When you take the leap from employee to business owner, the early days can be tough, really tough. You have all the motivation in the world, a great product or service and dreams of making it big.
Then reality sets in. Six months down the track and the clients aren’t exactly beating down your door. The bills are still coming in and the pressure is building to make some sales. Your marketing looks great, people are making enquiries yet there seems to be something missing.
How do I know all of this?
Well it is not only the story I hear from business owners on a daily basis, it was also my story.
Almost 6 years ago I was the girl in this story. I had become a ‘life coach’ and niched into weight loss. Hardly a unique industry. The more I looked into my chosen niche the more I suddenly understood that I needed to stand out from the crowd. I had to be unique.
About the time I niched down further into ‘Lose the last 10 kilos’ I decided to write a book on weight loss. Sure, I had written a blog and a few articles but I didn’t consider myself to be an ‘author.’ After writing my book bit by bit over 3 months I decided to self-publish it. Another 3 months later, here I was, a weight loss coach with a book. I still remember thinking, so what do I do know?
In a way, I wasn’t prepared for what happened shortly after my book was published. My phone started ringing more than it ever had before and my website was suddenly providing me with leads. Hot leads! My confidence grew, as I was suddenly perceived as the ‘go to’ expert in my niche. People were knocking on my door wanting to do business with me and for the first time I was the hunted, not the hunter.
Now having competed my seventh book in the past 6 years, I can say in certainty, everybody has a book in them.
The fastest way to gain instant credibility in your business niche is to write a book. You are the expert in your life. What you know and what you have overcome to get to where you are now is a unique story.
You are essentially writing a book to your past self, teaching them what they needed to know back then. What you have learnt, what you would’ve done differently, what worked and what didn’t.
By writing a book, you position yourself as a credible expert in your niche. You are the one who ‘must have’ the answers as you have had the courage to put it all in a book. You are in the tiny minority of people in business that have a book to their name.
Potential clients are attracted to those with an expert status. You really are the authority expert and the ease at which you can now market yourself and your business is simple.
You don’t need to sell hundreds of thousands of books to make writing your book worthwhile. Depending on your product or service, selling two or three of your packages or getting a few speaking gigs could earn back your publishing costs right there, not to mention your book sales.
If you want to write that ‘best seller’ like Tony Robbins, you will need to either be incredibly lucky or have the most amazing story that will just go viral.
Having a ‘business book’ or ‘personal story’ book published by a publishing house is a huge challenge. I encourage all business owners to self-publish.
That way you are in control of the content, look and entire process from start to finish.
Pre-sell copies before they are printed on a landing page or website. This will again help pay for the publishing cost and start to give you the exposure of becoming an author. Just by saying your book is at the printers will give you an immediate boost in credibility and opportunities to skyrocket your profile and business.
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To your business and authoring success,
Natasa
