It Sure Beats Working

No Security Is Total Security

A couple of years ago I had a client who accounted for a lot of my annual revenue –- too much.

I understood the (smart) conventional wisdom about not putting too many eggs in one client basket, but what could I do… they kept throwing more work (and money) at me.

I started to worry about them. I wondered what it meant when one of my e-mails to them went unanswered. I wondered how changes in the economy would hurt their business. I wondered what would happen if they decided one day that they didn’t need me any more. I wondered how long it would last.

And then one day it hit me: Without intending to, I had turned this client into my employer. A reliable, steady, large paycheck in return for owning my concern and attention. I had turned over my freedom for security.  So I pulled back. I eased out of the work until before long, they had dropped down as a proportion of my overall business to become just one more great client.

One (of many) things I love about working for myself is that nobody owns me. And thanks to that experience, I know now that as soon as one client becomes so large that I start worrying about what they’re going to decide or become or think, it’s time to cut back.

Because in the end, the only real job security is knowing that you don’t need any.

Blog or E-Newsletter?

Jen, one of my e-newslettter readers, wrote last week to ask which is better, blogs or e-newsletters.  I gave her my stock answer (see below), although frankly, as I reread it today, I think the technology is a little bit beside the point.

As a solo professional, I think the question is, how can you systematically, position yourself as expert, stay in touch with your existing relationships, build trust, attract the "right clients" while filtering out the "bad clients," find your voice, and not spend too much time or money in the process?  For me, E-Newsletters fulfill all that and more.  But if you find you can get most of these things done using some other approach (blogs or whatever), I think you're on the right track.

Here's my response to Jen...

Good question.  Three big advantages of a newsletter over a blog as a marketing tool for professional service providers (my focus):

- A newsletter is an email; a blog is a web site.  Emails arrive in the inbox, the place all of us check constantly.  If you put your stuff on a web site, I may never go back.  Yes, people can subscribe to your blog, although I guess at that point it becomes an e-newsletter.

- A newsletter has a schedule (monthly usually); a blog doesn't.  Just publishing monthly on a schedule is the hardest part of having a newsletter for my busy professional service clients.  Telling them that they can now publish whenever they feel like it is like telling someone that their gym is now open 24 hours a day... most people have trouble just getting in there twice a week. So the lack of a schedule isn't an advantage, it makes it harder to do (witness how many blogs start strong and then fizzle out to nothing).  And frankly, even if you did publish twice a week, who really wants to read all that anyway?

- Newsletters are about strengthening relationships with the people you already know -- it's relationship marketing on a larger scale.  I'm not (particularly) interested in boosting my Google rankings, the key benefit of blogs that's always cited.  That's fine if it happens, but way too random and in terms of a strategy, I ignore "strangers."   The best clients are those who know you over a long period of time and one day call.

Thanks for getting me thinking, Jen!

Narrow Marketing = Expert Status

I spoke at an event last night on the topic of "owning a niche," or Narrow Marketing as I like to call it. 

I have to say, if you asked me to put my finger on the one thing that has contributed the most to whatever solo professional success I've had (other than my incredible good looks) is the fact that I occupy a very, very narrow niche: email newsletters.

Simple question for you.  In each pair below, which of the two choices do you assume is more expert at what they do?:

Attorney, or Divorce attorney for lesbian couples

Freelance writer, or White paper specialist for the computer industry

Auto mechanic, or Auto mechanic for BMW's

Isn't it clearly the latter in each case?  And isn't it amazing how by knowing nothing more than a phrase describing a specialty, you naturally assume that with it comes expertise?

If you're not narrow, you're working harder to market your business than necessary.