Here is the scenario. You were tired of the corporate rat race and wanted your own piece of the pie. You read enough articles, saw enough on TV, and read enough books to finally realize the only way you were going to get ahead was to start and run your own business. You took what little savings you had and then jumped ship with a two week notice to the corporate big wigs.

Now one of two things has happened. You are either six months into your business, have your business cards, letterhead, website, one or two clients (or none), and are running out of your savings, or you have been in business for a couple of years and are just scraping by.

Whether you are six months or two years into your business, your true success will not appear until you have established yourself as an expert. Individuals will be hesitant to acquire your services or purchase your products if they do not trust that you know what you are doing.

So, how do you establish yourself as an expert, especially when you are just starting out? Don’t be an information hoarder. This means don’t keep yourself a secret and don’t keep your knowledge a secret. Too many people think they cannot give away free information because their potential clients/customers will take it and run away with it. The opposite is true. If people know they can come to you and receive valuable information, then they are going to be inclined to acquire your services and purchase your products.

An easy example of this is Home Depot or Lowes. Every weekend they have some type of seminar on how to lay flooring, faux paint, hang a ceiling fan, build a toy chest, etc. Home Depot and Lowes know that if they give you this valuable information, you will walk down the aisles, excited to buy the supplies to create at home what you just learned to do at their stores.

You can do the same exact thing. You can share enough information with people so they want more. If you are open to sharing, they know they can depend on you to give them what they need and will be willing to pay for your services or products.

Here are five steps to sharing the wealth of information you have.

1. Publish an e-zine on a consistent basis. Once a month, or every two weeks, send information via an e-zine, sharing information of value with your clients/customers. These e-zines should contain how-to articles and tips, which help to establish that you know what you are talking about, that you are an expert in this area.

2. Join networking groups and attend networking events. Don’t go just to tell people about your business. Go to share information, find out ways you can help others, and how others can help you. A person will find it harder to remember that you are a landscaper. However, he will remember you were the person who told him a quick trick to keep his Azalea bushes from turning yellow. Hmmm, maybe he should just have you come out and evaluate his whole garden.

3. Give presentations to an audience. Two things will happen here: first, the more you present, the more confident you will become in sharing your knowledge. Second, the audience is now your target audience because they have come to hear you speak and learn something from you. These presentations can be in person, live events or teleclasses or webinars.

4. Answer phone and e-mail inquiries. If someone calls or e-mails you with a question about how to do something, don’t hesitate to answer his questions. What he will remember is how quickly you responded and the value of the free information received. Before you know it, he will be coming back to you to acquire your services or purchase your products. The thought is if the free information was valuable, imagine how valuable the services/products must be!

5. Write articles/lists and give them away free. If you want more subscribers to your e-zine, if you want more people attending your teleseminars and webinars, promise them they will receive a free article or list. They will subscribe or attend if they know they are going to get free information that will help them bring in more clients, get more out of life, keep their house clean and organized, etc.

If you incorporate these five steps into your business, before long, you will be known as an expert in your field. The moment you are known as an expert is the moment your business will start to take off and grow. What other ways can you think of to share your valuable information?

Dawn Goldberg is the Chief Writing Officer of Write Well University, COO of Assist University, and creator of the E-zines Made EZ system. Her vision is to help people write well, whether web copy or an E-zine. Sign up for the It’s Made EZ newsletter at http://www.EzinesMadeEZ.com for tips to help you develop, design, and write an E-zine.

Tags: become an expert, getting clients, marketing, starting a business

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