Startup Sunday
Last week, another entrepreneur said she admired how I always have time for networking and marketing. “I’m so busy,” she said, “I just don’t have time.”
I can’t tell you how many times someone has cancelled on a networking event or lunch, using that excuse. “I have a deadline,” she will email the morning of the event. Or simply, “I’m too busy.”
I’m pretty darn busy too. But I force myself to carve out a few hours for marketing every single week. Here’s why:
If you aren’t actively marketing yourself as an entrepreneur, you are letting the work come to you. Most likely, this work will be lower paying and less rewarding that the work you deliberately set your sights on and attack.
As a solo practitioner who sells writing and editing services to clients, the primary goal of my business is to get better clients and shed the not-so-good clients. Or, to do more work for my best clients and less work for the not-so-fabulous clients.
That’s never going to happen if I passively sit back and complete the projects that clients bring to me, without at least a few hours of planning and thought about what would be my stretch assignments or dream projects – and then setting my feet towards that goal.
Of course, the definition of “better” clients and “not-so-good” clients will vary. For me, the better clients are those that pay well and promptly, while also providing challenging and interesting projects that move my career in the direction I want to head. The “not-so-good” clients come in a million different varieties, but they can be any combination of high maintenance, cheap, late on payments and engaged in work that I find boring.
I’m not saying that marketing always comes easily to me. There are mornings when I sit down at my desk to a huge pile of work and start to panic about a planned networking lunch or a calendar notation to write a story pitch for a new potential client. It’s very tempting to just skip the marketing and focus on the projects that must get done now.
But then I remind myself that I want to be steering the ship of my career. I don’t want it to be up to chance or my clients’ whims. And I put my head down to finish the work, while also making time for the marketing.
More often than not, I find that the added pressure of working in limited time makes my work more focused and higher quality. That’s a very good thing. After all, it’s one thing to cancel a networking lunch or skip a marketing opportunity in order to deliver to a current client. It’s quite another to cancel and then spend your freed-up time surfing the Internet.
Bottom line: you always have time for marketing. It’s up to you to actively develop your business. Nobody else will be as interested in your career as you are.
What do you think? Can you have a successful business without doing any marketing? I challenge anyone to present an example of a thriving entrepreneur who does zero marketing. (I would include marketing to existing clients, since getting more work from the good ones is a smart marketing strategy.)
Photo credit: Seattle Municipal Archives via Flickr
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