Kirsty France Writes

Do you have an email list?  Is it bringing you much business?  I admit that I probably don’t do enough to look after my subscribers so if any of you are reading, sorry!  I’ve resolved to get better at using email.  For one thing, I want to be helpful.  If there are people on my subscriber list who just want to know about blogging, there’s no point me writing to them about time management.

At the moment, I send out a monthly update which has the same content for everyone.  I know I should do things differently so I’ve resolved to improve.  If you’re just sending out a newsletter once a month (or less), read on.  I’m learning from my mistakes so you can too…

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There’s nothing I love better than a shiny new project.  For one thing it gives me the opportunity to learn something new.  I chatted to two other copywriters recently and we were comparing notes on the most unusual subjects we’d had to write about – snail slime was definitely the winner on that one!  In case you’re wondering, no, it wasn’t me.

I wouldn’t have started my business if I didn’t love writing.  Of course, that isn’t the whole picture.

The jobs I hate

Maybe hate is too strong a word, but you know what I mean.  Give me words in virtually any form and I’m happy.  Present me with numbers and I start to struggle.  I had to pass exams showing that I understood accounting rules for solicitors and could prepare and interpret a basic set of accounts as part of my legal training, but I’d be hard pressed to explain any of it to you now.

My method of account keeping probably leaves a lot to be desired.  Thankfully I have a friendly accountant who hasn’t winced at me too much – yet.  Equally, I’m not keen on doing admin and I don’t imagine I’ll ever come up with a truly stunning piece of graphic design.  I don’t mind trying but I get frustrated at the length of time it takes me to come up with something vaguely reasonable.

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Have you ever been lectured about pricing?  Or do you have to work for a fixed fee that you didn’t negotiate?  I’ve done both.  The benefit of being self-employed is that you can set your own prices.  Of course, you might have a client who wants to negotiate but ultimately it’s up to you whether you take the work or not.

The truth is that dealing with either situation requires proper planning.  That could be at the beginning before you issue a quote.  Or you might have to do it when you’re presented with a task that has a time and/or cost limit imposed.

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If you believe the statistics, we change careers between five and seven times in our lives.  I’m already on career number four – if you count the student bar work and terrible admin jobs, that is.  In reality, I’ve changed jobs at least that often, if not more.  But what does that have to do with supervision, I hear you cry?  Good question.

The truth is, I’ve very rarely left a job because I completely hated the work.  Casual jobs aside, I’ve mainly decided to leave because I couldn’t live with my manager any longer.  The one exception to that was when I decided to leave the law.  I’d changed, so had the work, and it just didn’t fit me anymore.  My last supervising partner was great.

These days I don’t have to deal with dodgy supervision.  I haven’t had to sack a bad client yet but there are a few people I’m trying to avoid!

What’s your style?

Maybe you don’t need to supervise anyone yet.  If you’re a sole trader or a junior in the team, take note.  Your day will come and it’s better to be prepared.

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You might have an easy answer to that question.  Either you delegate all the time and you think you’ve got it right or you don’t delegate at all.

If you’re a sole trader, delegating can feel as if you’re handing your baby over to a complete stranger.  Either you’ve decided to take on an employee or you’re preparing to work with a freelancer.  Potentially, choosing to outsource to a freelancer is less risky.  If things aren’t working letting a freelancer go is much more straightforward than if they were an employee.

Equally, if you’re in a larger business supervising a team of employees, their work will reflect on you.  You need to make sure that they’re being entrusted with work that suits their abilities.

I’ve been on both sides of the delegation table.  Mostly the tasks I was given were entirely appropriate.  However there was the odd occasion in my years of legal practice where I’d express concern about my ability level and be told to get on with it.  I suppose that’s more of a supervision issue, which is a whole new blog post in itself…

Good delegation can be difficult.  When you’re busy, often your team are too.  I’ve always been a planner but even with the best intentions it doesn’t always work.  I was occasionally guilty of handing a ridiculously short deadline to another team member and it doesn’t feel great.  Equally, an over confident but inexperienced colleague once lulled me into a false sense of security.

No matter how your team is constructed here are a few key ways to ensure you delegate effectively.

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I’ll be honest.  For years, the idea of networking made me cringe.  I always felt as if a ‘network’ was something other people had.  You know, the ones who wanted to climb to the top of the corporate tree.  I used to go to professional networking events and end up talking to my own colleagues.  .  I’m fairly sure that wasn’t the idea. The main problem was the fact that ‘open networking’ always meant ‘milling around drinking’.  Whilst I’m certain there are people who can march up to a total stranger and introduce themselves, I’m not one of them.

Of course, building a network is incredibly important to me now.  It’s a source of support, knowledge and, increasingly, work.  Thankfully I learned that there are different ways to network.  Networking in person can involve sitting down for a delicious lunch rather than lurking in a corner with a cold cup of coffee.  If the idea of meeting face to face is really too daunting, you can head for social media.  Some of my first clients were online contacts that I met on LinkedIn or via Facebook groups.

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What business are you in?  Do you sell something relatively inexpensive that your customers might take gamble on? Or does doing business with you involve more of a leap of faith? Whatever you do, there’s no escaping the fact that trust makes business work.

Do your customers need to trust you?

When I speak to a potential new customer, I know that there’s a lot riding on it for them.  If I’m writing new content for their website or an update that’s going out to clients, that’s creating an impression. They need to trust that I’m going to do it properly without them having to spend too much time going back and forth editing things.  The time cost is just as important as the price.

Your product might require a substantial outlay for your customers.  Builders, kitchen companies and travel agents all come under this heading.  They need to know that you’re not going to take their money, do a botch job and run. When you’re arranging the only holiday a family might get that year, there’s a personal investment too.

Trust is essential if you offer professional advice.  People have become wary of ‘experts’.  Even if your client is looking for someone to pursue an injury claim for them, they might still suspect that you’re an ambulance chaser.

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These days, it’s a given that everyone is on social media.  Except my mum.  The real question is, what are they doing there?  My Facebook friends range from networking contacts, to my friend’s children to – wait for it – actual friends!  You know, the ones that I occasionally see in real life.

I love the fact that social media enables me to keep up with the lives of people that I don’t see all the time.  Some of them live far away.  With others it’s just that the demands of life with small children means that we can’t meet up like we used to.  I can send new baby congratulations to Canada and catch up with other school mums when the kids are in bed.  A dear friend once told me that Facebook had saved her from interminable evenings looking at people’s holiday photos.  I couldn’t possibly comment…

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I know that Corporate Social Responsibility is a bit of a buzzword.  You’d be forgiven for putting your hands over your ears and waiting for it to go away.

If you were to do that, I suspect you’d be making a mistake.  In the current climate, demonstrating a commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility could be the difference between you and the competition.

Increase your local profile

Even if your business is global, you’re part of a local community.  Multinationals can attract impressive national press coverage, SMEs less so.  Positive coverage in the local press will bring you the right kind of attention when it comes to working with local businesses.

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What’s your marketing plan for 2017?  Have you planned out the whole year, a few months or only as far as next week?

You might be reading this thinking that you haven’t got a marketing plan.  Maybe you’re struggling to find something that works.  You might even be starting to feel that the same techniques aren’t working any more.

The good news is that the New Year gives you a whole new start.  You can rethink things and start afresh.

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