On the Write Road

According to the Small Business Administration, two-thirds of new businesses survive for at least two years, and only 44 percent survive at least four years. The exact reason for their failure is unknown but there are certain fatal errors that can sink your company. One of them is ineffective marketing and self-promotion. Customers won't be calling or emailing you if they don't know you exist. So Melody and I needed to make Write on Time visible.

On TechScribe's website http://www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/promoting_tech_writing.htm, Mike Unwalla, owner of this writing business based in the United Kingdom, lists the advertising and publicity methods he uses to promote his business. In addition, he summarizes which methods have worked and which ones have not. I thought Mike's list was a good starting point for a WoTS (Write on Time Solutions) marketing plan. After reading through Mike's promotional strategies, I created my own list.

Here are my ideas:

• Attend targeted professional meetings to network.
• Attend targeted professional conferences as a vendor to market our business.
• Speak at professional organizations such as Society for Technical Communication (STC), Chamber of Commerce, or the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
• Become known as an expert in our field by writing articles for magazines or newspapers.
• Create a signature and append it to all outgoing email messages. Include our name, our company name, our website address, and contact information.
• Create a contact list of potential clients and send a mailer to them advertising our new business.
• Email a newsletter periodically to clients on our contact list.
• Create a website.
• Create a blog.

Once we created the list, we began implementing each item. In upcoming posts, Melody and I will write about our marketing experiences, such as producing a simple mailer which is a nightmare.

Posted in: advertising, marketing, networking, promoting, small business administration, TechScribe, write on time solutions on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 0 comments    

Our writing business was in the works and now all we needed was a name, just a name.

Adrienne, my partner in crime, tossed the ball in my direction. (Now, that’s two metaphors that don’t rhyme. Ah well, creative writers can’t stop themselves.) She said, “You’re smart and clever; you come up with a name for our business.” There’s nothing like buttering up your partner to get her busy.
Ah, a name…

Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
I begin to think just a name, and yet entire families war over one. Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague are “starcross’d” lovers who come from warring families. While love is sweet, they are doomed from the start.

Will our name make or break us? Is the pressure on? I begin to doodle Internet style by Googling all the name sites. We are creating a technical writing business, and yet we want it to be fun. We will provide writing and training services, fast and furious. We also do creative writing. Adrienne and I come from journalist and creative backgrounds. Can we slip that in? A poem here. A haiku there. How about Fibonacci? My fave poetry style.

Since my brother has started a business, let’s check his Web site out http://www.rfpmd.com/. He like me – it must run in the family – is smart and clever. He has started an RFP business, which could be dull but isn’t. He did it!

Adrienne and I brainstorm names over coffee as we sneak a peek at our escape plan from our big corporation. What we really want to do is provide quality writing and training on time all the time to a super-satisfied customer. That’s all. Oh yes, and get paid too let’s not forget that. We say hey, write it must be right on yes, it must be on time, write on time! That’s it! We’re brilliant. Write on Time! We have a name! Is that all we need?

Not so easy my dear Watson. We need to get back online, of course, and check if anyone has our name. We’ve already, in 10 minutes, become protective of our baby, our name. We go on to LegalZoom.com to have them check if this name is used in the state of California. You may do this differently depending on your business terrain, ours is California. We knew we needed a name first, and a business structure will come next.

Write on Time was taken, so after much soul searching we came up with Write on Time Solutions! Another great name, we would solve our customers’ problems write on time!

Posted in: business name, fictious name, legazoom, write on time solutions on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 0 comments