol) and, to be frank with you if you play this song and you don't like it, I'll give you 100 worth of revharge card for wasting your data. Download at: http://www.esoundz.net/2014/09/mc-swagger.html
Enjoy.

earthrealm: need some1 to design a biz card for me

Get in touch let's discuss.
Details on my signature.

Ok.

PadBin: Email: admin[at]PadBin.com

Are we to comment or send a mail?

In.

Alright. Get in touch.

Eme9: How do you mean, "enhance?"

Advance/step up

Eme9: How do you mean, "enhance?"

Advance.

My Oga, nice works. But, it'll do you good if you enhance your skills.

Following relentless onslaught by troops, many members of the Boko Haram terrorists group are beginning to surrender voluntarily. Some of them submitted themselves and their weapons to the leadership of the troops in Konduga during a further campaign at the weekend. The Defence Headquarters has tweeted that “as the heat on the terrorists continues, five terrorists surrendered on Saturday (September 20, 2014) with all their weapons to troops at Konduga, pleading for mercy.”

Following relentless onslaught by troops, many members of the Boko Haram terrorists group are beginning to surrender voluntarily. Some of them submitted themselves and their weapons to the leadership of the troops in Konduga during a further campaign at the weekend.
The Defence Headquarters has tweeted that “as the heat on the terrorists continues, five terrorists surrendered on Saturday (September 20, 2014) with all their weapons to troops at Konduga, pleading for mercy.”

Other captured terrorists who refused to surrender have also been giving useful information on the subsequent plans of the group in an apparent offer to cooperate.

In the last few days there have been several attempts by terrorists desperate to gain entry to Konduga, which the Nigerian troops, have continued to foil.
The PRNigeria gathered that the terrorists’ move was aimed at recovering the bodies of their prominent fighters who had died in the previous encounters in the area.

Meanwhile the Nigerian troops have recovered more weapons during the mopped up operations while some of their (terrorists’) vehicles have been destroyed.

Source: http://www.ecruzi.com/some-terrorists-surrender-with-weapons-in-konduga/