Positive Yarn

When you started your business, it’s likely that you chose your unique selling point (USP): Why you felt you deserved to be out there among the competition, and how you were going to grab your share of the market.

But in the intervening years, is your USP still relevant? Or have you evolved from your starting point so much that something like “We provide a safe haven for beginners” doesn’t make as much sense now that your core customers are typically experienced and looking for more complexity? Are you still offering cappuccinos to your customers for a coffeehouse atmosphere, or have you phased that out in favor of stocking beads and making room for jewelry classes? Did that whole “We’re going to reach out to Gen Yers” really work out, or is your customer’s median age closer to retirement than to college?

In her article “Develop your USP,” Jacqui Howard Bear offers a battery of questions to examine in relation to your business:

• What do you do? If you have a broad offering, can you focus on one or two key services that are most in demand? List your specialties or niche areas.
• How do you do business? Is there something special, unusual, or significant about the way you do business? Do you offer 24- or 48-hour turnaround? Do you deliver for free?
• Who are your customers? Look at the demographics: age, interests, location (local, all over the world).
• What do your customers want? Is it low price, your personality, your location, your reputation, or something else that attracts customers to your business? List the benefits that customers derive from you.

There’s no shame in tweaking your USP from its original format. In fact, it shows how you’ve grown and met the realistic demands of your customers, rather than staying in some idealized state that doesn’t match what your receipts are recording. When my husband and I started Gooch & Gooch five years ago, we thought our main business was going to be designing brochures. While we’ve done many marketing projects that touch on all sorts of media, the percentage of actual “brochures” we’ve made for our customers vs. press releases, enewsletters, websites, articles, videos, tweets and so on is really small. Besides, the amount of freelance writers and editorial managers is continuing to grow in light of the massive layoffs in journalism — and there are many competent copy producers out there. We’ve had to refocus on what makes us stand out from the crowd. In our case, it’s our ability to bring out the best in our customers, even on a limited budget.

Your USP is a reflection on how you do business. Choose wisely, and it can be the centerpiece of your marketing plan — the cog from which spokes like your tagline, your logo, your shop decor and even your business policies emanate. Stick with an outmoded one, and don’t be surprised when the wheels fall off.

Because my husband and I are co-owners of our business, I got a kick out of this WikiHow on how to date an entrepreneur. I’d agree with about 99% of the points made!

The article made me wonder about what our relationship would have been like had one or the other already been in business while we were dating. The reality is that we met because I was his boss for the student newspaper in college, and money was so tight back then we could only afford coffee and pie on “dinner” dates. (Did I mention I’ve gained about 5 pounds a year since then?) We’ve worked side by side for a total of about five of the 14 years we’ve known each other, and now I can’t remember what it’s like not to have him as both my business partner and best friend.

These days, with clients on both coasts and email being available 24/7, we’re just as likely to be staring at our respective laptop screens at 8 p.m. as we are at 8 a.m. Back in those early days when we just couldn’t get enough of seeing each other, either the business or the relationship would have had to give, I think. Twelve-and-a-half years of wedded bliss later, I am much more accepting of his desire to finish “one more file” before sitting down for dinner than I used to be.

Of course, the luxury of being an independent contractor means that we can pick and choose our work hours. Our relationships with our daughters and each other come first, and the day we signed our LLC papers to become a formal business, we pledged to dissolve it should work ever interfere with our marriage. The economy has shrunk our pool of clients slightly, but we are able to still provide a good living for our family — perhaps even more so because we are less overworked and thus more pleasant to be around! We’re definitely placing a premium on family time these days.

The Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), the Northeast Ohio small-business consortium to which we belong, had an excellent article in its February issue titled “Married to the Business.” You can read it for free as a Nxtbook Media page right here; just “flip” to page 18. It seems that the successful-business couples (and former couples; one pair decided they worked just as well divorced) approached their work with a similar attitude: Family first, and then the business.

On one hand, Gooch & Gooch LLC is our “baby” just as much as our daughters are. It needs nurturing, attention — and once in a while, in-depth discussions about what we are going to do about resolving a given problem. But on the other hand, we often remind each other that no one’s headstone says “I wish I would have worked more.”

The work/life balance is one that all entrepreneurs must struggle with, and I’m curious whether any readers would like to share their pointers. Please feel free to comment below or email me at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

So here I am, ready to take Gooch & Gooch (my half, anyway — my husband can keep on plugging away) into a new direction and focus on helping people in a field that I love. I’m scared to death, but I just got back from a COSE conference and feel emboldened.

Based in Cleveland, COSE is an acronym for the Council of Smaller Enterprises. I’ve just spent two days with some fantastic small-business owners from all over Northeast Ohio. We’ve done a lot of talking about new media and how to harness it. Now it’s time for me to file the business cards away, quit talking about what I want to do and start doing it.

I’ve spent 13 years in business-to-business media, the majority of which has been spent on covering the professional pest management industry. But as great a group as the pest controllers are — Joe the Plumber seriously pales in comparison when it comes to being down to earth, loyal, patriotic and er, licensed — I want to shift my focus toward things that interest me personally. I want to write about, and help publicize, professionals who design with and/or supply the pretties I love so much: beads, yarns, threads, fabrics. What can I say? Sites like Etsy.com and IndiePublic.com were practically designed with me in mind!

Business Directions Owner Sherry Mulne, an absolutely fantastic person and a marketing communications consultant for The National NeedleArts Association, took a chance on me last year as her part-time assistant. I am delighted to report that working for Sherry has been great, and has been a wonderful introduction to the business side of the needle arts (defined as crochet, knit, embroidery, counted cross-stitch and needlepoint; tattoos are merely a matter of personal preference). While I hope to continue fulfilling assignments for Sherry, I want to start taking on additional clients involved in needle arts and related crafts. I want to help build a brand for an independent retail shop. I want to spread the word about some wonderful patterns someone has designed. I want to get someone’s handmade item into everyone’s Christmas stocking.

Want, want, want. I guess I should first pull back and identify the needs.

That’s where you come in. What can I do to help build your business, and in turn, help build mine?