About this column
Photo by ky_olsen courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.
A long time ago {like, back in June when I launched this site}, someone tried to tell me something. For the record, she’s someone I call Mom.
It was about my service pages. They were overly wordy, she thought, and made it really hard for people to figure out how to work with me.
Between then and now, my site’s gained traffic. My business has grown. My client list gets longer every month. But I had noticed that about half of my prospects emailed me saying, “I know I want to work with you, but I have no idea how. I don’t know what I need. Can you tell me?”
Strange, I thought. Why so indecisive? Couldn’t they just read my service pages?
Then, recently {like, two weeks ago this November}, during a website critique webinar in Creating Fame, Laura Roeder told me that my service pages were way too wordy. And she said — I quote — you’re making it really hard for people to figure out how to work with you.
Damnit.
Sometimes we don’t want to listen to the people who are closest to us. Their observation of our foibles stings {even when we shouldn’t take them personally}.
I betcha that right now, someone in your life — probably someone pretty darn close to you — is trying to tell you something about your creative business that you really ought to listen to.
This time, I listened. And I acknowledged to my mom that yep, she was right. {As usual.}
I’ve relaunched my service pages and you can check them out here via the You & Me page of my site. If you’ve studied my site before, you may notice that I’ve honed my service offerings way down. I’ve further nichified. {Apropos, no?} What remains are my very best and most powerful offerings that propel creative people further into their entrepreneurial dream.
Also, my rates have gone up. This is the first rate increase since I started Abby Kerr Ink back in February. I could feel that it was time — my schedule is fuller, my client filtering process is more finely honed, and I’m working on my first info product, which’ll be the first in a suite to come. I sense it’s important to point out this rate increase to other creative entrepreneurs who are in a growth phase. {And Dave Navarro says it’s important to raise your rates early and often in the life of your business, in case you need to hear it from a bigger guy.}
In other news…
Tonight I was interviewed by the lovely Rebecca Parsons and Lyna Farkas of Blog Talk Radio’s Artistically Speaking. They asked me about my entrepreneurial journey from high school English teacher to proprietor of an award-winning French-inspired boutique to niche-y business copywriter and coach. Lots of tips in there for creative people from all disciplines who are ready to find their niche, create an addictive blog and web presence, and do their Thing their way.
Hello, you.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
beautifully done, Abby! (and your mom and Laura are rockstars!!) I love the way that our community responds when we are flexible, listen carefully and value ourselves higher than we did just moments before. It’s like a performance-art permission slip for the rest of us to do the same. Keep it rolling!
Wow — a “performance-art permission slip.” Thank you for that, Diana! You are such an inspiration to me. :)
Make that Dyana.
ha! I felt the love, no worries:) There really is something to LISTENING. One thing I do when I am on the fence is that I keep a genius card handy, a 3×5 card with all of the advice I get. I review it occasionally and ask myself how I feel about the suggestions–each one may go on a different card (esp if they are particularly charged or vary wildly). Then I do a pro/con (more like an Ugh/Yay/would that I could be brave/smart/wily enough to do it list). It’s so amazing what rises to the top after a few spins in this cycle.
Hey Abby,
As someone who has looked at your services page before and after…I have to say that it is a lot more clear to me what you offer and how I could work with you. And your copywriting freaking rocks! You seriously have a magic touch with words :)
I recently found myself in a similar situation. My husband was trying to basically tell me the same thing that Laura told me during the website reviews. Now, it’s time for me to stop being stubborn and make some changes!
Thank you, April! I’m glad to hear that I’ve presented things in a clearer way. And thanks to Laura and my mom. :)
After making these long-needed changes, I went to bed last night feeling clearer than ever on the value I provide and the perameters of that work, as well. Feel as if I just transferred my train from a bumpy old track to a new, high speed one. :)
LOL – yes, there is someone in my life right now trying to tell me something about my creative business – how did you know? ;) And I’ve been listening, even though I most certainly do NOT want to hear it! ;)
Hey, Jess! —
I find that when I don’t want to listen, it’s because I don’t want to accept that I didn’t figure it out intuitively the right way the first time. :) Learning to be more patient with myself and forgiving with my process.
Hi Abby!
That’s an interesting observation – I hadn’t looked at it like that, but now that you mention it, I think it’s often like that for me too… ;)
Sometimes all we need is an outsider’s perspective. It might look perfect to us (and I’m sure it’s an improvement), but a fresh pair of eyes with a little different perspective always helps. Right now, I think my Speaking and About pages need quite a bit of work (too much going on in the Speaking page and it’s not all that clear what topics I cover :-/ ).
Anyway, congrats on all your success Abby! Cheers to closing out the year with a bang!
Hi, Ricardo! The longer I’m in biz, the more powerfully SIMPLICITY speaks to me. What’s intuitive and obvious to me about my biz is, well, not so intuitive and obvious to others!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know you were here!