anniversary

It’s hard to believe that this May marks nine years in business for my team at Express Writers. We’re very fortunate, if you consider the scary statistics surrounding business tenure. 20% of new businesses fail in their first two years, 45% fail in the first five years, and a whopping 65% don’t make it in the first ten years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Here’s the thing, though. Our ‘fortune’ didn’t just accidentally happen. Back in May of 2011, when we began, it was with every chance of failure. Literally — 100% chance of failing. I was a college dropout with a dream to write for a living and build my own business. I had $75 cash to my name in the bank, and I was searching for a route to create a business out of my passion. (Pssst… I’m writing a book due out 2021 on this topic! Get on the waitlist here.) All my life, I loved to write. It was an obsession — an addiction. At 19 years old, while I was still in college, I decided to look up “how to write for a living” one morning. That same day, I discovered a booming if not premature market of “freelance writing,” and I signed up immediately for a freelance profile on oDesk (now Upwork). I worked hard every day following to learn this trade and take on paying freelance writing gigs, inspired to get up at 4 a.m. and work my butt off simply because of the sheer fact that I was following my passion. It was a literal, simple inspiration-struck-and-I-took-action sequence. Three months later, I had more work than I could handle or keep up with, and I created a business within five minutes — Express Writers. Truth be told, I did not think it would last the year. Here we are, nine years later, celebrating our #19,900th project (a number that grows daily). We published our first-ever income report last year, which highlights how we serve 50-60 clients each month with custom content writing services. We have a team of almost ninety rock stars — a full-time Content Manager, an editorial staff, writers in expert niches, writers trained to write for almost every format. We serve clients around the globe. It’s incredible that we made it to nine years. And I have many of you to thank, reading this post. We wouldn’t be here without your support. So, thank you.  To celebrate, I sat down and wrote some reflections for you. Here you go — my nine lessons from nine years in business, and nearing the 20,000 projects completed mark. [bctt tweet=”If you’ve been a part of @expwriters at all — reader, subscriber, client, student, team member… I can’t thank you enough. Without you we wouldn’t be celebrating 9 years today. ❤️ Read my 9 lessons in 9 years: ” username=”ExpWriters”] 9 Lessons From 9 Years of Business and 19,900+ Projects That headline is all made up of nines—how crazy is that?! That was a complete accident, but not a bad way for the data to line up on our celebratory post. Let’s get into my nine reflections. 1. One core marketing commitment, centered around your clients/audience (not you), is all you need to earn clients. If I could tell my younger self one phrase, it would be this. Keep going, you have everything you need to earn clients consistently simply because of your core commitment. I had no idea just how much the simple marketing commitment I made at the beginning would be worth it to our success throughout the years. Back in 2011, I committed to one goal — growing our business through what we sold. Essentially, existing as the proof of our own pudding. And that’s why we’ve maintained a marketing presence explicitly based on content. Our Write Blog has brought in the majority of our clients. For nine years, I’ve written a blog every week. For nine years, I’ve sent at least two emails every week. With help from my own team at Express Writers, consistency in weekly onsite content has been a practice we’ve never dropped. And today, our site earns over 100,000 visitors each month; we have over 1,300 published blogs; and our site ranks on Alexa as the #25,700th most popular website in the world. Not to mention, we rank for over 19,000 keywords indexed in Google, the cost of which would be over $200,000 in an ad campaign! Decide on one core marketing medium and stick to it. Become the best at what you do. Create the most in-depth content on that topic. This is how you succeed at serving your audience so well, they want to become your clients.   [av_image src=’https://staging.expresswriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cta-Profitable-Content-Marketer-Cheat-Sheet-banner-01.jpg’ attachment=’79076′ attachment_size=’full’ align=’center’ animation=’no-animation’ styling=” hover=” link=’manually,https://staging.expresswriters.com/resources/the-profitable-content-marketer-cheat-sheet/’ target=’_blank’ caption=” font_size=” appearance=” overlay_opacity=’0.4′ overlay_color=’#000000′ overlay_text_color=’#ffffff’][/av_image]   2. Every chance of failure is a great opportunity for success. As I look back today on the beginning, I know that the simple realization I had back then — I have every chance of failure here — was a great launchpad for everything I’ve been able to do since. Just being aware that you will, might, or can fail, and then getting ready to shrug it off and pick yourself back up, is a surefire way to succeed in business. [bctt tweet=”As I look back today on the beginning, I know that the simple realization I had back then -‘I have every chance of failure here’ – was a great launchpad for everything I’ve been able to do since. via @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”] 3. Never give up. As stereotypical and over-quoted as this sounds, it’s the truth. Time and time again we’ve hit what feels like “the end of the world” — unexpected roadblocks, hiring and firing, growing pains. But we’ve never given up. As simple as that sounds, it’s the way to success. 4. It’s okay to feel like everything’s broken sometimes. Each time you hit a slump or a roadblock, it will truly feel like the end of the world. You can’t simply ignore … Read more