I don't know about their other offices, but the LA/Orange County office in CA is good. They've remembered who I am when I called, and were up front about how slow the market was. I was pretty impressed that I got emails from one of the recruiters (forget her name) just letting me know that they were still looking. They eventually did get me a job, even though it took a while.
I'd put it on your website. If it is well written and informative, people will find it, either via google, or some other engine. Once they do find it, and if it's good, people will link to it. Don't worry about putting it somewhere in particular. One of the nice things about the current incarnation of search engines is that the good stuff really does rise to the top. Plus, you have the added benefit of upping your pagerank.:)
Get new clients
Sounds to me like you already have a business. I think that the most important thing is getting the word out. Since you already have a client list, you have a great start -- you have people who you have done work for in your community who can help you. I would suggest calling each and every one and letting them know that you are trying to turn this into a full time business. Ask them if they know of anyone who they know might be looking for web design.
Keep your existing clients.
Set up a quick php/mysql database or out look contact list with notes about each or your clients and the last time that they had work done.Set up an email to remind you three months from the last time you spoke to them, and give them a call. Tell them that you are just checking up, and seeing if they needed any updates to the site, etc. Make sure that you keep notes on the conversation that you have, so you can refer to the last conversation: "Oh, I tried that resturant that you reccomended, you were right, we love it." or "So how are those classes going?"
Advertise
It's expensive to get a full page advertisement in the local paper, but it might be worth it. It's not the only way, though: You can drive around and drop off mailers at small businesses, or offer to do a free seminar on how to use the internet to help your small business at the library or chamber of commerce or SBA, etc. It gets your name out and establishes you as a local "expert"
From what I understand, this is a very hard business to be in, with lots and lots of competition. You can do it, but your best product is your customer service and your best friend is word of mouth. Things like birthday cards help you stand out. Try as hard as possible to never to let anyone leave dissapointed with your service, or product: angry people talk a lot more that people who are satisfied, and it doesn't matter if they were wrong when they tell someone you "ripped them off", the person you told isn't going to take the chance.
For each item to vote on, you have a set of boxes. In the set you have the arnold box, the garry coleman box, etc. For each vote, you are given a ball which can fit into one set of boxes. Each set would be a different size, to make sure that you could not cast more than one vote. Then you just put them into a sorting machine that counts the balls.
be supplimenting the power grid with solar. Solar is only really bad for the environment when run non-attached to the grid, because it stores it's power in batteries. We should have a grandfather program where all new houses had solar power (if conditions in the area were condusive) and attached to the grid.
Currently if you want to hook up you have to go though mountains of paperwork. If you had thousands of houses getting rid of 1% of their power consumption during peak hours and giving the rest of the grid the power it's generating when the hose is not using power, we would have a huge reduction in these problems. Hell, even if we all started using just Solar powered Air Conditioners that would probably make a huge difference too.
I don't know if I like the idea of having the California State Department of OSS or somesuch, but government agencies do in fact create OSS. One good example is NSA Security Enhanced Linux.
It's a good thing that we don't have a DMCA-style piece of legislation for weapons, or any person who has PVC pipes, potatos and hairspray in their house could be brought up on charges.
I think that the difference, or at least the argued difference, would be that PVC pipes, potatoes, and hairspray all have other primary uses. I think that if the software created to (hack|crack) the satellites was created as software that added, say, the ability to store MP3's on the reciever, or add subtitles etc., then it would be a lot harder to prosecute this case. If the software has one, and only one purpose, I can see their argument.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about their other offices, but the LA/Orange County office in CA is good. They've remembered who I am when I called, and were up front about how slow the market was. I was pretty impressed that I got emails from one of the recruiters (forget her name) just letting me know that they were still looking. They eventually did get me a job, even though it took a while.
I'd put it on your website. If it is well written and informative, people will find it, either via google, or some other engine. Once they do find it, and if it's good, people will link to it. Don't worry about putting it somewhere in particular. One of the nice things about the current incarnation of search engines is that the good stuff really does rise to the top. Plus, you have the added benefit of upping your pagerank. :)
Get new clients
Sounds to me like you already have a business. I think that the most important thing is getting the word out. Since you already have a client list, you have a great start -- you have people who you have done work for in your community who can help you. I would suggest calling each and every one and letting them know that you are trying to turn this into a full time business. Ask them if they know of anyone who they know might be looking for web design.
Keep your existing clients.
Set up a quick php/mysql database or out look contact list with notes about each or your clients and the last time that they had work done.Set up an email to remind you three months from the last time you spoke to them, and give them a call. Tell them that you are just checking up, and seeing if they needed any updates to the site, etc. Make sure that you keep notes on the conversation that you have, so you can refer to the last conversation: "Oh, I tried that resturant that you reccomended, you were right, we love it." or "So how are those classes going?"
Advertise
It's expensive to get a full page advertisement in the local paper, but it might be worth it. It's not the only way, though: You can drive around and drop off mailers at small businesses, or offer to do a free seminar on how to use the internet to help your small business at the library or chamber of commerce or SBA, etc. It gets your name out and establishes you as a local "expert"
From what I understand, this is a very hard business to be in, with lots and lots of competition. You can do it, but your best product is your customer service and your best friend is word of mouth. Things like birthday cards help you stand out. Try as hard as possible to never to let anyone leave dissapointed with your service, or product: angry people talk a lot more that people who are satisfied, and it doesn't matter if they were wrong when they tell someone you "ripped them off", the person you told isn't going to take the chance.
good luck!Species of Windows Programmer: human
Species of OpenBSD Programmer: human
Chances of human error making it into openbsd code: far less
ps: decent troll.
--
Nick Bernstein
http://nicholasbernstein.com
For each item to vote on, you have a set of boxes. In the set you have the arnold box, the garry coleman box, etc. For each vote, you are given a ball which can fit into one set of boxes. Each set would be a different size, to make sure that you could not cast more than one vote. Then you just put them into a sorting machine that counts the balls.
be supplimenting the power grid with solar. Solar is only really bad for the environment when run non-attached to the grid, because it stores it's power in batteries. We should have a grandfather program where all new houses had solar power (if conditions in the area were condusive) and attached to the grid.
Currently if you want to hook up you have to go though mountains of paperwork. If you had thousands of houses getting rid of 1% of their power consumption during peak hours and giving the rest of the grid the power it's generating when the hose is not using power, we would have a huge reduction in these problems. Hell, even if we all started using just Solar powered Air Conditioners that would probably make a huge difference too.
I don't know if I like the idea of having the California State Department of OSS or somesuch, but government agencies do in fact create OSS. One good example is NSA Security Enhanced Linux.
-Nick Bernstein
It's a good thing that we don't have a DMCA-style piece of legislation for weapons, or any person who has PVC pipes, potatos and hairspray in their house could be brought up on charges.
I think that the difference, or at least the argued difference, would be that PVC pipes, potatoes, and hairspray all have other primary uses. I think that if the software created to (hack|crack) the satellites was created as software that added, say, the ability to store MP3's on the reciever, or add subtitles etc., then it would be a lot harder to prosecute this case. If the software has one, and only one purpose, I can see their argument.