Month: August 2016

Learn the Eight Steps for Successful Networking as a Creative Business | Eleanor Snare

How to Network as a Creative Business Owner: Eight Simple Steps

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One of the bits of advice my friend Nick gave me when I was first starting out - along with, you know, making sure to actually take my own advice - was to experiment with some different ways of connecting with potential customers.

I am a writer who loves the internet. I love emails, and Twitter, and I’m even starting to love Facebook for meeting new potential customers.

I am a sociable person … but wow, do I struggle with networking.

Even the most confident, outgoing, driven person can find networking in real life a bit difficult. It can feel like a really unnatural thing to do, and unfortunately a lot of networking events end up being stilted, awkward and corporate.

Corporate - and a waking nightmare. Like the one where you realise you’ve forgotten your trousers and you’re about to go on stage.

“Ok, so everyone introduce themselves one by one and add in an interesting fact about yourself!”

As soon as someone asks me to give an interesting fact about myself, I become the most boring person on the planet. Networking events like this would make anyone seize up - especially a creative business owner who’s used to being, well, a bit more creative.

But if you find the right group to network with, you can:

  • Make good connections that could lead to future sales
  • Promote your business in an authentic and meaningful way
  • Embed yourself in the local community so you’re likely to be remembered

 

The big barriers to networking

So networking can bring you some excellent results for your creative business - if you do it right. There are a few big barriers to successful networking which it’s important to overcome to make sure you maximise your time (and energy) while you’re there.

First, social situations can be stressful. Some people find social situations more stressful than others. But generally, social situations with new people can trigger stress responses of varying degrees; your heart beats faster, you get sweaty palms and your adrenaline surges - or you might just feel a bit nervous.

Second, finding the right sort of networking can be difficult. There are thousands of networking events out there, some of which will be completely wrong for you and your business. Sifting through all the options to select one or two potential ‘good’ events is a time and energy drain.

Finally, knowing what to say when you actually get to the event is equally as stressful as the event itself. How do you balance professionalism with personality? Do you pitch, or just pretend you’re there to make friends? How do you explain what you do simply and engagingly?

Learn the Eight Steps for Successful Networking as a Creative Business | Eleanor Snare

 

Eight steps to successful networking

Networking really can be beneficial to your business - and you can overcome those big barriers to make sure you make the most it. Here are the eight steps I use for successful networking, and they’re easy to follow.

 

1. Hunt out diverse events

Don’t just go along to one networking event, hate it and vow never to do it again. You need to find and attend a mix of diverse events to really understand what sort of networking works for you. The more types of event you go to, the more you’ll understand what’s relevant and worthwhile for your creative business.

I’ve been to a mixture of paid and non-paid events, community run and business run, workshop style and informal, and even ones where there’s not ‘proper’ networking like attending a business fair. I’ve got a handle now on which ones I like, which will help me seek out relevant and meaningful ones in the future.

Don’t forget the power of being the only ‘creative’ business at an event full of ‘corporate’ businesses, especially if you offer any services. Many ‘corporate’ businesses are interested in creative activities as part of their engagement and wellbeing programmes for employees, so you could form some good contacts.

 

2. Use business cards

Confession time: for the first year of my business I didn’t have business cards. No need for them (or so I thought) especially with most of my business being conducted via email or the phone.

Except they are very handy to have when you meet new people; not necessarily because of the information they contain but because handing someone a card is a good way to break the ice after you’ve first started chatting. So for networking events, they’re essential.

Your business card should reflect your business, be appropriately branded, and have they key information a new contact needs to know: your name, business and contact.

I think business cards should be as simple as possible, because simplicity equates to assurance and confidence, which ultimately looks more impressive. There’s no need to bung your phone, email, website, fax and social media details on there plus images and busy branding, because it doesn’t look confident.

There’s an excellent section on business cards in Paul Arden’s book ‘It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be‘ if you want to read more about choosing an impressive and useful business card.

 

3. Arrive composed

So you’ve prepared for the event - now to get there. Feeling flustered, running late, carrying loads of bags or sweating profusely are all ways of arriving to a networking event decidedly un-composed. Arrive composed and you’ll feel more confident, make a better first impression, and you won’t feel more stressed than necessary.

If you do end up dragging along lots of bags or running late, take a few minutes to compose yourself in the bathroom before going into the event; a late, confident arrival is better than an on-time, frantic one.

Another good tip I was given (at a networking event) is to arrive slightly early so you can start conversations before everyone has already formed groups. It’ll also give you a chance to get to the refreshments without saying “Excuse me” over and over again.

 

4. Have a simple answer

A big barrier once you’re at the networking event is to know what to talk about. The question you are guaranteed to be asked is “And what do you do?”.

For creative business owners, it can often be complicated to simply and clearly explain what you do, especially if there are many strings to your bow. But having a simple answer to that question helps start conversations, makes you feel confident, and quickly shows people what you’re about.

Having an effective and meaningful brand will help you answer that question very easily, because that’s what a brand is for: it says ‘I do this, for these people, in this way, and I make them feel this’ in a streamlined and effortless way.

Take some time before you start attending networking events to work out a simple answer to the question “What do you do?”. In your answer, try and include:

  • Your customer group
  • A verb that shows what you do e.g. ‘I make’ or ‘I talk’
  • A succinct description of your core products or services

This simple answer is a bit like the 30-second pitch, except about a third as long. So my answer to the question “What do you do?” is: “I help creative businesses find a sustainable path to success”. Clear, simple, and plenty in there for someone else to pick up on and continue the conversation.

 

5. Be clear on your aims

While some people might disagree when I said I wasn’t very chatty (ahem), most would agree that I’m direct and straight-talking. I like other people who are direct too, which means I find the lack of transparency in networking frustrating.

For me, successful networking means being transparent about why you’re there, and not being ashamed of it. So after an introduction, I’ll often say “I’m here to try and get some new clients” because (a) that’s the truth and (b) actually saying it out loud means you don’t have to sneak around it later on.

Know why you’re at the networking event and state those aims clearly. It might be to gain clients, or connect with local business, or just to meet people. Whatever it is, you’d be amazed at how well people respond to complete transparency.

 

6. Use compliments

So you’re at the networking event, a couple of people have approached you for a chat and now it’s time for you to introduce yourself to some potential new customers. Your stress levels are probably sky high and you’re thinking “How do you even start a conversation out of the blue?”.

The simple solution is a compliment.

Approaching someone you haven’t met before with a compliment is good because:

  • It breaks the ice immediately
  • It gives you something to say which doesn’t sound too ‘corporate’
  • It makes the recipient feel good

There’s a fine line between compliments and being creepy, so avoid anything like “I COULD GET LOST IN YOUR EYES” and stick to “I really like your outfit/bag/shoes/watch”.

If you don’t feel comfortable giving these sorts of compliments, that’s fine; it’s something to use if you need to, but it’s not essential.

 

7. Give more than you get

Just like Twitter and other social media channels, some businesses can end up using networking events as a way to broadcast their message, without really thinking about what their audience want to hear.

A way to network successfully while you’re at the event is to listen carefully to other people, ask questions and generally give more than you get. People generally feel flattered when you ask them to talk about themselves, and if you can give help - such as linking them up with your connections - then that’s even better.

Anyone you talk to at the networking event will remember how enthusiastic, interested and helpful you were, which aids you in laying the foundations for future work together.

 

8. Make sure to follow up

Now you’ve attended and successfully navigated the networking event, make sure to follow up with the people you met. If you’ve been collecting business cards, send them a quick email saying it was nice to meet them, or alternatively send them a message on social media.

Choosing when to follow up for maximum success is a tricky one. I feel the next day is a good option, because it’s soon enough to jog their memory, but not too soon as to be meaningless (e.g. “I just spoke to her, why is she emailing me?”).

In your email, remember step 7 - give more than you get. Make sure to say if you’re available to help them out, or send them over those useful links you were discussing.

 

Successful networking is possible.

Too many creative business owners are put off networking because they see it as ‘corporate’ - or they feel stressed in that social situation, can’t find the right group to network with, or don’t know what to say when they get there.

I use eight steps to make sure the networking I do is as successful as possible, which any creative business owner can follow.

Preparation is key to successful networking, so hunt out diverse events, use business cards, and arrive composed. When you’re there, be clear, concise and authentic: have a simple answer to the question “What do you do?” and be clear on your aims for the event. Use compliments to break the ice and give more than you get to ensure you give a good impression. Finally, follow up after the event with your new, potential customers.

See you by the coffee - and don’t forget to give me your card.

Four Simple Tips for Feeling Confident When You’re Using Twitter For Your Creative Business

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I don’t consider myself a particularly chatty person (others may disagree), but there’s something about 140 characters I can’t resist.

Since 2009, when I first joined Twitter, I’ve sent over 22,000 tweets. Here’s my first ever tweet, which made sense at the time but now seems slightly cryptic:

I love Twitter because it’s fast-paced, fun, conversational and sometimes a little bit silly. You can legitimately use gifs to talk about your business. You can take part in hashtag games or business ‘hours’.

And you can connect with your potential customers in creative, engaging and meaningful ways.

 

“It just doesn’t work”

Recently, in an entrepreneurs’ Facebook group, I saw someone proclaim that Twitter “just didn’t work” for a particular type of small businesses. While I agree it’s not right for everyone, assuming it won’t work for your business before you’ve tried it isn’t a good idea.

Twitter currently has 310 million monthly active users. They’re still some way behind Facebook (who have 1.7 billion monthly active users) but that doesn’t make it any less useful for creative businesses looking to engage with customers and promote their business.

For example, 80% of Twitter users have mentioned a business in a tweet they’ve sent. If your Twitter handle is included in that mention (as long as it’s positive) your business is going to be reaching many, many more people than by your own efforts alone.

And over half of Twitter users have done something after seeing a business mentioned in a tweet - like visiting their website or retweeting something. So that’s even more people seeing your message and doing something which could lead to buying from you.

The key to making the most of Twitter as a creative business is to use it effectively and stand out from the crowd. Here are some tips.

 

Cultivate your unique voice

Sometimes Twitter can feel like sitting in a pub where you’re trying to listen to everyone’s conversation at once to work out which one is the most interesting.

By cultivating a unique voice for your business, you can attract people - just like if someone in the pub had a unique voice that drew people’s attention.

Many creative businesses don’t think twice about their voice on Twitter, but it is the thing which will make people want to follow you.

A unique voice might be:

…or something completely different. As a creative business owner, you might find that the best and most unique voice is your own with a little more emphasis; a bit like the difference between smiling in real life and smiling for a photograph.

 

Be professional

Having a unique voice is essential and many people find their own voice is perfect for attracting and engaging followers on Twitter. However, if you’re running your Twitter account as a business, you must make sure to keep things professional.

If Coca Cola started grumbling about noisy neighbours, or if M&S used their account to complain to their internet provider, their followers would be shocked. They’d think they were unprofessional and ‘airing their dirty laundry’. Yet small business owners do it all the time.

Professionalism doesn’t mean hiding what you think or feel - it means choosing how you express those things carefully. I often use Twitter to voice my political views, which I try to do as considerately as possible - and I know my political views directly contribute to how I work and teach.

They key is to recognise you are representing your business in front of potential customers, not just you, and act accordingly.

 

Give more than you take

One of the reasons I love Twitter is because it’s conversational - not simply a ‘broadcast’ channel. The businesses that do well are those who realise that and take the time to talk to their customers.

Sometimes, and especially when pressed for time, creative and small businesses end up just talking at customers on Twitter rather than talking to them.

So giving more than you take on Twitter is essential. Share useful tips, retweet helpful articles, provide free advice, and generally engage in conversation where you’re in it for them, not to make a sale.

People will remember your help and kindness and are more likely to turn to you in the future when they need your services or products.

 

Actively seek your customers

There are many ways to find and engage with potential customers on Twitter. You could:

However, the best way to use all of these techniques is to think like your customer, not like your business. What do they need? What are they worried about? What problem do they need solving?

Many small or creative businesses become blinkered and only see things through their own eyes, knowledge or expressions - many of which probably aren’t the same for your customers.

Here’s a recent example: our fridge-freezer broke. I didn’t know what was wrong with it, because I’m not a fridge-freezer expert. So I didn’t Google “broken compressor” (which is what the eventual problem turned out to be). Instead I searched for “warm fridge cold freezer” because that was my immediate problem.

Use your knowledge of your customer to search for relevant phrases. Use your knowledge of your customer to join the right business hours (which might not be the ones in your local area). Use your knowledge of your customer to use relevant hashtags that they’ll be interested in.

Actively seek them out by thinking about them first.

 

Twitter’s not dead yet.

Twitter can be an effective way of finding and connecting with customers in a meaningful way, especially as it allows creative business owners to express their creativity easily and quickly.

But many small businesses use it as a broadcast tool, which means they miss out on the best bits. By cultivating your unique voice, remaining professional, giving more than you take and actively seeking your customers, you can feel confident using Twitter for your creative business.

 

Why It’s Important to Take a Holiday When You Run Your Own Creative Business

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Today I want to talk about the importance of taking a holiday when you run your own creative business.

But first, a story.

I had lunch with my friend Nick the other day. He’s self-employed as a copywriter, excellent at marketing and happens to co-run one of the UK’s most impressive cheese clubs. Nick was giving me some very good advice for the next stage of my business.

“Of course, I never actually take this advice myself,” Nick explained, after he’d gone into great detail about business plans and cost-per-sales.

I looked at him.

“So you’ve never done the things you’re telling me to do for your own business?”

“No, don’t be silly,” he said, “who ever takes their own advice?”

And despite giving good advice to clients, helping my students, supporting my partner and even occasionally giving Nick something to think about - neither do I.

I am so bad at taking my own advice, especially when it comes to running my creative business.

For example, in this article I’m going to tell you how important it is to take a holiday when you run your own creative business. I’ll give you facts, and stats, and loads of stuff to convince you it’s the best thing to do.

The last real holiday I had was in 2014. That’s two crazy years of not taking a real break.

I have two weeks booked off work at the end of August and I still haven’t sorted out a holiday. At all.

There’s too much pressure to make this holiday brilliant, to manage my business around it, to make sure I come back feeling refreshed, that I’ve become paralysed with indecision. I am not taking my own advice.

If there is one thing you do after reading this article, please make sure it’s to take my advice and get yourself on holiday.

Then email me and tell me to do the same.

Why holidays are essential for creative business owners.

 

I’m not sure if I even need to explain to you why holidays are so important, but just in case there’s someone out there who isn’t quite convinced, here are just a few reasons.

 

It’s unsustainable to work all the time

Human beings are living, breathing animals. We’re not designed for constant activity; we need regular breaks - hence sleeping - to help our bodies repair themselves. The same goes for our minds; constant thinking work depletes our energy, and leaves us with no space to repair or rejuvenate ourselves.

If you run a creative business, it’s likely your working hours will be longer, or at least more erratic, than other people’s. You might end up checking emails at 7am, or working on a new marketing idea until 11pm at night. You might risk falling into an ‘always on’ mentality, where you never really step away from your creative business to replenish yourself. Research and campaigning body, the Future Work Centre, has even found that ’email pressure’ - the stress felt from immediate email notifications - is an actual thing and pretty damaging.

As if you needed more to convince you about why working all the time is a bad idea:

No matter how much of a go-getter you are, it seems working constantly without a real break from your business will make you physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

 

A holiday will improve your business

You might think “But if I take a holiday, my business will suffer. I won’t be there, sales will drop, and we’re all buggered.” Not so. While it can be tricky to manage your business while you are on holiday, there are significant benefits to your business once you return that will ‘make up’ for anything you’ve felt you’ve lost.

When Project Time Off asked HR professionals within companies about the effectiveness of people who took their entitled holiday days, 75% of them reported that people who took the whole or majority of their allocated time off performed better overall than people who took minimum vacation time. I’d suggest that’s because Group A - the Jolly Holiday Makers - weren’t completely burnt out or overwhelmed, unlike poor old Group B.

So having time away from your business can improve how you perform - how you tackle and get on with your work - when you get back. It can also encourage better ideas. Participants in a 2012 study from the University of California were more likely to come up with a creative solution to a problem when they were allowed to let their mind wander after being given the brief - rather than push on straight away to think of an answer.

Better, more creative ideas come from a fresh brain - and a fresh brain is exactly what your holiday is meant to encourage.

 

You’ll find inspiration everywhere

Without a holiday you’ll end up being physically and mentally worn out. With a holiday, you’ll be more productive and hopefully more creative when you return. Most excitingly for creative business owners, though, is what a holiday can inspire.

Visiting a new place, experiencing a new culture, and seeing the world from a new perspective will inspire you to do new things. Maybe it’ll help you create an interesting product range, or develop a particular service for a brand-new target customer. Maybe it’ll give you beautiful photographs to use in your marketing material. Or maybe just a tacky souvenir that makes you smile every time you glance it on your desk.

There is inspiration everywhere, and a holiday away from your creative business allows you to access that inspiration. It takes you away from the monotony of receipts, invoices, scheduling and suppliers so you can revisit that passion which sparked your business in the first place.

Now, find out how you can organise your creative business so you can take a holiday without worrying by reading this.

The Secrets of Successful Creative Businesses: Curtisward

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In this blog series, I profile creative businesses who’ve impressed me with their marketing, promotion and creative presence. I showcase their best bits and talk about what they could do to improve, giving you best practice case studies to help you improve your business.

Despite there being plenty of other shinier marketing tools available online (ooh, Instagram Stories!), a website is still a key part of any creative business’ presence. It’s your home turf, where you can describe your brand and your offer to customers in the way you want.

Curtisward, an independent art supplies retailer, impressed me recently with their website - it’s easy to use, easy to navigate and enjoyable to visit. Here’s why it wowed me so much and what you can learn.

Easy to find

It’s important to remember here that I never, ever click on Google Ads that appear in search results. Never.

Apart from this time.

Although not strictly about their website, I wanted to note how I found Curtisward as it includes some useful lessons for other creative businesses. I was searching for a specific product - Tombow brush pens - and naturally turned to Google.

You can see the results here:

I visited The Pen Company first, because they had three different adverts which suggested a good range of products. Their website was difficult to use and I soon gave up.

I came back and clicked on the Curtisward advert. Why them? Why not scroll? Why not the Amazon link which I know would be cheaper?

Here’s why:

  • When I visited their website, it was easy to use (so I stayed)
  • Their advert imaged showed multiple colours and plenty of pens, suggesting they had lots in stock
  • Their advert image was the only one that showed the pen up close
  • Their advert description had the most detail (I know it’s a pen - they told me it was ‘dual brush’)
  • I was specifically looking for an independent creative business to buy from

(Yes, these really are all the things customers think about in those few seconds when they click on an advert. Trust me.).

What you can learn
  • Don’t be afraid of using Google Ads: there’s a customer out there who will only turn to Amazon if they can’t find you - help them find you!
  • Use product images which show the product clearly and in the most relevant way
  • Use product images to show range if it’s possible
  • Use an advert description which gives specific product detail

Easy to navigate

This sort of thing isn’t very sexy but it’s a critical factor when a customer is deciding whether or not to buy from you. Clear, meaningful website navigation makes it easy for your customer to:

  • Find what they’re looking for
  • Encourages them to explore (and hopefully buy) more
  • Reduces time between exploration and purchase

Curtisward made navigating their website easy through a clear drop down menu - but most importantly, the way they had structured their website and the labels they gave different sections made it easy (and fun) to navigate.

As an art supplier, Curtisward probably stock thousands of individual items. I was looking for a specific sort of brush pen; if they’d simply had a huge category called ‘pens’ I would’ve been turned off from scrolling through hundreds of different products.

Instead, they labelled their sections by what the customer wanted to do. Want to clean something? Click ‘cleaning’. Want to make some marks? Click ‘mark making’. This is an impressive structure because it focuses on what the customer wants to DO, not the product Curtisward wants to SELL. That’s good marketing: “You want to do something, and we can help you do it”.

Within each section there’s clear products, then product types, then brands or ranges. This might seem very complicated (and it might look like that on a site map) but for a customer it’s perfect because it funnels them down a path straight away.

What you can learn
  • Consider what your customer needs to know when they land on your website
  • Make sections about what they can DO, not simply what you sell
  • Lead customers down a clear purchasing path

Mobile-friendly

I searched for, clicked on and bought from Curtisward all on my mobile - and their site was really easy to use on mobile.

This shouldn’t be a thing. Huge numbers of us spend many many hours a day using the internet on a mobile device, for social networking, email, browsing and watching video.

The full size website

Yet there are still many businesses - and unfortunately, small creative businesses tend to be in there - who don’t have a website which is mobile-friendly. This makes it harder for your customer to navigate and use your website when on their mobile, and harder for them to buy from you.

Curtisward has a responsive website, which means that whatever size screen you’re using, it adjusts to look the best for that screen size.

Smaller screen, still looking good

That meant I could find what I wanted, and explore, and therefore buy more, all on my mobile device. What might have been a £1.85 sale for one product turned into a £15+ sale through ease of use.

Mobile phone screen size, and still easy to use
What you can learn
  • Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and ideally mobile-optimised
  • Most modern website builders e.g. WordPress or SquareSpace will do this automatically
  • Test the friendliness of your site using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test

Engaging content

Alongside their product pages, Curtisward have a lovely blog and information page packed full of different ideas and posts. While this engaging content wasn’t a key factor in making me buy from them, it does make me think favourably of them; it shows they want to give more to their customer, and that they really do know their stuff.

They have a good range of articles, from quotations by famous painters to art ‘inspired by…’ and showcase different products, like their travel brush sets. They also occasionally profile customers’ work, which is another nice touch.

I do think they could improve some of this content by making it a bit easier to read (with a larger font size) and perhaps a more contemporary layout. Their articles are also scattered over two sections, so there’s no one, definitive knowledge base they can point customers to.

However, the quality of the ideas and the regular posting mean they’ll always have something to share in other marketing channels, demonstrating their expertise and helpfulness to customers.

What you can learn
  • Think about what expertise you can share with customers on your own website to help engage and interest them
  • Make sure it’s easy to read and pleasant to look at; customers are used to beautiful blogs
  • Re-purpose this content for other marketing channels to demonstrate your knowledge and helpfulness

 

And now for some exciting news…

 

If you’ve been reading this article thinking “My website doesn’t do any of these things - eep!”, then this exciting news is especially for you.

I’m running a free, face-to-face workshop for creative business owners on how to make your website read well, look good and convince customers. Because websites are one of the basics of marketing - and yet creative businesses very rarely use them to their full advantage.

There are only 10 places on this workshop to make sure everyone makes the most of the time and activities (of which there will be many, alongside refreshments and fun - of course). You’ll get advice on best practice alongside expert and peer-to-peer feedback specifically for your business; not just generic advice but ideas for you and what you need to do to make your website brilliant.

Interested? Read more and sign up here.

This workshop is in-person, so if you can’t make it (because, say, you live in Madagascar and the bus fare would be ridiculous) then that’s ok too - I’ll be turning elements of the session into an online workshop which you can do from anywhere in the world, including on the beach. Damn you. You can read more about that and sign up to hear about the launch date right here.

Learn more and sign up for the free workshop here.