The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

When to reveal that office and home are one and the same

Karen Barranco is a graphic designer whose company, Special Modern Design, is based here in Los Angeles. Like many of us solopreneurs and small business types, Karen operates her business out of her home.

Her question? When—if ever—should you let your clients know this?

I have a home office and work by myself. I have been doing so successfully for 8 years. My question is, should I reveal that my office is based out of my home? I know it turns some clients off and they don’t call me back. They ask to come to my office and that’s when I tell them about the coffee shop where I meet clients. I don’t want to lie but it holds me back from getting the big budget jobs I want. Should I be upfront?

Like yourself, I'm not a fan of lying. For one, it's complicating—just the thought of keeping multiple truths straight gives me a headache.

But you don't have to lead with the information. There are plenty of times, as I'm sure you've noticed in your many years operating a business, it will never come up.

That said, if it does, there are clients for whom that may be a dealbreaker. If you really want to go after the kinds of old-school, biggity-big clients for whom dedicated office space is meaningful and you're not up for renting an entire office of your own, you might want to look into shared space. One great resource here in Los Angeles is KERNSPIRACY, the creative professionals' mailing list run by L.A.-based graphic designer, Spencer Cross. There's a staggering amount of collective knowledge on that list, and people are very willing to share.

Speaking of sharing, if you're reading this and have a helpful thought, could you share it with Karen and the class in the comments?

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?

What's up with those leads groups?

One of the attendees of my latest Bi-Weekly Marketing Plan Group asked me this question as we were getting started last week:

Q: Do you think groups like Business Networking International are good venues for networking?

A: I think it's worth checking out because BNI (and many networking organizations like them) have multiple groups around the country and around the world. And every group is different. So the value of BNI depends in large part on who's in each group. (It also depends largely on how actively you contribute to the group.)

In general, the way to think about the question is, "Will I meet my prospects there?" or, in the case of a leads group like BNI, "Will the people in the group be good referral sources for me? Do they come into contact with my prospects?"

For this you have to have a chosen a market, which is the topic of the first in our webinar series, Grow Your Business From Your Desktop, this Thursday, Sept. 27. More info and sign up for Get Rich in a Niche here.

Does a client list on your website encourage client theft by your competitors?

Ilise sent out an edition of the newsletter this week about the importance of having a client list on your business website. (You can read it here and subscribe here.)

A reader emailed her with a question we thought was a good followup, so we decided to post the Q&A here on the blog.

THE QUESTION:

I have been told over and over to never have a client list. It allows your competitors to target your clients. Is this something to worry about? Is there a way around it?

ILISE'S ANSWER:

I think it's more important for your prospects to see who you've worked with than for your competitors not to see.

Plus, if your relationships are so flimsy that anyone finding a list of company names (we're not including actual contact names, mind you) can steal your clients, you've got bigger problems.

Make sense?

I agree with Ilise: far better to make things easy for prospective clients than to worry about whether someone might troll your site for client leads. Besides, if you have a portfolio site up (I'm talkin' to you, designers/illustrators/developers), they're going to see your clients anyway!

But I wonder if we're missing anything. Are there particular circumstances where it's a bad idea to share your client list? Industries where discretion need be exercised?

Or are there other valid reasons not to divulge your list? I'm really curious to hear what you wizards think.

How to grow your business

Last week's Coffee Break conference call, "Moving out of the Bedroom -- Growing Your Business," was chock-full of information for anyone who's got too much work but isn't sure whether or how or when it's time to get help. We'll have the transcript and mp3 available soon in the Marketing Mentor Store, but in the meantime, here are some highlights from the conversation with Pam Bryan of FutureResultsNow.com and Peleg Top:

1. One main takeaway was the idea, shared by Pam, that sometimes, in order to grow your business, you may have to shrink it first. If you're too busy to get everything done, hiring someone doesn't necessarily mean you'll be less busy. You'll just be doing other tasks, including managing other people. Shrinking your business may also mean firing clients who are draining you or abusing you or whose projects simply aren't lucrative. Once you pull back, you'll be able to take a breather and see more clearly in which direction you want to grow. And the one thing you must have in place in order to grow is a marketing plan.

2. Next, you must realize that growing the business means managing other people, whether they are independent contractors, interns or administrative assistants. So if you don't want to manage other people, then don't grow your business. It helps to have some kind of management bone in your body and not be a control freak (or at least be willing to work on that) because no one you hire will do the tasks the way you would. Focus not on how they do what they do but on the quality of the end result. That's all that matters. And you must make peace with the fact that by bringing on help you will not maintain the level of hands-on work you've done until that point.

3. How do you train someone when you don't have time to breathe? Peleg had a great strategy and told the story about his first intern. After explaining to her that first time how to do what needed to be done, he also instructed her to document everything she was doing. When she left 8 months later, she left behind what was essentially an office manual for administrative tasks. That way, the next intern or employee could use that as a resource.

Q&A: Selling yourself on the phone

QUESTION: What are some specific challenges inherent in "selling yourself" over the phone, as opposed to in writing or in person?

ANSWER: Selling yourself in writing is easy because it's just you and the blank page (or screen). And selling yourself in person is easy because you can see the other person and judge their non verbal communication. On the phone, however, all you have is your script and the other person's voice and a wide gap in between where many people insert all sorts of fantasies about what's happening on the other end. That's where the anxiety comes from. When we can't see the other person's facial expressions or body language, we are free to imagine, and many people imagine the worst.

On the phone, you may imagine you will become tongue-tied, stutter and your mind will go blank, all of which would supposedly be humiliating and intolerable, even though it's not such a big of a deal. If it happens, you hang up and move on to the next call. Or you may imagine that the recipient of your call screams, "Go to hell" into the phone. I have a client who keeps waiting for someone to say that to him and seems more than mildly disappointed that no one has yet. In fact, much to his surprise, most of the people he's reached are in fact interested in his services.

Too Much Email?

I received this email recently about...email. Eileen Sutton of E.F. Sutton Creative struggles with the overwhelm we all feel from time to time:

This feels like a minor concern but I often struggle with email frequency and expectations in my business. Today, for example, I sent out my newsletter and a client wrote back and thanked me for the information. I try to keep email traffic low, but I wondered if I should write back and say "you're welcome," or if one more email would be a bother. I don't know what folks are used to or expect. Is the silence weird if I let my client's email hang out there in cyberspace, and/or would he think it rude?  I did decide to write back a short note and also added another thought to my exchange with him. Maybe yr client community struggles similarly so I wanted to raise it.

My response:

I doubt your client would think it rude if you didn't write back. He probably wouldn't even notice because he's be on to the next thing before long. But I would definitely write back to say, "you're welcome" and more, if something else comes to mind. That's where the back and forth starts. And that's one objective of sending out a newsletter -- to get a dialog going.

Recap: Coffee Break Money Management Call

You might think that a session on money management would be boring, but that wasn't the case last Thursday when we hosted our second Marketing Mentor Coffee Break. We had a lively interview with Peleg Top of Top Design and Jonathan Cleveland of Cleveland Design. Here are just a few highlights of a conversation that many called "refreshing" and "worthwhile"...

1. Track your time and money. You may not consider yourself a "business person" but if you want to run a profitable business, you must keep track of your time and your money.  Jonathan and Peleg talked about "pulling reports" at any time of the day to help them know where they stand financially and make their decision-making rational and clear, rather than foggy. We recommend Function Fox's Time Fox to track time and Quickbooks to track your money.

2. Put some money in the bank. You should either have or be saving up to secure 4 months of overhead in the bank (for both personal and business) for that rainy day which will hopefully never come. If you do dip into it, that's an automatic trigger that something needs attention. Otherwise, it's really, really easy to ignore the warning signs.

3. Get a credit line. Say yes to your banker when he/she offers you a business credit line. You should have that in place, whether you use it or not. It usually costs only $100-200 for the year but it's an important safety net, just in case.

4. Get freelancers' estimates first. When writing proposals for projects that will require you to hire freelancers, be sure to get their prices before you submit your proposal. That way, you'll have accurate numbers as well as a resource in place and ready to start when you get the job.

5. Getting the most from pro bono work. Here is Peleg's strategy to ensure that your pro bono clients don't lose sight of the value of the work you contribute to their organization. First, bill them for the complete job.  So if it's the equivalent of a $10,000 project, you bill them the $10,000. Send them the invoice, they cut you a check for that $10,000. Then, you turn around and donate that $10,000 to the non-profit.  Even though at the end of the day it’s a wash, two things can happen:

• If they paid for it this year, that amount will probably end up as a line-item on their budget next year. And if you’re working with them again, there’s a very good chance that money will be there for them to afford it.

• Also, when you make a donation, you become a donor and you get treated like a donor, which doesn't usually happen when you do pro bono work. Even when you get a tiny credit, nobody knows that you donated the stuff.  If you really want to get involved in an organization and you want people to know that you are supporting that organization, what better way than to cut them the check and be one of the donors on their donor wall.  It’s a win/win for everybody, and at the end of the day it also shows the value of the work that you’re producing.

Our next Marketing Mentor Coffee Break will be on a marketing topic and will be held on Thursday, June 28 at 4 PM Eastern. If you want to be notified, send an email message to teleseminar@marketing-mentor.com.

When to publicize your (almost) brand new blog

Marketing Mix reader Melanie Mize Renzulli, a travel expert and author of two guidebooks on Italy, created a blog to help market herself (and share great tips). Here's her problem:

It's in its infant stages right now, and I’m having trouble getting motivated to update it regularly (having a real infant at home right now doesn’t help either!). Nevertheless, I was considering mentioning my blog on a bulletin board that I frequent in order to drive traffic to my site and to get an audience that will supply me with ideas for writing. Does it make sense to drive people to my site if I don’t currently have a lot of content? I feel vulnerable showing people a work in progress, but know that I’ll never get anything off the ground if I’m not proactive.

First, after over two years of blogging (on up to three blogs at a time, regularly), let me assure you that the eternal quest for motivation is part of the territory; on my overwhelmed days, I call the process of blogging "feeding the beast." So go easy on yourself, establish a schedule you can stick to, keep a running list of topics you want to write about for when ideas don't immediately present themselves.

Ask the Experts: Weeding out the tire-kickers, Part 2

If you don't even want to have a conversation with prospects who can't afford you, then use your web site to be the first filter.

Here's how: post a form prospects mist fill out if they want a proposal or quotation from you. If they're willing to invest the time in that, they may be serious. And if you ask about money on the form, they may be more likely to give it to you.

Here are a couple of examples:

My client, direct response copywriter, Bob Bly, has a form on his site that links from burst at the top of the homepage. That way, no one can miss it. The burst says: "Need great copy? Click here now:".

Another client, video producer, Don Forschmidt, links from his contact page.

And I don't know this firm but they have a very comprehensive (maybe a bit much) survey for prospects to fill out.

Anyone else doing something similar? And how is it working?