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Making Your
Business Visible
British
entrepreneur extraordinaire, Richard Branson, has long been noticed
for his willingness to do outrageous things in order to promote his
empire. The irrepressible Branson, who reminds me of a naughty
gnome, explains his frequent media appearances by saying, “Everyday
television and newspapers need visually interesting stories to
feature. We just try to help them out by doing interesting things in
public places and making sure they know where we’ll be and what
we’ll be doing.”
As the
entrepreneurial revolution continues to grow, so does the media
interest in stories about engaging small businesses. It’s up to you
to take advantage of this curiosity by helping reporters and
interviewers discover what makes you newsworthy and being willing to
share your story and information with them. Here are some simple
ways to get started right in your own backyard.
1. Make a list of local
media outlets and possibilities.
Study all of the newspapers, even the giveaway ones, in your area.
Listen to radio stations and find out who does interviews on talk
shows. Check area television programming to see who does stories and
interviews with local people. Make this an on-going project, since
the media is a changing environment.
2. Get to know the
interviewing style and interests of local reporters.
Listen to talk radio, read the newspaper, and study regional
magazines with an eye to analyzing the slant and area of interest of
various reporters. The more familiar you become with their work, the
easier it will be to find a “hook” that will interest them in what
you’re doing.
3. Keep looking for
opportunities that are appropriate to you.
One Sunday, I noticed a tiny paragraph in the business section of
our newspaper which said, “Have you left corporate life to start
something on your own? If so, we’d like to hear from you for an
upcoming story we’re doing about career changers.” I promptly called
the reporter’s voice mail, introduced myself and explained that
while I hadn’t done exactly what she was looking for, I did have
some information that might be of interest to her since I do
seminars on self-employment around the country, had written a book
on the subject and had talked to thousands of people wanting to
leave corporate life. The reporter called and interviewed me a
couple of days later. When the story appeared— as a front page
headliner—my comments were sprinkled throughout the article giving
me the appearance of being the local expert.
Another of my
favorite tools is the lowly letter to the editor. If you see a story
that deals with an area related to your business, your professional
comments may be welcomed. You could write to applaud the original
article or add additional information or disagree with what’s been
printed.
4. Find ways to be
visible and the media may find you.
Numerous invitations and interviews have come to me because of my
teaching in adult education. One of those interviews, went out on
the wire services and was published in newspapers all over the
country. In fact,
Making a Living
Without a Job
became a book because an editor saw the course description in an
adult education catalog and contacted me, starting a chain of happy
events in motion.
So agree to be part
of a panel discussion, accept the speaking invitation from your
local Rotary club, donate a prize for your church raffle. Well
promoted local events often get media notice—and some clever
journalist might just track you down. Never underestimate the value
of community involvement.
5. Pay attention to Joan
Stewart and Peter Shankman.
Joan, a former reporter, now
helps small businesses get media exposure. Her Web site,
Publicity
Hound, is loaded with useful information and her weekly mailings are
always full of fresh insights and resources. Be sure to sign up.
Peter Shankman is
the genius behind
Help a Reporter which sends out mailings three
times a day with requests from journalists, freelancers and bloggers
looking for folks to interview on specific subjects. I had two
interviews that resulted in exposure in national magazines as a
result of responding to requests on HARO. It’s a bit tine-consuming
to monitor all the resources, but absolutely worth the effort.
6. Don’t be discouraged
if your efforts don’t produce immediate, measurable results.
Of course, it’s always wonderful if your telephone starts ringing or
you’re flooded with orders after you’ve made an appearance. But that
doesn’t always happen. I remember a small business expert being
interviewed in
Time
magazine and then publicly complaining that it hadn’t brought her
any new business. She simply didn’t understand the process, although
it’s easy to sympathize with her disappointment.
Frequently, the main
value of media exposure is that it helps people become more familiar
with you and your name. That may not translate into new business
overnight. I often have people who show up in my seminars clutching
old, yellowing newspaper articles about me that they clipped years
ago. Treat media interviews as seed planting expeditions and trust
that good will come from every effort sooner or later.
Return to the Top
A Change of Scenery
The world is like a book. He who stays
home reads only one page.
~ St. Augustine
The place that Amy calls World
Headquarters is a townhouse filled with beautiful objects gathered
on her many travels. Her business was intentionally designed to
include plenty of opportunities to feed her wanderlust and her
friends and business associates consider her one of the most
creative people they know.
It wasn’t always this, Amy says. In the
days before she became an entrepreneurial gypsy she worked for
several years in a retail store. Even though that brought her into
contact with many different people and the store’s inventory
frequently changed, she credits her travels with opening her
creative spirit. Now Amy comes back from every trip with a notebook
full of ideas she’s gathered along the way. “There’s something about
being in a new place, with new people that seems to make me more
alert,” she says.
Go Where Your Muse Is
Amy’s not the only one to discover that a
change of scenery can be a creative catalyst. Monet, Signac,
Browning and Ruskin are just a few of the artistic souls who left
home to find fresh inspiration in Venice. Frances Mayes was an
unknown college writing professor until she shared her passion for
Tuscany in her popular books.
Although it’s wonderful to have a faraway
place that can be a source of creative renewal, your Muse may not
require you to travel so far. My friend Peter has taken to walking
around a favorite lake in Minneapolis. After checking out several
lakes, he chose Lake Harriet because of its serenity. He claims that
his best writing ideas are generated on those walks which get him
out of his home office.
On one of his walks, Peter, who also does
career counseling, realized that often the solution to an unhappy
work situation is to relocate to a different environment. As he
says, “It’s not just the what of our work. It’s also the
where.” It’s hard to know where Where is if we haven’t done some
exploring and discovered those places and people that call forth our
best self.
In Praise of Small Excursions
Julia Cameron, best known for The
Artist’s Way, is an enthusiastic proponent of regular
adventures. Cameron also nudges her creative spirit by dividing her
time between New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico—two very
different environments.
In Walking in the World,
her book on practical creativity, she writes, “Once a week I take
some small adventure, an Artist’s Date. And I do mean small. I go to
the fabric store. I visit the button shop. I sneeze as I enter a
dusty secondhand bookstore. I take myself to a pet shop and go to
the bird section. I might visit a large clock store and hear the
rhythmic ticking, steady as a mother’s heart...I declare an hour off
limits from hurried production and I have the chance to marvel at my
own being.”
This is a splendid idea that anyone can
borrow, but in order to get the full benefit of small excursions
they need to be given the same commitment as any other important
appointment.
Build a Travel Component Into Your
Business
A life coach I met in San Antonio, Texas
has another business selling Venetian glass beads. Two or three
times a year, she flies to Italy to restock her inventory. Another
woman I know, who published a cozy mystery newsletter, led a tour
group of booklovers to England every year.
Entrepreneurs who have expanded their
business while earning money as they travel agree that it adds a new
dimension to their work, but there’s more to this than just
supporting your wanderlust. In The Art of Travel,
Alain de Botton writes, “It is not necessarily at home that we best
encounter our true selves. The domestic setting keeps us tethered to
the person we are in ordinary life, who may not be who we
essentially are.”
A change of scenery can give us a new
insight into who we are and what we can accomplish. When we step
outside of the familiar and into a strange environment, we are
challenged to be more alert, more aware, more open and curious.
Those are some big rewards for jumping on a train or airplane—or
taking a walk in a new neighborhood.
Return to the Top
Who Me? Take a Sabbatical?
When funnyman
Steve Martin's book Pure Drivel came out it enjoyed critical
raves and enthusiastic sales. Although the author has long been recognized
for his fertile comic mind, he told the Today Show's Matt Lauer that the
book would not have happened if he hadn't taken time off. His sabbatical
unleashed, Martin said, an avalanche of creative ideas.
Martin is
not alone in discovering that taking time away can reap enormous benefits.
Nicola Freegard was a successful (and frazzled) Hollywood music production
executive. After a particularly stressful project, she decided to spend
a year driving around the United States with her cocker spaniels as companions.
Eventually, she settled in Tucson and began to clarify her goals. She
decided she wanted to combine design and textile production with her concern
for the environment. Furthermore, she wanted to work with great people
and travel to exotic places. Today she heads Earth Works, a company that
markets environmentally sensitive products for the home.
Despite numerous
stories extolling the profound rewards of taking time away, it's an idea
that is not being as heartily embraced as it might be. In fact, many people
find the whole notion downright terrifying. Not surprisingly, I've noticed,
these are people with the least to lose.
Because the
notion of regular sabbaticals throughout our lifetime has been so ignored
in recent times, there's some confusion over what constitutes a true sabbatical.
People often claim to have taken a sabbatical when they actually took
a sidetrip — usually not one of their own choosing. Divorce or a
job loss frequently sends people into a tailspin, causing them to drift
until they get their bearings. Calling such times a sabbatical diminishes
the true objective of time off.
My definition
of sabbatical is time away with a purpose. The purpose of such a time
is not to abandon your life, but to enrich it. In the original concept,
first defined in the Old Testament book of Hebrews, a sabbatical was to
be taken by everyone, every seven years. During this year off, fields
were to lie fallow, debts were to be forgiven, relationships were to be
repaired and introspection was encouraged. Over time, of course, the notion
disappeared and today many people don't even observe a weekly Sabbath,
much less consider taking an entire year of restoration.
After taking
my sabbatical seminar a few years ago, Veneta Masson wrote an inspiring
article about it for a health care magazine. In the article she said,
"In 1998, I will have been an RN for 35 years. I should be coming
up on my fifth sabbatical. ...What if nurses, especially nurses in clinical
practice, were granted time away from the physical, mental and emotional
intensity of patient care for personal renewal? Wouldn't nurses nurse
more effectively if they themselves are well cared for?"
Obviously,
my answer to the questions, "Who me? Take a sabbatical?" is
a hearty, "Yes. Why not you?" And I'm not alone in singing the
praises of such an adventure. The authors of Six Months Off interviewed
over 200 people who had done so and without exception they all found that
doing so enhanced their lives and careers. I have never met any sabbatical-taker
who doesn't rank it as a top life experience.
Like every
worthwhile undertaking, a sabbatical requires thoughtful planning plus
a creative approach to shifting gears for a while. Just like starting
a business, taking time off seems fraught with obstacles until the right
idea occurs. Then enthusiasm for the envisioned project begins to create
momentum and attract necessary resources.
A good starting
point for thinking about your own sabbatical can be as simple as this
little exercise. Start writing down your own thoughts by completing this
sentence:
I
want time away in order to accomplish_________.
Once you have
the big picture in sight, begin to list all ideas — both tame and
wild — about how you might fulfill the mission. Then get busy carrying
out the logistics.
Whether you
want to see the world, find time to complete a project without interruption,
study a new language or jumpstart your creative spirit, a sabbatical is
an old idea that deserves to be rediscovered and put to use by those serious
about discovering their biggest selves.
Is
It Time for Time Away?
Here are several
signs that it is the perfect time to consider a sabbatical:
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You can't
remember the last time you had a new idea that you were excited about.
-
You've
reached all of your goals.
-
You've
reached none of your goals.
-
Your kids
think you're a nerd and you suspect they're right.
-
You have
a nagging suspicion that you'd be really good at something if you only
had time to learn how.
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You get
wistful every time a plane flies overhead.
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Nobody
ever asks you what's new.
-
A longterm
relationship or job has come to an end. It's time to write a new chapter.
-
You're
tired of being an armchair traveler and want to see distant lands for
yourself.
-
You're
ready to find a new hometown.
-
You feel
drawn to donate your time and talents to a humanitarian cause.
-
You need
time to do research or start a long-term project.
-
Your soul
is weary.
Return to the Top
Another Barrier Down
Somewhere someone is looking for
exactly what you have to offer.
~ Louise Hay
For thousands of years, anyone running a
business was at the mercy of geography. If you lived near a river or
the ocean, you had opportunities not available to your landlocked
neighbors. Being an entrepreneur usually meant plunking yourself
down in a convenient spot and dealing with whomever happened to pass
your way.
Needless to say, most entrepreneurs were
not great visionaries. And, of course, millions of business owners
still operate that way, going to the same place at the same time and
serving the same customers day after day. No wonder that the more
adventurous among us didn't find this an attractive proposition.
With the advent of automobiles, trains
and planes, horizons began to expand. Legions of traveling
salespeople took to the road to sell their wares to customers
farther afield. While merchant travelers had long searched the world
for exotic goods and brought them home to eager new markets,
itinerant peddlers had mostly kept close to home.
Mail order marketing opened another
window on the world with the likes of Sears and Roebuck sending all
manner of merchandise, including prefabricated houses, to customers
living in remote corners of the country. That revolution, later
aided by services such as UPS and Federal Express, made it possible
for imaginative entrepreneurs to live in attractive places without
being dependent on the local population (or lack thereof) to support
their businesses.
Now we're in the midst of another
revolution, one that has exciting possibilities for building a
totally new kind of business. And that possibility exists only
because geography is no longer an obstacle. Where business once
meant marketing goods and services to those in close proximity, it
now is more about reaching out to those who share values, concerns
and ideas—no matter where they are located. In the Twenty-first
Century, our clients and customers are more likely to share a
consciousness than a zip code.
So what does it take to be part of this
globe-spanning phenomenon? First of all, we must have more than a
little spirit of adventure, imagination and vision. While we may be
happily ensconced in our home office, we need to reach out to people
far and wide who want what we have to offer. That may require giving
up our limited notions of what's possible. If you want to create a
business that is satisfying in every possible way there's a critical
attitude that needs to be part of your basic operating plan. That
key attitude is this: free yourself of any notions, conscious or
otherwise, that you must please everyone and decide instead that you
will build a business by finding and serving your own kindred
spirits.
That's exactly what a couple that I saw
featured on a Canadian television show did. After moving to a
sparsely populated island near Vancouver, they opened an
international art gallery. This business is run virtually and puts
them in touch with artists and buyers from around the world—while
giving them the pleasure of having a serene (and low overhead)
environment from which to work. Their success is the result of
having clarity about the people with whom they work and serve.
If you haven't already done so, give some
serious consideration to writing a profile of your ideal customer.
What do they think? What do they value? How can you enrich their
lives? You have a few billion people to chose from, after all, so
why not decide in advance who your preferred customers are? ( I'm
not talking here about exclusion and prejudice; this exercise is
about identifying the most mutually rewarding relationships you can
imagine and then seeking them out.) If you make finding like-minded
people the focus of your business, you will automatically eliminate
much of the fear that keeps so many people from moving ahead.
This is equally true if you offer a
service that does rely on personal contact with people in your own
vicinity. If you're a massage therapist, for instance, you need to
have access to bodies, but you'll build a richer business if you
decide ahead of time about the minds and spirits that accompany the
bodies of your ideal clients.
Author Sonia Choquette has some bold
advice for how to participate in all of this opportunity. She
writes, "Give up the excuses. Give up the drama. Give up the mess.
Give up attachment to the wrong things and ideas, and use that
freed-up energy to cut a wide swath for your dream to enter your
experience."
Return to the Top
Don’t Go There
If money is your only hope
for independence,
you will never have it.
~ Henry Ford
There was no shortage of candidates
for the Most Annoying Person Award that I was mentally planning to
bestow. At the top of the short list was Billy Mays, the guy who
screams at us in tv ads to buy wrenches, foot powder and cleaning
products. But he had stiff competition from Stephanie, a young woman
who had shattered the silence on the airport bus one recent Friday
evening, by dialing up a series of friends to plan her weekend.
Oblivious to the weary travelers around her, she babbled on and on.
When the calls finally ended, it was all I could do to keep from
yelling, “Thank goodness Stephanie’s run out of friends!” She
certainly had not made any new ones on the bus, but she had become
a strong contender for my award.
Both Billy and Stephanie dropped lower
on the list when I rushed to answer the telephone only to be greeted
by a disembodied voice which said, “Hello, we are canvassing your
neighborhood to find people who want to work at home.” I hung up
before the recording finished, but a few hours later I knew who the
winner of my award would be and it’s not a single person at all. I
call them the Work at Home Opportunistas and they are on the prowl.
In fact, these folks seemed to be causing an inescapable epidemic.
When I go to check my e-mail, a
flashing banner screams, “Earn $10,000/month working from home!” My
junk e-mailbox is full of moneymaking offers every day. Driving
around town, I see posters stapled to utility poles with similar
come hither messages.
My personal favorite Work at Home
promoter was the woman (I can only assume) who plastered the toilet
stalls at the Mall of America with Work at Home cards promising
$1500/month PT, $5000/month FT.
After weeks of avoiding this avalanche
of opportunity, I happened to see travel guru Peter Greenberg
talking about going on a “free” cruise—another popular offer. The
cruise ended up costing $1400 and was dreadful from beginning to
end. Maybe I should follow his lead and check out the home business
offers, I decided.
Posing as an eager opportunity seeker,
I began responding to every ad that crossed my path. I did a Google
search for Work at Home and was astonished to see pages of offers.
It would have taken me days to check out every listing on Google, so
I only went for the most intriguing. What I discovered was a pattern
or system to all these offers that was soon familiar. Maybe there’s
a Scam School where they teach this stuff, I mused. Answer an ad and
here’s what you’ll find:
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The
emphasis is on the big money you can earn. Very often the
actual business is just alluded to. Breathing seems to be the
only required skill. The focus is on opportunity with a capital
O. Request the free information offered and you probably will
get a brochure offering to sell you the real scoop.
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Especially popular right now are offers you can pass along over
the Internet. From the comfort of your own home, you can
reach millions around the world and rake it in.
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Another familiar offer is listings (either a booklet you can
purchase or on a website you must pay to enter) of Work at Home
opportunities. These are particularly terrific for anyone
interested in earning pennies for tediously stuffing
envelopes. You are not told that you have to acquire the names
and addresses that will go on the envelopes.
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The
offer that most amused me is the one that trains you to track
down deadbeat parents and collect unpaid child support. Now
doesn’t that sound like something anyone could do?
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And what’s this repeated
promise of a monthly income? Jobs have predictable incomes;
businesses fluctuate.
With all the possibilities for
creative self-employment, these plans do little more than give
working at home a shady reputation. Sadly, as long as people lack
self-confidence, there will always be shysters eager to take
advantage of them. Hook up with one of these Opportunistas and
you’ll spend both cash and confidence—with nothing but a sad, hard
lesson in return.
Return to the Top |
A genuine Planetkeeper refuses to be
influenced by the indifference or apathy of others—not even when
surrounded by Pillagers. Pillagers are the folks who go through life
consuming and destroying with no thought for anyone beyond
themselves. I suspect that most of us fall somewhere between the two
behaviors, acting responsibly in some areas and less so in others.
Real estate people talk about sweat
equity—investing time and energy rather than cold cash. Creative
capital is a similar concept, but it goes a step farther. When we
use our imaginations to grow our businesses, we not only generate
bigger and better ideas, we keep our passion alive and build
confidence in our own ideas at the same time. Those are powerful
ingredients for any successful undertaking. 