experience

CHOOSING CREATIVE SERVICE PROVIDERS, STEP 1: AVOID HOURLY RATES

This is the first of a seven-post series on how to choose the right creative service provider (writer, designer, photographer, etc.) for your business or organization. This advice is based on what I’ve seen companies do the wrong way over the years. Hope you enjoy and find it useful!

The first step is making sure you avoid the biggest mistake of all, which is to ask your prospective provider “What’s your hourly rate?” Do that, and you’re probably not going to end up with the best provider for your needs and budget.

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THE DEATH OF APPRENTICESHIP

A wise boss once lamented what he called the death of apprenticeship. As organizations downsized, the paths to management were compressed, and people found themselves making decisions that they would have previously waited a decade or two to make.

Where a generation before, a marketing decision-maker would approach those decisions having spent many years working under other decision-makers and learning from them, today, it’s not at all unusual for people fresh out of college to find themselves in control of what companies do. Of course, most leave school with more focused education than in days past, but there’s still a lot to be said for experience.

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