Episode 1: How Online Communities Can Help Grow Your Business

Today we are chatting with Crystal Petersen of Crystal Petersen Design & Lettering. She is a freelance Calligrapher and Graphic Designer specializing in calligraphy-inspired branding design and wedding accents and she also runs an Etsy/CreativeMarket shop selling digital resources for iPad Calligraphy called The Ampersand Shop.

Crystal started her business immediately after graduating from college and has been freelancing ever since. Amazing, right?! In this episode, we talk about tons of important topics such as making the leap and starting your business after you graduate, feeling isolated when working from home and most importantly, how you can utilize online communities to grow your network and business. We also discussed some awesome marketing strategies that will help anyone starting out get on the right track.

Taking the Plunge Into Full Time As a Recent Grad:

Crystal mentioned that she really enjoyed making art with a purpose and found that she was passionate about graphic design in college. Her advice to recent grads who are looking to jump into any field is to:

Gather the portfolio of your best work and have it in one place where people can access it.
Post your resume in a Facebook group or give it to a trusted college, professor or someone you admire to look over. (This is how Crystal landed her first job out of college. She posted her resume in a Facebook group and one of the members was so impressed that they hired her to do freelance work for them!)

Online Communities:

Both Crystal and I have utilized online communities like Facebook groups, Instagram pods and messaging and LinkedIn to grow our networks and communities. Joining these groups can be a great way to find like-minded people to talk to and ask questions when you are feeling isolated at your “work from home” business. Crystal made a good point that there are different rules in these communities that you want to make sure you follow.

For example, some communities are for self-promotion but the kind that helped her the most are used as more of a resource and forum for collaboration. Some of Crystal’s tips on how to interact with these groups are:

Approach these groups as a community of industry people…not people who want to be sold to constantly.
The ultimate goal is to provide value, learn, give feedback and connect and overly self-promoting can clutter up the feed.
Read the rules of the group usually stated by the admins (you don’t want to get your posts or yourself deleted for misusing the group).

Strategies For When You Are Just Starting Out:

Don’t give in to the “Shiny Object” Syndrome! This can be so difficult when you are passionate about a lot of things, however, Crystal suggests that finding your niche and specializing in that will add more value to your clients ( aka It’s better to be an expert at one or two things than mediocre at a lot of things). Crystal nailed it when she said, “you can’t market to everybody because then you are marketing to nobody”.

Once you get an idea of what you want to pursue, Crystal suggested three pages on your website you need FIRST. Don’t overwhelm yourself, just get these three pages solid and then go from there:1. “Services” page- what you offer and what you charge2. “About you” page- Background on who you are and how you are unique3. “Contact” page- a website is useless if people can’t get in touch with you.

When marketing yourself and your business, look to understand how your services or products solve a problem or make your client’s life easier.

Use those online groups as a way to conduct free market research! Ask a question or two about a specific idea you have for your business and you would be surprised how much feedback you will get. (Did I mention that it is also FREE??)

It was so much fun chatting with Crystal and I know your notebook is probably filled with notes about all the amazing advice she shared. Don’t forget to check out the links to all the great resources mentioned in the episode below!