American Results

Facelift, ouch

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:07:09 +0000

Just made this website a little bit more concise and easier to update more often, ha!

Looking forward to updating you all on our projects.

Keeping your eyes open is the best way to drive

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:26:41 +0000

Amazing enough there are those who have made their lives harder by making a first step with their hands over their eyes. Here at American Results, we have had our shares of that very same, shall we call it “learning time”, and how wonderful it is to come out of it alive. Whenever there is an impulse to move forward without a proper understanding of where it is you are headed, you might wind up having a days that start with “how the heck did we end up here?”

If you pull away from your situation as if you were seeing omnipotent like, then you will discover where your blind direction is taking/could be taking, you.

Here is a great source of wonderful information (I think it is only $4 now, so you get your rolls of pennies out and blow it all on this, it is worth it.):

By Michael E. Gerber – HarperBusiness (2007) – Paperback – 464 pages – ISBN 0060723238

The bestselling author of phenomenally successful and continually vital The E-Myth Revisited presents the next big step in entrepreneurial management and leadership with E-Myth Mastery.

A practical, real-world program that is implemented real-time into your business, Gerber begins by engaging the reader in understanding why the entrepreneur is so critical to the success of any enterprise, no matter how small or large it may be, and why the mindset of an entrepreneur is so integral to the operating reality of the organization, of the small business, and the enterprise. He then covers seven essential skills: Leadership Marketing Money Management Lead Conversion Lead Generation Client Fulfilment Each of these seven skills is presented through a specific training module with corresponding tests and exercises that explain the content and principles to be learned, provide case studies and examples, as well as worksheets for applying those ideas to the business. Gerber ties it all together by helping readers put the pieces together in an E-Myth Business, an E-Myth Practice and an E-Myth Enterprise. This is the book that will show you the difference between being an entrepreneur versus doing a job, how to get money when the bank won’t give it to you, how to expand your customer base when big business moves in down the street, how to develop the best people when you can’t afford to pay them competitive wages, how to increase the predictability of what your business is able to promise, and then how to keep that promise, every single time, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Mastery is a business development program that helps you turn your company into a world-class operation…into a turn-key money machine!

Making you work day count, after all you don’t want others to laugh at you, do you?

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:39:36 +0000

Having a lot of work in front of you can result in or potentially result in, priorities being pushed down the list. Also know as procrastination, there is always something that could be and probably will be, a distraction but, not the good type of distraction like you need when you have been working too much, no, only the bad type that makes your work come last. The last time I had a project and left the hard stuff until the end, the project ended up in the digital trash and had to be redone from scratch, ouch. All that time spent on a project rushing to get it done at the last minute and nothing to show for it, except the understanding that I personally can not get a great piece of work done if it is not worked on as priority. In all aspects of life, if you put the most important, less fun, projects first then you will notice that you start to become that superhero guy/girl that everyone talks about, in a good way.

For example:

Clean dishes in the sink or spin a coin on the table? Now class, which is less fun but, could make your life easier when you need a clean plate and all you have are ones with pizza cheese stuck to them?

Or what about:

Research marketing tactics to help the company grow, that will take a long time to perfect, OR play the awe inspiring, magnificent, classic computer game solitaire? I know, I know, amazingly enough you probably want to play solitaire then do the project that will be long and possibly boring, I mean enriching and beneficial (hopefully the boss doesn’t look up from his game of Ultimate Solitaire Showdown to read this).

People will respect and could reward you for putting the hard stuff first and could make life better for you and others.

I think the point I would like you to take away from this is, be the superhero and get it done now, not after (fill in the blank).

(I started watching this, going into a trance like state and had to pause it so I could finish this article, that is the power of priority.)

Let me know if you have ever had a situation where you got stuck on something and had to pull yourself away to get the less fun stuff done.

When people want the world but, only pay for a pebble.

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:34:32 +0000

We all like to believe that getting “the job”, “the project” and working to our best is going to get us paid more than the slacker next guy however, that is not always the case. For example, when AR got started, over 4 years ago, there was a time that simple web project would take over a month to complete for pennies per hour. Before you start to wonder if we were just ill-equip, didn’t have a clue as to what we were doing, made a bunch of mistakes from clients to software, well, we were and did all of that. Make your mistakes with the first few, as long as you communicate with the client on a daily or every other day basis, then they might not mind that things are taking longer then expected.

The biggest reason we took so long was we wanted all of our clients, from the top down, first to last, highest to lowest paying, best looking to… well you get the point, to be something great. Something great for the client and something great for us. Those clients where the starting point for more clients and we never regretted working so hard with such little monetary return. So, make the choice to be great from the start and you will get the clients you want, when you want them, for as much you want them to pay for, eventually.

If you plan to start and stay on the road to being great, and take great direction along the way, there will be nothing to stop your momentum to greatness.

This series of Ira Glass youtube videos is great for anyone looking to get some great direction:

(click on images to watch videos here)

Contracts only work when you use them.

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:54:33 +0000

We at AR work with a lot of clients from all around the globe and every now-and-then we have to revamp our contract to fit with the particular client we are working with. There are even cases that a client has a better suggestion of how to make our contracts better, and since we know that we are not perfect, we love suggestions.

Here are tons of resources online for how to form a freelance or company contract that is right for you:

Terms and Conditions for Design Contracts
An extremely helpful post by Shel Perkins that seeks to inform designers about the terminology and general conditions of contracts.
Web Design Contracts – The How and Why’s of Contracts
This is another post full of great information that talks about the reasons why designers need to use contracts.
What goes into a good web design contract?
It is a question that every designer should ask themselves at one time or another, and this fabulously informative post from Idea15 answers that question.
Using freelance graphic design contracts
An article by David Airey dealing with the whys and hows of using freelance design contracts.
Business of Design Online Forms
The Business of Design Online offers a number of useful forms free for download and use.
Freelance Contracts
A great contract template which makes it easy for freelancers to fill in their own information.
Logo Design Contract of Agreement
This is an actual contract drawn up by Logo Designer, Joni Solis, and is a good example to look at when you start drawing up a contract of your own.
Work for Hire Agreement
A form necessary to ensure copyright transfer and protect your creative firm when you outsource work to other freelancers. Guaranteeing that you will retain all rights to the work.
Freelance Design Contracts & Templates
A fantastic resource full of free downloadable design contracts and alterable templates for easy customization.
AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services
This agreement allows you to create customized terms and conditions for different types of design engagements.

Push as if you love it.

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:48:48 +0000

We here are often being pushed into a situation where we are not always the best and that is where you really start to see growth that was never there before. The great thing about the way we have decided to do a project by being open to the possibilities and willing to make those possibilities a reality.

When have you been pushed in a project to do more then you thought possible and in turn have been able to really grow from that experience?

You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.
Andrew Carnegie

Daily learning is food for the mind.

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:58:33 +0000

Here at AR we are always on the look out for new ways to learn great things. The awesome revolution of the internet is, if you look hard enough for the answer you will find it, or at least something close to that answer. Here are some of the daily sites we visit to get that creative juice machine working:

ae.tutsplus.com (actually all of the tuts channels are great)

and last but not least… smurfs.com

Let us know what website you visit for great info juice.

Wow, a brand new site!

AR staff/ Mr. Write — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:24:47 +0000

So, we have decided to redesign the site using a WordPress framework this time. I know, I know, why use WordPress when our job so many times has been to make wonderful websites from scratch? Well, I guess we are just too busy making those wonderful websites, graphics and videos to do anything else from scratch. A lot of times a carpenter doesn’t make his own house, even if he is more then capable.

We will try to post on a regular basis about projects that we are working on and have complete so that you stay up-to-date.

Thank you,