By Mary Agnes Antonopoulos

In the last few weeks of working with clients on ezines and blogs and website revisions (oh my), it seems the common word stuck in everyone’s throat is branding.  I just want to put my two cents in and say that the name-game has really become a roadblock for more than one of my colleagues lately.  Honestly, I don’t care if you call yourself Joe Shmoe — if your product kicks ass, people will buy it.  Spending oodles of money and buckets of time worrying about whether to call myself Freelance Writer to the Stars or Commander of the Written Word is just silly.  Does having a catchy tag have value?  Sure it does.  But you can mull it over during the next six months while you work your ass off.  Do not stand like a deer in the headlights and be paralyzed wondering what to name the baby.  (By the way, I have decided to call myself Good-Bye Fat Secretary.)

The truth is that names do not generate clients.  Marketing generates clients – and WORK generates clients.  Even if you have to give your work away – keep working.  I don’t mean to de-value yourself or your product – but do stay in front of your client base.  Offer to give free seminars and webinars to anyone who will let you.  If you’re an accountant, go in to your local high school and talk about the impact of learning to save and budget before heading off to college.  If you’re a cook, lecture at the local women’s organization on 20-minute meals (a life-saver for working moms).  And you know what?  It will be amazing how this kind of networking turns into clients and cash.

Okay, the final word on this is that yes, it matters if you call yourself WOW for Women or Women looking for the WOW.  But if you don’t fill whatever your sites are with amazing content, you can simply call us LATER.  The best names don’t matter without the best stuff. 

That’s it from me!  Write on fellow female entrepreneurs – write on!  And happy holidays.

Mary Agnes Antonopoulos, Freelance Writer and Social Media Trainer ~ www.RockawayWriter.com