It’s now easier than ever to write and self-publish a book. You only need to take a look at the Amazon Kindle store to see that people are churning out novels in every genre – romance, sci-fi, erotica and crime, especially – at an astounding rate. But what’s really taken off is books in the business category. Seems like savvy business owners are realising that writing a book is a great way to promote their business, and that it’s not nearly as difficult as they thought to do, either. Not convinced? In this blog post I’m going to give you three reasons to write a book about your business – hopefully by the end you’ll be raring to go!
1. Prove you know your stuff
So how do you go about proving you are the accountant/ architect/ acupuncturist (insert your business here!) that everyone should use? You could take out advertising, you could go to networking meetings, or you could demonstrate your expertise by publishing your knowledge in book format. Worried that people will use what they learn from the book rather than come to you for your services? Worry not. However much we read about accountancy/ architecture/ acupuncture etc., it’s not going to make us an expert; we are still going to need to employ a specialist for those year end accounts, building design or migraine treatment. By sharing your knowledge so freely, you prove you know your stuff and that will give people the confidence to approach you when they need what you’re offering.
2. Establish your credentials as THE expert in your field
For some reason, writing a book about your business has the added benefit of establishing you as an expert. You’re not just any old bookkeeper/ barber/ beauty therapist, you’re the bookkeeper/ barber/ beauty therapist who wrote a book – and that elevates you way above everyone else in your industry. Because if you wrote a book about it, surely you must be REALLY good at what you do! And that will bring people to your door. What’s more, you can use your book as an advertising opportunity – give away your knowledge for free, but make sure you include your contact details so people can get in touch when they realise you’re the expert, not them. You could even direct them to a landing page specially designed for readers of the book.
3. Use your book as a marketing tool
When you write a book about your business, you suddenly have a fantastic marketing tool available for you to use, and there are so many ways you can use it. You can make it available for sale on your website, perhaps as part of a sales funnel (you could offer the book for free, or for postage only, and then send details of another offer with the book); organise author events where you read extracts from your book, meet your “fans” and sell signed copies; post a copy of your book to prospective clients; you could even use it as a business card and give it away at networking meetings!
So now you know some of the reasons why you should write a book about your business, what are you waiting for? Writing a book isn’t as daunting as you may think – look out for a future blog post where I’ll give you some tips about creating content. It doesn’t have to be especially long either – while some people write their magnum opus, other books are as short as 10,000 or even 5,000 words. In other words, you can put the content of a book together in a very short space of time.
If you’re interested in finding out more, why not book me for a free half hour chat where we can talk about the next steps. I’d love to help you promote your business!
