Comfortable Selling Widgets? Sell a Gidget, too!

Feeling a little like burnt toast right now?

You know the feeling--like all your creative moisture is gone, you're brittle, and somehow vaguely unappetizing.  It's okay, we all feel that way by November.  We've poured lives into marketing and selling our various widgets to the masses for 11 months.  We've endured heartbreak, loss, hope being crushed, and the darker side of all things financial.  We've felt some pretty amazing highs, too.  Somehow, they are harder to remember when you're toast.
So, how do you recover from Burnt Toast Syndrome (B.T.S)?


Step 1: Acknowledge your Burnt Toast-ness
Everyone gets tired, everyone feels like toast once in a while.  Putting yourself out there all the time is a huge risk and that takes a lot of energy--even on the good days.


Step 2:  Create Healthy Boundaries
Good fences make good neighbors and frankly, they make for good marketers, too.  Down time, uninterrupted down time, is essential to combating B.T.S.

Step 3:  Delegate, Systematize, Organize
That's right, you have to figure out how to share the taxing parts of your job with others--whether that's paying your kids to stuff Christmas cards, or getting your assistant to schedule meetings for you.  This delegation will force you to systematize your approach to marketing and keep you reviewing and revising your marketing plan--you'll be amazed how often that helps!  Finally, it will make you organize your time, space, and events logically.

Step 4:  Selling Widgets?  Try Selling a Gidget on the Side!
If you're teetering on the edge of a nervous break down consider diversifying.  Try to selling something completely unrelated to your current set of products.  Selling houses?  Try starting a Christmas Ornament business!

I market Foundation Repair and Waterproofing products--I started selling handmade Feather Earrings!  Talk about unrelated!  The benefit is that I've learned more about marketing principles than I ever imagined.  I've relearned and reintroduced myself to building something from the ground up--I've had to reinvest myself in learning the latest and greatest technology, etc.  It's made me a better, more flexible and well informed marketer and it's given me a place to try out new ideas without hurting my existing business!


If you're interested in learning more about my "spare time" business, you can check out the Best Feather Earrings on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bestfeatherearrings  or at www.bestfeatherearrings.com