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The Sweet Spot & The Stretch

by Abby Kerr

in Uncategorized

Saltwater taffy

Are you hiding your entrepreneurial sweet spot in your pocket like a forgotten piece of candy? Photo by Lara604 courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

I turned down a good opportunity today.

One that I had been wishing for, abstractedly. Even scratching around for. One that, in fact, seemed to fall into my lap.

What happened was, I launched my new copywriting-and-creative-entrepreneur-coaching business {Abby Kerr Ink} almost six months ago {can’t believe it’s been that long!}. Since then, work has been coming in at a steady trickle. Not rushing over me like a river current, but enough to keep me ticking, thinking, motivated, and inspired. New clients and returning clients. A little bit more work every week. Good stuff.

So I got to thinking, this is great. But I need more. Now. I’ve got real bills to pay. What else can I do?

So I started scratching around for an opening in the cosmos that I could fit myself, my degree, and my professional experiences into. A gap I could take up. An income stream of someone else’s creation. I was asking, essentially, to be a cog. {A cog in a really good and worthwhile machine, but a cog nonetheless.}

And so, because I asked, said gap opened up to me.

And it fit. An opportunity that matched up with my “qualifications.” The right-ish amount of coin. And in some ways, still a bit of a stretch. Not a bad, uncomfortable stretch, but a stretch.

The only thing that didn’t fit into this gap was my wanting. I didn’t want to do this thing I thought I should.

But I told myself, who cares? You need this. You should take this. It’s the financially responsible thing to do. Take it. Do it. Do it now! [Channeling Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute.] Do it before this gap closes.

Now here comes the cool thing I didn’t expect. {But should’ve expected, because the cosmos likes to work this way.}

As soon as I started scratching around for more from another source — a source outside of myself — not only did what I was scratching around for get unearthed {so that I practically tripped over it}, but more came to me in the form of my sweetest wanting: my business cracked open like a frickin’ coconut. Sweetness.

More work of my own design came to me. New coaching clients. New copywriting clients. More repeat business from previous clients. Opportunities to be interviewed for other people’s work. And a flurry of new ideas that smell so sweet through the wrapper.

The very cool thing that happened was, within two weeks of scratching for something outside of my business, I became booked solid within my business.

“Solid,” to me, at this point, means I’m booked about two weeks out. But hells! I’m booked! For the first time ever. And that is a crazy cool realization. I’m getting there. I’m seeing that yes, this is possible. It is possible to design your own work life, set it up, learn about what you need to, and give it a go. It is possible to arrive in your own dream.

And it feels so gentle. Because I’m staying in — reveling in — tasting deeper into — my sweet spot. And I bet I’ll sleep a little better tonight knowing that I politely {and gratefully} said ‘no’ to this very good opportunity that I scratched around for.

The point is, your sweet spot is where you feel the most relieved.

And no, this isn’t just for entrepreneurs and self-employed people.

Perhaps you feel most relieved as a beautifully formed, fully arrived, totally self actualized cog in a machine of someone else’s making. Look at nurses. Teachers. Engineers. Restaurant servers. They are working and creating {in a flexible and self-designed sense} within a machine that is not entirely of their own making. My intention is not to diss those who don’t wish for, or haven’t happened across, the path of entrepreneurship.

What I’m talking about is knowing and claiming your sweet spot. The place where your natural, inborn gifts and talents are stoked and activated. The place where you let down your hair and find that you work better that way. The place where you know how to get your flow-etry on. The place where it happens.

We’ve all got a sweet spot. But for some reason, we feel a compulsion to stretch.

Sometimes we know where our giftings lie, yet we feel a compulsion to stretch through them and past them, and sometimes we even hitch ourselves over the brim and catapult ourselves right out of our sweet spot.

And we’re left standing there, with our back turned on our sweet spot, saying, Yeah, I can do that. But I want to try to do something harder.

Um, why?

Stretching outside of your sweet spot is not inherently bad or wrong. Heck, some people say you aren’t really living unless you’re a little uncomfortable. {I tend to disagree. I love to find places of comfort. I don’t think it has to equal stagnation.}

But if you do choose to stretch out of your sweet spot — to elongate your everloving arm and wiggle those I should do more, want more, produce more, be more fingers — make sure you keep your eyes open. How is the climate around you changing? Are you moving further away from your right people {and if so, why?}? Do you even like this new territory?

The sweet spot is way underrated.

And the stretch can be more dangerous than you may think. Like a piece of Hallowe’en candy that someone stuck a hypodermic needle into. You never know.

I believe that the most powerful nichification happens when we identify and claim our sweet spot. This is me. This is what I’m good at. This is where I shine. This is where I make my right people shine.

Sweet readers, have you overlooked your own sweet spot? Anything you’d like to do about that?

{ 11 comments }

Is Yours a Personal Brand or a Business Brand?

by Abby Kerr

in Uncategorized

And why does it matter?

In creating and carrying on with your niche-y enterprise, it matters whether you’re a personal brand or a business brand {also called a corporate brand}. Mostly, it matters to you, because how you classify and conceive of your business impacts how you market, how you network, how you interact in social media, and how your right people talk to you and about you. Or about your business. The choice is yours. {Just one of the many bright spots of an entrepreneurial life. You get to choose the shape of the Thing you put out there into the world. Pretty cool.}

A girl stands at a crossroads, contemplating her decision.

Is yours a personal brand or a business brand? The decision will impact your travels in entrepreneurship.

What’s a personal brand?

Gen Y personal branding expert Dan Schawbel says that:

“Personal branding, by definition, is the process by which we market ourselves to others. [Italics mine.] As a brand, we can leverage the same strategies that make…celebrities or corporate brands appeal to others. We can build brand equity just like them.” – from Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand, on Mashable.com

Chris Brogan discusses the elements of a personal brand in this oldie-but-goodie post. Here’s just one of the really great points he makes:

“It’s really important to be yourself in building a brand. Coke never set out to be just like somebody else. Madonna didn’t try to be someone different. The brands we know and love work because they are their own identity.”

What’s a business/corporate brand?

According to the all-wise and all-knowing Wikipedia, business branding encompasses the identity {both visual and intangible}, personality, values, and mission of a business, and by extension, all of its products and its marketing.

So in short, a personal brand refers to how one might “package” and market onesself in the marketplace, while a business or corporate brand takes the focus off of any one individual and causes prospects to identify with the business entity itself.

Why do we need to know what type of brand we want to be right from the start?

Okay, you might not need to know what type of brand you want to be the second you dream up your idea for your business, but the sooner you can settle on which type feels right to you, the better off you’ll be.

Why?

So that you can start creating a strong, cohesive, compelling brand identity that connects with your right people right from the start. And when it comes to that, it’s never too soon to start strong.

What are the major differences I’ll feel as a personal brand versus a business brand {or vice-versa}?

How You Use Social Media

Nowadays, all viable brands should be stepping up to the social media home plate: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. It’s becoming more and more of an essential piece for showing customers and clients that you are serious, savvy, and interested in connection. But there are some notable differences in how personal brands and business brands might use these social networking platforms.

For instance: an interior designer with a personal brand might take her blog readers to the New York Gift Show with her as she shops designer showrooms or scours fabric houses in the city. She might also include a pictorial on where she dined in the Meatpacking District and a video post of her explaining what makes the window display in the boutique behind her on the street so awesome.

Can you imagine a business brand, such as Pottery Barn, doing this? Usually, corporate brands like to maintain the “great and wonderful Oz”-ness of their brand and wouldn’t dare to let customers behind the curtain of how work gets done and how creativity happens. They just want you to buy their Thing.  {However, more and more, we’re seeing that the personal and “barrier-less” nature of social media is pushing business brands in this more behind the scenes, up close and personal direction. I find it refreshing, fun, and inspiring. How about you?}

How You Use Your Voice in the Marketplace

Every business needs a voice. {Hey, did I mention I’m creating a product to help niche-y enterprises tap into the business voice that works best for them?} The voice you embrace as the “voice of your business” has got to come from a natural, authentic place whether you’re a personal brand or a business brand. But how you use your voice will differ. What issues do you choose to address or to keep quiet about? Do you get political, or stay mum? Do you call people out on bull, or always be the nice guy? What types of clients are you hoping to attract? If your desired right people are corporate-y suit wearers, you’re going to want to find a more straightlaced, professional voice that works for you than you might if your right people are energy workers and spiritual healers.

Also, whether you veer toward a personal brand or a corporate brand may affect which point of view you take in your marketing copy. For example, the copy on my site is written in 1st person — I say I, and me. This is because as a copywriter and a coach, I work very closely with my clients and develop one-on-one relationships with them. I want them to feel who I am and feel that they can trust me and my judgment.

However, when I had my retail shop, all of the copy on my static website {which is no longer live} was written in 3rd person — I said we and THE BLISSFUL as if the shop were an entity bigger than any one person {and that’s how I saw it — I didn’t want the focus on me}. I chose 3rd person on purpose to allow potential right people to identify with the store and its brand identity, not with me the Proprietor.

How Much Skin You Show

Each entrepreneur has to decide for herself just how “naked” she gets in front of her right people. How comfortable are you with sharing personal details with people online? Will you share about your family? Your friends? Your past career life or your current “other job”? Your neuroses?

Obviously, the above details are more appropriate for personal brands than for business brands. {You don’t generally catch the brand director of Anthropologie tweeting about hiring a new nanny — although that might be cool.}

Especially as a personal brand, you have the advantage of feeling over time like you “know” your customers and they know you. This can be pretty powerful, especially if the work you’re doing is bespoke, creative, or personally transformative in nature {think coaching, some types of consulting, healing arts, design}.

On the flipside, as a personal brand or a corporate brand, you always have the option of creating an impermeable screen between you and your customers. They’ll know you as a thinker, a creator, and an entrepreneur, but you’ll keep the private parts of yourself…private. This is easier to do as a corporate brand because prospects identify with the business, not so much with a person’s name and a face. They’re less likely to wonder about the person behind the brand.

Why My Corporate Brand Made Me Feel Stifled & How My Personal Brand Helps Me Feel Free

My first business, a French-y lifestyle boutique called THE BLISSFUL, was a corporate brand. Customers and blog readers knew me as Abby the Proprietor, but I shared very little of my personal life on my blog or anywhere else. I always led with the store and what was up with it. In the big picture, this was a great move because theoretically, as I’d grow the store I’d be able to recede into the background and allow employees to run the show. {That’s what I wanted, but I didn’t hang in there long enough for it to become a reality.}

The ironic thing is, my desire to take the focus off of myself had me feeling bound by the image of the shop and all that it represented to customers: travel, romance, whimsy, bliss, peace, relaxation, wonderment. Needless to say, I didn’t always feel this way inside or while I was at the shop, but I felt as if I had to maintain the illusion that all was well, that I felt like the luckiest girl ever, that this was exactly what I wanted and why wouldn’t someone want this if they could have it? {Customers often told me I should feel that way, after all.} I realized, after a while, that I was hiding behind the brand and the brand I created wasn’t close enough to a good appoximation of myself and how I wanted to feel in the world. This may sound like a lot of navel gazing, but I advocate that one of the perks and prerogatives of entrepreneurs is getting to shape our work in the world to be as palatable to ourselves as possible. After all, it’s our work.

Now, in my current business model, I feel free to evolve. I’m talking entrepreneurially, creatively, professionally, even spiritually. Because Abby Kerr Ink is me. I won’t ever pretend it’s anything other than that. I’ve embraced a certain degree of transparency with my right people that feels comfortable for me. From the moment I posted my first update on the Abby Kerr Ink Facebook page {which happened before my site went live}, I was ready to talk real talk with my right people, not business-ese. For me, a personal brand is where it’s at. I like how connected I feel now to my work, to my clients and prospects, to my blog readers.

Entrepreneurs, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic of being a personal brand versus a corporate brand as it applies to your own enterprise. Have you struggled with deciding how much skin to show?

{ 13 comments }

Letters To a Young Retailer: Start-Up Mix, Part 5

by Abby Kerr

in Uncategorized

 

This is Part 5 of a 10-part series on the Start-Up Mix, which is the selection of goods a retail store orders prior to opening its doors. Why a 10-part series instead of a quick list of tips? Because as you’ll come to see, the start-up mix is pretty crucial to a store’s success in its first few months of business. And as you may able to see from looking around your town, the first few months are a pretty crucial factor in whether an indie retail shop thrives or fails.

Need to catch up?

See Part 1 in this series on the importance of nichification in your start-up mix.

And check out Part 2 for ideas around budgeting for your start-up inventory mix.

Part 3 explores start-up inventory principles unique to online stores.

Part 4 imparts one of the cardinal rules of retail: don’t overbuy.

When you’re first opening a store, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the different tasks you quickly identify as “must-do’s,” especially if you’ve never opened or worked at an indie retail store before. One area of anxiety is how much inventory to buy — not only how much in the dollars and cents sense, but also in the “how long should my start-up inventory last me?” sense. Today I have a very clear cut answer for you.

New retailers should focus their start-up inventory only on the immediate season.

Focus your start-up inventory on the retail quarter in which you’re opening.

Think of the retail year in four 3-month chunks {January – March, April – May, et al}. We call those chunks ‘quarters.’ Buy only for the quarter ahead of you at the time you open your store.

For example, if you’re opening your store in November, then you only need to buy merchandise for 4th Quarter {October – November – December}. Let’s imagine you’re opening a home decor and gift shop. Since Hallowe’en will be over by the time you open in November, obviously you’re not going to buy anything that’s Hallowe’en specific. And depending on when you open in November, you might not even want any Thanksgiving inventory. If you’re opening November 1st, there’s still time for customers to discover you and buy your Thanksgiving stuff, but if you’re opening on November 15th, chances are you’re going to be left with T-Day inventory once the day has passed. {So in either case, I would go very, very light on T-Day inventory, if at all.}

However, if you’re opening in November, you’re perfectly positioned to sell Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice-related decor and gifts, depending on your market and your retail concept. While many shoppers do start and sometimes finish their Holiday shopping in the early Fall {and sometimes earlier}, many more shoppers wait until the last four weeks before and even up until the last minute. You’ll be selling Holiday gifts up until the night before and decor up until the week before {and then afterward at markdown if you have anything left}, so it will pay you to invest more heavily in these categories.

Make sense?

If you’re opening a store in November, you don’t need to start buying Spring inventory yet. But you will soon.

As you may know, experienced retailers regularly plan about 9-12 months ahead of the current season. While you may not be writing orders for Spring inventory in the Fall, more experienced retailers will be. In fact, some of them will have started writing their Spring orders in Summer of the previous year, which is when Spring catalogs from some vendors start to be released.

As a new retailer, this timeframe doesn’t apply to you yet.

All you need to worry about is the quarter at hand, the quarter in which you’re opening your doors for the first time. You don’t yet know who your customers are {though you should have a very clear idea of your right people and hope that those are the ones who actually come through the door!}. You haven’t yet observed their buying habits and patterns. You haven’t yet realized that the item you loved so much that you thought for sure would sell like gangbusters actually just sits unadored on your shelf, while the item you were less than enthused about is the only thing customers can’t keep their hands off of.

Once you have several weeks of retailing under your belt, you’ll develop the intuition about what will sell and what probably won’t, for reasons that are completely idiosyncratic to your individual store and market. At that point, you can start looking ahead to the next season or three, and making lists of what you’d like to order.

This principle applies to online retailers, too.

As an online retailer, you’ll find that certain items become staples of your online store — they sell over and over in any season, transcend seasonal trends and color palettes, and draw a lot of attention from shoppers and {hopefully!} press.

Depending on your online retail store concept, you may or may not want to carry definitively seasonal items. My advice would be to strongly consider doing so, as the majority of shoppers are pretty voracious about seasonal buying. For instance, at Christmas time, they’re going to ornament exchanges or parties where they need to take a hostess gift. They need to find something seasonal! {Common sense.} If you’re a fashion retailer, then you’ll want to carry seasonally appropriate apparel. {Again, common sense.} So you, too, only need to worry about the immediate season you’re going into, while keeping in the back of your mind that the retail year moves quickly, that stores debut seasonal collections before the average shopper is ready for it on the actual calendar {hence, why we see Christmas items in stores in September/October}, and that planning ahead is the best way to make sure you get what you need and want from your vendors.

A savvy retailer always has her eye cast ahead to the upcoming seasons.

She observes trends, makes predictions about bestsellers, watches her peers and competition, keeps abreast of what’s in the popular and trade magazines, plans for Market, and always, always is scouting for the next great line. If you’re a newbie retailer without a clue but with a lot of passion, know that this will be you, too, in a relatively short period of time. For now, take it easy and take it one quarter at a time.

Retailers, what questions do you have about seasonal/quarterly ordering patterns? How do you plan your seasonal buying?

{ 2 comments }

Burning Hot Love Letters To Your Niche

by Abby Kerr

in Uncategorized

Sendin’ out some hot entrepreneurial love.

My intention is that this be a quiet little post full of what I think is true. And the truth will taste like love and chili peppers.

As I type this, I have a list of 50+ {100+?} blog post ideas categorized by Evergreen Content, General Content, Indie Retail Content. These are all in waiting in various stages of draft mode.

As I type this, this is a busy week, which is a prelude to a busy rest of the Summer. I see project upon project, which is a great thing.

And as I type this, at the heart of it all, I see this blog. And I want to make sure that every time I push Publish on my blog, I’m posting content that feels worth it. Worth it to my right people, but also worth it to me in the larger sense of what I really want to do in my business and feel called to do {called, as in, on a DNA level}.

So today I asked myself, what do I have to share that is at the absolute heart of the work I do in the world? The absolute crux of what I give to my clients? The absolute pith of the pepper that is Abby Kerr Ink?

Because that’s the stuff that I need to mash into every piece of content I put out there. Mash in, like a pepper into guacamole. The steamy little kick that takes everything up a notch.

And for me, this work I do — the work I create for clients for pay, and also that which I give freely, and also that which I aim to teach — is about love. Sweet, fire breathing love.

Copywriting and coaching for creative entrepreneurs is my niche. But vision, love, and phraseologie and how those elements interact with our entrepreneurial design and outward from there, the way we connect with our right people, is my micro niche.

I frickin’ love my micro niche. It gets me hot. It keeps me up at night. It stands in for a multitude of absences {scary, I know}. It makes me feel full when I’m engaging in it well. It’s as good as food. Some days, my work feels like poetry. {Some days, and some days are enough.}

I can’t think of a better gift to give to my right people. I can’t think of a better thing to blog about. I can’t think of a better topic to write to my list about.

When you think of every action you take in your entrepreneurial life as a burning hot love letter to your niche, it changes the game for you. And for your right people.

So why are you entrepreneur-ing?

What is this all really about for you? What’s the purpose of all this dithering around? Do you want to write burning hot love letters to your niche?

If not, is there something else you need to take a closer look at?

{ 8 comments }

National Independent Retailers Week 2010

by Abby Kerr

in Uncategorized

Sunday, July 18th through Saturday, July 24th is National Independent Retailers Week 2010.

This week, I’m issuing all of us a challenge, myself included.

July 18th, 2010 marks the beginning of National Independent Retailers Week.

Photo by deevinebovine courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

This week, I challenge you to replace at least one purchase you would normally make with a corporately owned, big box, franchise, or “chain” business with a purchase you can give to an independent retailer.

I truly believe our world is headed back to a niche-y, cottage industry-driven economy of solopreneurs and family owned businesses makin’ it happen for local economies. I think we’re ready for it. How about you?

Another great indie biz championing movement? The 3/50 Project, founded by the lovely and impassioned Cinda Baxter.

Leave a comment letting me know which purchase you’ll be giving to an indie retailer this week. And/or, give a plug for your favorite indie retailer. Gosh knows she deserves it.

{ 10 comments }

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