About you (and Dandies)

I’m Stuart Shaw, a freelance copywriter with 20 years’ experience writing websites, blogs, ebooks, even training courses for businesses in more sectors than I can count.

All that experience means I know who you are and why you’re here:

Your name is Daniel. Early forties. Happily married with two kids.

You’re an entrepreneur. Your company is small – in that rather dispiriting [1-10 employees] category – but ready to step up.

And you’ve invested everything in its success. Time. Money. Soul. Any shot at a ‘work/life balance’.

You’d describe yourself as ‘driven’. Off camera, your wife would say you’re driving yourself into the ground. You both hope the kids are still too young to know the difference.

And that’s okay because your goal is to get the business in a position where you can step back. When you can tick the [11-50 employees] category because this time it’s actually true.

All you need is to get the messages right.

And that’s the problem: control. Your ‘if you want something do it, do it yourself’ attitude has carried you a long way. You’ve got an office. A sales team. A web designer. A usually jolly receptionist. Even membership at the exclusive local golf club.

But the website isn’t taking off. No one is talking up the free trial. Google doesn’t seem to know you exist. And the only thing moving in the blog is tumbleweed.

No matter how many weekends you spend tinkering with listicles or infographics or how many best practice guides you read, when you stroll into work on Monday morning your sales team haven’t even noticed anything new.

So you go into your office and think the design is at fault. But even your kids say the branding rocks. And deep down you know that’s true.

There is nothing wrong with what you do – it’s how you talk about what you do.

It’s the words. Your words. And every once in a while you’ve searched for ‘freelance copywriters’. Put the URLs in an Excel spreadsheet. One day you’re going to call one up…

But you know that day won’t come because you don’t want to be judged by a professional copywriter. And you don’t want to have to admit to yourself – or your wife – that you’ve wasted all that time – time you can’t get back.

But let me tell you a little secret, Dan:

You’re not alone. There are millions of small business owners who mistakenly believe that they are the only people who can write about their business.

And I really don’t care how bad – or how great – your words are.

All I care about is how we can create the new words your brand needs to get you what you really want: quality time with your wife and kids.

And I’ll love nothing more than spending this weekend writing your website and blog while you rewrite your handicap.

But before we tee off, I want you to pen one more thing: a customer profile page like this. One page describing the ONE PERSON your brand needs to appeal to more than any other.

Give them a name. Bring them to life. Pinpoint and articulate what problem they have – the problem our words have to solve.

So get writing, then give me a call or drop me an email. In the meantime, Megan is waiting to play ball. And no one – no one – keeps a Dandie waiting.