Posted by Holly on Mar 9, 2010 in
Writing Thanks for visiting! I'm a copywriter and editing consultant for small, creative businesses. I encourage you to find out more about me. If you'd like to work with me, here's how to do it. Also, I'm running a contest right now to win one of five site-review consultations - all you have to do to win is tweet!
You can keep track of me here via my RSS feed, or on Twitter as @copygeniusgirl (semi-personal) and @cottagecopy (business). Thanks again for stopping in!
Hello blog readers!
I have missed you! Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been a little MIA lately, and I’m sorry for it. Sometimes real life just sort of explodes and you have to try and swim your way out for a few days. It’s funny coming back to the blog after a life enforced break: I worry that you guys have all deserted me or something. However, to make it up to you, I have a round-up post of epic proportions; we have contest updates, blog schedules, various and sundry internet discoveries and recommendations, and a CC spaniel update.
First, the contest. So, yes, the time limit thing: sometimes life happens and contests fall by the wayside. However, my busyness is your gain! I am extending the contest another two weeks to make sure that everyone can get in on things. The package is really good, and I want to make sure that everyone who wants one gets a chance to enter. So, if you would like to win a Spring Cleaning package from yours truly, please make sure to either enter by email or via Twitter.
Tomorrow we return to our scheduled blog series, and then Thursday will be a guest post from the wonderful Maggie Marton. On Friday we’ll be back to the basic plots post series. Nothing like covering tragedy, comedy, and grammar all in one week!
Onto the wonderful wide world of the internet; I’ve found a lot of neat stuff in the past few weeks and I’ve been desperately wanting to share some of it. To start, FabGabsVintage is having a sale, which is wonderful and you should all try and get in on it. However, while you’re over there browsing her wonderful stuff, check out the copy on her main page. It’s fantastic, effective, narrative, and stealthy.
Secondly, if you want to post your CV, google maps is probably not the best place to do it.
If you’re a shy marketer (like me) these two links will probably be right up your alley.
Lastly, if you’re interested in seeing Cottage Copy from a more canine perspective, the Cottage Copy spaniel (and secretary in training) now has a Twitter account. Food centric snark abounds.
Posted by Holly on Mar 3, 2010 in
Writing As a student, an obsessive reader, and as a professional, I think this is the plot I feel most attracted to. For me, the attraction started with Beowulf and John Gardener’s Grendel at a very young age, and never left. I would also argue that for our modern lives, this plot is the most applicable in marketing and in life.
Overcoming the monsters, in a classical sense, can be found in every culture and language. For the Greeks, it was the Minotaur that lurked in the heart of the labyrinth (We should note that part of the fear came from its human side). In early French literature, monsters are represented by the Beast, another animal who is frightening because he is more human than we would wish. This pattern isn’t accidental: the scariest monsters are the ones we understand the best.
For Havi Brooks, the monsters we face are literal. They speak to her; she fights with them, and sometimes even has long sit down chats in her head with them. They hold us back, they create stuckness, and they tell us that everything we do is pointless and wrong.
As business owners and operators, I think our monsters give voice to our imposter fear. They tell us all the negative possible outcomes, and help us to discount the positive ones. In addition, they tell us not to talk about them, as we want to seem in control and professional. This makes them difficult to use as a marketing tool, but also very effective. Truthfully, we don’t use monsters when we market because we spend so much time in their company. This is sort of a shame, because absolutely everyone has these internal monsters, and everyone wants to know how to get them to shut up and go away.
Almost everything you market addresses a monster issue. I advertise writing services. Most of my clients hire me because they want to get rid of their writing monsters; they’re tired of sitting around and having their monsters chatter at them about how they’re awful writers and their copy won’t sell a damn thing. For them, hiring a copy writer helps keep the monsters at bay. That’s a really powerful motive to buy something.
If you are a service provider, you are the anti-monster. Overcoming monsters in a business sense takes one thing: expertise. And as well all know, running an internet business is about positioning yourself as an expert!
Here are some ways you can market yourself as a monster killer:
Don’t Lose Sight Of The Results:
I hired my business coaches because of this tactic. They promised not only more free time and less stress, but more income by the end of the process. Their focus on not just the process, but the results of the process was an essential component of what made me sign up with them.
Now, demonstrating that you have a positive track record doesn’t have to be as complex as setting up a big portfolio on your site. You can go that route, but there are some quick and easy ways to do this as well. Many people do money back guarantees: they have so much faith in the quality of their product that they are willing to put their money where their mouth is. It’s simple, quick, and a really powerful marketing tool. When you focus on results, the monsters can’t argue very much.
Be Transparent:
Monsters generally speak in what-if statements, I find. “What if you don’t really know how this works?”, they say, or “What if this is just a big waste of money?” I think these monsters are probably louder if you’re a one person start up, but everyone experiences them. Help your clients out by building your business based on transparency. Don’t surprise them: lay it all out in advance so they know what they’re getting, and on what timetable. It’ll help your marketing, and make the process smoother on your end.
Acknowledge That Monsters Exist:
All businesses have the same sets of fears, and we all are fairly quiet about them because we want to be professional. Being the person who acknowledges this, and talks about it openly can really set you apart from the pack. We all want to be experts, but we also need to make sure that we’re treating the client as an equal. Ultimately, we’re more alike than we are different, and acknowledging that when you market can be really effective.
If you’re new to the blog, or if you missed a day, go check out part one and two of this series!
Posted by Holly on Mar 2, 2010 in
Writing If you’re new to the series, make sure to go back and read the introductory post from yesterday!
The first basic plot is probably the most famous: the quest. The quest plot focuses on human hardship. In it, some poor and generally disenfranchised person goes on a long journey to try and find something better. The quest plot focuses on some very basic human needs: happiness, satisfaction, self-improvement, and most of all companionship. You can find this plot everywhere from the bible to the Arthurian legends to Burn Notice: it’s basic.
So when you are designing your marketing, how does this help you? Well, if you’re a consultant or a coach, there are some pretty cool ways to use this to your advantage. Even if you’re not, you can take the psychological elements of the quest and use them to strengthen your marketing. The most important aspect of this myth is also in my opinion the most overlooked. No one can finish a quest by themselves. Every great hero has a helper, a guide, or an object that helps them complete their journey. By positioning yourself as that person or item, you’re giving yourself a leg up in the marketing world.
Everyone Wants To Be Happy.
Hell, the credit card industry is based on this principle. Like the person on the quest, we all want to ease our hardship, improve our position in life, and attain great rewards. The good news is that your customers are the exact same way. I spend a ton of time in my teleclass talking about emotional marketing: the idea that basic emotions sell big. This is that same principle at work. If your product can make someone happier, you need to say that. Emphasize it in your marketing writing, and explain why. Also, remember that this isn’t limited to pure happiness. Can your product or service reduce stress, or just give someone a break? Find out what quest your client is on and be the chance meeting that gets them to the end.
Everyone Wants To Be Satisfied With Their Life.
There are many different reasons to start a quest. In fairy tales, it’s because you’re the youngest and don’t get much attention, or that you’re poor and have no other options besides starvation. In legends and epics, people go on quests to prove themselves to a community, or to redeem themselves for past transgressions. In novels, it can be as simple as a general feeling that your life isn’t what it could be. This probably isn’t news to anyone, but I think most of us feel like this. Coaches and consultants specialize in this: it’s peace of mind marketing. This psychological principle spawned the entire self help genre! In general, proving that you can help someone become a more fulfilled and satisfied person is an easy way to successfully market your services.
You Can’t Finish A Quest By Yourself.
Everyone needs a guide, a helper, or simply a friend. Quests are difficult by nature, and people set out on them knowing that. The urge to quest is what causes people to do crazy things like start businesses and move to new places and change jobs. We all want something better than what we have: the fact that we’ve literally been telling this same story around the world for thousands of years proves that. When you’re selling things, especially in a service based business, you really want to be the companion that assures the quest will be completed.
Posted by Holly on Mar 1, 2010 in
Writing If you’re getting all excited about yet another traditional Scribe review, then this may be disappointing. I’m a big fan of Scribe, but I think for slightly different reasons than everyone else. If you want to hear my official review, go check out my third teleclass (I talk about it there in detail).
Today we’re going to talk about some of the less discussed implications of Scribe, which I think are fabulous from a consumer perspective. I spend a lot of time talking about why SEO isn’t for everyone, and I still believe that to be true. However, I think Scribe is going to bring some radical changes to the SEO landscape, both on the professional writing side and from the client side. I can already see these changes happening from some experiences I had this week with clients.
SEO has always been this kind of nebulous thing, in my opinion. There are lot of people profiting off the idea of SEO copy writing, and honestly, some of it isn’t real above board. In addition, a lot of people think that the best way to do SEO is to repeat the same term over and over again. I’m thrilled that Scribe is so popular mostly because it shows that you don’t have to be boring to rank well with google. SEO friendly copy can be creative, compelling, and dynamic, as long as you know the rules. And honestly, Scribe makes those rules a hell of a lot easier to figure out. As a big fan of transparency, Scribe is a fantastic educational tool.
Here are some of the big reasons that I as a copy writer am excited about the popularity of Scribe:
Scribe allows my clients to become better educated about SEO:
I’ve already have several experiences where my clients have bought Scribe, and are using it extensively. I’m thrilled with this, because Scribe gives my clients an easy way to educate themselves about how SEO works. More people who are educated about SEO copy means higher quality SEO copy, in my opinion. In addition, it gives clients a way to objectively measure how good my SEO work is. I am putting up a site this week for a client who had Scribe installed, and I was very aware that she could see exactly how well my pages ranked. I had already written great copy for her, but being able to objectively demonstrate that they had search engine value on top of it was icing on the cake.
If you’re new at the SEO thing, Scribe is a fantastic training program:
If you’re not into hiring a professional writer for this stuff, Scribe is a great way to not just tweak your posts, but to train you to write blog posts that are both interesting and search engine friendly. If you use the program enough, you start to really learn some of the tricks and incorporate them naturally. Scribe doesn’t just change the way you write, it’ll change the way you think about blogging. Now, notice that I’m not saying that Scribe changes the voice that you use, just some of the techniques. You can be yourself and be SEO friendly, which is a great thing to train yourself for.
Scribe may change the copy writing landscape for the better:
So many freelancing sites focus on cheap and fast SEO copy that is really repetitious and awful. This is my main beef with the SEO landscape, and I think Scribe may be a way to combat all that. If Scribe continues to take off the way it seems to have done, more people are going to be able to see that quality writing is far more important than just pure SEO. In fact, I believe that once everyone has the ability to cheaply and easily tweak their content for SEO, good writers are going to be even more in demand. If you take search engine viability out of the equation, you’re left with the choice of paying higher prices for quality writing, or lower prices for writing that sometimes didn’t even go through the proofreading process. For me, the choice seems fairly easy to make. This change in the SEO landscape is going to benefit anyone who runs a quality writing business, and may force the freelancing sites to change their practices a bit.
Now, in all honesty, Scribe still has some bugs, mostly due to the fact that way more people bought it than was predicted. And I have yet to figure out how it’ll work when Wordpress updates, not to mention the fact that it doesn’t work on non-Wordpress platforms. In addition, I’m still kind of on the fence about the tiered model: something about it just doesn’t sit well for me. But despite these small reservations, I truly think the program is going to change the internet writing landscape for the better.
If you’re interested in learning more about Scribe, check it out here (Yes, if you buy through this link, Didy gets a new sweater).
Posted by Holly on Mar 1, 2010 in
Writing This is part one of an eight part post series detailing how the seven basic plots of literature can help you market your business in innovative and surprising ways. Today, we’re going to go over the basics of why stories matter, and why good storytelling can form the basis of a great marketing campaign.
Conventional wisdom tells us that marketing writers are really great linguists. This week I’m going to take that idea a bit further: behind every great marketing writer is a great storyteller. The wonderful thing about this is that deep down we’ve all got a storyteller in us, I think. We tell stories to our kids, to our family, and to our friends and communities. Marketing is the act of taking those stories and narrowing their purpose, or subverting them for our needs.
This isn’t a typical marketing blog series, as you can probably tell. This week I’m going to talk about the seven different basic plots of literature, and how understanding them can help you sell your stuff and make more money. The reason this works is pretty simple: the seven basic plots are really just an outline of our psychological triggers. More importantly, an outline of all of our psychological triggers, regardless of country or culture. Marketing is psychology, and the seven basic plots of literature represent thousands of years of psychological and market research.
If you’re still skeptical (and I don’t blame you) here’s some history to back all of this up. The easiest example is also one of the best known ones: the original version of Cinderella (or at least the earliest one with a date on it) comes from ancient China in 850 AD. A lesser known version exists in Greek culture: a young man finds Aphrodite’s sandal on a temple step. As of today, scholarship tells us that there are 27,000 versions of the rags to riches plot. Almost every culture has one that specifically involves shoes. Almost every fairy tale or myth that you can think of has at least 27, 000 versions, and almost every novel ever written can be reduced to one of these seven plots. The most amazing part of all this is that these stories exist in cultures that had no contact with each other.
We are these stories, and these stories are us. They contain what makes us tick, regardless of culture or upbringing. Knowing the psychology behind them gives you insight into not only yourself, but your customer. This week I’m going to spend a day on each of these plots and teach you some ways to use them to make your marketing more effective. Sometimes when we think about marketing we forget about the human level, and ignore the very basics behind how we think and act.
Join me tomorrow to get back to the basics, learn some fun facts about literature, all while learning how to make more money through stronger copy writing. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about quests, and how to be the kind fairy who benefits from the protagonist’s journey.
Posted by Holly on Feb 26, 2010 in
Writing This is a guest post by Tiffany Thompson, affectionately known as “bloominglater.” She is an aspiring writer and musician who hails from Southeastern Virginia. She’s the author of helpyourselfblog.com and is a self-improvement junkie. She enjoys graphic design, vampire flicks, her iPhone, and the color orange. If you like this post, visit her at helpyourselfblog.com or follow her on Twitter.
The Myth of the Marketing
When I first started out as a Marketing Manager for a 500 person organization, I realized something very, very early: everyone’s a gosh darn marketer.
Okay, that’s the PG version of EAGDM; I’ll let you use your imagination to figure out what I really call it. But whatever we call it, one thing that marketing professionals, copywriters and graphic designers always come head to head with is EAGDM. Simply, in almost every organization, from the front line employee to the CEO, someone else “knows” precisely what marketing strategy will work and is more than glad to share it with you.
Nevermind that you have two English degrees and an MBA in Marketing.
Nevermind that you have over ten years experience copywriting in the industry in which you work.
Nevermind that Seth Godin is your best friend and you have had the opportunity to learn at his feet.
Nevermind all that.
The real reason that your last marketing promotion didn’t work was because you didn’t use that talking, Ferrari-driving dog in your last commercial. The talking dog ALWAYS works! Come on. Everybody knows that!
In all seriousness, in my years of experience as a marketer and copywriter, I have found that marketing is something that most people take for granted. It seems like common sense. Sometimes it is, but sometimes a marketer has to use what she has learned to get the right message across. So, here is my best advice if you hire someone to handle your marketing or copywriting: do your homework and choose the right professional, be specific by identifying your needs and expectations, and give your copywriter your very best ideas on how you envision the outcome. Once you have set clear intentions about what you expect, relax. Take a deep breath, take a step back, and let your copywriter do what she’s good at.
Choose the Right Professional
If you had a rotting tooth, would you hire a plumber to fix it? Your answer is probably the same as mine: heck no! The same idea can be applied to deciding whether or not to hire someone to complete a creative task, like copywriting. If one of the core competencies of your business is writing, maybe you don’t need a copywriter to craft your web copy. If, on the other hand, your core competency is accounting, you might want a little help. The idea is not that an accountant can’t write well. On the contrary, the accountant could probably do a fine job. But would you want the copywriter handling the accounting? Probably not. Why? Because we presume that being an accountant requires an extraordinary level of expertise. I would argue that writing good marketing copy does as well.
Be Specific by Identifying Your Needs
When you sit down to discuss your project with someone you trust, be very clear about your goals and your expectations for the project. First of all, what type of marketing do you need? Do you need promotional copy, or are you interested in producing an informative piece? Do you want a letter or a postcard? Having an idea of what you need before you meet with your copywriter or marketer will make the process a lot smoother.
Another important item of discussion is the contract. What are the fees? How many revisions will be produced? How will you communicate feedback to the writer? Nailing these things down before the project starts will prevent a lot of heartburn for you later.
Give Your Very Best Ideas
Now, this is the time to tell your copywriter extraordinaire that flying monkeys, talking donkeys, and the E-trade Baby would be good ideas for your campaign. If you need to, write down all of the great ideas that you have about how the campaign might look if only you had the time or the inclination to do it yourself. But this is really important—don’t expect that the copywriter will use any of your ideas. Your only job is to give them freely. Remember, you’re paying her to do the work.
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Posted by Holly on Feb 25, 2010 in
Writing So, there was supposed to be a teleclass today. And a guest blog, which will probably happen tomorrow once I get my head back into things. In breaking news, there is no teleclass today, because I was up until 5:30 in the morning helping with hospital emergency stuff and I can’t really do much until it all resolves itself later today hopefully. In the spirit of Havi Brooks, I’m trying to see the positive. The good news is, everyone here is okay, and that the emergency really addressed an ongoing issue that can now be dealt with. While things don’t always come to a head in the best way or at the best time, it still represents forward progress.
I’m a big proponent of the theory that if you just work hard enough you can control all the things in your life, no matter how crazy it gets. This week has been a reminder that most of the time, that isn’t true. Sometimes we need that: after all, we’re all only human, right? This week, I have had a computer crash, spent seven hours in an ER and then twenty-four hours dealing with the aftermath of it, and still have three deadlines on Friday so I can finish paying my bills for this month. I’m also convinced that mentally dealing with the first two things is the way to madness, so I’m trying to focus on the third.
This isn’t a sympathy post or anything, just a simple sorry for having to cancel. Next week we’ll do the final class in the series and focus on the loose ends of marketing and writing. Again, if you’ve got any questions or things that you’d like revisited, you’ve now got an extra week to let me know. Thanks to everyone who has been really supportive yesterday and this week in general: starting Cottage Copy has let me meet you guys, and you’ve really changed my life for the better. The guest post should go up tomorrow, and everything after that should hopefully go back to normal.
Posted by Holly on Feb 24, 2010 in
Writing Yesterday, my beloved netbook died. I got lucky and saw the crash coming, and have basically spent the last 24 hours frantically trying to salvage all the business stuff on it. The good news is that with lots of work I have: my client files are safe, my business files are safe, and my pagefour files are safe. This is a major victory. However, I’m pretty sure my computer is done for, so I’m in that mourning stage for an electronic that you really love. My problem is now this: do I buy the same model of netbook that I loved, or spend a couple months saving and upgrade to a macbook pro of some sort? Leave a comment if you have an opinion or some advice: I could really use it right now!
In addition, the teleclass is tomorrow, and will cover all of the little parts of marketing writing that we don’t usually think about. I’m going to talk about twitter bios and other things like that, but if there is something that you would like covered, or a question that I didn’t get to yet in the series, please shoot me an email so I know to add to my plans.
I am now off to drink lots of coffee, mourn my computer, and catch up on all the client work that didn’t happen yesterday.
Posted by Holly on Feb 23, 2010 in
Writing Everyone knows a great tag line can make or break your website. Unfortunately, this means that when you’re writing a tag line for your small business, you’re not only up against copywriters like me, but a bunch of other people who know that tag lines really do matter. In addition, tag lines are one of the places where a lot of people go wrong early on, and it sets the tone for their entire site. Here are four quick tips to read before you start creating your new tag line: if you start the process with some basic knowledge, it makes the whole thing a lot less stressful.
You Don’t Have To Reinvent the Wheel
This is honestly where lots of people get hung up, even copywriters like me. This is the one instance where I will tell you to try and forget about being unique and different and out of the box: for tag lines, those goals really just jam up the whole process. Honestly, there are only so many words out there, and when you cut the pool down to strong tag line words, it gets even smaller.
You see the same words used over and over again in tag lines for a reason: they are strong, they make an impact, and they tend to flow well. There is no shame in using these words, and if you can come up with a tag line that puts them together in a way that is coherent and makes the right statement, you should be proud of yourself. Save the out of the box stuff for the body of your website.
Think In Three Word Phrases
What do many great tag lines have in common? Three word phrases. If you don’t believe me, think about Nike and McDonald’s. Now, not every great tag line is three words, but it is certainly a nice simple framework to think about. Done right, it can also be an incredibly clear and powerful framework to build a tag line with. If you’re having trouble writing anything down, just draw out three blank spaces on the page and see what happens: you’ll be amazed at the results.
Your Tag Line Is Your Philosophy, Not Your Business
Your tag line should reflect your core philosophy. Most of the time, this isn’t related to what you do. Your potential consumers can figure out what you do from either the name of your company, or the first sentence of your website copy. Don’t waste time on it in your tag line. Instead, use it as a place to make a strong statement about your identity and what you value. Your tag line is the first step to establishing your brand: make it count.
Google Your Exact Phrase To Make Sure It Is Unique
Most of the time, it won’t be. At which point you’ll have to draw out your blanks again and start over. Welcome to the life of a copywriter (I’m mostly joking, I promise). It is very difficult to find a totally unique combination of words, in part because there are seventy billion businesses out there that also all have tag lines with words that are marketing friendly and would also like to sell things. However, starting over is always better than having a copycat tag line.
Per usual, if this all seems like too much work, or gives you a headache just thinking about it, consider hiring an expert.
Posted by Holly on Feb 22, 2010 in
Writing Today we’re going to talk about how to use the famine part of the freelancing cycle to inspire you to new business heights. This topic hits really close to home because I’ve been experiencing it pretty heavily lately. I’d love to blame snowmageddon, but if I’m honest with myself it’s probably more than that. I’m not a business school grad, and while I’m a fantastic copywriter and I’m great at marketing for other people, I’m not always so good at marketing myself.
There are lots of articles out on the internet about what to do to ride out the nasty feast and famine cycle when you run a small business. The problem is this: many of these articles assume that you’re already established, that you have significant savings, and that you have 20 years of experience. This isn’t me, and I’m willing to bet that it doesn’t describe many of you either.
When I started Cottage Copy, I had five years of experience with professional writing, no business experience, no savings (my old job barely paid enough to make basic bills), and zero contacts. I knew that I had exactly two small paychecks worth of money to make my business turn a profit, or I was done. I did it, but even though I’m making more than I was at my old job, it’s not always smooth sailing for me money-wise.
Many articles tell you to simply calm down and ride out the famine cycle: for some of us, that isn’t possible. We are still starting to save, but don’t have enough to make a difference. We have bills coming up and no cushion. For many small startups, this is the harsh reality. Cottage Copy is wildly successful for the time it’s been in existence, but it’s also a three month old business. There’s still a long way to go before I have six months worth of savings to ride this stuff out.
With all of this as a background, I’m going to give you some ways that I deal with the famine cycle. In my mind, it can defeat you or you can turn it around and use your fear and panic to get inspired to take some dramatic actions that you wouldn’t normally consider. Sometimes the negative emotions that the cycle brings out can lead you out of your comfort zone and make you take some actions that are high risk, but also highly lucrative.
During your next famine cycle, sit down and try these tactics to turn your desperation into inspired action.
Cold Email the Big Client:
This is a huge personal fear of mine, and I’ll be honest and admit that I only consider doing this when things get scary. After all, the idea of emailing someone out of the blue and telling them that you’d love to work for them is pretty terrifying to freelancers, especially if you’re just starting out. You could get laughed at, or rejected. Even worse, you could simply be ignored. The truth is, there are tons of companies that seem out of reach that could really use your services. We can all probably name at least five large companies that we love, but also also deficient in some areas. We can all also probably identify how we could help get rid of those deficiencies. Now, I’m not saying that you should go pitch yourself to Bill Gates if you’re just starting out, but some places that you find intimidating are also probably looking for your kind of service.
Next time you are scared about having no business and having no backup, try emailing that company you’d really love to work for. Most companies are willing to overlook the more traditional methods of employee evaluation when hiring freelancers: if you can prove that you can do the job well, obtain the desired results, and do it for a reasonable price, you’ve got a great chance of being hired by almost anybody.
Redo Your Website:
So many things fall by the wayside when we’re busy. Websites get stale, information becomes outdated, and we get behind on our blogs. Use your time to get your website in fantastic shape so it’s a showpiece for all the clients you’re trying to attract. Redo your testimonials page, reinvent your sales copy, or just fix all of your outdated information that may be turning off clients.
Get In Touch With Previous Clients:
Running a freelance business is sort of like dating: you want to be busy, but not too busy for the next person who asks. Many freelancers are accustomed to positioning themselves as busy successful people, even though they aren’t 100% of the time. There is no shame in politely asking around for business from old clients. If you’re really stuck with no work, try emailing some old clients who you have a good relationship with. More often than not, they will be thrilled to throw some work your way, and move forward on a project that they’ve also been stalled on! There is zero shame in admitting that you aren’t always booked three months in advance, even if it sometimes feels awkward. Many people will appreciate the opportunity, and so will your bank account.
Create A New Product:
When you’re going through a dry spell, it can feel like you’ve tapped out your market. Sometimes a fresh product can be exactly what you need to get going again. A new product launch doesn’t have to be earthshattering: sometimes it can be as simple as turning a combination of services into a new package, or coming up with a small service that serves as an introduction to what you do. Most of the time, these products don’t take a whole lot of work or marketing, but can really give your business a new life. By the time you’re back into the feast part of the cycle, you’ll be ahead and have another source of potential income.
These tips should give you some ways to reinvigorate your business during the down times, even if you don’t have much of a backup plan. Above all, don’t panic if you can help it. A bad week doesn’t mean the end of your business, and while it can make things uncomfortable for awhile (especially if you don’t have a savings cushion) you will be a more experienced business owner as a result.
