I asked Ryan a few questions via email and, with his permission, I thought I would post them with his answers here in the forum so that others could benefit. Ryan's answers are in blue.
1) How do you bill your clients/invoice your clients? Do you just come to some sort of a verbal agreement and then mail the business an invoice accordingly or do you present them with a written invoice on the spot? Do you wait for payment to arrive before putting the ad in circulation? I assume the answer to those last two questions are yes but I want to know how you do it before I begin adopting a "policy". I put policy in quotes because I believe every situation could present me with a potential twist in whatever policy I would care to adopt.
* I had a bit of a learning curve when I started. At first, I just put their ad in the newsletter, and sent them an invoice in the mail. The problem is that some people are dishonest and do not pay. Then you have the troublesome task of deciding whether or not it is worth it to take them to court for a few hundred dollars. Of course, it isn’t...so you just eat the loss.
* A much better idea is to fill in a contract when you take all the info for their ad. Then ask for a business cheque before you leave. Don’t run their ad until you are paid...it will just bring trouble.
* After you receive payment, you can just email them/or mail them a receipt.
2) I've been thinking that I will likely stagger my newsletter by a couple of weeks. In other words, I will begin buying the templates from you but won't publish the first one until two weeks later. I'm thinking this will allow a couple of things for me: a) some flexibility when it comes to scheduling my time creating each newsletter, b) it will give me a chance to be ahead of the game each week for most of the ad placements and c) make life easier if I was to (at some point in the distant future) take a vacation. I could leave the pre-published newsletter with my delivery guy (assuming I get one at some point) and make things a little less crazy while I'm away. Anyway, those are the upsides. My question is, do you foresee any downsides to this approach?
* we try to have the next 3 issues of the newsletter ready for download from the site. This is for exactly the reason you are talking about. It allows you a little wiggle room. So, you can still publish the first week, and have the next 2 templates ready for you should the need arise.
3) I also have this crazy idea, and it may very well be crazy, that I would have a ball cap made up for myself. I've never been one to dress up in a suit or wear a tie and I don't see that changing anytime soon. It isn't me and I can't see myself as an effective salesperson if I'm not myself to begin with. Now don't get me wrong, I intend to be perfectly presentable and well groomed but as myself, not as a puffed up version of me. I thought it would be good to have a hat with The Laughable News logo on it. I feel like it would present me as someone serious about my business without appearing as a stuffed shirt. What are your thoughts on this? I know this last question may seem a bit strange.
* A ball cap is a great idea. Not formal/stuffy, but it still makes you stand out. It says “I’m from The Laughable News!”.
* We’ve played with the idea of having merchandise like that and t-shirts available on the website for people to purchase. But, the issue is that we are in Canada – which means shipping delays and extra $$$ when sending stuff to the USA.
* I will continue to research the idea, and see if it would be possible to ship cheaply/efficiently to the USA.
* In the mean time, feel free to throw the logo on some caps.
Have a great day,
Ryan Armishaw
Hope this helps others!
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