Sole proprietors and small business owners go up and down in market perception of their brand, also known as professional reputation. For that reason, the brand deserves continuous monitoring, improvement and promotion as a component of strategies designed to support the acquisition of new business and encourage repeat business. The goal is to build and maintain a good customer list. A useful way to review and evaluate your brand is with what many experts consider the gold standard of strategic planning, SWOT Analysis.
SWOT is the acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Every 18-24 months, freelancers will benefit from examining the viability of their brand, to better understand what actions enhance the brand and what could weaken it. Perform a SWOT analysis and use what you discover as the basis of a strategic plan for your brand.
Strengths: experience, competitive advantages, first-rate clients, referral sources, strategic partnerships, educational or professional credentials, financial resources, influential relationships. They are generated internally and are under your control. Potential actions include:
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Leverage resources to update the types of clients you work with
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Increase sales or billable hours by a certain percentage.
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Develop a strategy to get more repeat business
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Develop a strategy that persuades clients to hire you for more lucrative projects.
Weaknesses: whatever challenges your brand. Competitors, ineffective marketing, poor customer service, weak perceived value of your products and services. These are internal and under your control. Potential actions include:
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Determine which deficiencies have the most negative impact on revenue
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Identify gaps that can be remedied quickly or economically
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Understand how to minimize liabilities – what business practices can you change, professional credentials you can get, relationships you can cultivate?
Opportunities: conditions that favor the achievement of objectives. These are external and out of your control, however, you may be able to renew yourself and benefit from their presence. Good information about the trading conditions in your market helps business owners assess and visualize the potential for short- and long-term profits and learn how to reap the benefits. Consider the following:
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What new developments can you take advantage of to bring money and prestige to your company?
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Do you see an ROI when offering new products or services?
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Are there good clients that you could successfully sign or expired clients that, with the scope, you might be willing to reactivate?
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Is there a market niche you can successfully enter?
Threats: conditions that may damage your brand, or your ability to acquire customers and generate sufficient billable hours. These are external and out of your control, however you may be able to upgrade and escape or minimize the damage caused by their presence. This item requires your immediate attention as it has the potential to seriously cripple or end your brand and business.
Has an important contact left your organization, leaving you at the mercy of the new decision maker, who has friends of his own to hire? Or has there been a merger that resulted in the degradation of your primary contact’s influence, who may lose the ability to green-light the projects you manage?
Has an aggressive, well-connected competitor appeared on the scene, ready to eat up your market share and customer list through a better-known brand, more influential relationships, a larger marketing budget, or other game-changing competitive advantages? ?
If your customer contact has moved, take that person out for lunch or coffee and try to make the professional relationship portable. If your contact has lost influence on the new org chart, take him out for coffee and learn about the replacement, who can hire him for the next project if he’s scheduled to get started quickly.
If competition has intensified, do your best to provide superior customer service, affirm your expertise, intensify your network, enhance your thought leader credentials, and nurture customer relationships.
It might be necessary to implement a protective action strategy, for example a brand relaunch or a shift to a more hospitable business environment. Stay on top of current and potential developments in the industries you serve. Communicate with clients and stay updated on the status of their priorities and concerns. Good relationships will give you the resources of time and information that will allow you to evaluate and regroup.
Thank you for reading,
Kim
