In my last post I was regaling you with a tale of a "Business Guru" and their approach to charging the earth for every single second of their super-valuable time and how they won't give a moment's thought without an accompanying invoice.
Today, I thought I'd tell you about my...alternative approach.
Running a business is hard enough. There are SOOOO many demands on your time, your money, and even just the headspace needed to think and plan and attempt to be successful.
And that's multiplied a million times if you're trying to do all of this alone.
So if you find someone who can solve your problems, fix the problems you didn't even know you had, and suggest ideas to make your problems seem like distant memories, you're going to grab hold with both hands and not let go.
Being the shameless opportunist that I am, it's something I capitalise on whenever I can.
How?
Brace yourself.
It's really quite extraordinary.
Be easy to work with.
Shocking, right?
But I'm serious.
Of course, it's not quite as simple as that—you need to be good at what you do first. That (should) go without saying. But if you back up your great work by being a nice person, by hitting deadlines, showing up to meetings on time, offering ideas and suggestions, recommendations and opinions, even if you can't invoice for it or it leads to future work, you go from being 'a copywriter' to being 'their copywriter.'
A case in point.
My August has been manic.
I told you a few weeks ago about someone I connected with before Christmas who wanted my help with her business.
Well, we've since Zoomed a few times, and I'm midway through rewriting her website and building out an email marketing sequence that will position her business smack-bang in the middle of her perfect client's space.
In addition, another client I worked with in May got in touch last week wanting a series of blogs written to start building their SEO authority and increase organic traffic to their site.
Now I haven't done a huge amount of content writing, but I love their brand and (if I remember rightly), I suggested they think about it doing it when we spoke last.
Thirdly, I got in touch with someone I did some work for earlier in the year to see how business was now lockdown had lifted. And today, I'm putting together a quote for a new email sequence, sales page, and landing page designed to help her segment her audience and branch out into a different direction.
Now, this whole email smacks a bit of a humblebrag, and in a way, I suppose it is (😉), but when I take on a new client, I don't see it as a one-night stand one-off project.
If we're working together, you'd best start picking out hats because, honey, I'm in for the long haul.