Creative Entrepreneurship Basics: Positioning Your Products and Services to Meet Your Market’s Current Needs

Need I say more? Well, you know I’m going to — just have to expound on today’s topic with a little (maybe a whole blog post worth of) explanation before I put this baby to sleep.

The creative mind is ALWAYS churning over here at Degrees of Maternity, but you’re probably well aware that I’m incorporating the business side of things to my creative journey as I’m venturing down these online streets.

HAVE TO.

As a small solopreneur, it’s imperative that I put on my strategic marketing hat when times call for it; because after all, I’m trying to run a business here. And so, what I encourage EVERY creative entrepreneur to do is to . . . work on meeting your customers’ needs with the product and service offerings you have in ways that benefit them during their different seasons in life.

Now, I have a couple of blog posts (part 1 and part 2) that discuss the importance of catering to the seasons in life. In those posts, I came to you with some food for thought in the direction of seasonal products and how it’s business-wise to pay attention to certain pivotal points in the year where you can take your creative genius and craft products and services that meet the seasonally-inspired, specific needs of your customers during those particular timeframes.

Take, for instance . . .

“Back-to-School Time!”

So, anyone who’s spent any amount of time here at Degrees of Maternity knows that I provide reading and writing resources and tools for teachers/parents and children. And, anyone who’s spent some time here at Degrees of Maternity ALSO knows that I’m a continuous work-in-progress when it comes to figuring out the right mix of marketing strategies that work with my audiences.

But, that’s okay. I’m willing to try some new things and revive some old things to see what best benefits those I seek to serve in my little area of the educational market. And you should experiment and try your crafty hand at strategies and processes that cater to your niche of peeps, as well.

I mean . . . isn’t that what holds us business folks in a sustainable entrepreneurial position in our creative journeys? Meeting the needs of those we serve? Well, it should or else we’re just self-serving, which will leave us pretty much alone and stuck with our unwanted wares. Frankly, this particular approach DOESN’T pay, literally or figuratively.

And by no means am I a marketing go-to, but here’s one tried-and-true strategy that I personally know is efficient, resourceful, and working (for me, anyway).

Here comes the lowdown.

So, I’m NOT about recreating the wheel. No, not at all. What’s the point in wasting your time and energy trying to mess around with something that’s already working? Now, if you want to take THAT SOMETHING (that pattern that’s already working) and tweak it to create a slightly new pattern (with a unique flair) that may work for a particular someone (your target market) — during a particular season — for a particular need, then you just might have a recipe for entrepreneurial success.

And, I AM NOT talking about copying someone else’s creative genius and passing it off for your own. That kind of stuff infuriates me as a small business owner. Makes me want to scream out to the computer to the copycat on the other side to “Keep your eyes on your own paper and stop copying off of mine!”

No, what I’m talking about is taking a product and/or service that you already have in YOUR OWN creative repository and changing it up slightly to meet the CURRENT needs of your customers.

Case in point: I create a lot of product lines with my reading and writing resources and tools for young children and their teachers. Product lines and series allow me some much-desired leeway to expand very similar (but different) products with a minimal effort of slightly tweaking a product to cover a wider range of reading and writing needs in the elementary education market.

If you look very closely at the product covers below, you’ll notice that each product cover has a similar design, but the wording on the covers is different.

Why you might ask? Well, because I’m using the covers in different product bundles for different purposes. One of the covers is used in a bundle that includes multiple covers suitable for a child’s back-to-school binder, folder, or notebook. And, the other cover is used in a product bundle that includes a journal cover and writing pages, bookmark, and doorknob hanger set.

Practically the same item but slightly tweaked to be used in different bundles for different customer needs.

And, I have to say that the cover used in the back-to-school binder, folder, and notebook bundle is actually my most popular seller right now because of the back-to-school blitz, where children need paper decorative pieces to place in their see-through, front cover binders, or where teachers are looking to provide children with fun handouts to include in their subject folders or as binder dividers.

Whatever the need, I’m here for it ALL. And, I’ve been able to create an easy product (the binder, folder, notebook covers) off of an already existing product (the journal cover) to cater to a CURRENT need (back-to-school).

An efficient, resourceful, and working marketing strategy all the way around. Hey, and I want you to try it out with your products and services. That’s your homework assignment in celebration of back-to-school. Hee. Hee.

Oh, and if you didn’t think I was going to mention that the Degrees of Maternity Teachers Pay Teachers store is offering all of its back-to-school products and beyond for up to 25% off with promo code BTSBONUS22 today (the 30th) and through all day tomorrow (the 31st), then you’re sadly mistaken, my friend.

The Sale is On! Hope to see you there.