In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature zaxgarner (crowdSPRING username: zaxgarner) today. He lives and works in North Carolina.
Hey cS Community!
Thanks for the opportunity to join you today.
Life has been busy, so I will drop a few brief lines for a quick read & then we can all get back to designing!
1. Please tell us about yourself.
I’m a self described simple man…. 02′ Grad Appalachian State University (the real ASU…in Boone NC) – I think this was also Kevin’s ol’ stomping ground! I majored in Graphic Design & Marketing… in an attempt to balance the business side with the creative. The design department was big on typography & fine art ‘which was a huge plus’. I took classes in casting, photography, clays, & metals etc… I think I could have got by with a little less art history though! The marketing courses were awesome, I enjoyed learning how design/creative work enters our marketplace & society.
Former Rowdy Kid, Construction worker, Repo-Man, & Tattoo artist…. To Graphic Designer. Also a converted Christian since 04′ attempting to operate under Col.3:17.
2. How did you become interested in design?
I started my design career with non-commissioned murals. You know; crayons on walls etc… & tracing drawing books to keep up with my older brothers. I won a few art contests in kindergarten & found out that this design thing could pay off – The hook was set!
3. What is your favorite project from the past year?
In listening to a podcast I found out Concealment Solutions – in Orem Utah was hosting an independent T-Shirt design competition for their best selling concealment holster – ‘The Black Mamba’. In working with the owner we got the Tee nailed down & the project evolved into a complete branding package for: Concealment Solution’s primary logo, Misc. Product logos, Business cards & web headers etc… I still have a great working relationship with them… with future projects on the horizon! They sent a me a bunch of gear as an added bonus!
There is a myth that has developed over the years about entrepreneurs and their legendary 20 hour days. Everyone knows that we eat all of our meals at the office, sleep under our desks, never see our families, and forgo friends and social lives. Well there is a certain truth to that, but the entrepreneurial life (along with mobile devices, ubiquitous internet connections, and collaboration tools) can, I argue, allow some semblance of normality in our existence.
The truth is that we make our own schedules, set our own priorities, and determine our own agendas. This allows a great deal of leeway in how we organize our time, where we choose to do our work, when we wish to take a break, and how we conduct our personal relationships. These are some simple ways maintain control over our own lives; a great quality of life is not a right that we sign away when we start a company. Here are 5 things you can do to find more time for everything that life has to offer (everything outside of work, that is)
1. Time yourself.
Although every day of an entrepreneur’s existence is unlike the previous days, there are probably certain tasks you perform every singe day you go to work. Look for ways to do these more efficiently and more effectively. The first step in reducing the amount of time you spend on these chores is to make yourself aware of how long a task takes. Payroll this week? Time yourself to see how long it takes and then ask yourself why. Blog post? How can you cut down the time to draft, edit, and post? Do this with all of your ongoing work and I guarantee you will find a spare hour or two to devote to more important things.
2. Stick to a schedule.
The more regular you can be in your approach to your work, the more the time benefits will accrue. For instance, try to schedule regular meetings at a fixed time – this will get everyone involved in the habit of starting (and finishing) on time. Do your emails at a specified time during the day; I tend to do mine early morning when I first wake up, again around 1030 and then again at 330 or 4. This habit keeps me from constantly checking in on email, which in itself is a notorious time drain. Ask yourself what are your most productive hours of the day and schedule the heavy-lifting for those times.
3. Know your priorities.
I make it a point to have dinner with my family every night of the week, although, I admit, this doesn’t always work out. But this is a priority for me to be home with them for that hour, so I arrange my day to accommodate this personal priority. Of course, I go back to the laptop after the dishes are put away, but I am able to spend that precious time with them and stay in touch with their lives. Ask yourself what are your most important considerations and than arrange your days to help you achieve those.
As most of you know, starting a small business is hard. It can be difficult enough when selling to the general public, where things like advertising and promotions can be used. There’s an added element of difficulty when a company wants to receive government contract work.
This week’s small business spotlight is the not-for-profit, The Umbrella Initiative. They focus on connecting disadvantaged businesses with government contracting jobs. The Initiative has three components: teaming, training, and learning that work to educate small business owners on receiving local, State, and Federal contracts. They also strive to build an integral support system and network owners can use when starting the process of seeking contracts.
Ryan Reid of the Umbrella Initiative answered some questions I had:
1. How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
The Umbrella Initiative is a project dedicated to helping small businesses successfully sell to the government – Federal, State, and Local. The project is a support system that consists of online tools, private and public support resources, education opportunities, registration and certification, legal support, and access to capital.
2. What made you use crowdSPRING?
crowdSPRING gave us two advantages: one, access to a large number of designers at a DOT-ORG price, and two, access to a large number of ideas on how our brand should (or could) look in a startup time frame. One of the main concepts behind the Umbrella Initiative is conceptually similar to crowdSPRING – a platform for collaboration – centered around a technology platform, supported by a crowd of diverse resources, all working together to help make businesses more successful.
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The image above is one of a number of funny de-motivational posters – you’ll find more in the Random Fun section below.
We’re thrilled to be part of a new web/TV reality series – Trep Life – giving audiences a unique, 360-degree view of what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.
Each episode will focus on one company or organization. The first episode was about our friends Matt Maloney and Mike Evans from Grub Hub – a terrific place to find every restaurant that will deliver to you. Subsequent episodes focused on was about Lara Miller, a designer and Executive Director of the Chicago Fashion Incubator and serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman.
The current episode features Redbox Founder Mark Rechler. Watch below:
One of the most important things a business can do is to invest the time to understand its customers. This can be accomplished in several ways: by collecting and analyzing business data, by observing customer behavior, or by studying comparable companies. Or, you could always just take the simple approach and ask them. This simple, straightforward method can be done in a few different ways: by speaking to your customers one-on-one as they visit you or you visit them; by convening a small focus group of your customers and hiring an experienced moderator; or by creating an online survey and asking your customers to participate.
All three approaches can give you excellent results at varying cost and reliability, although the first is not particularly scientific. At crowdSPRING we have been very successful with targeted surveys designed to answer specific questions, or to gather detailed information; on separate occasions, we have surveyed our buyers to better understand their demographics; to get a clearer picture of their satisfaction; and to specifically understand why some projects fail. We have also surveyed separate groups of Creatives on the site to get a clear picture of their professional backgrounds; to understand what new tools they would like us to develop; and to clarify exactly what motivates them to participate.
We approach these surveys scientifically and always recruit a large enough group of participants to provide a statistically meaningful sample (you can read more about this here). We have learned a great deal through reading and understanding best practices, but also (and of equal importance) through trial and error about how to run a successful survey. I’ve put together some tips and tools that will be useful to you as you plan the process of surveying your own customers and clients. Good luck!
1. Define a goal.
The most important thing you can do when planning a survey is to decide what exactly you want to know. Is this about customer satisfaction? Behavior? Demographics (or “firmographics”)? Take the time to determine what you wish to understand and plan your survey accordingly – your goals should, in large part, drive the design and execution of your survey.
2. Recruit the right participants.
If you are fortunate enough to have a large user base, take the time to segment properly. For instance, if the goal of the survey is to understand your customer’s attitudes towards medicare you might want to only survey those over 55 years of age. Alternately if you want to know more about your customers tastes in indy rock, you may want to target the under 30 set.
3. Incentivize properly.
You say you want participation? Toms of responses? Piles of data to analyze? Well then you’ll need to offer something of value in return. Professional market researchers will tell you that you will receive a significantly higher response rate if you offer a prizes (or compensation of some sort) for participation; even a token award or modest raffle will increase response rates meaningfully.
4. Craft your questions well.
Remember that the quality of the responses you receive is in large part a measure of the quality of the questions you ask. First thing first: keep em short and easy to understand; participants will have little patience with long or confusing questions. Next, start with the easy questions, then move on to the more complex – this will serve to draw the respondent into your survey and lead to higher completion rates. Use a variety of question types: multiple choice checkboxes, likert scale, yes/no; by mixing these up you will hold the participants interest and lead to greater engagement and more accurate responses. Finally take care that your questions are not leading or biased; remember you want their answers, not just the ones you’d like them to give.
5. Keep it short, make it fun.
A good survey should take less than 10 minutes for the respondent to complete. Five is even better. For the best results, make sure that your survey is focused, goal oriented (see #1 above), and above all, BRIEF!
Being from the Midwest, I’m pretty familiar with wind mills. Driving through Iowa, Indiana or southern Illinois, they’re pretty hard to miss towering and turning on the horizon. In contrast, the only solar panel I’ve seen in real life was in Forest City, Iowa, a town I’d be hard-pressed to find a handful of people who have heard of it.
The folks over at PVPower are trying to change this disparity. Founded in 2009 by three long-time renewable energy supporters, PVPower functions as an e-commerce distributor of solar components– including solar panels. From 2009 – 2010, the company grew 750%, a testament to both rising consumer interest and company vision. With green technology becoming more and more in demand, many homeowners are struggling to connect with companies that sell products like solar panels, but also contractors who can design and install the systems. Recognizing the need for connecting contractors with buyers, the founders of PVPower recently embarked on SolarBear, a web platform for bringing the two together.
PVPower co-founder Nick Yecke answered some questions I had:
1. How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
PVPower sells solar panels to contractors and homeowners across the U.S. through our website at pvpower.com. We’re also building a website that’s going to make it as easy to plan and buy a home solar system as it is to plan a trip on Kayak.com.
2. What are some industry specific challenges you faced?
Residential solar installations are much more prevalent in other parts of the country, not necessarily Chicago or the Midwest. This has been something that has definitely challenged us as we’ve grown, especially as we’ve networked and raised money predominantly in and around the Midwest.
Solar is also growing at an alarming pace, something that most in the Midwest probably don’t realize. Today it’s growing at nearly 40% year over year, that’s faster than mobile phones ever did in the U.S. – now that’s staggering. So keeping up with demand, pricing, inventory, customers… you name it is both challenging and also a lot of fun. We’re literally in the eye of the storm as this new energy infrastructure is being created. Exciting times.
Echotone, is a stellar documentary covering life in the Live Music Capital of the World, also known as Austin, TX. As people flock to Austin to experience its eclectic music culture, it produces a catch-22 for those working artists and their new neighbors. Echotone showcases the fight between the preservation of the music scene and development of Austin’s infrastructure.
Echotone is not only a social commentary, but also a telescope into the lives of Austin’s working musicians struggling with finances, integrity and originality, and the vicious cycle of almost catching a break. The documentary spotlights several local artists, such as Black Joe Lewis from Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears, who delivers fish by day and sells out concert venues by night, singing songs about being broke while hundreds of fans sing their praise. Then there is the dynamic Bill Baird from Sound Team, who had a brief stint at Capital Records, only to be dropped shortly after. And Cari Palazzolo, who fears that her band, Belaire’s success will rob their music of its art and transform it into another commodity. Echotone takes you on a roller-coaster through the construction of a city crumbling at its base, which is the Austin music scene.
Since we love you guys so much here is the official Echotone Soundtrack free for you to download. Rock on CrowdSpring!
Bands Featured on Echotone Soundtrack
Bill Baird, Belaire, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Dana Falconberry, Fancy Feast, Ghostland Observatory, Hacienda, JC&CO, Machine, Sound Team, Sunset, The Apeshits, The Black Angels, The Octopus Project, The Pity Party, The Strange Boys, The White White Lights, and Ume
crowdSPRING is the world's #1 marketplace for entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofits and agencies who need custom logo design, web design, a new company name or other writing and design services. Over 110,000 designers and writers work on crowdSPRING. We are trusted by more than 27,000 happy clients around the world.
department was big on typography & fine art ‘which was a huge plus’. I took classes in casting, photography, clays, & metals etc… I think I could have got by with a little less art history though! The marketing courses were awesome, I enjoyed learning how design/creative work enters our marketplace & society.
3. What is your favorite project from the past year?
There is a myth that has developed over the years about entrepreneurs and their legendary 20 hour days. Everyone knows that we eat all of our meals at the office, sleep under our desks, never see our families, and forgo friends and social lives. Well there is a certain truth to that, but the entrepreneurial life (along with mobile devices, ubiquitous internet connections, and collaboration tools) can, I argue, allow some semblance of normality in our existence.
One of the most important things a business can do is to invest the time to understand its customers. This can be accomplished in several ways: by collecting and analyzing business data, by observing customer behavior, or by studying comparable companies. Or, you could always just take the simple approach and ask them. This simple, straightforward method can be done in a few different ways: by speaking to your customers one-on-one as they visit you or you visit them; by convening a small focus group of your customers and hiring an experienced moderator; or by creating an online survey and asking your customers to participate.
Echotone, is a stellar documentary covering life in the Live Music Capital of the World, also known as Austin, TX. As people flock to Austin to experience its eclectic music culture, it produces a catch-22 for those working artists and their new neighbors. Echotone showcases the fight between the preservation of the music scene and development of Austin’s infrastructure.
