If you are just starting out with a business (e.g. a Life Coaching service), a really simple question to ask yourself is “does everyone I bump into on the street ask how business is going?”
If yes, your network knows about what your business – if not, your business has most likely slipped under the radar.
The benefits of your network knowing what you do
You may be thinking that there’s no point in my neighbour from down the street knowing about my Life Coaching business. He may never want or need life coaching services.
However, there are a lot of benefits associated with people simply knowing that your business exists.
Simple Maths
Let’s say:
– you have 500 people in your network who know of you and your service
– 10% of them (50 people) will be asked if they know someone who perform your service each year. This can happen in person, in WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups etc.
– half of the 50 people who are asked mention you (25 mentions of your business)
– out of those 25 mentions, 50% lead to someone actually getting in touch with you about your service
– this results in 12.5 enquiries per year
Although this seems very hypothetical, garymelican.com receives exactly one lead per month from someone who was recommended to us by someone who simply knew about us, not even former clients.
What’s required for your network to know that your business exists
It requires surprisingly little effort for your network to know that your business exists.
Generally one post on social media (Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn) should do the trick.
Your network will always be excited by a new business launching so these “delighted to announce the opening of…” type posts tend to do really well.
Conclusion
Simply having your network be aware that your business exists is a big step to survival.
Most people know that the occasional social media post will help their business but are too afraid to do it, mainly because this involves putting yourself up for public scrutiny.
Here is a post about pushing yourself to take calculated risks if you’re struggling with this.
Thank you for reading,
Gary
