I had a fantastic opportunity to sponsor & present at the first ever dedicated Australian conference for Copywriters – CopyCon 2017 which was held in Sydney on Saturday 29th April 2017. CopyCon is the creation of SEO guru Kate Toon.
Kate believes in creating a group of cheerleaders for your business and not competing with your “competitors” and has built a supportive network of Copywriters within The Clever Copywriting School. As the only accountant in the room on Saturday I wanted to share what I learnt about collaborating and how other small business owners can apply it –
1. Seek out the support of like businesses
You might be gasping at such a suggestion, thinking that there would never be a time you’d discuss business with one of your competitors or even suggest your having a hard day / week or year to one.
But what are the benefits of doing so – you find someone that has “been there – done that”, or at least someone with who knows the ins & outs of your industry that they can offer some worthwhile guidance. Unfortunately, Mum as helpful as she likes to be may not know the best way to deal with a difficult supplier or how to fix a supply of 200 products shipped from China that do not resemble the sample – but a fellow business person may.
find someone that has “been there – done that”
Remember if you are seeking advice from them you need to be willing to be a sounding board for them too, and a confidential one at that.
Facebook groups are a great way to facilitate meeting similar business owners. The group doesn’t need to be large just supportive. I am a part of a few groups from just 20 of us to others in the 1000’s. Both sizes offer support in different ways.
2. We are all special in our own way
Even within our industry field we can’t be jack of everything. As I learnt at CopyCon there is copywriters specialising in Not-for-Profit campaigns, grant writers, small business award applications, Facebook ads, video script writers, SEO copywriters and even copywriters that brave the world of accounting & tax to edit blogs about tax changes (brave souls). And as Kate Toon said in her opening keynote for the day “there is plenty of work for everyone”.
Collaborating means you have a source of experienced businesses you can refer to if a job or task lands on your desk that you aren’t an expert in, beyond your capacity at this point in time or just doesn’t tickle your fancy this month.
Accountants share the love – we can’t be an expert in everything so we refer our clients to a range of specialists to ensure our clients are looked after as they need to be.
3. Grow your business
Collaborating brings another benefit – growth. Being able to draw on a pool of talent – whether its another electrician or a fellow HR consultant to assist with an extra large job or just prop up capacity whilst your experiencing those growing pains.
Having that friendly relationship in place with “competitors” means you can reasonably increase your capacity temporarily and bid for larger jobs or ride through a busy spike with confidence that people in your network can help you through without stealing the lead or customer.
It was great to see almost 100 copywriters come together & be so supportive, friendly and just damn fun at the conference. Every speaker motivated me. And even from the copywriting focused sessions I learnt –
- It’s not the end of the world to disagree with the client
- I can give myself permission to be crap
- That business awards can have a huge impact & helps your business grow
- I can start a sentence with “And” (take that Year 7 English teacher!)
- To save time by putting repetitive instructions in video format (eek! bit scared but watch out for videos of little old me & the team).
Huge congratulations to Kate Toon and the team. I am sure it will be even bigger & better next year as word spreads about the day.
I’m off to collaborate. What benefits could collaboration bring to your small business?
Disclaimer: The information contained on this website is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser. Taxation, legal and other matters referred to on this website are of a general nature only and are based on Goad Accountant’s interpretation of laws existing at the time and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Those laws may change from time to time.
