When the spare room is your headquarters, Starbucks is your conference room, and Spot and Mittens are your only employees… it can be rough. As a startup, sweat equity is often the only capital you have to invest. So don’t waste it.
Invest in personal branding
For network marketers, freelancers, independent contractors, and the rest of us solopreneurs personal branding is imperative. You MUST stand out as a horse of a different color, or risk disappearing into the herd. This is one of the many reasons I advise my clients to start a business blog.
Business blogging: so many benefits you’d be a fool not to
- Blogs help optimize your site for search
- Blogs provide content for social media marketing
- Blogs let you educate your clients and show off your expertise
- Blogs let you interact with you clients and get feedback
- Blogs can be monetized for additional income
- Blogs can get you publicity and links from related websites
The list goes on and on.
Blogging lets you express your own voice and develop your personal brand, particularly when your business is just getting started or limited by an association with a larger franchise (as can be the case for Realtors, brokers, network marketers, and franchisees).
Let me give you an example
One of my clients had been trying to gain traction as a network marketer for some time. She came to me for help SEOing 3 pages of content on a website that was otherwise completely controlled by her company. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do there.
So I suggested she start a blog. Not just about the product (the company handled that), but about her passions: beauty, style, and self improvement. Funny thing happened, her business was suddenly re-energized. Entirely new opportunities opened up. No longer was she just another representative of ABC company, she was an expert. A style consultant. An e-book author!
It won’t happen overnight
I takes time and hard work to nurture your blog. But there is a great multiplier effect. Every time you add a post, you add keywords and value for your readers. In time you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t, and will be able to tailor your posts for greatest effect.