January 15th Small Business Expo
I will be at the SCORE Miami booth. Hope to see you there!
February 1st Journaling Workshop at 5 Sisters
This is a journaling workshop based on a series of prompts. Bring your journals!
February 4th Entrepreneur Magazine Growth Conference
I will be hosting Mentoring in Minutes Workshops. Prepare a few questions to ask SCORE counselors.
I am the writer for SquareHue.com a monthly subscription box of truly amazing nail colors. Starting this month I have created an insert story to match their new Decades Collection that will continue throughout 2015. I love this company not only for their style, but also their compassion. A portion of their profits are donated to fight human trafficking. This is my favorite company to work for and if you are into nails, please check out their website, www.squarehue.com.
sHue_1114-Prague_Insert Card_PRINT (1)
Kitty Hawk has never seen so many people! We’re all sitting anxiously on
the beach dune. Of course, Erika draws hearts, Laura draws geometric
shapes and Diana loves staring at the clouds and daydreaming. We are all
waiting for the big spectacle. Two brothers are testing a real flying machine.
I think they are crazier than bedbugs, but I can’t bear to miss a thing. As
the wind started picking up, we see it takeoff and glide for what seems like
an eternity. We jump up shouting and waving our arms. Erika is the first to
jump into the ocean and then we all follow suite, splashing each other with
glee. What a thrill to have witnessed the first flight! The world is changing so
much it makes my head turn. Laura was telling us that soon women will have
the right to vote. After watching a machine in the sky, I believe anything is
possible. I can’t help but be excited to see what happens in the next decade.
-Siren
In Middle America, nowadays everyone gets a trophy just for participating. The competitive edge is being tossed out in favor of fairness. As adults, we know that competition keeps us keen. Business plans include a section on rating your competitors for good reason. First, investors want to know that there is actual a market for your product/service. Many people have great ideas for a product or service. There are normal to outlandish products out there which may or may not have a niche market. A normal product would be gift wrapping paper while a not so normal one may be handpainted gift wrapping paper. You can sell to either the general market or to your niche, but the underlying consideration is that your product can sell.
The next concern is how you measure up. Are you a big fish in a small pond or are you small fish in a big pond? You need to stand out whether you have a bigger or smaller market. Your investors will want to know if you are taking your business seriously. This means you have done your research and understand what you are trying to achieve. Many times entrepreneurs may think if they want to buy something then there must be a market for it. However, that is not always the case. You must understand what your competition does to be successful and to make it yours.
Of course, do not try to be the competition. Focus on the aspects that make your product/service unique and go from there.
S.W.O.T
When I was a high school teacher, my lesson plans included the acronym S.W.B.A.T. This was confusing to the outside world, but all it meant was student will be able to. S.W.O.T. is even easier: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is important when writing your business plan to be honest to a fault. If someone was to ask you for money and they said it would be a solid investment, you would want to know what the catch is. Banks and investors understand that nothing is without faults, but often people do not want to take a look at the challenges their businesses face.
What are your future company’s strengths?
location
reputation
experience
saleable products
atmosphere
managerial expertise
These strengths are inside the company and can be great selling points.
What are your future company’s weaknesses?
funding
reputation
employee turnover rate
Not matter how great your future company will be, it will have obstacles. Be as honest as possible. Maybe you run a food truck and the short cooks do not stay a long time or your run a school and the average teacher turnover rate is five years. Your business plan must address the weakness(es) in order for you to come across as trustworthy and competent.
What are your future company’s opportunities?
growing market demand
partnerships/internships
untapped market
area demographics
A doctor opening a practice in an underserved community could have the market share of patients.In that situation, the demand is high while the supply is low making it an opportunity. Figure out what your opportunities could be and go at them hard.
What are your future company’s threats?
competition
supply dependent
the EPA
weather (hurricanes, typhoons)
You must let your investors/bank know what the threats are and your plan of action. It demonstrated that you are an aware business owner, but more importantly proactive. For those not living in South Florida, hurricanes pose a real threat not only to businesses but to life as well. 
In today’s market, you can have a product and/or a service, but the key is understanding the difference. Most products have elements of service in them and vice versa. You buy a car, but can take it to the dealership for services as wll. Use any overlap to your advantage.
What Can You Make Me?
If a client asks this, then you have a product. A product is easier to count and measure than a service. Here is a brief list of popular products:
video games
pharmaceuticals
cars
movies
iPhones
Packaging and presentation are key elements when marketing a product. If you have bought something just because it looked nice or had a great logo, then you understand the value of presentation first hand. Consider what need it is fulfilling and market its advantage. For example, iPhones fulfill the need to be able to communicate using the latest technology. Likewise, product manufacturers market several offerings of merchandise or they can specialize. Squarehue.com specializes in nail polish, but they do it so well no other products are needed. Ask yourself if it is better to have one great product or several. Just make sure they all relate in one way or another. Your company can make great shoe polish, but a customer might not be interested if you are also offering lipstick under the same brand.
What Can You Do for Me?
If a client asks this, then you have a service.The Economist defines a service as any activity “you can’t drop on your foot”. The definition was most likely set before the digital age when the contrast between concrete and abstract did not veer into a gray area.
bookkeeping
business plan service
pool cleaning
consulting
dog walker
Customer relationships are the key to launching a successful service. No matter how necessary a service is, you cannot take any client for granted. If you are a lifestyle coach, your service cannot be looked at every day or framed, so you must immediately address the value of your service. Services tend to be so specialized that what you wind up selling most is the value of your reputation. Quality can be hard to measure here; however, there is an easier way around this. Siren Publications offers a money back guarantee so if the client is hesitant to take the risk on a writing service, I will absorb the loss not them.
Whether you are offering a product or a service, stick with it in your business plan. A bank or an investor will be rightfully wary of a business that cannot make up its mind on what it offers.
No matter what stage a business is in, a business plan is a must. Startups especially must have one. A business plan, hereafter referred to as BP, is a financial document with a narrative. I like to think of it as a persuasive essay and math worksheets hybrid. When a new business is in the planning stages, it can be too easy to throw money at everything and hoping everything works out. That mentality is a surefire way to fail.
A BP asks you to answer the hard questions about your business. For example, who is your target audience? Your product/service may not exactly appeal to who you may think. A few years ago a cereal bar opened next to the University of Miami, over 500 different types of cereal and quite a few toppings were offered. College kids and cereal should have been a home run, but it fell short. I went in there one day and all I saw were young children delighted at the idea of Capt Crunch and Coco Pebbles in the same bowl as strawberry milk.
The owners tried to capitalize on this surprise audience too late in the game and closed within six months. If they had been open to other audiences, they could have done quite well. This business exemplifies the value of a BP for truly contemplating who your audience(s) could be and who might be interested as well.
When you open a business, there should be some room as to who your target audience is. Your marketing efforts should be directed to who you feel will be a stronger presence, but keep in mind that who you want to respond and who actually responds are two different beasts.
Right in the middle or with a status quo scene.
Middle
What is the big event upon which upon your memoir centers? It can be anything. A memoir usually focuses on the catalyst, which can be a person, event or idea. Delve into the aftermath as if the catalyst is a given. For example, say you visit an ashram in Thailand and reach a point of clarity. This memoir could be cloying unless that point of enlightenment is sprinkled throughout the book as a flashback sequence. Give your readers something to look forward to as they read.
Status Quo
A status quo scene is one in which your version of normalcy is described. If my memoir centered on my dog, my status quo scene would entail walking her around the block. It allows the reader to take a peek in our normal lives. The bombshell will be made even more devastating when the reader understands how life will never return.
A memoir is a specific journey that you have taken in this lifetime whereas an autobiography is more of a collection of anecdotes. Before you begin writing, decide what your focus will be. Let’s begin by actually defining a journey. Well, a journey has a starting point and an ending point. It is a trip back to your past and present. Now, you may be intimidated by the idea of an ending point for your journey and that will be covered later on. Just sit down and think about what your journey, for this memoir, will be.
Were you a Stones groupie? A lawyer on the biggest case of your career? A survivor of an internal or external war? The greatest thing about memoirs is that any journey can be interesting with solid writing. Consider a journey you make every day. I take my dog around the neighbor for twenty minutes a day.
The leash is taken off the hook and Gladys’s eyes go wide with anticipation as I clip it on to her collar. As expected , my dog twirls around like a drunken ballerina. This forty-five pound creature yanks me forward as we cross the street. Gladys throws herself on the ground and luxuriates in the sand.
Your turn! Write a paragraph on a daily errand you do. Add as much detail as possible.
Twitter can be intimidating. Its mascot, the silly blue bird, reminded me of a china doll in a horror movie. I didn’t know what it was going to do to me or my business, but I knew I had to keep my eye on it. My anxiety centered on my cluelessness on what to say and have it read as witty.
After reading a few books and articles, I began to understand Twitter in a new way. It is a microblogging site and as an experienced blogger, this seemed doable. I usually post to my personal blog about once a week and to be noticed on Twitter you need at least three tweets a day. Even to an experienced writer this is intimidating.
When I wrote my first business book I surrounded myself with Forbes magazine and all things commerce. I researched for days, so, for Twitter, I did the same. Feeds were analyzed and read for clarity. Some were funny and others were lame. The ones I liked best were marketing themselves in a subtle way. In contrast, the ones that announced themselves like used carsalesmen turned me off.
Twitter feeds reminded me of the Emily Dickinson poem I read in high school.
“I’m Nobody! Who are you?”
Emily Dickinson, 1830 – 1886
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
I decided right away to make my feed as useful as possible. Out of my four tweets a day, one would be a pitch while the others had to be useful, even in the most mundane way. Simple things like the difference between You and Your. It may help someone or at least not sound like random croaking to the admiring bog.
My hard sells would be simple and to the point. I wanted to advertise my wares, but also be aware that I had to do this with dignity. One line of pitch should be enough once a day. If it still seems intimidating, just remember these three points:
Advice for Twitter Newcomers
1. Divide your expertise into seven topics.
I do schools, editing and several others.
2. Pick times to consistently tweet.
I dedicate my ten o’clock tweet to #newteachers for my guide on the first year of teaching.
3. Get familiar with Hootesuite.
This is a lifesaver and it is free!
Feel free to follow me @sirenpub where I dole out more advice three times a day. Good luck!
My name is Maureen Castellon. I have been a writer for over ten years, a writing instructor for over fourteen years and a professional ghostwriter for three. My first taste of ghostwriting was when I worked for History Miami writing the curriculum for them as the Curriculum Support Specialist. The museum received credit and my name would not appear. Hours of research, writing and editing, yet no credit. The museum had a built in audience and my words would reach more people than if I had tried to publish it myself. From that point onwards, I knew ghostwriting would be my career.
Ghostwriting is a wonderful avenue to have your words help others make their creative visions a reality. Before you make the leap, there are a few things to mull over.
The first thing to consider is if you can handle not receiving credit. This may sound like a silly question, but when you are in the middle of drafting a novel for someone else and you love your writing so much you want to keep it, this question will not be so easy to answer.
The second issue to reflect upon is exactly how much you love to write. An odd blog post or journaling is a great start to being a writer, but can you do it on a daily basis on topics you are not personally drawn to a possibility? The mystique of being a writer is all well and good, but it is work. Yes, I can go to the beach on a Monday afternoon. However, I most likely have spent the day before writing since dawn and need to give my hands a rest.
As yourself not whether your writing is any good, but if others will want to put their name on it as if it were done by their own hand. This question is hard to answer. Your family and friends may have complimented your writing before. You may have even been the best writer in school. Nevertheless, your writing may not be commercial enough to sell. At the end of the day, you are producing deliverables for clients and it has to be high quality.
Take heart if your writing is not fully developed. I did not have the time or money to go back to school for a writing program, so I found a writing coach. She offered valuable advice and helped me become a solid writer. Now that I am an established writer, I am offering my services as a writing coach. Through one on one coaching sessions, we can find your writing voice and develop your writing skills. Please email me at maureen@sirenpublications.com if you would like to nurture your writing.
Finally, the thing to contemplate is how well you can take criticism. If a client hates a piece you sent over and you love it, would you argue? If the answer is yes, you must reevaluate immediately. Criticism is hard to take on any level; however, as a writer, you must separate workable criticism from personal criticism. Some clients love if I share a personal story in their blog content and others loathe it. Writing preferences are never personal. You must have thick skin and learn the art of accepting rejection.
Still want to ghost?