The Desert of Arizona
Rain and Mist 39 Degrees
When I first launched my freelance copywriting business back in 2007, I started with zippo.
Actually, I had a mailing list of a few names. These folks were previous clients from my tech consulting business. Not really good prospects for a direct response copywriter, but they technically were prospects.
So that’s where I started. With what I had.
Early on, my business rode the wave of feast and famine. I had no idea about much of anything, so I didn’t notice how the wave worked.
I didn’t see the pattern, even though it would have been obvious to just about any person looking in from the outside.
During one month, I’d send out a bunch of direct mail letters selling my services. Some time would go by and the inquiries would start coming in.
I’d get busy with some business and the marketing would stop. Then I’d finish the project and start up the marketing again. Then I’d wait…
My rough guess is that there was about a six month lag between marketing and the result of that marketing. 6 months is LONG time to wait when you need clients yesterday. Not recommended at all.
These days, I do things quite differently. I build my business through the platform approach. I talk about it a lot because it’s that important.
It solves a lot of problems. Best of all, there’s not ONE business day that I wake up and don’t know at least ONE thing I’m doing to attract future business. I’m going to sit down and produce valuable content for my platform.
I know what to do even when I don’t know what I’m doing.
If there’s one bit of advice that could make an impact in the life of EVERY service provider, it’s this:
Figure out a way to consistently become valuable to a large group of people who might hire you.
On one level, it’s drop dead simple. On another level, (the level of execution,) it might be one of the hardest things you ever do.
Once you get started and see the momentum building, it’s a pretty sweet ride.