Writers' Business Planning Course

I'm thinking of teaching another business planning for writers online course. It would run from late Sept./early Oct. to the middle of Nov., ending before Thanksgiving. Here's the info, and if you're interested, please click on my profile and drop an email.

Learn how business planning can help you take control, get more done, make more money, have more fun, and generally see things take off.

This isn't some dry, head-pounding, hair-tearing forced march to a written business plan, but practical techniques that can help you make the big decisions and then put them into practice. Calculate just how much money you actually need, and explore what is important to you and how that can connect to your business. Rank your clients and assignments to see how they fit with your goals, and use simple analysis to anticipate assignment and pay crunches while you can still do something about it. The course ends with some time-management techniques that will help you keep on top of what you want to achieve.

Here's what some people who have taken the class in the past have said:

• "I really got a lot out of this class. It forced me to make some decisions that are actually getting me to move ahead, and that is very good news."


• "I just wanted to let you know how much I learned from the biz planning class ... What was most beneficial to me was developing formulas to track, on an ongoing basis, which clients/types of work represent the majority of my income."


• The frame of reference you've provided is quite useful, and I feel I've already gotten my money's worth."

The class runs six weeks and is meant for people who already have some experience in freelance writing.

Planning Class Syllabus:

• The need to plan


• Self examination to set the direction


• A layered approach to planning


• Using results to improve planning


• Baseline financial analysis


• Establishing bare bones and and full budgets


• Performing a time utilization analysis


• Determining client and assignment mixes


• Identifying personal inertia points


• Taking personal work inventories


• Evaluating past and current clients


• Calculating minimum rates


• Building a foundational financial plan


• Identifying areas for expansion


• Balancing work/client categories for plan optimization


• Taking stock of planning efforts so far


• Creating a planning feedback loop


• Cash flow analysis


• Discounting expectations and assignment values


• Other metrics


• Time management


• Developing time-based plan implementation


• Juggling tasks

Upcoming Marketing Class

I'm teaching one of my periodic marketing classes at FreelanceSuccess.com. Here's some info:

Selling and Marketing for Writers

When: Aug. 20-Sep. 28
Where: An online teaching forum
Cost: $179 ($159 for FreelanceSuccess members)

Most freelancers love to write but feel like ducks out of water when it comes time to market and sell. If you find yourself in that category, it's probably because you never learned how. In the Selling and Marketing for Writers class, that's exactly what Erik Sherman teaches you.

Understand such basic concepts as marketing, brand and platform, all of which are more subtle and intricate than you might think. Make your marketing organic, and know what you are to the client. Find clients that fit your business, create a profile of the ideal prospect, and know what the prospect is to you. Check your marketing materials - even the ones you don't realize that you have. Understand the sales process and take control of it. Do vital market research and develop profiles of real prospects and clients. Create a prospecting program and move toward your financial goals. Make use of the rule of numbers, even if you don't take to math. Effectively follow up to get more business.

Syllabus

Week 1: Learning basic marketing principles and unlearning some bad scuttlebut. What motivates customers. Selling to a client and a buyer at the same time. Learning the emotional triggers. Handling conflicts between clients and buyers. Who your marketing is about. Getting the right relationship to a client.

Week 2: Deciding on the “right” customers, profiling customers and prospects and their fit, discounting assignment payments, lifetime customer values, rate research, client financial stability, profiling prospect needs.

Week 3: How and when to talk about yourself, unique selling propositions, positioning, branding, platform, understanding how to really use these buzzwords and knowing what they aren’t.

Week 4: The need for good marketing materials – and what they are, your most important calling cards, the difference between marketing and tools, the two basic types of marketing, understanding the tools you really need, knowing when to use a given tool, learning the basic structure of any marketing piece, the time line of marketing.

Week 5: Difference between marketing and sales, what selling isn’t, stages of the buying/selling process, get the right emphasis when approaching prospects, matching the sale to the need, getting into a conversation with prospects, handling objections whether heard or silent, closing the deal.

Week 6: Need for numbers, determine your personal sales conversion rate, planning on enough marketing and selling, enjoying marketing and sales, the biggest single problem in getting business, the power of unimportance, being genuine, negotiation.

Testimonials

Here are some unsolicited comments that some students from the last session I taught posted on FreelanceSuccess when I mentioned that I'd be offering it again:

"I just scored a new column this morning by putting to use what I learned in the class."

"If you're stalled on your marketing, just getting started, looking at new revenue streams or just want to tweak your message, this is a great class."

"I snagged a $4,000 project using techniques I learned in Erik's class."

I can't promise this sort of response, but if you do the work and apply it, you will start seeing positive results.