Interested in growing your business? Sure you are. And it matters not what kind of business you have. In this article we will talk about how creating a simple informational booklet related to your business can skyrocket your sales.
Let's create a simple scenario of how creating a simple publication can grow a business. Let's suppose you run a lawn care business. You have a team of 6 workers out in the field mowing and trimming lawns--and doing landscaping work for you.
Just like your competition, you run a few radio spots a day and also run a small classified ad in your local newspaper. Now, there are only so many lawn and landscaping jobs out there, so the question becomes, "How can you pull in more clients than your competitors?" The answer to that question is simple: You must be willing to do something that your competition is unwilling or unable to do.
Here is your solution. You create a small 70-page booklet related to lawn care. Whoa, wait a minute--I'm no writer! Well, you don't have to be a Hemingway or Steinbeck to do this.
You start with an introduction and a page about yourself and 3-4 pages about your business. You create 1-page articles about a dozen or so lawn pests--you know, grubs and insects that can wreak havoc on a lawn. Each article has a photograph of the pest and a photo showing the effects it can have on a formerly healthy lawn.
You then include a few articles about the proper use of fertilizers and weed killers. You have 20-30 pages showing before and after photos of projects you have done related to landscaping. You have a dozen pages showing a building contractor's completed house standing on bare dirt--and photos showing what the home looked like after you sodded and landscaped it.
You contact a print-on-demand printer and get a hundred books printed. They will design a cover for you for a reasonable fee. You can get the books knocked off as perfect bound books with a color, laminated cover for under three dollars each.
Now you use the books as calling cards--calling cards of a very high octane. You distribute them to realtors who have homes for sale that have shabby looking lawns. You distribute them to building contractors to convince them to let you landscape the yards upon completion of the construction. You give them to good customers who use your service and tell them you will send a copy to any friends.
Sure, you are undertaking an expense right out of the gate--but don't forget--if you are serious about growing your business, you are not in the lawn care business--you are in the customer development business. Many unsuccessful small business owners forget that.
Writing a small booklet will set you up as an authority. It will create new clients. It can get you on local talk radio programs to do author interviews and promote your business. It will most definitely help you grow your business!
Mike McMillan is a former inner-city teacher who left teaching in 1989 to devote full time to writing over 40 nonfiction books and ebooks. He has been interviewed on over 80 radio stations and televisions programs including ABC World News on the topic of self publishing. Mike's on-line self publishing course is offered through over 1,400 colleges and universities across the U.S.
His newest ebooks include Big Money Writing Little Books, and Cleaning Out The Vault: Secrets of the eBook Power Sellers Exposed.
Download Mike's newest eBook, Creating An Affiliate Army To Promote Your eBook, for free at http://www.extreme-self-publishing.com
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