How I landed a huge client.

This is a cool story which I thought I should share.

My name is Dan and I finished studying last month. I studied Advertising & Design and have spent the last few weeks searching for jobs, while also researching into the world of IM for the past 6 months. Obviously the ad industry is a hard one to get into as a young pup; So I started a small content creation buisness, as I studied this a lot in my degree.

After learning a huge amount from this forum and a whole lot of personal experimentation, I decided to go for a marketing related job interview for a very popular food chain. The job description called for a design, writer, marketer all in one, which seemed to me to a tee, especially with my new online marketing knowledge. It was a huge longshot as I had no previous related work experience and the job would have heaps of competition because it was such a big 'up&comer' in its industry; with about 20 stores nationwide.

At the interview I blew them away with my online knowledge. All I said was that I could set them up with a facebook fan page and create back links for their current website to build traffic. The most simple things to anyone in this environment, seemed like complex rocket science to them! I basically, just told them what I could do for them in an online sense. They had no idea what I was talking about but were impressed. Anyways I went through two interviews with them (the 2nd speaking to the company founder).

To cut a long story short; a few hours ago I got a phone call from them. They've decided to not give me the job. "You were a close second" Probably the last five words I wanted to hear.

BUT.

There is a BUT.

"We were very impressed by your online expertise, and want to set up a contract with you to improve our online presence."

I couldn't believe it. I've studied advertising, design and writing for four years and they want me for my 6 months of personal IM study.

I have no idea how any of this is going to work, ie payment, hours etc. I'm going in for a meeting with them next week.

Got lots of ideas for how to increase their online presence, but thought I'd post this for 3 reasons.

1. Hungry clients are those companies searching for new marketing employees. There are heaps of jobs going everyday on job listing websites etc. Set up a meeting with them and try and get them as your client as opposed to being their employee. They will be impressed by your knowledge, even if its fairly limited.

2. To thank the great people on this forum. Without your collective knowledge as a constant source to my insatiable thirst for IM, I wouldn't have stood out from Adam to these people.

3.Finally I want to ask for advice from veteran offliners in what my next steps should be. I want to know what kind of payment I should be going for and also how to impress these guys by doing a stellar job, so I can get a massive long term client.

Hope this informs and/or inspires. Any further help from some pros would be fantastic.

Dan