success in sweatpants | Words For Hire

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In part 2 of my interview with Solo Business Coach and Entrepreneur, Trish Lambert she tells all about her Fuzzy Bunny Slipper Contest and the lessons learned in putting together the promotion. If you missed Part I, you can read it here.

Contests can be a great marketing tool for solo and small business owners. It’s a fun way to promote your business while giving something of value to your community. So Trish, tell us about your contest?

I have wanted to find a way to really celebrate solo business owners for some time. We should be proud of ourselves for what we achieve and how committed we are. So I conceived the Fuzzy Bunny Slipper Contest (named after one of the elements of the Success in Sweatpants logo). It asks entrants to submit a photo and an essay that answers the question, “Why are you a solo business owner?” in a creative and interesting way. To make the effort of preparing a submission worthwhile, I’ve put together a great prize list that includes: 64G iPad (Grand prize), networking Blu-ray disc player(2^nd prize) , and a Flip HD Mino videocam (3^rd prize) . There is also a bunch of business building products and programs in each prize level, courtesy of our expert panel: Donna Amos, founder of International Association of Solopreneurs; Peter Bowerman, The Well Fed Writer; Mike Michalowicz, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur; Adam Urbanski, The Marketing Mentor and Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad.

Submissions are open until October 19. Then the entrants need to kick into high gear and get everyone they can to vote for their entry. The 12 entries with the most votes will be passed on to an impressive panel of judges, who will select the winners.

How can people enter?

Go to the Success in Sweatpants page on Facebook and go to the “Contest” tab if you have already landed on it. “Like” the page to get access to the opt in box. Fill this in, and you will get directed to the contest entry page.

Can you share some of the things you have learned from running this contest?

I am learning a lot with this contest. One thing is that you need to be prepared to launch a very aggressive promotion campaign. By “aggressive” I don’t mean “in your face.” I mean that promotional activities need to start well ahead of the contest (a month is not too long a time frame) and they need to continue at a high volume every day once it is launched. I have been amazed at how much promotion is needed to get noticed by people.

Another thing is certainly thought-provoking for me. You know how we are told all the time that we need to think big, go beyond our comfort zone? I think I need to come up with an edited version of that…something along the lines of “think big, act practical.” This contest is definitely a result of big thinking: photo PLUS essay, popular vote PLUS judging panel, “sexy” prizes. And in addition, I plan to create an ebook of all the entries and a 2011 calendar of the 12 finalists. If I had it to do over again, I would have scaled this down quite a bit. Perhaps just a photo contest, with winners selected by popular vote, because I have found that making it as big as I have has also added layers of complexity, both for me and for the entrants. I promise you that the 2011 Fuzzy Bunny Slipper Contest will be much simpler!

Any other words of wisdom for solos?

It is so very important to remember why you started this journey, because going solo is always a challenge. Always. Sometimes the challenges are small, and sometimes the challenges loom above us. Progress can seem slow, results elusive, tasks disorganized. And there are simply those days where nothing is right, you wonder why you went out on your own, and thoughts of spiffing up your resume and going back to the old way flash across your mind.

Remembering why you are flying solo is your anchor any time the going gets tough. When you are in the middle of one of those big challenges, getting in touch with the real reason for all this will help you get through.

And celebrate yourself. You achieve more in one day than three people do back in the corporate world, and you need to stop and acknowledge that from time to time. It takes courage and commitment to be a solo business owner, and we need to keep remembering that!

Well said Trish, thank you!

Do you have promotion or small business questions for Trish? Please feel free to add your thoughts or questions in the comments. Don’t forget to enter the contest and please tell your friends and colleagues!

Trish Lambert is a solo business coach and entrepreneur. Her coaching helps solo business owners to stop spinning their wheels and produce the right results in their business. A fervent believer in no gimmicks, just RESULTS, she helps solos to move forward toward their goals.

I had a chance to interview, Solo Business Coach and Entrepreneur, Trish Lambert recently. Trish has decades of experience as an entrepreneur and was leveraging remote and distributed work teams long before it became the new work model. She has a particular passion for solo business owners to which she devotes, Success in Sweatpants a division of her long standing business, 4R Marketing. In this 2-part interview Trish shares her passion for solos and offers some words of wisdom for solo business owners.

Your practice focuses on solo business owners, what drew you to this segment of the business community?

A mix of things. For one thing, I became a solo business owner for the second time in 2005, having finally run metaphorically screaming from the corporate world. I know I’m not alone in finding corporate life stifling and unsatisfying, and I have great empathy with other “defectors.” Second, I have probably hit every pitfall and pothole in the process of building my business, and I would like to help other solo business owners avoid at least some of those as a result of my coaching. Another thing is that I think solo business owners are taken advantage of, whether unintentionally or on purpose, by a lot of business experts who are more interested in their own fame and wealth than in following through on the claims they make to attract clients. I want to offer an alternative that delivers on its promises.

What are the key differences between solo business owners and other small business owners?

I think that the key difference is in their objectives. The solo business owners I work with intend to stay solo. They will certainly delegate parts of the business to subcontractors, but they have no desire to hire employees, have a big office, or stockpile inventory. They want to stay solo and maintain a lot of agility in their businesses. They want to have what I call a 360-degree life—that is, they want their businesses to fold seamlessly into the other parts of their lives. Small business owners, for the most part, have different objectives. They may be building something to pass along to the next generation, for example. Small businesses are not as agile as solo businesses because they have an infrastructure with employees, capital equipment, business loans and other things that limit their range of movement in the marketplace.

What do you think 2011 holds in store for small and solo business owners?

I wish I could say that I think we are going to get out of the hole we’ve been in. After all, “they” have said that the recession is over. If that is true, that’s great, but I think it will take some time to trickle down to us. I think the best approach to 2011 for small and solo businesses is to expect another year of the same, and take the right actions to stay in business. If things get better, that is excellent, but I think we need to err on the conservative side.

What are the key things that solos can do right now to prepare for a strong 2011?

This is the time of year when I encourage people to look really closely at their books. What can they do now to ensure that there won’t be a revenue dip in the holiday season or a lull in January? What expenses can they pare down or eliminate so that they are more streamlined financially?

I also encourage people to review their marketing activities. How effective are they? What needs to be changed or dumped? What needs to be added? Can you get more creative in your marketing? Put plans in place to have a big marketing push after the holidays, because people are in “renewal” mode then and they may be more likely to purchase products and services that they would either not buy or would waffle about at other times of the year.

Do you have questions for Trish? Please ask away or add to the discussion in the comments. Trish is currently running a contest for solo business owners and in part II she will share the behind the scenes experience and the lessons learned from developing and executing a contest. I hope that you’ll not only enter the contest but come back and read part II of the interview.

Think Big, Act Practical

Secrets of a Solo Business Owner