The Hard-Working Words Blog

Hey {!name},

Whew. I got a *lot* of responses to my email last week . . .

I asked “What’s the biggest question you’ve got about surviving the
recession?”

And the responses came *flooding* in . . .

Obviously, folks are nervous about the current economy and how
they’re going to get through it.

But enough preamble . . . let’s dive in. Any one of these questions
could fill a whole issue of HWW by themselves, but I’m going to try
to keep my answers brief so that we can cover as much ground as
possible.

============================
Carrie Lanza asks . . . “Chris . . . How do I start out as a
freelancer during the recession?”
============================

Hi Carrie,

First off, congrats. Going out on your own can seem scary at first,
but once you get your feet under you, you’ll wonder how you ever
got by before.

Some key points of advice:

1. Live Below Your Means (and then grow your means.)

The sad fact of the matter (and one of the big reasons that we’re
in this financial mess) is that most Americans spend way, way WAY
more than they actually make. As a freelancer and small business
owner, you just can’t afford to do that. You’ve got to cut your
expenses, your luxuries and even your long term investments to the
BONE and build up as much of a cash cushion as you can. Get as
close to “starving college student” living as you can.

2. Forget Your Passion . . . Give The Market What It Wants.

Remember that old adage “Do what you love and the money will
follow?” It’s great if you’re writing greeting cards or trying to
inspire a room full of passionate Ukelelee players . . . but it’s
utterly worthless when it comes to doing business in hard times.

Instead, you’ve got to focus on what you’re good at, what you don’t
*hate* doing, and what people are actually still willing to pay
good money for.

Which means you’ve got to help them *make* money (which is what
marketing consultants and copywriters do) . . . help them *save*
money (by doing a job they used to do themselves or in house, but
cheaper) or that shows another simple and tangible return on
investment.

3. Be Shameless In Your Self Promotion . . .Make Big Promises AND
KEEP THEM.

Here’s the big one. You didn’t mention what you wanted to go
freelance *as* in your email, but no matter what it is you’ve got
to be ready, willing and able to *sell yourself.”

As I’ve said for years,  “Marketing is the art of making a promise
and keeping it.”

When talking to potential clients you’ve got to be aggressive (but
not obnoxious) and lay out in exacting detail what kind of results
you can get for them.  Make big promises . . . and then drastically
exceed the results you promised.

=========================================
Robert Landis asks . . . “One sure way to increase market share or
number of clients, is to reduce prices during a recession. However,
we are already a “low cost provider” by many of our competitors
standards, only charging $95.00 per hour. In addition, we have
business booked until late January 09. One attempt we have made to
address this issue is offer Search Engine Marketing services for a
small flat monthly fee plus a 10% commission on sales from the
campaigns. Any other creative ideas?”
=========================================

Hi Robert,

I’d actually disagree with your initial statement. If you’re
selling widgets or a commodity, then yes, lowering prices can ramp
up your business. But for a service-based small business like
yours, lowering prices is often akin to corporate suicide. It
slashes your margins and, in some cases, actually scares away
customers who think “If you’re that cheap, you can’t be very good
at what you do.”

But let’s get to the other part of your question . . .

Commission-based work is great.

A few other ideas I’d recommend:

1. Keep your prices where you are, but make bigger promises and add
more value. (Man, I say that word a lot.) What’s unique about you?
What do you do that no one else does? Can you offer some for of
guarantee or maintenance schedule at no additional cost? Do you
have services that are really cheap for you to perform but that are
worth a ton to your customer? Throw those in for free as “Bonuses”
for your clients. The problem I see with a lot of web dev houses is
that they “Commoditize” themselves. They all sell themselves based
on time units and offer very little to stand out.

2. Become an authority in your niche. Start sending out a
newsletter or doing webinars or teleseminars on topics that are
important to your customers and that are done in language they
understand. Give away your absolute best advice for free. You’ll be
shocked how many folks then call you up and ask you to work for them.

But no matter what, you’ve got to start finding a way to
differentiate yourself from the competition. Web Dev houses are a
dime a dozen. What makes you DIFFERENT?

=========================================
Elizabeth asks “What can a person who is inherently lazy do to
become less lazy about marketing themselves? Well, not so much lazy
as shy.”
=========================================

Hey Elizabeth,

I had some friends not so long ago ask me for some marketing
advice. They asked me how they could quickly promote their small
business and get some more customers.

And I laid out a pretty simple plan that I think would have worked
quite well. They listened patiently and at the end said “That
sounds like a lot of work. We don’t want to do that.”

And I said “Well, then go out of business.”

Personally, I’m a pretty lazy guy (and am secretly pretty shy) so I
can empathize . . . but if you’re going to survive in tough times,
you’ve got to beat that out of yourself. Like I told Carrie, you’ve
got to be willing to go out and make big promises and follow
through on them.

You’ve got a simple choice: You can kick yourself in the pants and
go out and *sell* yourself properly now . . . or you can wait until
the money’s gone dry and try to do it then. Not pretty. Not fun.
But necessary.

Sorry I don’t have a magic bullet for you. But shy people don’t
tend to do well as entrepreneurs. (Unless they learn how to hide
that shyness behind a mask of frightening confidence. Not that I
would know anything about that.)

===================================
Howard Howell asks “How do I interest biz owners and pro service
providers in investing in their own education by attending my paid
workshops on entrepreneurial sales and profits?”
===================================

You scare them.

Scare the bejeeezus out of them, actually.

And I’m not really kidding.

Howard, honestly, you’re in one of the easier niches to sell in
this kind of economy. The “learn how to make more money” niche. The
key is, you’ve got to outline in exact detail the huge BENEFITS of
learning your system.

* How much more *money* will I make if I attend your training?
* What *huge problems* will you solve for me?
* What *massive regrets* will I have if I *don’t* come to your
seminar?
* What *ridiculously generous* guarantee will you give me that your
workshop is worth my time?

I’d also start tying the bad state of the economy directly into
your marketing. Bring up the crumbling economy and tell your
prospects that you’ve got the system to beat it.

Whew. And I think that’s all we have room for today.

I’ve still got a ton of questions stacked up in my inbox. What I’ll
probably do is pick a few to highlight on the blog. So if you don’t
see your question answered here, don’t panic. I’ll try and get to
it as soon as I can.

You can find the blog at Haddadink.com/blog

And you can get in touch with me just by replying to this email.

Later skaters,

Chris

Hey folks,

If you’ve been following me on twitter you know that I spent the weekend down in Las Vegas at Ken Mcarthur’s JV Alert Live Seminar . . .

Or, well, I spent the weekend near Las Vegas anyway.

For some reason or other Ken decided to have the seminar at the Montelago Village Resort and Casino . . . which is a weird and worrisome not-quite-a-ghost-town-but-close megaresort about 17 miles from the Las Vegas strip.

The place is downright creepy . . . and would probably be a great setting for a zombie movie.

On the upside, the resort has a man-made lake and is within spitting distance of Celine Dion’s house.

On the downside, the Montelago is suffering a slow and depressing death and is 17 MILES FROM THE STRIP. (Oh grand vision of Las Vegas, why must you tempt me so.)

As for the Seminar itself, I’d give it an A- for networking and a solid C for actual content and value. I met some amazing people in my 4 days at the Montelago, solidified some existing relationships and cooked up quite a few evil schemes that will pay off in the future.

But I didn’t learn a thing.

One by one the speakers clambered up onto the stage, told their life stories and launched into a pitch without delivering anything close to actual value.

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Eben Pagan, but these days I expect to actually get some value for my hard earned cash.

Even Joe Sugarman, who I was greatly looking forward to meeting, completely failed to deliver. His talk was titled something like “How To Improve Your Copy In 3 Easy Steps” but he spent 2 hours talking about Batman Credit cards and failed ads and then tried to sell us skin cream.

It was surreal.

I still love the whole JV Alert crowd. They’re all warm, passionate people and I consider many of them to be good friends, but if you’re going to go, go for the networking and skip the pitchfest in the room.

Hey Folks,

Welcome back to the HardWorking words newsletter.

You remember that old Gershwin brothers song?

I think it was called “Let’s call the whole thing off” and I bet you can hum it in your head.

Or heck, you can even sing it out loud. I promise nobody will look at you weird. It goes like this . . .

“You say Poh-TAY-to and I say Poh-TAH-to . . .
You say To-MAY-to and I say To-MAH-to
Poh-TAY-to, Poh-TAH-to . . .
To-MAY-to, To-MAH-to . . .
Let’s call the whole thing off.”

It’s a fun song, and to me at least, it seems to be a pretty apt metaphor for all the screaming and rambling going on in the news these days . . .

After all, I don’t care if you call it a Poh-TAY-To or a Poh-TAH-To, it still tastes great covered in butter and sour cream.

And it doesn’t matter if the chattering heads on the news rant about an “economic slowdown,” a “financial meltdown” or (GASP! EEK!) a *recession . . . it’s still a big, scary mess that’s going to hurt a whole lot of good people.

Now, I’m not saying this to get you down or to raise your anxiety . . . If the continued reign of “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” at the box office tells us anything it’s that people are looking for light escapism these days.

But personally, it drives me *nuts* when I see people dashing around, arguing semantics and rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic instead of taking the simple, proven steps they need to survive (and even grow their businesses) during the recession.

Because, hey, it’s a FACT . . .
* Unemployment is  EXPLODING . . . did you know that since January 750,000 Americans have lost their jobs? (Heck, I personally know 3 people who have lost theirs just in the last 2 weeks.)

* Businesses big and small are going to die sudden, painful deaths . . . think Lehman and WaMu were bad? Wait until the credit crunch and lack of consumer confidence trickles down to the everyday small and medium businesses that make this economy run.

* Retirement as we know it is DONE . . . Hear that crazy sound coming from the stock market? That’s the sound of millions of retirees (or soon to be retirees) watching their savings go up in smoke because of the unethical (and moronic) actions of the money men they trusted.

So say it with me, Potato, Potato, Potato.

And now take a deep, deep breathe and force a smile on your face, because . . .

=====================
It’s Time For The Good News
=====================

Even during the deepest depths of the Great Depression (and this one ain’t “great” and might never become so) . . .

* Over 75 percent of Americans were gainfully employed and had money to spend . . .
* Smart entrepreneurs *started* businesses, created jobs and absolutely thrived . . . .
* And even in the darkest of times people figured out how to mash up that nasty potato and get rich?

And you can do the same thing. But only if you take a deep breathe, think straight and act smart.

So here’s your Potato Survival Kit . . .

1. Figure out your 80/20

Most businesses get 80 percent of their business from 20 percent of their customers. Strangely enough, most customers have *no idea* what 20 percent is actually keeping them alive and waste all their time and effort going after the great unwashed masses.

Where are you really getting your business from? How can you serve them better? How can you give them better value? How can you get more of your most profitable customer?

2. Say Goodbye to Flash And Dazzle

Personally I’ve never been a big fan of flash and dazzle image advertising . . . but in an economy like what we’ve got today, relying on image to bring in sales is absolute suicide.

If you want to survive (and maybe even grow your business) during our current little problem you’ve got to focus on proven, tested marketing techniques that actually create sales and put money in your pocket.

If you aren’t currently using direct response marketing techniques to feed your business, it’s time to start. If you’re already hip (or semi hip) to the ways of direct response, it’s time to ramp up the testing and hold yourself and your marketing team to a much higher standard.

3. Give People What They Want

Gary Halbert is famous for saying “When All Else Fails, Give People What They Want.”

Not what you think they want.

Not what you want them to want.

But what they *actually* want.

I wrote a whole article on this in the past, but when times are tough it’s essential that you figure out what core desires your customers have and find a way to fulfill them.

Which might mean lowering your prices . . .
Which might mean changing the way you package and sell your products . . .
Which might mean giving away a whole bunch of value for free . . .

And which almost definitely means getting out of your comfort zone.

Later skater,

C

P.S. If you’re an employee drawing a salary week in and week out? You’ve *got* to start looking around for your own income stream. Right now even a stiff breeze is enough to cause most companies to lay you off. In a down economy, the only safe thing to do is work for yourself.

Lot’s to cover today, so let’s just cut to it in handy-dandy numbered form:

1. “Mr. Moneyfingers’” birthday was last week. I’m now a whopping 31 years old. Strangely, due to back surgery, I now feel younger than I did when I was thirty. It’s the fountain of youth in the form of a small, angry scar.

2. Some fellow Office Nomads and I are taking part in the Seattle AIDS walk on October 4th. My goal is to raise $250 bucks for AIDS research, but to do so I need your help. Check out this website and drop a couple of bucks for a good cause.

3. Holy @#$#@!!! what the heck happened to the economy?!

Unless you’ve been playing Rock Band 2 non stop for the last couple of weeks (personally, I could play those Bon Jovi songs forever), you know that the American economy is teetering like a late-game Jenga tower.

Which is bad for everybody.

But if you listen to the advice I’m about to give you, it doesn’t have to be particularly bad for *you.*

Why?

Because I’m going to tell you . . .

——————————————————————–
3 Simple Ways For Your Business To Make Really Good Money In Really Bad Times
——————————————————————–

1. Turn “Old” Customers Into “New” Customers

If you’re like most business folk, you spend a tremendous amount of time, energy and money trying to turn strangers into customers . . . and almost completely ignore your current and lapsed customers.

But I’ll tell you right now that your “dead customer” file is an absolute goldmine . . . a goldmine you can’t afford to ignore in “tough economic times.”

Why?

Because, if you follow some simple steps, it’s tremendously easy to to bring “dead” customers back to life. In direct marketing circles, a hefty list of “buyers” is seen as the holy grail. If folks have bought from you before, they’re way, way more likely to buy from you again . . . if you just ask them to and make it worth their time.

So here’s what you should do:
1. Compile a list of “dead” customers who have bought from you in the past but dropped off between 6 months and 2 years ago.
2. Draft a letter where you offer your “dead” customers a discount on a product or service they actually want, and offer them some kind of valuable bonus or bribe that will make their life better in some way.
3. Sit back in awe and wonder as those musky old “dead” customers spit and sputter back to life and buy, buy, buy.

2. Use Joint Ventures to provide your customers with extra value . . . and get paid for your time.

This is one of those “no brainer” things that almost nobody actually does, and almost everybody should.

Like I said a second ago, a list of buyers is tremendously valuable. If people have bought from you in the past, they’re likely to buy from you again . . . and they’re likely to actually listen to you when you tell them to buy from someone else.

Most internet businesses are built from the ground up on this principle. I know quite a few internet entrepreneurs who make more selling other people’s stuff to their lists than they do selling their own stuff. Heck, some of these guys don’t even have any products of their own at all.

So how do you set up a joint venture that pays off fast?

1. Find a product or service that’s complimentary to what you’ve got to sell or that your customers would be interested in.

2. Promote that product or service to your customers in exchange for a percentage of sales.

3. Get paid for your time, without having to do any real work and without having to move inventory.

Do you sell custom guitars? Find a tube-amp manufacturer who you respect and offer to promote to your customers in exchange for a percentage of the action. If they’re smart, they’ll hop all over the deal and you’ll both make money.

And if you think that your business “different” and that you can’t do JV’s, you’re wrong.

3. Give Your Best Stuff Away . . . and wait and see what you *get* in return.

I’m not a big fan of Business Networkers International (BNI), but I do really dig their tag line: Givers Gain.

If you want to do well in a tough economy, you’ve got to stand out. And the best way to stand out is to provide ridiculous, incredible value.

You can do that by giving away information (which is really what I’m doing here), by giving a sample of your product or by giving payment terms that are customer friendly. But the point is to *give* your customers value.

Why?

Well, for one thing it helps to build a nice bond with your customers.

For another, it develops a feeling of reciprocity. As human beings, we’re hard wired to *give back* to folks who give us things. I don’t have room to cover the whole concept here, but trust me, it works.

When you give your customers value, you gain trust, referrals and sales.

And there you go.

OK, it’s time for a . . .

SHAMELESS PLUG: I often run campaigns just like these for clients of my “Moneyfingers, Inc.” consulting service. I’m damnably selective about who I take on for clients, but if you’ve got a sizable list of past customers and a quality business, you may qualify. Hit me up with an email and we’ll find out.)

And that’s it, folks. I’ll be writing about my take on the Microsoft Ad debacle later this week (short version: I still think they’re first ad was pretty good . . . but where they went from there was embarrassing.)

Over on Orcas Island this weekend I had the following conversation with the lovely mid-fiftieswoman who ran the resort we were at:

Me: “Is it a nice room?”

Her: “Oh, it’s a very nice room.”

Me: “Really?”

Her: “I like this room so much that if you don’t like it you can go down to the water, grab a piece of driftwood and come back here and  beat me with it.”

Pretty great guarantee, huh?
I bet there’s a whole newsletter in there somewhere, but I already covered a lot of this stuff in the last issue.