The quick & the dead

May 13, 2010 at 9:12 am | Posted in copywriting | Leave a comment
Tags: accounts payable, brand, branding, business writing, copwriter, copywrite, copywriter, copywriting, corporate branding, fortune, GFC, Global Financial Crisis, interesting times, market, morale, newsletter, organisation, prosperity, write, writer, writing

In tough times, small is beautiful.

As a freelance copywriter, I watched clients past and present deal variously with a year of ‘interesting times’:

• One client terminated a chronic poor performer, so he could keep his better staff.
• A second gave accounts payable to his wife – who paid my invoices twice as fast!
• A third saw contract termination as a happy excuse to knock on different doors. He scored a fresh, new role in just two weeks.
• A fourth used his quiet time to commission a blog and reengineer his website for the soon-to-be-obligatory live Web 2.0 feeds.

These were all small to medium firms. The smaller they were, the faster they moved and the more they treated the global financial crisis as an opportunity, rather than a threat.

On the other hand, two larger (former) clients took a more traditional approach:

• One suspended their industry newsletter, just as customers sought leadership and staff needed a morale boost.
• Another retrenched all but a skeleton crew. These unhappy few were given cruel workloads and a 20% pay cut. The pressure was crippling and word of their torment spread far. And wide.

Brands have been damaged; perhaps even smashed. I can’t see either of these companies racing ahead any time soon.

Though my data are obviously insignificant, my observations suggest that in tricky times, small is beautiful.

Leaner, keener, stronger and smarter for their experience, I fully expect my nimble SME clients to lap their competition in the sunnier season ahead.

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