Based out of Hamilton, on the banks of the Waikato River, Hannah McCreery runs Two Sides, a boutique copy and content writing business. Two Sides works with businesses, agencies and non-profits, helping them find the right words to tell their stories and showcase their best side. This involves working with these companies to produce: website content & blogs, email marketing & e-newsletters, media releases, opinion pieces, magazines, online articles, and much more. Make sure your copy and your insurance hit the right notes!
Hannah was inspired to start her business because she simply has always loved writing. Prior to starting Two Sides she had been working in communications and PR for 10 years.
“During that time, I got to write a lot, and it was always that side of my work that got me excited. Plus, it’s always where I felt my strengths were.”
It wasn’t until she had her little boy, Charlie, back in 2017 that she thought it was “time to dive head first into this”.
Despite knowing a ton of hard work awaited her, Hannah felt she had the motivation and skills to succeed. In early 2018, Hannah took the plunge. She resigned from her job and launched Two Sides.
Hannah has a sustained interest in what she does because her favourite part of the job is receiving clients’ feedback when they get their finished product.
“They’re often amazed to see their words expressed in exactly the way they wish they could do themselves.”
She also finds that the process itself is a lot of fun.
“I love hearing people’s stories, what they’re wanting to achieve, who they’re communicating with and the tone of voice they’re going for and then figuring out how best to create content in a way that achieves these objectives and resonates with their target audience.”
The secret to keeping her clients coming back for her services comes down to two things; the first is the quality of service she provides.
“If they’re impressed the first time, they’ll come back for more when they need it.”
The second is the whole experience Hannah provides for her clients.
“I try to make the process as easy and enjoyable as possible. That includes clearly outlining the steps and timelines up front, managing the project smoothly from start to finish and being responsive and helpful. Also, just generally being easy to talk to, warm and friendly goes a long way.”
When asked if she could share a story that best showcases the work that Two Sides does, she told us about a project she worked on for communications and PR consultancy, Little Kōwhai.
“They’d been operating for almost a year when they brought me on board but had been exploding with business and hadn’t had the chance to get their website sorted.”
Hannah worked with them to understand their points of difference, who they were targeting, what benefits their services provide to clients and how they wanted to their brand’s tone of voice to be perceived.
Then she created web copy that aligned with those points and that resonated with their target market.
“There was some tweaking with input from them along the way, before we came up with a finished product that we were both exceptionally proud of. You can check it out here.”
For all the aspiring business owners out there, Hannah had these nuggets of wisdom to offer:
“Get prepared before you launch. Do your research and understand your target market. Keep in mind that things don’t have to be 100% perfect before you press go. You will learn so much along the way that you will be constantly fine-tuning and improving your business, and if you can accept that, it takes a lot of pressure off.
“Under promising and overdelivering is also something I try to live by. Give yourself some breathing space, and then unexpectedly delight customers/clients and you’ll become much more memorable.”
