Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility and Crush Your Competition

Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed includes 80 short chapters with no more than three or four pages, can be read in 10 minutes or less, and includes a checklist at the end of each chapter. Patrick is the organizer of the Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy, one of the 50 largest entrepreneur clubs in the country. The club is based in Berkeley, CA, and hosts large business networking and educational events for its members. He also is a regular speaker for Bloomberg TV.

Although Patrick speaks to small business owners and entrepreneurs, he is eager to guide those contemplating the switch from professional to self-employment. More and more professionals are turning to self-employment to regain their freedom, lifestyle and dignity. Patrick offers five strategies to test the self-employment waters…

1. Write a how-to report and post it online.  A dentist in Boston wrote a 20-page ebook called “Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex” and gave it away on her blog.  Her annual revenue grew from $150K to over $1MM.

2. Create a Facebook Page and advertise for “likes.”  Target members of similar Facebook pages and allocate a $20 daily budget for one month.  It will cost you $600 and you’ll end up with a big audience quickly.

3. Create a blog and integrate it with Facebook.  Announce your blog posts on your Facebook profile (or preferably, your Facebook page) and be sure to use the “Facebook comments” plugin to encourage interaction.

4. Record an educational video and post it on YouTube.  Be sure to add your contact information at the bottom.  Make it no longer than two minutes and consider paying money to promote it for relevant keywords.

5. Contribute 50 intelligent comments on a relevant forum.  Offering a piece of advice on a forum is easy and can be done in 10 minutes or less.  Accumulating 50 could be done in a day or two.  Include your phone number in your forum signature.