Every day, the news is full of bleak reports of economic downturns. The bad stories and negative images is enough to make a person give up hope (that's why they called it the Great DEPPRESSION). With the trials that the building trades have experienced, I confess that I’ve even given thought to taking work as a tech writer again and putting stained glass on part-time.
But, successful people advise that when times are tough, there is greater opportunity. It's a time when the weak players are shaken out and the way is clear for innovative companies to succeed and forge new paths.
Salmon swim upstream, we can too! So, even though we're late, we went ahead and mailed off our application (and fees) so we can be an official part of the Parade Of Homes this year. We've been in homes three of the last four years, but we've never felt prepared to make the $450 commitment to actually join the homebuilders association. But, since we want to be Salmon and not guppies, we went ahead and joined.
We're also working on mailings to send out to potential clients. I've bought some lists so I better start sending something out!
Now these two little baby steps may sound small, but the only real money we've ever spent on advertising has been on yellow page ads and an on-line web program that didn't really do us any good. So these activities could far out-stretch our previous efforts.
Last year we made less money than the year before, but we were working on a donated project which took a lot of our earnings time away. I think if we buckle down and really market ourselves, we'll either get results or find new ways to get results.
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