I am a ghostwriter. That means I write content for other people and they put their name on it. I’m good at it. Real good at it. And I like doing it.
I’m so good at what I do that I could charge a lot more money and go after the big clients. So why don’t I?
Real simple. I like working with small businesses.
When you work with large clients, particularly corporations, you have to deal with multiple levels of management. In most cases, it’s like government red tape. It’s a bureaucracy and I get impatient with bureaucracies. With small business owners, I talk to one person – the owner. They like me or they don’t. Very simple.
One Thing You Have To do For Small Business You Can’t Do For Corporate Giants
In order to work with small business owners, you have to do things that you can’t do with a corporation. First on the list is cut your prices to make them affordable for the small business owner.
With a corporation, you are more likely to get the business if you charge more, not less. Many corporations are overpaying for the services they receive in almost every channel simply because of something called perceived value. Corporate bureaucrats falsely believe that if they pay more for a service, then they’ll get better service. It’s intrinsically more valuable. But universal experience proves that postulate is false.
I’m OK with charging less money per client for small business clients because I can work directly with the business owner. I don’t have to go through one department to get a relay from another department interpreting what the company president said in a big group meeting. If it comes from the horse’s mouth, it’s more reliable. That postulate is one we can stand behind.
What You Need Vs. What You Want
Another reason I like working with small businesses is because I get to see the results of my work more clearly. The small business owner comes to me for one reason – they know they need a Web presence, but they aren’t quite sure how to get from point A to point B. I make a great tour guide.
Corporate clients generally know what they want, but what they don’t know how to tell the difference between what they want and what they need. When I inform them of what they need, they go back to what they want. And they’re not happy until they get it. They usually go back to overpaying someone else for inferior services so they can have what they want instead of what they need.
When I tell a small business owner what she needs, she listens. She realizes that I’m the expert in my business just as she is the expert in hers. Small business owners respect experts; corporations respect CYA enthusiasts.
I Don’t Like The CYA Game
That leads me to my next point. I don’t have to cover my arsenal with small business clients. I tell them what I’ll do and what it will cost. They agree or go somewhere else. Sometimes we negotiate. But when we shake hands and agree on the service, that’s what I provide. If an issue comes up, we talk about it and decide upon a course of action to resolve the issue. There is no one below me, above me, or beside me trying to make me look bad so they can get a bigger piece of some pie they think they deserve. It’s me and the small business owner. I like that one-on-one come-as-you-are interaction.
Could I make more money going after the big clients? Sure. But I like the “low hanging fruit.” There’s a lot of it and it pays big dividends beyond the value of the paycheck. I get to take pride in my work.
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