STRATEGIC FOCUS

As part of my MBA program, I'm taking a competitive strategy class online (which is awesome - class in my jammies!) We've been talking a lot about a company's mission and vision as it relates to strategy. Most (I believe) of my classmates work for large companies, totally unlike my little, one person writing and editing business. So our perspectives are different - which is actually great for the class because it gives me a way to contribute.

But because my business is just me, everything we talk about is more personal for me. My company's vision is my vision; my company's mission is my mission; and my company's strategy is my strategy. We are intertwined. I'm thinking that this is an ideal situation even for large companies - to have each employee's personal vision, mission, and strategy aligned with the company's. If an employee follows his personal mission to achieve his vision according to his personal strategy, and that is intertwined and aligned with the company's, it can do nothing else but help that company excel.

What is challenging for me in this whole strategic mission and vision process is focus. Sometimes I have so many ideas about how to operate and promote my business that I get distracted. The first step, of course, is to align everything I do with my vision and mission. My mission is to help people say what they want to say and my vision is when someone needs writing or editing services, they will think, “Get that Wordsy Woman!” and hire me. Helping people say what they want to say is the bar against which I compare everything I do; if it helps people say what they want to say, I consider it, if it doesn’t, I dismiss it.

This doesn’t eliminate everything, however, and I realized recently even more focus is needed, so I’ve decided that other than serving my current and future paying clients, I will choose three additional projects to work on over the next three months. I’m still getting ideas, but I’m writing them down in a notebook to evaluate at the end of the three months. This way, I can have enough focus to follow the strategies I’ve chosen, but I won’t lose any new ideas. 

Happy strategizing!

-The Wordsy Woman

NEED HELP WITH MAKING YOUR BUSINESS SAY WHAT YOU WANT IT TO SAY?

As part of my splitting into separate personas: my literary-author persona and my copywriting-business writing-writer persona, I'm launching a new quarterly electronic newsletter on or about November 10th: Wordsy Woman's Business Word News Quarterly.

This electronic newsletter will be designed to help businesses say what they want to say. Each issue will contain a feature story on some aspect of writing or words in the business setting. I plan to cover topics such as social media, legal issues, relationship building, content, and story-telling. Some of them will contain tips on writing headlines, promotions, blog posts, press releases, website copy, and signs. This is just a start and I plan to eventually transition into a bi-monthly or monthly publication.

A business will also be spotlighted in each issue with a focus on how each uses words and writing in providing goods and services. Finally, a quarterly tip and suggested website link or newsletter will be included. Each issue will be short, to the point, and informative.

To subscribe, click here and enter your email address where indicated toward the right of the page. I will start posting editions on that same page to start an archive once I start publishing.

Thank you in advance for allowing me to help your business say what you want it to say!

-The Wordsy Woman

SPLITTING PERSONALITIES

My goal when I started out on my own at the beginning of 2010 was to eventually spend half of my work time on literary endeavors like poetry and fiction and the other half on business writing and editing like writing website copy and e-newsletters and editing dissertations. Three and a half years (thereabouts) and three literary publications in and I'm finally getting ready to morph.

This week, I created my author website: www.jodietoohey.com. I also transformed my Wordsy Woman website to focus on my business writing. I'm also preparing to split my social media presence. People interested in me as an author of fiction and poetry will receive insights, tips, and musings on my Facebook author page and through my author Twitter handle (which I've yet to set up). Wordsy Woman's Facebook page and Twitter account will focus strictly on helping businesses say what they want to say, particularly in marketing settings. I'm up in the air about my Pinterest page and might keep that consolidated as people can just follow the boards which interest them most.

There will be some overlap, of course, but splitting will hopefully help my followers to receive communication from me more suited for their needs. The author "stuff" will be targeted toward readers and other creative writers. Wordsy Woman will be suited for businesses, entrepreneurs, or people in the marketing industry.

This blog will remain but will slowly transition more into the business writing, entrepreneurship, and marketing arenas. For now, my only literary-related blog is my historical fiction reviews blog, but starting a blog chronicling my creative writing ups, downs, and insights is on my list of eventual to-dos.

I hope you'll indulge me with your patience as I make this transition. It's a big project that I've broken into bite sizes pieces I'll feed myself (and, subsequently, you) as time passes.

If you have been in this situation of needing to create two different personas for two different businesses or "hats," please feel free to comment below.

Thanks!
-The Wordsy Woman