If I had to sum up 2009 in a single phrase, I would call it the year of cash flow. There was never quite  enough.

In previous years I had kept busy with various copywriting assignments, but as the recession deepened, my clients started pulling their work in-house. In my copious amounts of spare time, I created e-books, coaching programs and online classes, but nobody seemed willing to part with their money.

One year later, I have more writing assignments than I know what to do with. Cash flow is no longer an issue. But as I’m cramming more and more projects into my schedule, my blog has taken a hit. Traffic is dropping and the email newsletter list is stagnant. What’s worst, though, is that I don’t know who I’m writing to anymore.

Identifying the Problem

Let’s be honest. I chose the tag line “Marketing to women. Marketing for women” out of greed.

Yes, greed. I didn’t want to choose one or the other. I wanted to have it all. I wanted to be everything to everybody, so I ignored the fact that marketing to women and marketing for women are two very different things with two very different audiences.

This hasn’t served me well — and this has become increasingly obvious in the past few months.

If you’re a longtime reader, you’ll remember I was recently forced to change my business name. That was an unexpected blessing, because the new name, “One Woman Marketing” describes me perfectly, and it really resonates with people.

But this old tag line is no longer cutting it. I need something that describes me and — tacky marketing buzz phrase coming! — my unique selling proposition.

Identifying the Passion

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I resonate with issues surrounding women in business. But who I really resonate with are small business owners who hate marketing. The people who started their own business because they had a dream and that dream didn’t involve marketing, but they’ve come to realize that marketing is essential and that realization makes them think — holy crap. This sucks.

Those are the people I want to reach. And I want to do it through honesty and transparency (another buzzword) because frankly, the whole “marketing guru” thing is overplayed. I’d much rather help people as a person who has been there, done that and made every mistake in the book. That way others can learn from my mistakes.

One more thing: I really like marketing. And I think these small business owners would like marketing too, if they could just get over their used-car salesman stereotypes and find marketing methods that actually resonate with them.

Creating the Solution

That’s my motivation. I’ve been trying to sum that up in a unique tag line, but I’m not sure I’ve got it yet.

I started with “Marketing Help and Hope for the Solopreneur,” but not everybody knew what the term “solopreneur” meant.

And I really like the tag line “Taking the Shame Out of Self Promotion,” but that limits it to self-promotion and ignores the business angle.

Other options I’ve come up with include:

•   Dread-free marketing (It touches on the right emotion, but it’s not very catchy.)

•   Marketing For Small Business Owners Who Hate To Market (Too wordy.)

•   Mending the Marketing Mindset (Eh. Not quite.)

•   Suck-Free Marketing for Small Business Owners (My mom nixed this one.)

I am stuck. And you know what? It doesn’t really matter what I think. For the tag line to be successful, it has to resonate with YOU. The reader.

That’s why I’m asking you for help. What do you resonate with? Do you like “Taking the Shame Out of Self Promotion,” or do I need to go back to the drawing board?

I would love your feedback on this. Please leave me your thoughts — good, bad and neutral — in the comments section below.