My mission is to help you succeed. To do this effectively, it will be really useful to know exactly what you are selling and whom you are selling it to. Any confusion here will make it difficult for us to refer business to you.
So let’s get diamond focused. Here’s your chance to spell it out for us – nice and clearly.
Shared confusion
In my experience, people are often a little hazy as to what exactly people are selling – if in fact they are selling anything! Especially online, when in the midst of all this connecting and interacting, following and friending, we can easily lose track of commercial realities.
What are you selling?
What products and/or services can we buy from you? For example:
* books, dvds, software, hardware, affiliate ads, website templates etc;
* courses, seminars, webinars, tours, holidays;
* packed services – e.g. website development, copyrighting etc;
* billable hours – e.g. consulting, legal, PR;
* a combination of the above – or maybe something else.
Who’s buying?
Who specifically is the target audience for your offering? For example:
* gender, age group;
* profession/career/job;
* life stage e.g. single, married, full-nest, empty nest;
* income level;
* some other distinguishing feature.
Over to you…
Simply write your main products/services and the your key target audience – the key group of people who buy your offerings, in the comments section. If you’re not sure, have a go and we’ll see if we can help you to get more focused.
Even if you are still in the planning stages of your business, it’s worth having a go.
Note: if you have your sharewords, be sure to include them with your comment. If you still need sharewords, be sure to get them created here (it’s free). 
What specifically are you selling?
Who specifically are you selling it to?
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4 Responses to this post
June 7, 2010 at 4:33 pm |
Hello Robin
As one of a small number of Accredited Editors (Institute of Professional Editors Australia) in Australia, I help business and technical writers sharpen their writing. I edit and proofread, write copy (often including research), prepare style guides and train business and technical writers.
I know that ‘business and technical’ writers sounds very broad – about half of my clients are small-business people, while most of my technical clients are from the corporate sector (engineering and general science and health).
So far my sharewords are ‘sharpening your writing’.
Hope that’s useful to your research, and I certainly look forward to any comments from you or your amazing followers.
Desolie
June 7, 2010 at 4:44 pm |
Hi Desolie, thank you for your inputs.
Regarding your offering, do you bill by the hour or by the project?
Where does most of your business come from – direct selling, word-of-mouth, online/social media etc?
I really like your sharewords! If you would like the community to ‘workshop’ them, don’t hesitate to comment on the sharewords post: http://www.radsmarts.com/2010/05/sharewords-the-easiest-way-for-us-to-recommend-you/
You may also like to join the sharewords community on Twitter http://twitter.com/sharewords
I look forward to helping you succeed, Desolie.
Best, Robin
June 7, 2010 at 4:55 pm |
Thanks Robin
The majority of my business comes from word-of-mouth, while I’m finding more work through the Society of Editors Qld Freelance Register, LinkedIn and other on-line networking groups since Cat Matson convinced me I should use online forums.
Generally I charge editing and proofreading by the hour, while other work I bill on a project basis.
After a slow start to my business about 5 years ago, my confidence has grown and I look forward to continuing to work long after ‘retirement’ age.
Desolie
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