The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

What does it take to be your own boss?

On May 20, I'll be giving a presentation at the HOW Conference called, "What It Takes to Be Your Own Boss."

I'm in the process of developing the material and would love your input. Answer any or all of the questions:

1. What do you wish you'd known before going into business?
2. What myths about self employment or freelancing are just that -- myths?
3. What has surprised you about being in business for yourself? What didn't you expect to find or experience?
4. What 3 skills and/or personality traits must you develop to be self-employed?
5. What kind of preparation should someone do before taking the leap into self employment?
6. What's the biggest reward of working for yourself?

Hourly rates and salaries

Here's more in the ongoing conversation about hourly rates.

HOW Magazine's April 2008 issue featured a Business column on hourly rates for designers. The information was gathered by an online survey conducted in October 2007 that drew 996 responses. Click here to find out what they learned.

The page also links to lots of resources, including a white paper we gave away at our recent "What Should You Charge?" Webinar.

And for those of you who work for companies, where the topic of "how to talk about pricing" translates into "how to talk about salary," check out Marci Alboher's post from Friday, February 22 on the NY Times blog, Shifting Careers: Smart Thinking at Work (I love that tagline).

The real reason you won't claim your niche?

Yesterday's New York Times had an interesting article in the Science section entitled, "The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors," which I read with my morning coffee and found very interesting. It refers to (but doesn't actually review) a new book, Predictably Irrational, by MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely.

But it wasn't until two things happened during the day that I made the connection to marketing.

First, a reader sent me the link with a note: "Interesting article in the NY Times related to your newsletter." (He was referring to yesterday's Marketing Mentor tip about the dangers of focusing on "the one".  Then a client started to tell me why he was reluctant to identify the 2 markets his firm specializes in working with in the text on his web site.

That's when it occurred to me that maybe all the resistance to specializing may be related to a resistance to moving forward. “Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of loss,” Dr. Ariely says. He suggests we "resign from committees, prune holiday card lists, [and] rethink hobbies."

The challenge is to find the balance, of course. The search for "the one" is just the other extreme.
What do you think?

Download this, too

Here's the second 20-minute interview I did last week with the owner of Small-Business-Guru.com, Kelly Andrew Brown, who found me through Biznik.

Kelly's blog post about the interview includes some of the highlights of our conversation plus a sidenote in which he references a moment in the interview when I challenge him on his own dislike of cold calling. I thought he was going to edit that out, but he didn't. See what you think.

Download this

I know iTunes and the iPod have revolutionized the way people listen to music and information but I just can't stand having anything in my ear, so I'm not really in the loop. But from a marketing point of view, I know I need to be involved, so for now I'm piggybacking on other people's efforts by saying "yes" anytime someone asks for an interview. That happened twice last week, so here's the first:

I was interviewed by Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio, which promotes itself this way:

Total Picture Radio (TPR), is a playground for your brain, presenting a "total picture" of emerging trends, thought leaders, and for-real gurus to help high-potential professionals like you succeed in your career goals. We are here to fill the media vacuum regarding career advice and advocacy by providing the latest trends, knowledge, actionable information and resources to our listeners.

Here are some of the questions Peter Clayton asked me in our 22-minute interview:

• Are you seeing any trends? Are your clients having success -- or problems with any specific areas of marketing and promotion?
• What is the single most important thing you need to do to promote your personal brand?
• What inspired you to write Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy, and Less Assertive?
• At one time or other, everyone seems to have a boss from hell. Abusive, abrasive, condescending, a tyrant -- is there anything you can do in that situation short of quitting?
• A lot of people hate to give presentations to a group of colleagues, can you give us some advice on how to avoid stage fright?
• Networking skills are covered extensively in your book. And of course, networking is key --- and it can't all happen on Linkedin. What are some techniques you teach.
• In shyness a generational thing? Are millenials less shy and more assertive than their parents?
• How do you help shy people conquer a job interview?

Listen or download here.

Showing off new client web sites

Just showing off a few new client web sites and blogs.

On most of these, you will notice, on the homepage especially, the use of the word "you." The focus is on the visitor, where it should be.

Cleveland Design

Backpocket Copywriter

Tuff Cookie Productions

Cross it off your list

Aaron Design blog

Several other clients are in the throes of revamping their sites.

More to come soon.

Cold visiting like cold calling?

A Marketing Mix reader from Spain, photographer María J. Fuertes, sent me an interesting question via email.

Part of her freelance photography business involves approaching local businesses, both to solicit business for her work and to gain advertisers for a local magazine she's setting up. (And three entrepreneurial cheers for María's ambitious plans!)

But if cold calling can feel...um, daunting, "cold visiting" seems exponentially scarier! As she says,

I really don't know how to do this, whenever I visualise myself entering a shop and starting to talk with the assistant or owner I already feel I won't know how to continue.

The other same day I was just asking a shop if they would be willing to participate in a photoshoot with their garments (for free!) so that they could get a bit of publicity and in exchange I could use their clothes for the magazine and by the end of the conversation I was already wanting to disappear! (I think at the end I managed to mumble something about their beautiful clothes...) All because the guy seemed quite serious but nothing else, he said it was ok that we only had to talk and see how to organise it.

I feel your pain, sister. I spent one collegiate summer selling ad blotter space to campus-area vendors and did not exactly set the world on fire. Since then, I've learned that preparing yourself mentally is a big part of it, as well as learning not to take rejection personally. You're there to help, and in order to do that, you need to find the people who are a good fit.

Does anyone else out there have some great cold visiting tips for María? How do you approach someone in person for the first time? Is it like cold calling?

10-word blurb vs tagline

In the Bi-Weekly Marketing Plan Group (BTW next one starts week of March 9), one of the first issues we address is how you talk about what you do. As part of that process, participants have the opportunity to perfect both their 10-word blurb and their tagline.

But often, there is confusion between the two. I am often asked, "What's the difference between them?"

So here's my answer to the question:

The 10-word blurb is what you say when you meet someone, either in person or on the phone. Your objective with it is to say enough to pique the interest of the other person in order to engage them in a conversation. It can (and should) be tailored on the fly for each person you address. Here's a generic version of mine:

"I work with the creatively self-employed and I help them get the clients they want."

The tagline is a line that follows your company name -- a sub-title of sorts -- and is used on a web site, business card and anywhere your logo or identity would be found. Your objective with the tagline is to explain or elucidate what you do in a short, concise phrase or sentence. It has to be more general because you're not there to tailor it.

Here's our current tagline: Marketing Mentor: "Teaching the art of marketing and self promotion."

So they're obviously related, but they have different goals.

Any other good examples out there?

38th Annual Creativity Awards Call for...Judges!

Designers and other creative types are familiar with entering their work in awards shows, but what about applying to do the judging itself?

Arguably, it's as important (at a certain point in your career, anyway) to be seen as an arbiter of what's good as well as a creator of it. So if you're at the right place with your business, you might want to think about applying to be a judge of the 38th Annual Creativity Awards. Call for entries doesn't begin until June, but they're considering judges now.

It's not a big paycheck, although there is a $500 travel allowance to Louisville, KY, where the judging will take place from August 14 - 16. But to me, the point seems to be more about active participation in the applied arts community, as well as perhaps stepping up your self-promo game.

If you're interested in being a Creativity 38 Judge, they ask that you email a brief bio outlining your qualifications to them at info -at- creativityawards -dot- com. Or you can call (866) 519-5271 if you have any questions.

And just curious—have any of you judged any competitions before? What did you get from the experience?

How delicate to be when offering help

The question of how to offer your services to someone you think needs help is a very delicate matter.

I got this message recently from a reader of my Quick Tips:

I really like your concepts but I think you could use a better website. As my personal Marketing offer I want to give you a FREE upgrade to your website. If you are interested please email me back. I work in Joomla and in Flash.

What do you think of this approach?