Shifting with the Economy

As life looks continuingly uncertain on the macro economic front, it's important to take a close look at your business and make the shifts that can help minimize the impact.

• Sell globally, write locally I've mentioned in the past how a weak dollar can mean improved overseas markets. The dollar has strengthened some, but that doesn't mean it's time to look only at domestic work. Yes, there is turmoil the world over, but it's particualrly intense at the moment in the US. So consider how you might diversify your business portfolio. As a personal example, I'm now working on a custom publishing project for a large Indian company. The project may run through a US firm, but the source of cash is a well financed client overseas, which helps spread risk from various geographic economic weaknesses. It's no guarantee of safety, but does help reduce the issue of having all my eggs in one basket.


• Don't Do Panicked Price Drops I know some writers are getting the "we'll no longer need your services" communications. But I think it's a mistake to react by immediately lowering prices. Now, to be fair, it may be that you might get pressure to drop prices. However, if you're dealing with relativelyh strong clients, they're doing that as a negotiating tactic. Particularly if you're doing corporate work (and a lot of editorial is essential that, as you're writing for big comapnies), the amount you get as a writer is really pretty insignificant in terms of overall budgets. That doesn't mean you can simply demand what you've always gotten. Instead, you have to show the benefit you offer them. Some clients may bottom fish for price, and they tend not to be valuable clients in the long run. Those that appreciate value are more likely to continue paying reasonable amounts to those who can deliver.


• Spend Money to Make Even More When things seem tight, you don't want to spend money. I can appreciate that. Heck, I don't like spending money if I can avoid it anyway. However, as the old saw goes, you can be penny wise and pound foolish. Recently we finally got broadband into the rural area where I live and work. I could have put off the additional amount a month, but it would have made no sense. For the $30 or so I spend a month, I'll be saving hours a week. Save say three hours a week and you have 12 hours at the end of the month, enough to fit in at least a short that would pay hundreds. If you write a 300 word piece even at $1 a word, that's a 900 percent return on your investment (figuring that the additional revenue over the cost is $270). Not a return to sneeze at.


• Drop Duds Now is not when to sink time into clients that sink your business. Go out and find replacements, which will probably increase your revenue and decrease your irritation.


• Market a Lot This should be pretty predictable. You always have to market. But you're at an odd advantage here. When thigns get tight, many businesses, including writing businesses, pull back on marketing activities because they don't want to incur the expenses. That means you've suddenly got less competition. So go to the trade show or attend the seminar where you might meet potential clients, because you're stand out if, for no other reason, by being one of the few writers there.


• Be Ready to Build If things do slow down, you'll find yourself with more time on your hands. So invest the time. Try creating a new specialty that you've been unable to establish before because you were too busy. Pick up some knowledge in an up and coming technology that will affect writers, such as HTML coding or video. Then when companies are ready to invest more, you're in a better position to get the work.

Learning From - And Avoiding - Mistakes

Not all your work will be your best - that's true of everyone in every undertaking. But if you want to be good at what you're doing, you have to make a point to learn from the experience and do things differently the next time. If you don't get better, you'll get worse by becoming calcified in untreated mistakes.

Ultimately, you become what you do, because what you do creates the expectations of the people you deal with, and they start putting you into a box by asking you to do more of the same. If you're taking assignments on quick turnaround on every manner of topic to essentially fill column inches, then you'll find you continue to attract similar assignments until you start to do something else.

That's fine if you're happy with the work you're doing, but if you're not and you can't stand reading your own pieces, then something is wrong. The promises of money act like a trap to draw you back to doing work that you'd rather not meet again, like running into an ill-advised one-night-stand at a party later in the week. ("Oh, how are you?" "Fine .... fine." Uncomfortable silence.)

You generally need a certain base of time and budgetary resources to perform adequate work. If you haven't been getting them, then it's time to find other clients who will provide what you need. Instead of cringing at work of yours that you didn't like, you can actually start running across articles that you think are pretty good, only to find they are ones you wrote and forgot.

Daring to be Wrong

I have often seen writers asking the most basic questions, even when they've been in freelance writing for a while. I don't mean fundamental questions, like what are some principles that can help me find my direction. I mean basic, such as do I mention that a mutual acquaintance the editor and I have suggested I pitch, or am I allowed to call an editor?

Although I do believe in the adage that no question is too foolish to ask, I think we all have to temper that with another: if you're going to ask a question, understand why you do. The answer for many writers, including a number who have many years of experience under the belt, is that they ask questions because they're afraid of making even the slightest mistake. That in itself is close to the biggest error you could conceive.

There is no way you can ever come close to complete certainty. As in any activity, you cannot just read how to do it. The only way to learn is to try and to make mistakes. There will be times you say or do the wrong thing. Don't worry so much. So long as you're not doing something like making up a story or delivering excremental effort to a client or insulting people, you're not going to do irreparable harm to your business.

It's as though people want a set of rules and checklists to follow that will guarantee success. But the more specific the prescriptions, the less flexible they can be and the more certainly you will settle on something that cannot work all the time. In other words, the more you try to get the complete and exact list of steps you need to succeed in business, the more you set yourself up for failure.

The important thing is to learn the underlying principles, not their specific applications in all circumstances, because what will work for you will not necessarily work for me. Just try to practice the following:

• Put your client's interests before your own.


• Do your best and then keep trying to surpass it.


• Remember what you need out of your business and don't dishonor it.


• Acknowledge all the help and luck you have had and do what you can for others.


• Say no to the unethical and odious.


• The business is about relationships, not about words.


• The sooner you make the first 5,000 mistakes, the sooner you can learn and improve.

Anyone who can't deal with your being mortal and human is probably not someone you'd want to do business with anyway.

Doing Things When You Can't

Some writers - and people, in general - seem flustered when they must develop new skills or capabilities, like calling prospects and selling, or interviewing intimidating people. "But I can't do that," they say.

There is a chance that if you're reading this, you fall into this category at least part of the time. We all do. But you can't let that distract you. Of course there are aspects of this business that you can't do. No one is born ready to run a business. People with the most natural affinities for business must learn - a lot. No, you don't know how to do all of this this, but you can develop the skills and experience you need. Just start. Pick an aspect of what you don't know how to do, and then do it. Even if you do it badly, that's fine: Do it again. Again. And again. If you have ever learned how to ride a bike, then you've gone through the process. Eventually you suddenly find yourself doing what was impossible. That's how you grow your business, the impossible made possible, one step at a time.