Well, I’ll tell you, I’m not even tempted to look at my stock portfolio. On the other hand, I’m getting a lot of weeding done.

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and articles these last two weeks. Pretty much the advice for small businesses is without much substance: “Offer Incentives, Increase Marketing, Hone Your Tacking System, Keep Your Eye on the Future.” Well, yeah, but most of you were doing this before the DOW dropped 700+ points, right? Yes, the market moves in cycles, but you have to Keep Your Eye on the Future while dealing with the Now.

In my own experience, the hard times have been the best launching places for some of my best ideas. When every thing has been shaved down to the core then plans, goals and paths become crystal clear. I think it’s times like this when you are sure to have something in common with your clients; something you both can strongly relate to. Now is the best time to keep your eyes and mind open and accept what teachings you are given.

So, with that in mind, here are some links to sites and articles that caught my eye in the past couple weeks. Not all of them are relevant to you, but take a look and take heart. They made me feel better. All else failing, get some weeding done.

Get to the Point (Invest 60 Seconds in Your Small Business)
You can sign up to get this three-ish times a week email. I recommend it.

Scratch that Niche. “Reaching a niche audience—and only those people—can be tricky. But in a post at his eponymous blog, Seth Godin proposes the inventive approach of piggybacking onto a product that your target market already wants…”

Five Dumb Mistakes. “Running a small business can be a risky endeavor, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing. Taken from The Reach Group’s Free Agent Formula … here are the top five mistakes made by entrepreneurs…” [Pay attention to numbers 1, 2 & 5, gang.]

Give to Receive. “”There’s still something to be said for a free sample of a product,” says Mike Essex… While the premise of his activities fall outside the marketing mainstream, his experience has produced four key takeaways that don’t.” [Bodyworkers as a group are known to be generous with their skills. What can you think of, after reading this article, that you could give away that isn't your time? "Custom" essential oil blends? Information on stretches/diets/self-care?]

Books and Blogs
Guerrilla Marketing has a newsletter and a blog that may not appeal or apply to you 80% of the time. You decide on those BUT I highly recommend checking one of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books out of the library. I guarantee you’ll find several “a-HA!s” if you winnow through any one of them.

Seth Godin is the marketer that “speaks” to me most clearly. For sheer entertainment, I like flipping through his books. His blog is a daily pick-me-up. My current favorite is Looking for a Reason to Hide. But Patricia Barber, Danny Meyer, art and you is good, too. And some other ones.

In conclusion, I invite you all to remember what it was like the months after 9/11 (which, incidentally, was the time when many of these currently failing businesses started to get a little too cocky). The streets were quiet and the phones were, too. At the time I was running a lavender farm, a “non-essential” business if ever there was one.

But we started using words like “relaxation,” “peace” and “recovery” in our marketing text (sound familiar?). We gave concrete examples of lavender’s benefits. Soon people saw our product as something that would help them deal with the seemingly insurmountable fear and sadness that gripped us. They learned to see the benefits of lavender as something that would make a welcome gift for friends who were having a tough time.

Talk to your clients. Tell them how your work actually helps. Be specific. Be clear.

All my best,
Eileen