Why Being In Business for Oneself Isn't Easy? -- All the Stuff We Must Do that Has Nothing to Do with Our Expertise!

Having a business of our own can be a royal pain in the tush. Although it does make a difference whether or not you have a traditional brick-and-mortar store or whether you work out of your home and are mobile, still, you will many times be facing tasks that have nothing to do with your expertise.

You may be a whiz at accounting, but can't spell your way out of a paperbag. You might be a world-class photographer, but accounting may not be your strong point (or writing/spelling, for that matter). You might be a good teacher/instructor, but taxes drive you crazy (maybe more so than what the accountant would have to put up with). You may have a great skill at carpentry and building things like kids' playhouses and outdoor playsets or deck additions or cabinetry, but you may be uncomfortable selling your skills and those wonderful works in wood.

That's why we have folks who are good at different things--that's why it's okay and good to be skilled at different things. And all of us with the different skills can find ways to offer our services to those who need help with the skills we have.

All businesses need to get the WORD out about their offerings--whether it's your accounting services, your photography, your carpentry, your seminars and classes, your writing, your Tupperware (or Avon, Amway, Mary Kay, whutever)... and this requires marketing--and sales.

The problem is,... that many folks equate the word "marketing" with the word "sales"... and they may not understand that they aren't the same thing.

As I mentioned in a previous post elsewhere in this forum/social network, MARKETING is analogous to checking a fishing hole to see where the fish are biting, what bait the fish are biting, and how to entice the fish to get to it. SALES is analogous to offering the bait and letting the fish bite. You only reel in the fish who bit on your bait. The fish who wanted what you had to offer. You didn't have to go chasing after the fish... you just dropped your great bait (that you have studied and know that the fish definitely WANT) into the water and let the fish do the rest--bite the bait.

Too many in the media and in public education and elsewhere have given sales a bad name--you think of the stereotype of the car salesman with the slicked back hair, chest-hair showing in his open shirt, white belt and white shoes, sunglasses, chewing gum, and giving you all sorts of sleazy come-ons. However, after being a car-salesperson myself--during a time of serious unemployment such that I was willing to do damn near anything--I realized that this perception is the exception--not the rule. Yeah, you'll get sleazy car sales people--just like you'll get sleazy politicians, sleazy dentists, sleazy plumbers (you know the stereotype of the fat-old-guy showing his butt-crack as he bends over your drain, right?), and so on. But most sales-people are offering a product that folks want. Yup.

That's what makes our economy run. People WANT the stuff that's being sold. If people DIDN'T WANT it, there'd be no reason to produce it. My sister just loves Avon stuff. My wife and I prefer Amway stuff. My daughter likes Mary Kay. We have tons of Tupperware stuff--maybe from our experience of living in the tropics (Guam and the Philippines)--and Tupperware was the only thing we had to keep the ants and other critters out of our food! So yeah, when we move to a new city/area, we seek out and find an Amway distributor (well, we finally succumbed and became one ourselves so we could get the stuff at a discount!). My daughter, likewise, finds Mary Kay distributors. When we need new Tupperware stuff, you can bet we'll find one and call them to replenish our stock of 'em.

When my sink is leaking, I don't need to have a sales guy pounding on the door offering plumbing services. I run to the yellow pages or someone who I've met at a Chamber of Commerce meeting and whose services I trust and I call them. (I recently had this experience with a leak under my sink--I called, they quickly came by and fixed my problem. I didn't WANT to spend $200, but I needed the service and I'm a total klutz when it comes to that kind of stuff.)

When I'm trying to buy a new car, I don't need to have some darn-fool yelling and screaming at me with his dog "spot" to get me to buy a car. I don't give a flying rip if the company has been in the city for 30 years. What I do is that I ask my friends and acquaintances about who they'd buy a car from. I'd check Consumer Reports and Kelly Blue Book and Edmonds.com to see the ratings for various cars I'm interested in. Then, when I've done my homework (and have the paperwork assembled) I go to a dealership and talk to a salesperson I feel comfortable with. If the salesperson gets flakey or weird, I'm out of there.

My family has bought TWO cars from one salesperson--I worked with him. He's a neighbor (lives around the block from me). He goes to a similar church. We've had him and his family over to our house a few times for dinners and parties. I trust him. When he moved to a different dealership, I followed him there and bought the car from HIM. It wasn't the dealership that sold me--it was this very nice, very trustable fellow--who would bend over backwards to make sure that the products we bought from him would keep us very, very, happy. And, since we've had both vehicles now for almost 6 years--you can tell we're very happy.

So... I have my own small business. I work out of my home. I do editing and writing for folks--sales letters, books, user manuals, marketing brochures, catalogs, training manuals, and so on. I do quick edits for folks--looking at their sales letters to make sure they don't have embarrassing typos and spelling errors (some are critical when they involve your phone number, address, and your prices).

I have studied for and have passed my California state life insurance license and I also offer Prepaid Legal Services plans (am certified for Prepaid Legal Commercial Driver Legal Plans, Small Business Legal Plans, and Group Plans as well as Individual Plans). I'm certified for car/home insurance. I can provide you with access to representatives of our health (long-term disability care) insurance and our retirement and estate building programs. I don't believe in chasing folks down to cram stuff down their throats. So, I don't advertise much.

One of the things I love to do is to teach. To help folks learn to help themselves. And the company I work with provides us with a way to show folks how to get better control of their finances--with regard to creating an additional income, with regard to protecting what they have already built, with regard to eliminating their debt, and with regard to protecting against the loss of their incomes. Through a complimentary, customized, confidential Financial Needs Analysis, my company can help our clients find a way out of financial gobbledegook and mess that our current economy has gotten so many of us into.

Like I said... I'm skilled at writing and editing (and photography)... and teaching. I love teaching and helping others.

What I'm not good at includes accounting (figuring out how the heck all the numbers fit together and make sense of profit-loss statements), I'm not good at selling (unless folks really want what I have to offer), I'm not good at carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, car repair, appliance repair, animal training, and so on.

But... if you are good at any of the things I'm not good with--I can cut a deal to help you with what you need in the areas of writing, editing, insurance, photography.... if you can provide me with good accounting, carpentry, plumbing, and car repair.

By the same token... remember when I said that people WANT what's being produced? This also applies to those of us with resumes in our hands. People DO WANT what you have to offer--but you have to go find them. You have to do your research. You can't just wait around for your resume to be found on DICE.com or Monster.com or HotJobs.com... you have to do research (remember? What are the fish biting?) and figure out where the *employers/clients* are hiring the skills that you can offer. Then, present your desirable skills such that the employer can't refuse. Yup... there's some *sales* involved (when you are hired--that's a sale!)... and there's marketing involved (when you are researching where companies are hiring and what they want to hire and how your skills fit their needs).

So... instead of getting all frustrated with the stuff we don't like to do (like sales, writing, plumbing, and so on), lets find ways to have others help us get what we want and let others who are good at what we don't do well either teach us to be good at it or do it for us.

Just a thought... Now I have to get back to my coffee and cook up some more writing ideas.