My weaknesses...

Taking today to catch up on studying marketing and working on fixing my weak areas for my business. For me, it's marketing and time management. I'm good at showing others how to properly organize and manage those areas, but not so good with my own self.

In marketing, I'm a fairly strong person on the phone. Even on days when I don't have it all together and am a bit disorganized, I can pull off a good business telephone conversation. (I suck at personal phone conversations, but that's for another blog...) This is due to my past experiences of managing businesses and being the go-between for the reps and techs in an engineering department. Oh, and dispatching for a time during my service in the Air Force.

Choosing where to send my marketing materials and who to call seems to be my weakness. So far, I haven't found a library with the SRDS (a book to find marketers in your niche) within driving distance to me. I live remote. And I can't pay the hefty fee to use their online site. So, I gather information from various online directories. It's amazing how many of those give you the wrong address or contact person, or the phone number's no longer valid. Even when they are supposedly currently updated.

Also, I suck at narrowing my focus. Always have. It's why I'm slower at this than most...but I must make myself narrow my focus. I believe I'm going to narrow myself to being a publishing copywriter. (Got to think of the title for that.) My past as a fiction writer and editor gives me the strongest credibility in this area.

The other areas are health products, because it's a passion of mine, and Christian copywriting - because it's where a lot of my job experience is, and I write church office guides.

Publishing niche is something that will benefit the other ventures I'm in the most, so it seems the most logical place to focus on first. Some research needed here. Is it as lucrative as the other niches? How easy is it to make the contacts in this niche? And does this mean I cater to both publishers and authors who need to market their own books? And are the fees the same for both? Sounds like I have a homework assignment here.

Sigh. Time management. I rarely miss a deadline. When I do, it's usually if it's the type of assignment where I have the flexibility to miss a deadline. Such as for the magazine that I pay for out of my own pocket. It's mine. I have volunteers that help with it. And the schedule is kept flexible to fit into the staff's lives. This week's issue was a day late. More due to me than anything else. And a complication with the graphic design. But that's usually the only thing I miss a deadline on. Not sure if that counts, since it's not actually a deadline but a loose date range.

But deadlines are important to me and I don't miss them for writing or materials, yet I have a daily schedule that's too flexible. It's one reason I chose to freelance. If something happens to take my morning hours away, well, I just work at midnight and catch up. If I lose a day, I tack on a day that I hadn't planned on working. No problem.

The problem is what I do with my time. It's that whole focus thing again. I have so many things going on at once that I flit from one to another, with no real pattern. It works and I always get my goals accomplished, but feel this is a dangerous way to work. Someday it will catch up with me. I've learned and created techniques dealing with this issue, and they work great, but I don't stick with using those techniques. That is something that I will have to fix.

I'm an introvert and a hermit-type, but when I'm working with others, my organization skills kick into full drive. I should be partnering up with other writers and copywriters on projects - at least one other one. If I could afford to have a personal assistant come to my house a few days a week I feel I'd really do well. Because for a hermit, I work well with people and like working with another individual in a one-on-one situation.

Think about your weaknesses and how you can strengthen them. Don't forget to nurture your strengths in the process.