Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair, my entrepreneurial friend.
I suppose you’re already sitting down, aren’t you? And if you work at home with no employees—like me—you’re likely sitting there reading this in your pajamas. (Caught you didn’t I?)
Oh, the joys of working boss-free from home! I just love it. Don’t you?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually sit down with each other, share a great cup of coffee (or tea) and chat about the things we both enjoy?
Like the joys and headaches of being self-employed, and swapping ideas about marketing and self-promotion?
That would be nice, but since that’s not possible right at this moment, maybe this virtual visit will be the next best thing.
My name is Marty Marsh and I’ve been happily (and successfully) self-employed as a sole (and “soul”) proprietor for more than a decade now and I’ve worked from home since day one, usually with a dog on my lap. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Oh, I’ve had employees at various times but for the most part, I work alone, hiring extra help as I need it from independent contractors.
Sadly, I’ve watched many folks I know go into business for themselves with a gleam in their eye and a lot of excitement only to watch them shutter their doors some months later simply because they never had enough customers.
And what I’ve discovered is that these otherwise very smart people are actually afraid to market their business. Oh, they want to. But they don’t really know how to get started. They don’t know the difference between marketing and selling and they are afraid they’re going to do something wrong and waste a lot of money.
The truth is, there’s no mystery to successfully marketing any business. It’s just a matter of doing a few simple things on a consistent basis. But if you spend any time at all on the Internet searching for marketing help, you’re likely to be pretty overwhelmed with the vast amount of information that’s available. And this alone stops many would-be, do-it-yourself marketers right in their tracks.
If you’re the do-it-yourself type, like I am, then I can probably help eliminate the overwhelm and help you get into marketing your business pretty quickly. I do that primarily through virtual workshops over the telephone and through e-mail. I believe that learning anything should be fun and so, often, I take a pretty irreverent approach to things.
Truth is, I’m not happy until my clients and students have more clients and customers than they can possibly handle. I’d love it if you had more clients than you could handle, too.
Yep, marketing a small business does take work and some discipline, and my approach is to help you not only get the marketing done, but to help you learn ways to think differently—to think more like a “soul” proprietor—about how you manage your time and how you set goals so that you can create a successful business that allows you to live a full and rich life.
And I’m very big on the practical side of marketing, too, such as having really effective, dynamic, great-looking marketing materials to support all that head and heart work you do. When you look great in print and on the web, you stand a much better chance of being successful in business.
Yes, looks do matter.
So, I’m also here to help you create marketing materials that will not only make you proud, but will make your business have that unmistakable look of real success.
Now, having said all of that, if you can stand it, read on to learn a little bit more about who I am…
My first love in business has always been printing and publishing but my passion is for teaching. When I was in the third grade I loved my teacher and school so much that I knew I wanted to teach. But somewhere along the way I picked up an interest in printing production.
I got the entrepreneurial bug and started my printing and publishing career at the age of 13 when I earned enough money to buy a printing press by selling hotdogs to my dad’s hungry farm workers. Then I taught myself to set metal type by hand, and started doing printing jobs for neighborhood businesses in my rural Florida community.
Prior to getting my printing press, though, I was already producing a “newspaper” with a typewriter using a piece of carbon paper for my two best customers—my mom and my neighbor, Pearl—who, each week shelled out a nickel to get all the latest community news and advertising.
(Back then, I didn’t know folks paid for advertising. I just put ads in my paper for the stores and places that I liked the best. These days we’d call that an endorsement or a testimonial, I guess.)
Printing ink has been flowing through my veins ever since. My love of newspaper production sent me to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York where I earned my Bachelor of Science Degree in Printing Management and Technology. Upon graduation I had the good fortune to work for the Gannett Company where I spent the next several years helping to launch various USA Today print production facilities, sometimes from the ground up.
My second love is type and designing with type. The introduction of the Macintosh computer opened a whole new world of publishing for me and more than a few years ago I went into business full time creating newspapers and newsletters and magazines for a select group of clients and I’ve been doing their layout and design work ever since.
Along the way I found myself helping my clients design and write ads and marketing materials that got results for them. And little by little I started teaching them ways to more effectively market their businesses and increase their sales. Then I started teaching newsletter design and production and marketing at a local community college.
Nothing is more gratifying than when one of my students sends me their first newsletter or their first brochure.
I love seeing people succeed doing what they love. Since work takes up such a large part of our lives, I figure we better be doing something we love. I enjoy teaching marketing and I love helping my students succeed. Of course, I teach the things that I myself most need to be working on myself, so it is a win-win situation all the way around.
My home is now where I park it. The summer of 2006 I made the leap into full-time RV living. Now, I travel around the country, taking in the sights and sounds of new places, meeting great people along the way, teaching a few live workshops here and there and continue to help my clients find joy and success in their chosen spirit-centered businesses.
Most of the time I work with a dog in my lap—my beloved Bichon Frise, Barkley. A while ago, we lost his brother, another Bichon named Toby who brought great joy to my life while he was a part of it for 11 wonderful years. You see, I never had kids, so my dogs have always been very important to me. You can see a picture of my “boys” here. That’s Toby on the right, Barkley on the left.
And, I love to cook. Sometimes I don’t think I’m very good at it but I still love to try new things. Living on the road pretty much requires that I keep it simple. There isn’t enough room to have much in the way of cookware and tools, so I have the basics and make do. One of these days I’ll share some of my favorite recipes with you. In the meantime, if you’ve got some favorite recipes, send them to me so I can try them. I’m always looking for something new.
I’d love to learn more about you, your life, and your business. Contact me by e-mail and let’s get to know one another. Send me your regular, good old snail mail address and I’ll send you a package of goodies including a “cup of coffee” that we can share.
And let me know where you are. I may be coming your way in the near future, and I’d like nothing more to share a cup of coffee with you and meet you face-to-face.
Wishing you all the best for your success,
