By Dr. Maxine Thompson
Are you angry about the economy? I don’t know about you, but I get angry in this down economy. Why? Because it has a trickle-down effect on all small businesses.
In my case, particularly as a literary service provider, some clients don’t pay when they should because someone hasn’t paid them.
We, as literary entrepreneurs, must adjust our marketing strategies.
But, instead of getting angry, how about if we get busy?
How about if our anger could move us to another level? A level of action.
Let’s look back in history. During the depression, women found ways to make it for their families by cooking, sewing, quilting, washing and ironing clothes for other families, etc.
I grew up during a recession in the fifties, and I look back. How did my parents survive with six children? To supplement my construction worker father’s income, my mother did what we called “day work”-cleaning for white women. We often had filling meals of beans, soup, chili. We were seldom sick-later I found out we didn’t even have health care, which is happening a lot today because of layoffs. So I know, with God’s help, we can make it through this economy. It is something our ancestors always did. Make a way out of no way.
In times like this, we need to examine ourselves.
- Find your strengths.
- Get around others who are strong where you are weak.
- Build your teams.
- Get people to fill in your gaps.
- Find multiple streams of income from your book, such as speeches, workshops, seminars, teleseminars, webcasts, podcasts, blogs.
- Use your social networking to build teams, find resources, and exchange information, as well as socialize.
Ask yourself, what can I do to give people hope? Believe it or not, it starts with giving away what you have that has value.
How can we be of value and how can we provide service to others?
What do you have of value which you can give away? Can you build business relationships which are mutually beneficial to yourself as well as others? Can you teach what you learn as a literary entrepreneur?
Can you provide sales, marketing on line, coaching, or seminars first locally, then around the world? How can we get financial freedom?
We must take consistent action every day in our business.
On one day a week, work on your business rather than in it. Have meetings to brainstorm with your team as to what your next steps will be.
The words we communicate to ourselves and to others will pay dividends to you. It will help you and others solve a problem.
Right now, people are hungry for freedom. People want to get into sales and people want to write at least one book.
What are sales ingredients? First of all, you have to believe that the book you are offering has value.
Ask your readers what do they like to read? Sell them on the benefits of your book. Find out what pains them.
Often you’ll find readers who want to write a book themselves. This is how I started my literary services, then later my literary agency. I also have done Internet radio since March 5, 2002 to provide writers with an international platform to market their book.
What was the painful motivation? People were tired of not seeing their words in print, then tired of not being able to get their books out to the market.
So find what pains people enough to move them to action and you will be able to make the sale.
Continue the conversation at www.twitter.com/hwmag/business
Become a Harlem Insider!
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
