Get swarmed at lunch – get paid to write

16th June, 2009 - Posted by admin - 2 Comments

My friend V and I went to a networking lunch yesterday.

(Actually, I’d kinda forgotten we were going to go, so when she called to confirm about an hour before we were supposed to leave, GULP!!, I dashed into the shower and threw on some business clothes. I find that while my normal work uniform (shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops) is great for a writing day, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in prospective clients when I’m out and about!)

She’s promoting this cool electronic cigarette (I’m not a smoker, but have seen this thing do amazing things for smokers, and because it only puts out water vapor, there’s no nasty smoke… anyway, I like it so much I started marketing it in January – if you want to see it, check it out here: http://www.icansmokeanywherenow.com)… and I was a little stumped.

See, this particular lunch wasn’t my normal Power Lunch Bunch (http://www.powerlunchbunch.com) – where many of the attendees already know me. This one was in a town several towns away, and actually in a pretty rural area.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to explain what I do in the 2 minutes I had… or whether any businesses there would NEED a writer anyway. (OK, yes, and I wasn’t sure they’d have the budget. Does that sound terrible?)

But it occurred to me that maybe YOU live in a relatively small town. And while I still recommend using the freelance job boards to get going and build your writing business, I wanted to be able to speak to whether there are business opportunities for writers in a place like this.

(Yeah, all this thinking was going on while I ate my egg salad on lettuce… I’m sort of off of bread (sigh).)

My turn to speak… and I explained that while most business owners spend thousands of dollars a year (even up to about $20k!!) on phone book ads, people are turning more and more to the internet – even for finding local services. Using some very powerful tools, I can help them DOMINATE the search engines with their local business, which means THEY get the call rather than their competition.

Had their attention.

Afterward, people were literally lined up to chat about this. From a little bitty luncheon with about 15 businesses, I had no less than 8 business owners give me their cards and ask me to call. Now comes the fun part – an initial (BRIEF) consult with each to see whether they meet the criteria for this service. I learned this way cool technique for immediately assessing whether a particular business is one I can do this for – and about how much I can expect to increase their business in the next few months.

I’ll tell you more about the system I’m using in a bit. Right now it’s closed (I may have gotten the very last spot!), but a little birdie told me it may open again.

Honestly, I NEVER thought I’d be so excited about working with small businesses in my community. Before, it seemed like an uphill battle, trying to explain to them WHY they need a writer… then feeling awkward because they winced at the price. THIS is completely different, and so easy to do that I’m practically thunking myself on the forehead for not having put the pieces together long before now. Best of all, it feels like I’ve got the power to bring about a massive positive change in the bottom line for businesses in my neighborhood – in a way that’s hugely profitable for everyone involved… and that feels great.

Share and Enjoy: