Eureka!
Last night’s Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Made By Small Businesses and What to Do About Them class was a raucous and satisfying affair with a room full of Bizniks scarfing down a ton of marketing info in two tightly packed hours.
But my favorite part of the night was this:
Dominic and I were up there trying to hammer forth a point about niching your business, and how if you enter the right niche you don’t have to work with people you don’t like, when suddenly the whole room went quiet. Honestly, I thought something was wrong. I thought my fly was down, or that the pain pills I was on for my aching back had rendered me dumb.
But it turned out the class was jut having an epiphany.
When you’re working for yourself and desperately trying to get the rent paid, it’s hard to remember that you really are in charge of what you do with your time. If you don’t like a client or a job or an industry, there’s no reason you can’t simply refuse to do the work, politely tell the client no and go off to go to the beach.
There’s a ton of work out there for us talented Bizniks, and when you pick a proper niche and focus on what you want, you’ll find that finding good clients–clients you actually want to work for–isn’t all that hard after all. Plus, when you like who you’re working for, you do better work.
It’s a fact. Just ask a scientist.
August 30th, 2006 at 9:01 am
It really was a powerful moment. I think the bulb when on for all of us simultaneously. I wanted to stamp my feet and cheer.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Actually, this is something I’ve quietly and secretly believed. But, too embarassed to speak it out. I mean…after all…that would not be professional, right?
So, last night the boys let the cat out of the bag, and all I could think was “hey, THAT IS RIGHT”, and I’m not alone in this.
Partly I struck out on my own path because I wanted the freedom to do things the way I wanted to. To savory, firsthand, my successes and failures.
So, here’s to remembering that we chose and continue to choose this journey. And we can do it any damn way we too. Just so long as it brings how the goods, and let’s us shine our unique and delightful light!
August 31st, 2006 at 9:51 am
Those of us who had crazy, competitive corporate careers probably had it easier when we started our own business. I vowed to “never work with anyone I don’t like, respect, or don’t want to be around” – because of all of the goofballs I did “have” to work with in the last couple of companies I was at. The corporate politics were unreal. As a cornerstone to my personal mission, it has always guided me to choose clients who help pull me forward. In selling, we make the first decision about who we want to do business with – not the customer. Great write up – sounds like it was a fantastic event. – Lori
August 31st, 2006 at 10:05 am
I’m reading “The Rise of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida right now, and it’s amazing to me how many of the things I thought were “just me” (needing not to feel like a cog in a corporate machine, needing to actually love my work and my clients, etc.) actually is part of a much larger social trend. Millions of people are making similar choices about what they do for a living, how they make a living and where they choose to do it. It’s interesting enough that I’m hosting a Biznik Book Club event at BalMar in a few weeks so we can go deeper in the conversation. If any of you are interested in being part of that, please join me and rsvp for the event (limited to 12 participants).
August 31st, 2006 at 10:09 am
Thanks to Dominic and Chris, I had a great re-experience of that moment when I realized that if I’m serious about succeeding, I need to lose (again) the value-wasters I left behind when I exited the corporate dark side. It was an evening full of insights, very much worth taking the ferry ride and not getting home until midnight.
I get to (and should) target my market to what I’d like to do and to working with those I’ll enjoy. What a concept.
Thanks, you mercenaries — Joseph
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:04 am
Glad to hear about the epiphany, all. Lately, I’ve been finding myself trying to get this concept across to Bizniks more and more. I was talking to a photographer at a Biznik happy hour who told me he was afraid to leave his BNI chapter and join Biznik because he currently gets all the photo job that pass through his chapter. He saw all the photographers in Biznik (myself included) and didn’t think he’d be able to compete.) First, I told him that he could be a member of both. It’s free to join Biznik and you get out of it what you put into it. You don’t have to leave BNI to join Biznik.
But more importantly, I talked to him about how he could use Biznik to cultivate a niche. He may be able to photograph a good wedding, a personal portrait and a well lit product, but did he like photographing everything? When proded, he replied that he liked photographing green architecture. Well what better place to find others who work in the environmentally conscious green industry than Biznik.
I encouraged him to type ‘green’ into the search engine, scroll through the directory and find all the other members who share his passion, then ask to meet with them. Mention the weddings and jewelry web sites in order to establish credability and experience, but don’t plug those kinds of jobs, instead talk with them about your shared passion for environmental consciousness.
The next time they need a photographer for a job, which do you think the majority of those green architects, contractors, real estate agents and morgage brokers are going to think of – the guy who’ll photograph anything – or the ‘green photographer’ with whom they share an affinity and a passion for our planet? If he becomes known as the ‘green photographer’ that all the other green indies hire, pretty soon he won’t be able to take any more wedding or product gigs.