Business Plan

September 21, 2003, 3:27 p.m.
For the past week I’ve been interviewing home-based business owners for an article I’m writing and each of them have told me the same thing – even though you work from home, it’s still a business. I had to hear it several times before I realized the adage applied to sales people, speakers, consultants AND writers.

I take my writing very seriously – I send numerous queries every week, I stay connected with editors I’ve worked with, I make cold calls and I always ask for referrals. Still, I know there is more I could be doing to market myself. But to be honest, short of paying thousands of dollars for a flashing billboard with my website address, I wasn’t exactly sure how to begin expanding my personal marketing campaign.

I went to the library and found two books – Guerrilla Publicity and Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work that you Love – and after reading them I have a notebook filled with ideas for spreading the word about who I am and what I do.

Both books strongly recommend self-promotion – which seems obvious – but it doesn’t make it any easier.

I am good at selling myself – I’ve learned how to make small talk with strangers; I ask the right questions, laugh in the right places, and most of the time, say the right things. But most of the time I’m scared to death and thinking, “I hope this is over soon,” or “I wonder if they can hear the fear in my voice,” or “I’m really uncomfortable in this group of strangers; I’d rather be home in my pajamas reading a book.”

Often I’ve held back on self-promotion because I don’t want to sound like a smarmy used car salesperson, but something happened this week that made me realize if done correctly, self-promotion can be extremely effective.

I interviewed one of the authors of Guerilla Publicity for the article I mentioned earlier. Toward the end of our conversation, she offered a suggestion for an article – one that would use her, and her book, as the primary source. It was actually a very good idea (that I’m in the process of pursuing) and though she was clearly promoting herself as an expert source, she managed to word it in such a way that made it sound like she was doing me a favor. It wasn’t smarmy at all – and if the idea is accepted, both of us will benefit.

My goal this week is to take what I’ve learned and put it into play – it’s time for me to develop a business plan. I’m going to take the advice of the experts and spend part of the week focused entirely on self-promotion. I want to start laying a foundation that will eventually pay off with assignments, referrals and new clients.

Stay tuned for updates!