A good position
|
Welcome to Issue 2 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about a good brand idea that helped grow great small businesses. Hello Reader, Massive transformations usually happen for people after these three things: Death, divorce, and moving. Starting young, I've had the unique pleasure of experiencing all three. (Multiple times.) And I find this grouping... interesting. Because even though moving is a colossal chore, it doesn’t begin to compare to the agony caused by death or divorce. The first two can crush you, while the third is typically a sign you're moving up in life. Like losing someone you love, breaking up with someone you built a home, family, and future around can feel like an unbearable loss for everyone involved. (And if your ex is a real piece of work, you could say it's worse—at least in death do you part.) Anyway. Some people, like myself and my new friend Caitlin Lang, have a different way of seeing it. Death or divorce (or any life-altering change) doesn't have to mean the end. Like moving, these colossal life stressors present opportunities for reinvention. And if you’re intent on being your own boss, it can ignite a fierce motivation to make your business work. As they say in polite circles: You must shit or get off the pot. Six years ago, Caitlin seized that opportunity when facing a divorce that forced her out on her own. Now a successful solopreneur by all definitions, Caitlin partially credits her failed marriage for the push she needed to transform her business into an impact-driving enterprise. A tough position helped her find a good positioning. It was this subtle, yet strategic branding shift that took Caitlin’s B2B design service from a struggling $2K side hustle to a six-figure business that she actually likes in under six years. Here’s how she did it. A Good Story Caitlin has been an entrepreneur most of her working life. For 20 years, she’s designed websites and branded assets for a variety of businesses. She started as a freelancer through her mom’s stylist network and gradually expanded into other industries, including finance, healthcare, and maternity products through ad hoc referrals. She was a freelancer in the truest sense, taking on any job or project that landed in her lap. In a way, she was lucky. She never had to do any of her own marketing and relied solely on word of mouth to make it work. But after getting married and having her son, Caitlin gave it all up. An absentee husband made it impossible to do parenting and small businessing (let’s make it word?) at the same time. As you can imagine, it also made it impossible to have a happy, healthy marriage. So, she decided to leave. But before she could do it, she had to ensure she could support herself—and her old freelance rates weren't going to cut it. In her first year back at it, Caitlin made $2,000. After setting some “impossible” goals, that figure jumped to $86,000 the following year. While it still wasn’t enough, it gave her the confidence she needed to file for divorce and set out on her own. The business grew steadily until last Spring when Caitlin's primary retainer client ended their contract and her referral business dried up. She tried everything. She reached out to her wider network and old clients. She joined networking groups and job boards. She made cold calls and applied for projects. Nothing was working. After seven months of no work, Caitlin sat down to think about the kind of work she really wanted. She thought hard about what needed to change to land it. And that’s when she had her lightbulb moment. A Good Approach Caitlin realized her fatal flaw: She was open to doing anything vaguely design-related for anyone. She stood out to no one. So, she thought about the things she was most skilled at and the clients she most liked working with—the ones she was proud to have in her portfolio. The ones that lit her up, moved her, and inspired her to build a better business. Then, she identified her highest skill sets. Branding work—from copywriting to design—kept her creatively inspired. (Her "zone of genius," if you will.) Through outlining her best skills and clients, Caitlin recognized a pattern: She's uniquely positioned to help ambitious female entrepreneurs feel confident about their online presence. With just those two realizations, Caitlin changed her positioning from doing everything for anyone to narrowly focusing on branding and websites for women-owned service businesses drawn to “elevated design.” She revamped her website and discovery channels with this new positioning and reached out to her network with potential client connections. The leads started pouring in. As much as she hates to say it, Caitlin admits, she found her riches in these niches. (More on that in a minute.) A Good Lesson Something that hasn’t worked for Caitlin? Hiring. Contrary to popular advice entrepreneurs get about the best way to scale, Caitlin says hiring set her back. She simply couldn’t find contractors who matched her standards for quality and punctuality. (I feel her pain here, too.) So instead of wasting time sourcing, interviewing, and training better-fit hires, Caitlin tried a different approach—she changed her offer and delivery model. She switched from long-term engagements and months-long retainers to a design sprint model with a set price and a two-week delivery window. Caitlin says this shift not only made her workflow more manageable, it also significantly enhanced her client satisfaction. (Because who doesn’t want great, focused work delivered fast?) While outsourcing could be a good move for the right type of business, it’s not the only way to scale your solo services model. Sometimes you might just need to switch the offer. A Good Takeaway By this point, we’ve all heard that if you try to serve everyone, you serve no one. It’s true. The more highly specific you are about helping a highly specific type of person, the more desirable you’ll be. It certainly held for Caitlin, who tripled her revenue after perfecting her positioning. I’ve been guilty of trying to do everything for everyone and have written about my struggle to “pick a niche.” But what I didn't realize is that I was conflating two different (albeit related) things. A niche refers to a focused market segment where you choose to specialize. It's the group of customers you cater to specifically. Positioning is the strategy that defines how your business stands out in that niche. It articulates the unique value you provide and how you choose to be perceived by your target audience. Getting specific on your positioning is the thing that will make you stand out and help you scale up. You get to choose it. (And change it.) Whether you’re a service provider, e-commerce business, brick-and-mortar, or startup, this same principle applies: Prospective customers want to know how you are uniquely positioned to help them. If you’re struggling with positioning, here's a basic framework I’ve used to figure out mine: [Your business name] helps [target audience] by providing [product/service] that uniquely solves [problem/need]. Unlike other solutions, I/we [key differentiator], gives you [specific benefit]. To fill it out, consider asking yourself these questions:
What I particularly love about Caitlin’s approach is that she aligned herself with clients who share her values and inspire her—not just those who could pay the bills. In doing so, she not only found a good way to stand out, but she discovered a good way to grow a sustainable business that she actually likes working in. A Few Good Resources
Hope you have a good one, |