Market Yourself

Last week I wrote an article called, Quit Your Job and Make Millions, which takes a look at some of the things you should do so you can quit your 9-5 and start that dream business of yours. I followed that up with, Save Money, Quit Your Job, and Make Millions which takes a first-hand look at the financial aspects of quitting your job to start a business. So, let’s go a bit deeper and assume that you’ve finally quit your job, saved up enough cash to keep you a float for a couple months, and have everything you need to get started. Now what?

You might have killer services or products but they won’t go anywhere if you don’t get the word out about them. In this post let’s explore some ways to market yourself once you’ve finally quit your job and started your business.

1. Professional Head Shots – It’s time to ditch your web cam snap shots, cell phone pictures, and your mom’s pictures of you from your local Sears photo studio. Spending a little money on quality head shots from a professional photographer can and will go a long way. Sure it might cost you a little for quality, but they’ll become one of your biggest assets once you finally quit your job. Head shots will increase your marketability, exposure (if used strategically), and profile.

2. Business Cards – Yes, people still have business cards and hand them out. It’s still the number one way people can get all your information in one space. Now that you’ve got your snazzy new head shots, plop those bad boys onto  a card and have your face do all the talking! Go full color for maximum impact and pay for high quality card stock so it won’t get easily tossed into the trash. Also, try out a double-sided card. One side to promote yourself and the other for your business, services, or products.

3. Start an Email Newsletter – Newsletters are extremely easy to start, manage, and promote. Especially via the web. Select an area of your business that’s easy for you to share with anyone (universal appeal) and write short articles, tips, insider info, etc. to support your business. A newsletter is an excellent way to engage with potential customers because it positions you as an expert in your field. I use Constant Contact as my newsletter marketing service of choice. They make it easy for you to create a newsletter, customize it’s look, collect data, and get statistics so you can see who opened your email. To see email newsletter marketing in action, sign-up for my “Success Tips!” newsletter here. (Beyond that reason, you’ll also get awesome weekly tips on being successful directly from me, all killer no filler.)

4. Get on Linkedin – Linkedin is a great professional social networking website that allows you to connect with people in your industry, share information, and join groups of like minded individuals. We’ll explore more of the social networking aspect of quitting your job and starting a business on Wednesday. For now, just know, that if you’re not on Linkedin then you’re missing opportunities! What kind? What about having all your professional information easily accessible to over 40 million professionals? Yea . . . it’s kind of a big deal.

5. Do Market Research – Have you ever tried writing a term paper without doing the research first? Why would you start a business without finding out who your competitors are, who you want as customers, or how your competitors are reaching their market? You don’t have to write a booklet on the subject, but you need to know some general things so you know how to best impact the market. Remember, if you don’t know who your customer is, what they want, and who’s giving it to them . . . your competitor does!

Note: Constant Contact has a great survey service that allows you to collect information from people and track results. Give it a try, it’s priceless!

6. Start a Blog – Blogging is a fantastic way of engaging your market on a broader scale. It positions you as an expert, draws people into who you are and what you do, and is extremely easy to promote when you maximize the tools already listed in this post. There are plenty of articles here that can help you get the best ROI with your blogging efforts. By the way, you can also educate potential customers on your products or services strategically. Why make a sales call when the sales could come calling you?

One thing I teach my coaching students is that YOU are your business. When you’re just starting out you have to create and market the brand of You, inc. When people connect with you they’ll automatically want to connect with your company. This is called magnetic branding. You could spend hundreds of dollars on a TV and Radio advertising; but when you present yourself people connect with who you are and not just what you have to offer . You’ll create raving fans of your products or services and not just one-time buyers.

What other ways would you market yourself, services, or products? If you own a business, how did you get the word out about your company? This list represents only the tip of the iceberg of marketing yourself. What would you add? Sign-in to your favorite social site like Twitter, Facebook, or use your OpenID and leave a comment below.

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