Cat's Eye Marketing will be 17 years old on Monday.
Past the crying-burping-spitting-up-all-over-us days. Past making us carry her every freaking place we go. Past learning to walk. And insisting that we attend to her every need.
Now she (yes, I've decided she's a she) is a somewhat independent but very cool teenager.
Every April 19, Bob and I celebrate that marvelous birthday, the day Cat's Eye was born. This year we are giving huge discounts to our clients and even giving away a full blog design and set-up package to one lucky winner on Twitter. You can follow @CatsEyeWriter and @CatsEyeDesign on Twitter and enter simply by retweeting our "Happy Birthday, Cat's Eye" message.
A Lesson a Year: 17 Things I've Learned About Business
When we start our businesses, we can't look past the excitement. We get caught up in the fun stuff because, well, it's fun.
What shall we name our business?
What font shall we use on our business card?
Where will we put all the awards we're going to win?
The next birthday comes, and the next one, and the next one, and gradually you begin to understand your unique Principles of Business, the things you know are true. Here are mine:
1. I left teaching but I am still in education. Early on, I learned that I am not just a copywriter. I must also educate people about the importance of creating marketing messages that engage customers. And I wish I had a dollar for every client who has ever said, "I wrote this myself. Would you just 'polish it up'?"
2. Joining the Chamber of Commerce won't automatically make my phone ring. It's a cold hard fact. You don't join a Chamber. You join a network of people. So if you get involved, join committees, serve on Chamber boards, you develop relationships with people. And that leads to jobs, Funny how that works.
3. Shy people have to work harder. I must wind up "Talking Judy" and be sure I have enough batteries for the day, especially if I'm going to more than one networking event on the same day. And when I get back home, I am exhausted.
4. I might as well take the $2,000 I paid for a Yellow Pages ad and run it through the paper shredder. When you are a newbie, you can be persuaded to buy things that people (well, really the Yellow Pages rep) tell you that you absolutely must have—until you find out that people don't pick up the phone book when they need a copywriter or graphic designer. They ask around. Or they call you if they met you at an event.
5. Trading out copywriting and design services for restaurant meals just makes me fat. Like $2,500 worth of work taken out in dinners at a steak house. What were we thinking?
6. Starting a business in a town where old men sit on sidewalks and place bets on when the latest store that opened is going to fold probably isn't the best idea. This actually happened in Ocean Shores, Washington. Not your ideal business climate.
7. I can practice saying, "No" in the mirror but charities and nonprofits will always find me. Just like the stray cats who know to show up at an animal lovers' house, the organizations doing good somehow find us. And we give because we love them—and their missions.
8. Never make your voice go up at the end of a price quote. If it sounds like it's a question, surely you aren't certain that this is your price and you can be talked down.
9. Laugh often and long. It helps to have a crazy spouse who is also your business partner. And believe me, if you watch enough movies, there is a line of dialogue for everything you will ever experience in the business world.
10. Having a business partner means I don't have to be good at everything. I have made peace with my incompatibility with technology. But, hey, what's the problem? I have Bob, my tech wizard, just 10 feet away from my desk. When I screw up, his usual line is, "Hmm, I've never seen that happen before."
11. Beware of copywriting clients whose sisters-in-law are English teachers. Because you'll hear, "My sister-in-law says that this is an incomplete sentence." Or, "My brother's wife said that no sentence should ever start with "and." Great for an English composition paper but deadly for engaging marketing copy.
12. If you name your business Cat's Eye, be prepared for some pretty weird phone calls. We have had phone calls from people looking for witchcraft supplies. Someone else thought we were feline opthalmologists. We should have kept a list because some of the questions were hilarious.
13. My mother told me not to brag but now I do it every day. Well, actually they call it promotion. "Don't talk about yourself all the time," my mom said. "People don't like that." I've learned how to talk about our business without getting all red in the face.
14. If I advise that another copywriter might be a better fit for a prospect, it just makes him want to work with me more. It's strange. Reverse psychology maybe? The less eager you are to take on a certain project, the more persistent the client is.
15. I can't explain my business to a mother who calls voice mail my answering service. She was still back in the days the doctor had people taking phone messages when he was sleeping. "I called you, but I just got your answering service," she would say.
16. When I know who I am and what I do best, it just makes everything so much easier. I finally discovered what I don't like to do and don't want to do, which naturally led me to what I love to do. My niche.
17. I do not need to hide my love for puppets. Because the weird side of me, like the time I made a hand puppet quit my job for me, will be accepted—and celebrated—by the very people I want to work with and get to know better.
There they are. 17 lessons for Cat's Eye's 17th birthday. What have you learned since you launched your business?
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