Tag: pipeline work

Two-Speed Shuffle

                                                How do YOU feel today?   Research released last week^ suggests our economy has stalled. Other commentators say it’s running at two speeds. My client portfolio is definitely doing the latter: half have gone from sluggish to flat out like two lizards drinking. How about yours?   Economy Mining’s up. Retail’s down. Employment is mixed and shares are all over the joint. For some reason, many of my clients are leaping like the locusts that hit Melbourne last fortnight. I’m frantically busy with job ads, blog posts, a BIG website, a media release, a book blurb and even [GASP!] a printed magazine advertisement constructed from paper*. I worked all last weekend and the one before. In my pipeline are newsletters, product sheets, LinkedIn profiles and two more websites. Last week I had my first face-to-face prospect meeting for months. I got the gig and went home with a bucket of work. While I’m rapt to be one of the minority businesses enjoying strong growth, I don’t know why I’m succeeding.   Property The top is slow. The bottom’s OK. And interest rate rises seem to be ‘crimping optimism’. I’ve wanted to write honest real estate ads for many years. But my various overtures have come to naught. Last week I was referred to a realtor seeking a writer and photographer. I may be able to do both jobs. So why all this sudden movement at the station?   Media My Twitter friends are talking less about pets, kids, partners and gadgets and more about their latest prospect, article, client, meeting or project. Some are so busy, they’re hardly tweeting at all. I’m not seeing the same optimism in traditional communication channels. Could it be the recovery is manifesting earlier with socially mediated business people? According to the research, companies with a website are doing and feeling better than those without. Could social media be inoculating and supercharging firms who embrace it?   You With such unusual and fragmented signals, I’m naturally keen to make sense of it all and discern the bigger picture. So what’s happening in your neck of the woods? Are you: Ploughing or sowing? Reaping or growing? Catching or throwing? Crying or crowing? Fading or glowing? How are you? I really wanna know. :)   ^ MYOB Business Monitor (download PDF here). * (archaic) a cellulose-based communication product derived from trees.   Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire