Did you ever read the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook?
It describes what to do in all kinds of desperate situations, from defusing a bomb to delivering a baby.
As the Amazon description says, it’s “the definitive handbook for those times when life takes a sudden turn for the worse.”
What if your copywriting business took a turn for the worse?
I have an active (and sometimes less-than-super-optimistic) imagination, and I’ve thought about this many times.
What if it all went up in smoke?
What if you woke up tomorrow, and for whatever reason you had no more clients?
Let’s say your entire list got wiped out and you had to start over from scratch…your website got hacked and destroyed…you got blacklisted within your networks…and all the major social media platforms went belly up.
If you had to begin anew, I believe you could do it, and do it quickly with two key skills.
Copywriting skills? Nope.
Marketing savvy? Nope.
You could outsource both of those. (We all know copywriters and marketing “consultants” and “specialists” are easy to find, right?)
Here’s all you’d need to start a business and start making money:
1. Idea-generating skills.
2. Basic selling skills.
Package them both around you and your unique identity – your brand – and you’d be rockin’ and rollin’ in no time.
Think about it.
You scope out the marketplace and see where there’s a need. You read the daily newspapers (local and national), listen to the buzz on social media and talk radio, and observe people and other businesses everywhere you go.
Then you think.
Do some serious brainstorming and dot-connecting-type thinking. Use your imagination (in a good way, not an impending disaster way). Figure out how to solve some problems, and fill a need. Serve people. Create!
Like I said, idea-generating skills.
Couple that with selling skills.
Not “selling in print,” otherwise known as copywriting. Again, you can get people to do that for you. You, my friend, are trying to get unstuck from a worst-case business scenario.
You will need to take your ideas to the marketplace, either by phone or in person, and you will have to sell your ideas.
Copywriter thriving, not surviving
So really, it’s all about generating, and then selling, ideas. If you can wrap that in a style that’s all your own, you’ll have the world by the tail.
Forget about buying The Copywriter’s Worst-Case Survival Handbook.
Become an idea-generator and a salesperson, and you’ll never have to worry about how to make good money.
And here’s a tip: do what you can to work some version of those two concepts into the description of what you do for clients. I guarantee you’ll stand out and rise above the masses.
Last thing. Not sure about this whole idea of “selling ideas”? Not to worry. I have a very easy, inexpensive program I’m developing called “The New Way to Sell for Independent Creatives.”
What is one thing you’d like to see addressed in this book? Let me know here. Thanks.
