Self employed workers have their hands full juggling multiple roles every day, so keeping a professional appearance can be challenging at times. Freelancers and so-called “one man bands” already struggle when it comes to competing with large corporations. It is hard to answer the phones, take out the trash and still create awesome presentations and competitive proposals. To win contracts and jobs from corporations that are accustomed to dealing with other large companies, solo workers need all the help they can get. Here are 8 subtle ways to make yourself look more professional when selling yourself and your business to corporate customers.

1. Take the initiative by shaking hands first: By seizing the opportunity you exude confidence and the energy that only big players have.

2. Dress for the seasons: You may be working on your own and operating on a shoestring, but you can look professional by showing an awareness of appropriate attire. Keep your accessories to appropriate levels and wear appropriate colors. By showing that you have fashion sense you will silently communicate that you have the class and sophistication to compete with the big players in your field.

3. Create brand definition: As a freelancer or contractor you need to learn from your corporate competitors: let your brand drive everything you do. Create a succinct mission statement; keep your fonts and images consistent in everything from your correspondence to your website. Develop your brand this way and you will shed the “Mom and Pop” look and level the playing field in a dramatic way.

4. Get the fax: The online age has left many small players with IP and mobile phones that make it difficult to use with fax machines. Your corporate competitors have expensive phone systems that keep them sending and receiving faxes at will. Don’t be caught having your faxes sent to or from the local office store: subscribe to an online fax service that gives you a toll free fax number that you can use to receive faxes. These services also allow you to upload files to be faxed, so you can avoid the embarrassment of being unable to use fax services.

5. Alternative PDFs: Many freelancers lack the resources to purchase luxuries such as Adobe PDF software. Don’t let that stop you from sending professional grade PDF documents. Free alternatives such as PrimoPDF let you compile everything from invoices to proposals just like your larger competitors do.

6. Video conferencing: A subtle way to make yourself look more professional is doing business by video. Large corporations have cut back on travel to save money and to be environmentally conscious: you can do the same even if you’re low on cash. Dimdim offers a great free service that allows you to set up meetings with up to twenty people using a browser-based application. Show that you have a green company too.

7. Get your brand online: Small players like you can really look bad if a potential customer searches for you online and you cannot be found. Get to work on your online brand. Hire a professional to build your site. Create a blog that supports your niche and get on LinkedIn and other social sites. Let yourself shine online where you can look as professional as you like without much expense.

8. Chit chat: Those who spend most of their time working alone may start slipping in their social skills. Make it a point to develop or maintain the ability to strike up conversations with strangers so you can use small talk to your advantage at your next presentation. Develop an awareness of what potential clients want you to say and do not disappoint them. Focus attention on them: most people love talking about themselves.

These 8 subtle ways to make yourself look more professional only touch the tip of the iceberg. Literally, there are hundreds of small things you can do to make yourself appear professional, capable, and ready to compete. Don’t let the fact that you work on your own hold you back. Get a more professional appearance starting today.

This is a guest post from James Adams, a UK-based writer for a leading ink supplies specialist where he covers developments in tech, analyses and reviews products such as the T0715 and, when time permits, occasionally manages to post their blog.

If you’ve ever had to prepare a proposal response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) you know it can be a challenge. RFPs come in all shapes and sizes and no two are alike. Some can be over 100 pages while others can be less than 1,000 words. Either way your response is what is judged to award the project to your company and bring in revenue.

When reviewing RFPs it’s important to look at the document in several ways. After initial team reviews of the RFP questions tend to arise. You should always check to see if the organization issuing the RFP allows you to submit questions about the RFP and what the deadline is for submitting those questions. Also check to see if all questions submitted will be publicized so that you can review other firms’ questions as well as yours.

When you first review the RFP get a highlighter and outline both questions and requirements. Use different color highlighters for each so that you can easily identify on future reviews. I typically print the RFP on 3-hole punch paper and put it in a binder so that I can attach post-it notes for callouts and tag specific sections if necessary.

Along with the deadline to submit questions, there is a deadline for when proposals are to be received. Look at this date and plan to have your response arrive at least 3-5 days earlier. Work backward from that date to allow time to prepare the necessary materials for submission. You will most likely have a few reviews so plan time for the team to review the proposal as it develops and send your schedule to the entire team so they can allow time for their contributions.

Next carefully review and analyze how points are awarded for different parts of the proposal. Points are taken away for various reasons including how many pages your proposal is and your proposal can even be disqualified if you do not adhere to the restrictions defined. Also weighting of points for various parts can affect how much time you spend on that subject matter. If the points awarded for team bios are only 10% of the total don’t put too much effort into rewrites and headshots.

Packaging is also crucial to how your proposal is received and viewed. Your document layout should be clean and legible with an appropriate amount of white space so that it’s not too crowded. Using styles will help you greatly. Many RFPs have a numbering system that you will need to refer to so if you can use auto numbering to match your responses to questions in the RFP that’s great. If it’s too cumbersome then manually enter the corresponding numbers and data. Don’t try and make your word processing application jump through too many hoops.

Once you have the document written and reviewed your done right? Wrong! Now you have to package the document, both hard copy and sometimes digital copies on CD-ROM or other media. Carefully review how many copies and if they need to be sealed. Many times the cost proposal may be submitted in a separate sealed envelope that needs to be marked accordingly. I’ve found that using laser printed labels can both identify the different versions of the proposal as well as seal the envelope. If allowed put the RFP number the label. Save your templates and you can use them for future RFPs.

Hopefully if your product or service meets the RFP requirements and your proposal is well written and easy to read, you should be a top contender to win the contract!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to speak to the Raleigh SEO Meetup organized by Ashley Berman-Hale and Phil Buckley @1918.  The topic was “Branding on A Budget,” and since I’ve worked for many small companies I’ve had my share of challenging marketing goals on little or no budget.  In preparing my speakers notes I came across some marketing strategies to help get the most from your budget.

• Find a major media event that may be happening at the same time as your marketing campaign.  Last year I had to promote a trade show appearance for Site Dynamics.  I had a minimal budget of $300 for promotional items.  One of the big stories in the mainstream media at that time was the release of Beatles Rockband.  I decided to tie into the buzz of the video game release by giving away guitar picks and a copy of Beatles Rockband to booth visitors.  For more details on the campaign read the blog post here.
• Make the most of major events.  Another client, SignalShare was preparing to work the Pepsi Fan Jam at this year’s SuperBowl.  Since the company was a start up and had a new story to tell I reached out to people I knew at WRAL Channel 5 and pitched them on the story idea.  It worked and WRAL did a story on SignalShare that aired the week before the SuperBowl.

• Use Social Media where and when appropriate.  I manage the newsletter for the Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association @TriangleAMA and delved into social media as a method to increase exposure for the newsletter articles.  I found that by creating a blog and Twitter presence I was able to reach Triangle area marketing professionals and increase awareness of our programs and events.  Website traffic increased and so did meeting attendance.  Over the past two years we have incorporated social media into our strategic outreach and communication strategy.  Click here to read my case study on Triangle AMA social media.
• Find partners with more money or brand awareness than you.  Many times we have corporate partners, resellers, etc. that have a strong brand presence.  See if they are willing to do a co-op promotion or campaign to increase their customer base as well as yours.  If you partner with a major brand, see what their co-op program offers.  Many large companies have entire departments for managing co-op funds and struggle to get partners to use them.

Overall these strategies are great for when you are starting to build your brand.  Ideally as your company grows so should your marketing budget and resources.  I’ve seen too many companies not do this and then when the economy goes south they panic.  Branding on a budget mostly requires creativity and savvy.  Building your brand requires a commitment to marketing and an understanding of its importance to your organization.  As with any organizational activity use your budget wisely, evaluate vendors and perform your due diligence.

I want to thank Ashley, Phil and everyone that attended and asked great questions.

What are your tips for getting the most from your marketing budget?

I had a great meeting with a training company today. We discussed many topics but one of the points that really hit home with me was when they stated that companies want to measure training ROI during economic downturns. Many times training gets cut much like marketing and the investment in the future opportunity is lost.

I’ve worked for many companies in my career and only one sticks out in my mind that got training right. I was the Marketing Director for Huffman Corporation a small manufacturer in Clover, SC, about 30 miles southwest of Charlotte. Huffman made multi-axis, superabrasive machinery that made parts for aircraft engines, turbines and other heavy metal parts. Huffman had a training policy that allotted and required each employee to take 40 hours of training each year.

At prior employers training was only mandated if there was a new product or service purchased and no one knew how to use it. Usually it required so much approval to get funding for training that either the dates passed or you got tired of explaining 17 ways to Sunday why it’s important for you to take the training. So when I heard that my company would give me a week of training I was ecstatic and a bit skeptical. However there were no tricks to this gift. The training had to be relevant to your work.

So I took two classes that year, one in HTML and the other in Microsoft Access. Both classes gave me the basic understanding of the technology and applications that I needed to build new tools (remember this was 1998 and web sites and CRM were new). Within a few months I had built a ROI database to measure all of my marketing leads and redesigned some pages for the company site. The training was not expensive, probably around $600 total.

My excitement came when I showed the company president my lead tracking reports generated from my database. He asked where I generated it from and I replied that I created the database using Access after my training. His eyes lit up because this was exactly why he created the training policy in the first place. The ROI was right in front of him.

Now many people view training as time to get out of the office. I’ve even heard it mentioned as vacation by some. These are the people who will end up asking you how to use the new technology once it’s implemented since they did not embrace the educational opportunity. These are the people that are checking email and surfing the web during training.

Other times I’ve had company management ask me to take training and then come back and train the rest of the team. This usually fails due to several reasons. I’m not a corporate trainer and I tend to get frustrated when people don’t learn as fast as me. With software I tend to quickly grasp the concepts and dive into the tools features and functionality. Those who are slower will drown in my wake!

Another reason it failed is because I usually don’t have time to customize and prepare training materials. Having examples to demonstrate how the tool works is vital to showing users standard approaches and best practices. Either way going cheap on training will cost you in productivity, quality and important customer engagements.

Therefore you’re ROI in training for important tools and technology is the same as your ROI in marketing. It’s an investment in your people; infrastructure and processes that managed correctly will pay dividends for years to come. If you expect a quick return on training you are only looking at half of the picture. Yes your staff comes back from training ready to use the new tool but initially there is some time investment in starting or changing the process.

How do you measure ROI for your training? Do you have to approve staff training or does it go through HR? Does your company have a training policy?

Last week I attended the Triangle AMA CMO panel, a great event with four Chief Marketing Officers from SAS, Concord Hospitality, Cheerwine and Genworth Financial.  One of the presenters, Jim Davis, SAS CMO, said something that really hit home.  Jim stated that your company’s brand is not the logo but what is felt and the customers’ reaction.  I could not agree with him more and so many times I find the wrong use of brand terminology and the true meaning.

I hear many times a request to, “put more branding,” on a marketing piece or campaign.  This conjures up an image of me getting my iron brand fired up in my workshop so I can “brand” what ever physical piece I can get my hand on.  Word of advice, doing this to your monitor will ruin it so don’t try this at home.  For more about how I dislike corporate America creating non-words that make me feel like at 18th century blacksmith, see my post on “wordsmithing.”

Modern corporate culture always takes great concepts and turns them into buzzwords and verbs.  Personally I don’t feel like you “brand” anything or apply “branding.”  Many reference sites will tell you that a brand exists because there is a logo and a company that offers the brand’s product or service.  These are brand names and brand identity.  Going back to what Jim Davis said, “a brand is felt.”

Most of modern branding research is based on consumer brands.  Surveys and focus groups of loyal customers will tell researchers how they love the brand for various reasons.  Most will focus around quality, consistency and value.  These are what comprise a brand promise.  Consumers will come to expect these values when purchasing and engaging with brand products and services and will let you know when they do not met expectations or fail to deliver.  When asked to recommend a product or service a trusted friend or coworker will express these feelings.

Being in the services industry, brand development takes on a whole new approach.  My company offers business analytics consulting services and I am constantly telling our consultants that their actions are our brand.  How they dress, communicate and deliver on projects is the feelings that the customer will experience and communicate back to us, our partners and potential new clients.  It’s important for our solutions to work and the people that create and deliver them to provide a sense of security and trust.  No matter how much creative marketing I do to communicate my company's brand values, it is up to each and every consultant to deliver on that value on every project.  If this fails to happen then the brand value is tarnished and requires attention to rebuilding the customer's perception of our brand.

And that’s what it’s all about, trust.  We hear a lot about trust these days, from government, financial institutions, family and technology.  Privacy concerns are stemming from all the information being posted to social networks.  Consumers trust big institutions less and less as well as our federal government.  But yet we continue to trust our brands to provide the value and level of satisfaction we’ve become accustomed to receiving.  In doing this they build upon the brand promise and reaffirm the customer's purchasing decision.

That’s why brands have become so important in our life.  The feelings and trust we associate with our favorite products and services give us a comfort level.  And it’s not just consumer products; business brands play a vital role in our life.  From laptops and mobile phones to paper and office furniture, we expect our business brands to perform at higher levels than our personal brands.  And why not, they frequently are dramatically more expensive.

What is your definition of a brand? Is it the logo or commercial or how you feel when interacting with the brand, its representatives and partners?  Do you think adding a logo to a marketing piece is branding?

Sometimes you get so engaged and excited that you forget some of the chaos you cause by going 90 miles an hour.  I had an interesting conversation with a former co-worker who brought to my attention how this was happening to me and causing confusion about my company’s brand.  The conversation centered on some confusion about my current job status and many people had asked her who do I work for.  Even my wife had someone ask her at last week’s Media Leaders event, “What the Heck does your husband do?”

Multiple positions and brands can create confusion on your LinkedIn Profile

Now I did realize in the back of my mind that this was happening but was not really aware of the confusion it was causing and how it could affect my company’s brand.  So I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and set the record straight as well as share the insight I discovered during this process.

Most of the confusion stemmed from my LinkedIn profile. In the past 18 months several changes to my “current position” made it appear that I was changing jobs without leaving the last one.  At the end of the day I had four titles in my current position space and can understand how people would say, “what does he do?”

To begin with I am and have been for the past four years the Marketing Director for Zencos, a SAS Alliance Partner that performs business intelligence consulting services.  If you work at SAS you may have heard of us.  Outside of that world most people don’t know who we are and that’s OK.  We’re a small company and we don’t have big egos.

About two years ago I became the Vice President of Social Media for the Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association.  At first my multiple personalities were limited to these two.  I assumed that most people would understand that my VP title at Triangle AMA is a volunteer position.  But assuming is the wrong approach and so my confusion began.

A few months later, Zencos partnered with an individual to develop a new subsidiary called Site Dynamics, which offers site selection software as a service.  I was asked to help with the marketing communications and started developing the corporate identity and marketing materials.  Part of that effort included social media and creating a LinkedIn group.  I figured it would make sense for me to add my latest title of Marketing Director for Site Dynamics to avoid confusion to this new audience of economic development agencies and site selectors.  I mean they have no idea who Zencos is.  So I added a new position to my LinkedIn profile for Site Dynamics.

I figured that was enough, but low and behold, Zencos entered another partnership and created a new subsidiary called SignalShare that offered event based Wi-Fi communications and analytics services.  Now this was where I got a bit too excited.  I created the brand name and designed the logo.  I was able to secure the launch event and was able to write my own title.  So I went hog wild and added another position to my LinkedIn profile and this time why not make it a Vice President position.

OK cool, I have four current positions, well three full time and one volunteer on my profile.  Most people should be able to figure that out, this should not be a problem right? Wrong! It did create confusion about me and my company.  Some people even thought I was SignalShare only, others knew me from Zencos and my fellow Triangle AMA members knew me as the social media guy.  I really made a mess of my profile and created confusion around Zencos’ brand.

So what did I do?  Well I discussed it with my boss and we both agreed that although unplanned, the end result was not what we wanted.  I decided then and there to delete the Site Dynamics and SignalShare positions and put them under my Zencos position as subsidiaries, which is what they are.  I also updated my Triangle AMA position to reflect the fact that it is a volunteer position, hence not full time.

The other problem I discovered what trying to explain this when meeting people in real life was even more confusing.  SO my lesson learned when answering the question what do you do is to say I’m a marketing director and see where it goes.  Don’t try and tell that person all of my titles and activities, they get lost after job number two!

Have you found confusing profiles on LinkedIn? Do you think it can affect the company’s brand when employees look like they have multiple jobs?

Today is Day 25 of my 30 day blogging challenge and I wanted to share some more tips and other wisdom. I have to admit today was a tough motivational day. I still have some topics on my list that I started with at the beginning of the 30 days. But none of them really jumped off the page and inspired me enough to write about the topic.

Staying motivated is a challenge in any process, especially after the “newness” wears off. The first 12 days my energy level really jumped and my brain was buzzing. I was able to have some really clear thoughts on some tough problems because my brain was moving. But after 20 plus days the euphoria can wear off and you are relying on discipline and will to maintain your journey towards the final goal. Of course if I was being paid to write that’s a whole another story. Some of the best motivation has been reading other blogs and meeting a few bloggers both online and in person.

Content is king and finding an interesting topic for you and your readers is tough. I have written posts on topics that I did not have on my initial list which is great as it gave me fresh content such as attending a trade show and speaking at Ignite Raleigh. I think the more active you are the better, and this has been a more active time for me over the past two weeks.

Maintaining a consistent subject matter can be difficult. When I started this blog I wanted to document my work experiences and create an online portfolio. Now I realize that I have been writing about past experiences, current events and topics and where marketing is going. Keeping a marketing and communication focus is important but not required. Tagging also helps keep your blog concise, if you are creating new tags frequently then look at your tags to see if they are relevant to your subject matter.

Blogging is different than writing in many ways. The length of typical blog posts tends to be shorter than newspaper or magazine articles. From a writing perspective I am more used to a longer format to explain the details and influencing factors to the story. Blogging to me seems to be shorter creative burst of ideas without delving too deep into the analysis. Blogs allow us to get a quick gist of the topic and tend to link or relate to another source even within the blog itself.

Well five days left and then I have met my goal. I like that I will be ending on a Friday so I can relax next weekend!

I remember someone asking me in 1995 when I was building my first web site and describing how cool this new technology was, “Hey can you help me get on the interweb?” Sure I said, just take a left on the Internet superhighway and look for the exit that starts with http://www and you’ll be there! Of course this request was better than the person telling me how AOL was the entire Internet as well as this new web thing he had heard about.

If you are active on social media sites today you may have people ask you for help much in the same way people needed assassinate first getting on the Internet. Tech savvy and web geeks have no trouble getting on a nice clean interface like Facebook. But some people out there need the helping hand to guide them through the process cleanly the first time versus them stumbling through it and not being satisfied with the outcome.

You have to be judicious in your efforts to assist those needing your help. I remember when Windows 95 came out and I offered my assistance to help a co-worker if he needed it. Next thing I knew his wife was calling me at 10 p.m. on a Friday night upset and wanting to know if I would guarantee that Windows would install on her computer correctly. After listening to her vent for awhile I told her in a cordial way, “You want a guarantee call Bill Gates.”

I was not being mean to this person, I merely wanted to let them know that I am but a simple marketing geek and she needed a titan. When asked for assistance now, I tell people to be prepared. I will make time to assist you but do some basic pre-work so we can get rolling and get results in an hour or less.

For starters they need to have a personal email address to use. If they are interested in blogging, YouTube and other Google sites I suggest using Google Gmail for easier single sign on. If they have another account and they are comfortable with it that’s good to but they may not want their corporate email so they can filter and track messages coming from social networks. I find that it clutters up your work inbox and can easily distract you when working.

Other pre-work can include digging up their resume, bio or any other material written about them to use as a base for writing their online profile. If they are getting on LinkedIn tell them to list any awards they received or honors bestowed on their company when they worked there. A nice photo or headshot if they have one is essential for creating the profile as well. No headless icons please! Any additional content they may have such as videos, music, documents, etc. is good but may not be required to get started.

Now that your new pupil has done their homework, you can jump right in and get started building their profile, finding friends and contacts and being a part of their new online community. Do you have any tips when people ask you to help them get online and learn how to use Web 2.0 technology?

Last night I had the opportunity to have five minutes to pitch an idea on creating a grassroots network for Downtown Raleigh Wi-Fi at Ignite Raleigh. This was the first time for the event in Raleigh and it was a great success. Good speakers, variety of topics, lots of socializing and great planning by Our Hashtag made it the event of Triangle Tech Week.

I have to admit that I was extremely nervous going up on stage. I had not given a speech on a stage to that many people since I was in college. The difference was that I did not have a set time limit, no slides and I had a podium to use for my notes. If you have not spoken in front of a large crowd and on a stage before, or it's been awhile, it's tough! The last time I was that nervous was the days leading up to my kids being born.

I am busy preparing for my five minutes at Ignite Raleigh on Wednesday night at the Lincoln Theatre. The format is that each presenter gets five minutes to present their idea and their 20 slides will advance every 15 seconds. I finished my presentation yesterday and sent to the organizers after rehearsing my slides, timing and fine tuning my message.

I think this format should be adopted for every corporate presentation. We've all heard about never have more than ten slides. But how many times have you been in a presentation of ten slides that lasted over 30 minutes? Much worse is the person with 20 slides that last an hour or more! I get sleep creep just thinking about it!

The challenge of getting your message across in five minutes is one we should all adhere to. Ideally if you have more to explain you should have an executive summary or a detailed document for your audience to dig into on their own. The new rule should be you have exactly five minutes to present with ten minutes for question and answer session.

Another lesson I learned from preparing this presentation was that it's not critical to explain every bullet point. Some items are self explanatory and do not need to be repeated. Also if there is time for questions and answers this can be accomplished then. My biggest challenge when presenting is staying focused, on topic and communicating clearly. Interruptions during presentations tend to get us off track and possibly turn the conversation away from the main topic, delving into specifics.

I want to thank the organizers of Ignite Raleigh for a fantastic job of getting over 500 people signed up and excited about this event. If you're attending tomorrow night say thank you to the sponsors and organizers who have volunteered their time to make it happen (Wayne Sutton @waynesutton; Kipp Bodnar @kbodnar32; Jeff Cohen @dgtlpapercuts; Ryan Boyles @therab). You can find more information at http://igniteraleigh.com/.