
Artists, is Your ‘Personal Brand’ Eating Your Paycheck?
Making a career as an artist is rarely easy, sometimes impossible and usually totally worth it. Sometimes we catch a break and get to skip ahead more quickly than anticipated. Other times we have to put in (very) long hours. Here are a few pitfalls I’ve learned to avoid:

Freelance Life: 4 Tips Setting Your Rates
Ask any freelancer what their rates look like and you’ll most likely get hit with one of three options: hourly rates, per project rates or a mix of the two. But how do freelancers decide on these rates?

Time for Time Off?
Making sure you take time for yourself can lead to a healthier work life
If you need a better reason than being “tired” for taking time off, here are four ways to structure your vacation time that benefit you and your employer.

Buzzwords: Pivot
Generally refers to a shift in entrepreneurial approach; describes the strategy most businesses employ to find the right customer, value proposition and positioning
For this month’s column, I thought I’d reach out to people who made multi-tasking an artform and get them to explain how they so easily “pivot” from one task to another on a daily basis. But I found out that’s only one definition of pivot, and so I pivoted this column to another, more business-oriented version. (See what I did there?)

Freelance Life: Brand Yourself
How to market yourself as a solopreneur
Marketing and branding is an inevitable part of your freelance business. For a marketing person, this is the fun part. For everyone else, this is the part that’s most likely delayed (or never done at all), and thus is a missed opportunity to promote yourself and your business.

Sofar So Good
An international music show has come to Sacramento — but you’ll only find it if you know where to look
Founded in 2010, Sofar’s first shows were in London, but now includes gatherings in 333 cities worldwide — including countries like Switzerland, Azerbaijan, India, Serbia, Egypt, Brazil and Russia. It considers music and musicians as an untapped global resource in the same way that people with a spare bedroom are replacing the hotel establishment.

From Vine to Glass
Sitting on the deck of his family’s tasting room, Warren Bogle looks out over the vineyard his grandfather planted in 1968 in the low-lying land of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. That first planting of 20 acres of vines in Clarksburg transformed the Bogle family from row crop farmers to one of the region’s most successful winemakers.

3 Steps for Consistent Customer Service
Crafting standards is critical to your business
Studies have shown that the only thing worse than bad customer service is inconsistent service, which leaves a consumer confused and wary about what to expect when they walk into a store, call the help desk or send an email. With more choices available than ever before, we all want consistency and to know what to expect in a given situation.

Forget About Perks and Focus on Culture
Culture needs to be a constant priority. You can’t expect a bunch of perks to define your company. Instead, spend some time defining your values — afterall, you already know them. Then make sure everyone on your team has buy-in.

5 Networking Tips for Your Success
Whether you are determined to land your first job, looking to change careers or simply want to meet new people (and develop a life-changing habit in the process), here are five tips to help you cultivate new relationships and multiply your professional opportunities.