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Fortune cookie wisdom that has everything to do with your small business marketing

What does a fortune cookie have to do with your small business marketing?

Fortune in yesterday's fortune cookie at a great little Chinese restaurant somewhere in Long Island: The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Brilliant! If you want to succeed, you have to work at it. In fact, I'll wager that if you work hard at achieving your goals and learn from the mistakes you make as you go, you'll see success far sooner than you think.

It doesn't have to be difficult to see that light at the end of the tunnel. You just have to make it happen, one small step at a time.

Have you worked on your success this week? If not, it's high time you did! And if you need help defining your goals and the steps you need to take to achieve them, you know where to find me.

:: Posted by Jennifer McCay on Sunday, June 04, 2006 in ::
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Standing up for your rights as a small business owner? I sure hope so!

On a mailing list hosted by a professional association I'm a member of, one poster stirred up a controversy in a hurry by writing about a client who wasn't being cooperative.

Some listmates suggested that it's the role of the solo pro to bend over backwards in any way possible in order to please her client.

Others said no way to any overtures that had to do with giving the client what he wanted.

I say find a happy medium.

On the one hand:

You *must* develop terms of service for your business, whether you write them down in an official form or simply keep a running tally of them in your head, and let clients know when they've crossed the line. And you *should* set up office hours and appointment times that meet YOUR needs and not just your clients' -- you're allowed to have a life. (As a business owner, you have just as much a right as any other to set appointments to suit your schedule; when's the last time you got in immediately at the doctor's office unless it was an emergency?)

If you haven't branded your business, you're probably thinking it's impossible to be allowed to be so choosy. It's not, as long as you're reasonable about what you expect. That means that if you're a night owl and want to be reachable only in the evenings, make sure you cater to a clientele that can accommodate that. If not, you're out of luck.

But let's say that your clients all book 1-hour appointments. Rather than working 1 hour here and another there, set up 3 bookings in a row on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursdays, for example, and create blocks of time in which you can do the other work that you need to get done, like bookkeeping (yuck!), marketing or any ongoing projects you might have. I personally can't get rolling on big projects in an hour here and an hour there, so I schedule project time into my work weeks. If you're well-branded, you definitely can get by with this, as long as you're reasonable about when your appointments are set during the week. In fact, you'll find that clients are thrilled you're able to accommodate them at all!

On the other hand:

If you don't have certain equipment, software, knowledge, reference materials or anything else that is critical to getting work done and to your clients effectively, it's time to think about ways to keep your clients happy. There's typically no need to go to great expense to do so, and you'll find that your clients are happier working with you.

This latter advice is common-sense, so I will reinforce my first point more dramatically: As a small business owner, *you* determine how you are treated. If you let clients walk all over you, they will take advantage again and again and make it hard for you to get ahead. And if you demand respect (not adoration, just common decency and the benefit of the doubt about your skills and talents), your clients will treat you right. And the ones that don't? Dump them the second you can!

Life's too short (and you waste too much energy) to deal with jerks. Here's to your success, happiness and respect -- and not necessarily in that order!

:: Posted by Jennifer McCay on Friday, June 02, 2006 in ::
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Vary your options to satisfy more clients

Most solo professionals offer some sort of service as their way of making money. Now, I talk all the time about the fallacy of trading hours for dollars. (I know, I know -- we offer one-on-one services here at Avenue East as well, but it's only part of our overall business strategy and will never be our only source of income. Far from it.)

But ostensibly at some point in order to find clients, you have promoted your services by writing a letter, cold-calling, etc. It can work when it's done right, but what if there's a better way?

Here's an idea to get you thinking about new ways to help your clients: Have you considered helping your clients (and prospects who will become your clients in the future) in some other way than you've ever considered?

Maybe you give voice lessons and can create a course recorded on CD so that clients who can't afford your main service can opt for the less-personal option.

Maybe you ordinarily promote your services in a rather nebulous, "tell me about your project and I'll put together a proposal" sort of way when all you'd really need to do is put together 3 package deals and satisfy the vast majority of clients. (Not including prices very often scares off potential clients who otherwise would be interested.)

It's up to you. But think about it.

:: Posted by Jennifer McCay on Friday, June 02, 2006 in ::
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