30-Day Branding Challenge Profile: Nader Khouri

Nader Khouri has been in the position of many of my readers: Former newspaper staffer, passionate about his work, took a buyout and is now trying to make his way as a freelancer in this economy.

Khouri, a photographer, has morphed his impressive photojournalism credentials into corporate and other photography work, and he has a brand to prove it. Here's how he did it. Oh, and do yourself a favor and check out his heart-rending photos at his Web site. I especially recommend looking through the "Picture Stories" tab. There you can find some of the photos he refers to below.

Tell me about your career trajectory. You used to be a newspaper photographer. When did you leave that job?

I worked for 10 years as a newspaper photojournalist at the Contra Costa Times. I left the Times in early 2008 and my departure was part of a buyout. Much of the shakeup at the company originally started when the shareholders of Knight Ridder (who used to own the Contra Costa Times) decided in 2006 that the newspaper business wasn't profitable enough. Knight Ridder, the second largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. with 32 dailies, sold all of its papers, and it was downhill from there. Right now I am running my own business as a commercial photographer. I couldn't be happier now that I am working for myself. My success is much more in my own hands, whether the economy is good or bad.

Before you went freelance, what did you think of when you thought of branding? Is it a new concept for you?

I knew branding only from the point of view of a consumer. I had no idea about how branding could be developed for my business. I now see it as a process of identifying what I love to do and then researching the market(s) to see how it connects with making a living. It's a combination of my passion and the market's needs.

How long have you been working on creating your new personal brand?

Since leaving the paper in early 2008. I took a semester-long class in marketing through Berkeley City College that helped me narrow down my focus and set goals for myself. It was geared toward helping each student prepare a strategic marketing plan, which included a mission statement, core values, goals and objectives and strategic infrastructure.

Tell us what your brand is.

My brand is photography that helps support a healthy planet and economy. It consists of subject matter that has anything to do with supplying healthy food, sustainable energy and business. My brand also includes my style of shooting where I put value on composition different from your average straight shooter. Many clients value a developed sense of seeing.

How did you come up with your brand? Was it difficult?

No, not at all. It was easy to come up with because it was a fusion of the causes I care the most about: food, energy, and business. Some people have argued that it isn't focused enough, but I am happy with it. I don't think that marketing oneself solely based on subject matter (i.e. shooting food, fashion, autos, etc.) is totally necessary. Having more than one thing to focus on is okay.

I have three life experiences that have helped fuel my motivations for photographing food and helping preserve the right to eat healthy food. First is the connection that started after I photographed Palestinian olive farmers. They still use the same farming methods passed down from generation to generation. It is there where I became most connected to the land and where I also began to worry about how that way of life is becoming endangered. Also fueling the food passion was my experiences photographing all of the farm communities here in the California delta. I spent a lot of time photographing in the fields of both small and large farms where I gained a lot of respect for immigrant laborers and learned about the different issues farmers face. Lastly, my food passion comes simply from the love of eating healthy food. I have seen how a healthy diet really can make a difference in my own life.

The energy part comes from seeing the conflicts in the Middle East that have such a direct effect on our lives here in the U.S. I would love it if the U.S. did not have to exploit other countries for their natural resources. That is why through my photography I support causes that would allow the U.S. to be dependent on its own resources for energy while also cutting down on the burning of fossil fuels.

The business component of my brand comes out of my desire to help businesses get through this difficult economic climate. Websites these days are a necessity for any business and I have seen too many businesses with websites that are either unprofessional looking or severely outdated. I think good design and photography are crucial for any business whether new or established so I work with branding firms to help businesses develop a look that fits their character.

What steps would you recommend other creative freelancers take to create a brand?

Start calling yourselves entrepreneurs and start thinking more about the big picture. Then, start networking like your life depends upon it. You've got to make solid connections with people in other professions and start saying the words "collaborate" and "partner." Hang your goals on the wall and start to convince yourself that they will happen. Keep them in your site as much as possible. The more you see them, the more you become them.

Photo courtesy of Nader Khouri.

Serenity Tool: Challenge Yourself, Part 2

One of my favorite and primary roles when I work with coaching clients is to help them refine, target and send queries. I love playing the role of cheerleader and editor. And when I need someone to play that role for me, I turn to my fellow freelancers. This week, I'll talk a little about working with others to make your querying goals come to life.

Monday, I shared a query challenge approach that requires lots of other freelancers to make it work. But what if you've only got yourself and a few others? Let me tell you about another challenge.

The Query-a-Day Approach

In the freelance writers group I belong to, I might be the most maniacal querier of the bunch, but I'm not immune to the need for support. When I found my querying slipping a few months ago, I emailed my freelancers group and asked if I could join them. They'd been doing a query-a-day challenge for a month already.

Here's how it's set up:

• Gather at least four freelancers, available via email.
• Pair yourselves off.
• Promise to report in daily on your progress.
• At the end of the week, one of you tallies the score and sends it off to a group email, in this case a Yahoo! Group.

It's pretty simple. Every day, my query buddy and I emailed one another our progress. It was just a moment to check in. Sure, you could say it kept us accountable. But I prefer to think that it gave us an opportunity to check in with ourselves on our intentions, our resistance, and our successes. We cheered each other on, we kept each other honest, and we got to know each other better.

The Rub

Now, there were no points required in this challenge--no tallying three points for this, one for that, etc. Our goal was simply to send one query every work day--defined as Monday through Friday for the workaholics among us. But what was motivating us? Wouldn't it be easy to fall off. There were no stakes, after all.Well, after I joined, I discovered that there were stakes: One of the writers had promised, if she failed to send the number of queries she intended, to donate money to the political campaign of someone she hates. Now that's motivation.

A Little Story

It was during this challenge that I resurrected a query I've been sending for two and a half years. It's a great story. I love it. But it's very specific, very niche and I'm determined that it deserves a wide audience. So I got an email from a fellow freelancer alerting me to change in leadership at a publication, and I sent the query off again.

I'm now in talks with the editor about possibly writing the piece for him.

It's not to say I wouldn't have sent the query to the editor anyway. But the support always helps. It's always welcome and it's always encouraging when you have an agreement with someone that they will cheer you on if you email them. That can never be a bad thing.

Friday, one more post on query support.

Photo by Heart of Oak.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Help with the Hardest Tasks

Yesterday, I wrote about Peter Ubel's unique prescription for overcoming lackluster persistence: "Marial Law." For those of you to whom such an approach is off-putting, consider that Ubel offers softer ways to enforce the structures we created yesterday.

Here's one:

Help!

I've been waffling on contacting new markets lately, as I've written before. Instead of trying harder and harder to force myself to want to do it, I simply asked for help. Some fellow freelancers are running their own query-a-day challenge and I asked if I could join them. Someone else had to drop out, I dropped in, and now I get daily emails from another reporter reporting how well she's doing.

This approach targets something else Ubel talks about in another part of the interview. Speaking of the irrationality of he real estate or fiscal markets, he said:

"We are social beings, too, and frequently judge our own decisions by seeing what other people are doing. If my neighbor added a new kitchen with a home equity loan, I might assume that is a good idea for me, even if a more rational weightong of my finances would suggest otherwise."

He's detailing a negative use of our social instinct, but setting up a "query buddy," "declutter buddy" or some other action partner is a way to harness that instinct for good.

Action: Take a look around your social network (and maybe developing a social network is a persistence project you have to work on in itself).

• Is there anyone in it who is struggling with the same thing you are?
• Is there someone who wants to tackle it the same way you do?
• Is there someone who's temperment meshes well with you and with whom you welcome closer contact?

You can answer these questions simply by talking to friends, sending a few emails or even posting to freelance boards about your quandry. Even if you don't find a goal buddy, you're likely to find people willing to commiserate.

I've written before about the power of support and finding the right support person. Those rules apply here, as well.

Photo by D3 San Francisco.

Don't Forget! Vote for the next 30-day challenge

Have you been in a querying rut? Is your idea of networking NOT avoiding the phone when a friend calls? Do you just resent having to work for free in order to get paying work?

Which is bugging you most? Choose the next 30-day challenge, which will start next Friday:

30-Day Marketing Challenge, Part 2: In this economic climate, one of the few things you can control is how much you market. So it might be worthwhile to take another crack at this.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: When the money's not rolling in, how do you convince yourself to keep marketing, keep doing the daily drudgery you'd rather avoid? This challenge will highlight ways other freelancers build the marketing and other daily tasks into their lives, and ways you can do it, too.

30-Day Networking Challenge: Now more than ever, it's who you know that helps keep your business growing. But if you're shy, busy or otherwise have a hard time prioritizing getting out and meeting others, how do you do it? This challenge will share how.

Leave a vote in comments.

Bonus Marketing Post: Words of wisdom from a freelance veteran

If you haven't seen it yet, pop over to The Golden Pencil for Jenny Cromie's interview with prolific and veteran freelance writer Robert McGarvey. Not only is McGarvey the author of several books, including Start Your Own E-Business, he's weathered several economic downturns in his 30 years freelancing. (And he has a great list of freelance tips for newcomers on his Web page. Scroll down to find them.)

His suggestions in the interview are interesting. He says he's "digging in for the long struggle." Pointedly, this one:

I am not sending out 100 LOIs because 10 got no result. I am not sending out 1,000 queries because 100 got no result. Doing more, harder, of what isn’t working is not a prescription for success.

This goes a bit against my suggestion on Sunday to send queries to dream markets even if you don't know if it'll work. But he follows up explaining how such queries may yet work:

Editors I know tell me they are overwhelmed with unsolicited queries (which is why more magazines are asking not to get any at all). My advice is: if you must query, “warm” it up. Use LinkedIn and writers groups to find degrees of separation and query saying, Joe Schmo thought you’d like to see my query on XYZ. Warming up an initial contact works in writing, just as it works in all selling. Doing more of what is not working, however, is just plain unintelligent.

The only thing I'll add is be sure to get permission from Joe Schmo before using his name with an editor. Writers don't like their names thrown around without their knowledge, especially if it's by someone they don't know well, or a new freelancer.

What this reminds me is that all business is basically networking. The stronger your network, the more likely you'll be able to ask an editor to refer you to another client, and will give you permission to use his or her name.

Which editor are you going to talk to today about other editors who need a can-do writer in this economy?

30-Day Marketing Challenge: Wrap Up

It's that time, you guys. This challenge has been great for my business, and my serenity. I hope it has been for you, too. Tomorrow I'll ask you to choose the next 30-day challenge, so start thinking.

In the meantime, here's what we accomplished and covered this month:

Terms of Engagement: A new challenge, a new approach

What Yogic Philosophy Tells Us About Marketing: Approaching marketing with an eye on nongrasping and serenity

Should You Care About Money? New freelancers often feel they should work for passion, not money. Here's earning money can help your craft

Establishing a Marketing Bottom Line: How often do you query? Have a plan

Contract Bottom Lines: What types of terms are you willing to agree to. Know before you sign

Little and often: A way to fit querying into a busy schedule

The Perils of Self-Promotion, Part 1: Why it's not rude to promote yourself

The Perils of Self-Promotion, Part 2: Guest blogger Kristen Fischer tackles the question of promotion vs. being discovered

Creating a Marketing Plan that Works: A teleseminar on marketing plans

Fear of the Query Interview: Debunking the top three fears of interviewing sources for queries

Streamlining the Query Interview: Three ways to make query interviews efficient, effective and respectful of all involved

Surviving Editor Silence: Five ways to cope with editor silence

Query Rejections and the Economy: Rejection always suck, but right now they can be scarier. Here's how to recover and keep marketing

Saturday Bonus Bloglink Edition: Tips for great queries; working for free; rejiggering your marketing when you get unsatisfactory results; take a vow of marketing stability

The Power of Persistence: Guest blogger Damon Brown shares how he kept querying for four years to break into his target market

Juggling Marketing and Motherhood: Guest blogger Sara Aase shares how she fits marketing into half-time business and full-time motherhood

Fear Not the Cold Pitch: Guest blogger Jeanine Barone explains why she loves querying

Crafting Bull's Eye Queries: Guest blogger Bridget Mintz Testa explains the process of drafting queries that get a 40 percent success rate

Jumping into Social Media Marketing: Q&A with Jenny Cromie on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook

Saturday Bloglink Edition, Now with Extra Twittering: Follow me on Twitter; some rules for tweeting; rating your Web site for effective marketing; tackling procrastination; treating marketing like throwing a ball

Write Once, Sell Twice (or More): Guest blogger Kelly James-Enger shares the fundamentals of reprints

Organizing Story Ideas: Four ways to keep story ideas organized and off your desk

Get Yourself Connected: Building a strong network

Web Site Essentials: Q&A with web designer Tracey Kazimir-Cree on what writers should include and avoid in creating their Web sites

Breaking into Corporate Writing: Fundamentals of landing corporate clients, with Susan Weiner

What's Stopping You? If the economy is warping your querying toward sure bets, read this.

Photo by sarahgoldsmith.

30-Day Marketing Challenge: Breaking into Corporate Writing

There are lots of places to market your work: Glossy newstand magazines and newspapers are the most obvious, but there are also custom publications, newsletters, advertorial and corporate writing.

Wait, corporate what? What the heck is corporate writing and how do you break in? To tell you the truth, my corporate writing experience is limited to three or four stories. But this year, part of my business plan is to diversify my client list with more corporate writing.

Luckily Susan Weiner does know about corporate writing. Weiner, CFA, helps financial professionals increase the impact of their writing on clients and prospects. She writes and edits articles, white papers, and other communications for leading investment and wealth management firms. Susan blogs at Investment Writing.

Here's what I learned from her fabulous "Prospecting for Corporate Clients" article:

Step One: Get talking

If you're brand new to corporate writing, try a variation on what I did. Set up informational interviews about corporate writing with people who hire writers. When managers know you're not going to sell to them, they're more willing to meet with you. You'll learn the language of corporate writing and you'll make connections that may eventually turn into work. For example, I didn't know what a white paper was when I started networking... Now they're my favorite kind of project.

Step Two: The other n word
"Tell everyone you know that you're looking for corporate work," advises Weiner.

That is, network. Talk to fellow freelancers about what you'd like to do, refer work to them, and you'll likely see referrals in return. Attend professional association mixers, alumni get-togethers, find people on Facebook or LinkedIn. Tell them the area in which you specialize. And have your elevator pitch ready. Says Weiner: "I tell people, 'I help busy financial professionals who have interesting things to say, but lack the time or skill to write them persuasively.'" Simple.

Another part of networking, writes Weiner, is to develop your relationship before you ask for work. Weiner lists several means to this end:

• E-newsletters. "If prospects like your unedtied newsletter writing, they'll probably be hapy clients," she writes. Constant Contact is one of the many e-newsletter software programs designed to make sending one of these easy. Have others? List them in the comments.
• Volunteering. Sign up to write for an association's newsletter, or volunteer on their board. This is probably easier if, like Weiner, you're credentialed in the field in which you'd like to write. But it can still be done.
• Speaking. Becoming a public speaker on your coverage area will burnish your reputation as an expert, says Weiner.

Step Three: Carefully target your mailings
Careful crafting and targeting applies as much to corporate marketing as to consumer magazines. Follow HR changes in your target companies and send them letters of introduction. Says Weiner:

Corporate directories, industry association directories or even the Fortune 500 list also offer targets. Identify companies in your specialty or in your region, if you prefer to work locally. Then call for the names and relevant managers.

Step Four: Get slick.
You can get creative with glossy postcards touting how you can help your prospect, or send a special report with information useful to your prospect, she advises.

Whatever tack you take, be sure your letter focuses not on you but on how you can serve your client. Prospects don't care about you and your credentials. They want to know "what's in it for me?" So identify an area where they feel pain, then tell them how yu can relieve that pain. For instance, [Steve] Slaunwhite knows an inestor relations writer who began his pitch letters with "Is your Annual Report an annual headache?"

Any other ways you've broken into corporate writing?

30-Day Marketing Challenge: Get Yourself Connected

How's your networking?

That's the question posed by UpMo, a marketing coaching program that helps you set and track marketing goals, including marketing. They have a great free networking self-test to get you thinking about all the forms of marketing and how involved you are in your network. (If you must procrastinate, this is a great way to do it.)

A few tips I learned from taking the test myself:

Don't just meet people. Help them.
There's a difference between knowing a lot of people and having colleagues who respect your work so much they'll recommend you to editors. A great way to gain their respect--ethically--is to be of service to them. Send along stories that may interest them, mention markets and editors that might be right for their idea and generally offer to help.

This is common courtesy and something I notice many freelancers do intuitively. But this remains a good opportunity. Are you doing all you can to help your fellow freelancer?

Staying abreast of the industry counts as networking.
To stay nimble in today's scary market, you've got to be able to bob and weave around ailing markets and towards ones that are thriving. To do this, read up on changes in your coverage area. How's health doing? What about business? Or shelter pubs? And how do you get most of this info? Chances are, you'll find it by sharing experiences with other writers.

Join writers groups, participate in email boards and as your favorite writers to lunch or coffee.

Diversify, diversify, diversify.
Just as you should strive to have lots of different clients in order to weather market changes more easily, you should have lots of different types of people in your network:

• People who are at the same level as yourself for commiseration;
• People who are where you want to be in 5, 10, or 15 years;
• Editors;
• Publishers, etc.

The list goes on. The point is to stretch outside your comfort zone. Take a look at the industry folks you talk to regularly. If none of them intimidate you, you've got some work to do on your network.

The bottom line

Just like with any marketing effort, you should have a plan.

How many times a month will you strive to meet with editors? How many times a month do you meet with other writers? How often do you talk to former colleagues or editors for whom you haven't yet worked?

Strive to do some networking every month.

As I've written before, I rely heavily on my freelance network. I started a freelancers' group on LinkedIn. I belong to two writing groups. I have an action buddy to encourage me to take scary steps in my business.

Stumped on how to find fellow freelancers? Our friend Jenny Cromie has a great post on The Golden Pencil laying out just that.

When I looked at where my income came from last year, I found that nearly all of my new clients came from referrals from those in my networks. It's a great feeling to be attached to so many people, especially when you work most of the day in solitude. And for those connections to be profitable is even more wonderful.

How do you network? Where do you want to expand your network?

30-Day Marketing Challenge: Juggling Marketing and Motherhood

This week, I've invited fellow writers to share their marketing tips and tricks, either as guest bloggers or by answering a few of my questions. Today's guest blogger is Sara Aase, a freelance writer who blogs about personal finance at Cash on the Barrelhead.

As a freelance writing mom, she knows more than a little about squeezing as much quality time out of her work hours as possible. If you're in a similar situation, I hope this will help you feel a little less alone. If you don't have kids, read on--there's plenty we can all learn from her shrewd approach to marketing.

"How many hours are you working a week?" is the first question that freelance writing moms ask each other. (Dads, I don't mean to exclude you--but if you exist, I haven't met you.) Freelancing as a business is properly a full-time-plus endeavor. You need eight to ten hours a day to market, do research, schedule interviews, write, blog, maintain your social networking sites, answer email, invoice, follow-up, etc.

Marketing, in particular, is often the first activity to fall off after you have kids. If, like me, your business has taken big body blows after each birth, you know what I'm talking about. It's hard to advertise your services if you can't count on a reliable way to be reliable. I don't know where you are in that precarious work-kid balance right now--and I'm not going to tell you it's easy to do this with limited hours, because it absolutely is not. But here's what I've learned, and I hope it helps:

The Personal Connection is Fastest

There's so much emphasis on querying for freelance writers that it's easy to forget to tap who you already know. The fastest and best way to get your name back out there and drum up work for yourself is to reconnect with old clients, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances. These people already know you or know of you. Tell them what you've written before, what you're writing now, and what you want to write.

You can do this:

• in big email blasts;
  
• through Facebook;
  
• through LinkedIn;
  
• on Twitter;
  
• by phone; or
  
• in person, as your schedule allows.
  

Take a half hour and write down the name of everyone you can think of, and then put them on your to-do list as you have time. Have coffee, lunch, or a drink with someone. A former colleague of mine (and freelancer mom) hit me out of the blue on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, wanting to take me out for lunch. It was fantastic. We both got a ton of different names and marketing ideas from each other. And I can't emphasize how important it is to get out of the house and feel professional again.

It's Okay to Say No to Some Goals, For Now

One of the hardest things to accept as a part-time freelancer is that I can't do everything or be everywhere all at once. I've had "join ASJA" on my list of professional goals for at least three years. But I'm going to defer that goal yet again for at least another year, and possibly even until 2012 when both kids are in school full-time. (I just shuddered as I typed "2012.")

Hopefully it won't have to wait that long. But this year, I can't afford the cost of joining, plus the cost of attending the conference in New York, which I'd like to do as a new member to take advantage of the extra bump for personal pitch. Plus, it's all I can do right now to keep up on the market guides and connections I have elsewhere. I felt so relieved that I know it's the right decision.

Outsource Tasks

I've realized, working only about four hours a day, that it's most critical for me to market or write during that time. In order to boost the number of queries I can get out the door each week, I've hired a part-time assistant (a journalism-school graduate) to help me do research.

I also have her write up notes for me on webcasts (on using Twitter and LinkedIn effectively, for example) or other tasks I don't have time for. This is brand new for me, and only possible now because I'm working a steady 20 hours a week. If you ask yourself, "Who could I get to help me?" maybe you can think of other resources.

For example, maybe your sitter could scan clips for you if she has some downtime. Maybe you can hire your own (now older) son or daughter, or the neighbor kid. Maybe you've got a husband who is a crack transcriber.

And if you're falling apart reading this because it all just seems impossible, that's okay, too. Let yourself feel it, then pull yourself back together. Take a look back at what you've accomplished while you thought you were getting nowhere, because I bet it's a lot more than you think. Remember, the world needs your skills and your expertise, so give it to them, even if, for now, it's only a bit at a time.

Have other tips for maximizing marketing if you're short on time? Share them in the comments.

30-Day Biz Planning Challenge: Reaching Goals with Support

There are as many ways to do business plans as there are creative professionals. But you wouldn't know that looking at the business planning section of your local library. So in this challenge, I've enlisted some friends and colleagues to describe the way they found their business plans and what works for them. I'm hoping one of them will inspire you.

Today's post comes from healthcare freelancer Karen Childress , who had a former life as a creative coach. She finds success reaching her business plan's goals with formal and informal planning groups. If doing it alone is daunting, consider her approach, described in the Q&A that follows.

You said in our private email conversation that you've been a "goals gal" forever. What do you mean?
In the mid-1980s I started listening to Brian Tracy and other motivational experts on audio tape and became inspired to “be successful.” Over the years I’ve belonged to several goal-setting, business-success, and accountability groups and have found the process to be very helpful.

Some of these were informal groups of friends or co-workers and others were formal, facilitated groups that I paid to join. Around 2000 I became a certified coach and had the pleasure of helping clients identify, clarify, and work toward achieving their goals. Then at the height of the dot-com frenzy I founded a small Internet company that was, in part, a membership-based online goal-setting and tracking system. Unfortunately, that business didn’t take off and I eventually shut the site down. It was an expensive but valuable lesson.

So, basically, I’ve believed in goal setting for years. Some people shy away from this sort of planning as being too structured, but I find it to be useful, especially at the start of a new year.

Why a goal group instead of managing and monitoring your goals on your own?
I think it’s the accountability piece that makes it work for me. I can set goals and make action lists all day long and then blow off doing what I say is important if I get busy, distracted, or just feel uninspired or lazy. But if I’ve shown someone else my list and made a commitment to accomplish certain tasks toward achieving my goals then I’m much more likely to follow through. It’s nice to report successes to other members of a group and get support and feedback when I’m stuck on something or need to hear an objective point of view.

Do you have an individual business plan or does the goal group function as a business planning group?
Typically at the beginning of each year I write down a list of personal and professional goals. That, in addition to a simple marketing plan is really the extent of my business plan. But my business is very simple. It’s just me and a fairly steady group of clients that I write for. But each year I know a few clients will drop off for one reason or another, so I’m always in marketing mode to some degree in an effort to keep new business coming in.

You mentioned that you make annual, monthly and weekly goals. How do you choose those?
I strive for balance. I have business and financial goals, but also have categories related to taking care of myself, projects I want to accomplish around my home and property, and things I want to learn in the coming year. For example, in 2009 I plan to earn a little more than I did this year while maintaining life balance, and also learn to use PhotoShop and InDesign so that I can support a couple of my clients who need simple marketing pieces in addition to what I write for them.

How do you use your goal group to accomplish business goals? Can you remember a specific business goal your goal group helped you reach?
Mainly for accountability, but also to get fresh ideas from other people who are in business for themselves. It’s energizing to hear what other people are up to. I haven’t had a goal group for a few years (just getting started in a new one with a group of writers for 2009) but I do recall when I first went out on my own as a consultant/coach many years ago that being in a group was the thing that helped me jump start my business.

If readers want to set up their own goal groups, what should they look for in other members? How should they structure it?
Compatibility, mutual respect, and commitment. They should decide if they want to be in a group with members in the same business as theirs, or in one with more variety. In the group I’m about to get started with, we’re all freelance writers (six of us total). We’re scattered all over the country, so our plan is to meet weekly by phone for 45-60 minutes.

There are also consultants who run these types of groups as a business. I’ve done some writing for a client, Blair Koch in Denver, who runs The Alternative Board,groups of business owners who meet in person monthly to solve business challenges with Blair as their facilitator and coach. A friend of mine, Valerie Taloni, runs Peer Success Groups, which are facilitated by telephone. Her groups meet monthly as well and I believe she also coaches each person in the group privately between the group gatherings. Another client, Joy Chudacoff in Los Angeles runs success circles exclusively for women.

Anything else I didn't ask that you wanted to add?
I’d encourage your readers to think about their goals seriously and be ambitious in setting them, but not so ambitious that they feel overwhelmed. Better to achieve one or two important goals than make a list so long that you don’t know where to start. And don’t set goals related only to business and money. Life balance is important, especially for those of us who are self-employed.