Creating golems and other spirit helpers is made easier by giving them as much definition as possible.  A computer programmer writes flow charts and logic diagrams before ever banging out a single line of code.  So should a witch define out her golem, entity, or spirit helper as much as possible before she breathes life into it.

Again, I reflect back to my role playing gamer days and just found a wonderful tool that can help me give more definition to the spirits that I create: a character sheet.  After all, the character sheets I found on my server very nicely summed up the qualities of these other non-corporeal magical entities who shared some of my headspace once a week.  Intelligence, strength, charisma, willpower, and a whole big list of things they can do, things they can't do, and what alignment they are. Of course, once I'm done setting up the stats for my spirit helper, I can flip over the character sheet and draw the spirit's sigil on the back.

Often I'll add other sensory triggers for my spirit, especially ones I have worked with a while.  I'll draw a sketch of the spirit.  I'll blend up a special incense just for the spirit.  I'll add on additional decorations to their bottle or housing, to give me additional things to delight my eyes and hands. I might even mix a unique cocktail for the spirit that I share with it.  All of my friends who know me well enough know that I can be easily bribed with cheesecake, good bourbon, and techno toys, and giving me these things will make me all the more amenable to helping you with a computer problem from time to time.  Spirits are much the same; find out and share with them what you learn they'll enjoy, and they'll be much happier to help when you ask.  When trying to determine what my spirit would enjoy, I can look to that character sheet and get a whole lot of guidance.