Self Employed Marketing

One day this week I got an email from Karen, my next door neighbour. She’s a director of a marketing agency in Greater Manchester that had high hopes of being taken over by a larger competitor with all the resultant benefits for her and her fellow shareholders. The email said ‘well this wasn’t in the plans – the other directors have decided to close down and we’re all going to be redundant!”

It brought back all the memories of my last employer deciding, seven or so years ago, to retreat to Tokyo and close its UK Investment Banking Division. So I was delighted when my friend told me that she was going to start her own business and doubtless over the next few days we’ll sit down and talk about it.

It made me reflect on what you learn when you go out on your own and step away from the comfort of a corporate environment. I’d been fortunate to work for some well know international financial institutions and often wondered whether I got through prospects’ doors because I was competent and capable, or because the business card said “Representative of Billy Big Bank”?

I suspect that the Billy Big Bank name probably opened the door, either out of courtesy or curiosity. How far the door stayed open and what kind of relationship flowed out, was probably due in some part to me, but more likely based on my skill to pass information to even Bigger people within Billy Big Bank, who were able to make really BIG decisions.

All this changes for the self employed consultant who lives (according to management guru Charles Handy) like a flea on the back of big corporate elephants. Do you remember the old saying about women in business – something like they have be twice as good to be thought of as almost the equal of a man (rubbish incidentally – we all know its three times!!!!) well that’s the same for the self employed, doors don’t open for you as readily as they used too and you are the offering – so you’d better have it planned out and make it add value to your target market or you’re buggered!

Took me four years to achieve the two year plan!

It teaches you real attention to detail because no one covers your back; though if you’re fortunate enough you have friends like Andy the Claret (that’s the football team not drink by the way). They will look at the stuff you do without really knowing what it’s about but still be able to ask you questions that hit the target with rapier like precision!! (More than Burnley FC did last season!)

Self employment keeps your feet on the ground. You lick all the stamps and soon realise that Petty Cash is an oxymoron. But you know that when the job is complete and the client’s cheque is safely tucked away, you alone were responsible for the satisfied customer’s experience.

There’s no calling on IT to support your technological issues, no asking a colleague to do one of the tasks in parallel to speed things along, no sending someone else to the tricky meeting and certainly no saying “he’s in conference now” when you don’t want to take the call!

We’ll be helping Karen and husband Mark start to create an upstairs office space and look forward to welcoming her to the world of SOHO (small office home office). In the early days I used to love working at home, so much so that I’ve just built an office tucked away in the garden of our family house in Cheshire, so I don’t have to drive to the North Wales Office every day if I don’t feel like it.

Working at home is great if you have the self discipline. If you don’t, apparently it’s even better! For some it’s a real throwback to university life when day time TV ruled, afternoons were for sleep and if you had to work, well hey there’s nothing else going on at 2.00am is there?

There’s a trendy trend developing for blokes to go to work in suits and shirts but not to wear ties. You see them around the city thinking they look cool; they don’t know Jack. Home based self employed blokes have been going to work with no trousers for years – how cool is that!! Wonder if Karen will adopt the morning shuffle across the landing in pyjamas at 5.00am to do that thing you haven’t been able to get out of your head since 3.27am when it woke you up!

I wonder if she will find a replacement for the drive to and from work, the familiar tones of Wogan, or Humphries and Naughtie or Allen and Garvey. Will she make Monty the cat a fully fledged partner, and will she stop, religiously, for a daily lunch break and play computer backgammon or Sudoku, just to give her brain a change?

You don’t always consider these weighty issues in Corporateland, nor do you necessarily have to make a commitment to yourself that every week, no matter how you feel, you WILL engage in some form of marketing communication aimed at your target market to keep your businesses head above the parapet.

Here’s a big lesson for the elephants from the fleas. Elephants spend fortunes on all manner of exotic marketing communications (not recommended by this flea incidentally!!). On the other hand, fleas tend to get nearly all of their business by word of mouth and recommendation, at next to no cost, other than a job really well done.

I’ll talk at length with Karen about this, as after 20 years working in marketing agencies in the north-west, she’ll know more than enough business contacts to ring up telling them the story of her start up.

Good luck to her!