Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/nyregion/22bigcity.html

There’s only so much we can do with regards to working hard and smart.  Sometimes it’s just about the timing, and even the best and smartest effort will take time to produce the desired results.

So, what’s an entrepreneur/business owner to do when there is a drought in sales?

1)  Be patient, and stay optimistic, and do not ever give up.  If anyone is serious about succeeding as an entrepreneur, it is vital to cultivate the ability to self-motivate, to persevere and keep swimming against the tide of challenges till they subside.  Surround yourself with positive and supportive people, and pray.

2)  Be practical – if there are pressing financial needs, one may need to eat the humble pie and shed that ‘I’m the boss’  attitude, and look for alternative ways to generate that much-needed income while waiting for the drought to end and the rain and harvest to come.

3)  Stay productive and keep up with the effort, especially marketing.  Keep spreading the word about your business to your target markets, keep up the positioning activities e.g. writing health articles if you run a fitness training company, giving talks, working on your book, networking with potential associates or clients.

4)  Stay healthy, and continue to take good care of your appearance as well.  Just because there is a drop in the number of client meetings does not mean you should let yourself go.  And the need to rein in your spending in view of the lean times is no excuse not to look like a million dollars.  The adages “look good and feel good” and “dress for success” is especially true in business where a projection of self-confidence and self-respect play a significant part in your perceived credibility.  After all, it doesn’t take a million dollars to look like a million dollars – that is, with a little effort, creativity and resourcefulness.

5)  Keep up with the learning process.  You want to be ready at all times when opportunity, or your big break comes.  Therefore, a copywriter should never stop reading and sharpening his/her writing skills.  If you’re a copywriter and lately you seem to quote more than you close, simply take the time to review your writing skills, catch up with latest trends and events or devour more issues of The Economist, Bloomberg and New York Times in anticipation of the next big project with that mega multinational.

Because if you persevere enough, it will come.  Eventually.

So, at the risk of sounding cliched..”Tough times never last, but tough people do!”

Salt n Light Resume, a resume writing and career solution services company owned by Salt n Light Communications,  is under construction.

When hiring a copywriter, you should look out for one who:

• understands sales and marketing;
• ideally, is also a business owner;
• loves writing and has a top-notch command of the language;
• is a good listener and has the ability to put themselves in other peoples’ shoes – a self-centred copywriter can never really understand your target markets!

- The Copywriter’s Take on Great Food

- The Copywriter’s Take on Nice People

- The Copywriter’s Take on Fantastic Places

-The Copywriter’s Take on Great Copy and Great Writing

Do keep coming back!  I would probably start with one or two first.

That should be an indication that copywriting is a pretty common and familiar profession; therefore becoming a copywriter should be a viable career aspiration.

But over the past two days alone I have met three people who did not know what copywriting was and what a copywriter did – and judging from the fact that these three consisted of a Malaysian and two Americans, this lack of awareness of copywriting, despite the millions of advertisements surrounding us, seems to be a rather global phenomenon. 

I’ve also heard some business owners lamenting that while it is easy to get graphic designers for their brochures, good writers are hard to come by.  Hhmm.. if they are truly representative of the majority of business owners, then this means that copywriting is still a pretty much untapped niche.  That despite the ever increasing number of copywriters – full-time, part-time, freelance, online, offline or whatever – the copywriting pie is still big enough to go around.  Good news, indeed.  Or at least this is how I choose to see it  

As for the problem with having to explain what ‘copywriting’ means, what a copywriter does, and the trouble of differentiating these two terms from ‘copyright’,  I think I will just resort to telling people I’m a writer who writes for advertisements and publicity materials.  That should settle it!

When people feel that we are on their side, they become more open to what we have to say and offer. This makes perfect sense and has been expounded to death at personal development, motivational, networking, counselling workshops, you name it!

But how do we apply this to copywriting? How can a copywriter make a reader feel that the brand/product/company care about him/her through something as lifeless and impersonal as a piece of printed text?

Compare these two headlines for a brochure selling a women’s skincare product:

Headline A: How did you feel when you looked into the mirror this morning?/Had any facials lately?
Headline B: Discover the latest breakthrough formula in wrinkle prevention

Forget, for a moment, that you are the copywriter and put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Which headline will prompt you to read on and find out what that copy has to say?

2. Show ‘em, don’t tell ‘em.

Many copywriting experts have harped on the importance of writing about the benefits of a product, rather than its features. For example, instead of “This laptop has the latest generation processor running at XX GHz”, write “Download your favourite songs while watching movies online without the frustration of having to stare at characters that freeze every 3 seconds.”

Can we take this one step further and SHOW the reader the benefits instead of TELLING him/her about them?

An exceptional copywriter would probably conjure up a scene where two hip-looking youngsters hanging out at a popular coffee joint are talking excitedly about the trailer of an upcoming, much-hyped over movie. They find the download link to the trailer at the WiFi-equipped café, but while Teenager A screams gleefully at the sight of the hunky lead actor appearing on her screen, Teenager B frowns in irritation as she stares at her laptop with furrowed brows, occasionally stealing envious glances at her friend’s delight.

Easier to achieve this on an audio visual medium, you say? Well, great copywriting is just that – using words to paint pictures and engage emotions. When a reader encounters a great copy, words translate into a mental audio visual and give him/her a mental multimedia experience that tugs at her heart strings.

And when a message leads the reader to arrive at the intended conclusion on his/her own, it becomes all the more powerful.

3. Write to express, not to impress.

Quality copywriting is not about stringing bombastic words into ‘intellectual’ sounding sentences. A market-savvy copywriter understands that a persuasive copy is one that reaches out to the reader on a personal level, that above all, it cares about getting the message across to the reader in a way that he/she can identify with.

True copywriters put themselves into the target audience’s shoes, and get the message across from the latter’s perspective. And when the readers feel that they are connecting with you, they are more likely to read to the end, and be compelled to take action. That’s what great copywriting is about – one that compels the reader to take the desired action.

Career – you love what you do, you are good at it, and you have probably been at it way longer than the time you spent in your mother’s womb.
But you have to work at keeping it, you need to please your bosses and customers, and for many of us our careers dictate our lives and the major decisions that we make.

CHRIST promises:

Freedom – free to be all you can be according to His blueprint for your life, free because you seek to please only Him, free because no matter where you go you know it is Jesus you are following therefore ultimately you can never go wrong.

#2 Condominium or CONFIDENCE?

Condominium – nice, classy unit in a nice, classy skyscraper you make your abode.
But you part with a huge chunk of your earnings per month to pay for it (unless you own the developing company or the banks that finance these guys) and there is still no guarantee that your condo would be there forever! (Remember Highland Towers, anyone? And have you bought a leasehold or freehold property?)

CONFIDENCE in Christ promises:

Certainty – knowing that there are things that belong to you that will not pass away. Like the dwelling that He has gone to prepare for you in heaven, and the eternal investment bank where your treasures will neither depreciate nor perish.

#3 Cash or CONTENTMENT?

Cash – who would say ‘no’ to this one? It lets you buy that Tag Heuer timepiece without interest-laden monthly installments, it can give you a comfortable retirement. Or at least, if you do not like your nose, with some cash you can still get that fixed (hopefully).

But what if the bank suddenly gets into trouble? Or no thanks to inflation, by the time you’re sixty the money you have is still not quite enough to take you to your dream destinations because AirAsia does not fly there. And your Tag gets stolen and your new nose melts like Michael Jackson’s.

CONTENTMENT with godliness promises:

Joy – the capacity to enjoy everything life has to offer regardless of circumstances, and how your nose looks. When you lack, you thank God because you know it helps you to appreciate abundance when it comes (and you know it will come because of the God in whom you trust). You are happy visiting relatives in Ulu Selangor although you really wanted to travel to the United States – because you know that ultimately, what matters most is not where you spend your vacations, but where you spend eternity.

#4 A flashy car or COMPASSION?

Car – guys, if you pull up the driveway of your date’s home in a gleaming Jaguar, I can almost guarantee that her heart will skip a beat (but I cannot guarantee that she will fall in love with you) and her dad would probably look up from his newspaper to peer at you from behind his glasses.

A nice car takes you from Point A to Point B very comfortably and stylishly, and the sound system is so good that you forget you’re sharing the road with noisy Mat Rempits. But it also contributes to mountain-high debts (for most people, at least), traffic jams and pollution.

COMPASSION – it has the power to take you into people’s lives where you really make a difference.

It took a little Macedonian lady to the dirty streets of Calcutta (now Kolkata). It took a princess from the gilded confines of Kensington Palace into the company of landmine victims in war-torn countries. It has taken countless missionaries from privileged countries to reach out to the poor and needy in the Third World.

And ultimately, it took Jesus, the Son of God to Calvary to die for our sins.

#5 Credit Card or CHARACTER?

Credit card – something which, I am sure, most of us flash more often than our National Registration Identification Card (I mean the IC). It’s nice to have – just one swipe and you have that Prada bag hanging on your arm. Hey, let’s worry about the bill later because that’s exactly when it’s coming – later.

And the best thing is, you can pay the bill even later than later, that is, if you do not mind paying the interest as well. If the amount you end up owing becomes a little bit too high, just refinance. You might even get a ‘free gift’ from the nice bank.

Life is great – till you have collected seven free mugs from refinancing, and are still closer to bankruptcy than becoming debt-free!

CHARACTER promises:

Strength – the strength to choose wisdom over compulsion so that you do not do something with long-term consequences which you will regret. It develops self-confidence because you know that you can trust yourself not to get into trouble in the face of temptations. And you do not give up in the face of discouragement.

And ultimately, it leads you to true success because a person with character will choose to walk in the Spirit even when it is much easier and more pleasurable to choose the works of the flesh.

So, which set of Five C’s do you think you want? Jesus says that if we choose the Godly C’s we will come to have the rest of the C’s as well.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (NKJV, Thomas Nelson).

A super-duper offer – that’s simply too good to resist.

Do what you love, and you’ll never have to work for another day.

Do what you love, and the money will eventually come.

A mistake does not amount to failure as long as we learn from it.

Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

The pie is always big enough to go around.

The more we give, the more we receive.

The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat.

If you know where you are going, you will never have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning.

When everything else fails, faith, passion and character will prevail.

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will grant you the desires of your heart Psalm 37:4

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom Proverbs 1:7

I can do all things through Christ who strenghens me Philippians 4:13