Hey folks, back for another solopreneur business update and blog post. Spent most of my day yesterday thinking about two key things.
Before I get into them, I just wanna say that while working on Visto, an early-stage startup, we’re usually working on a lot of things – sometimes in a single day.
But, for the purposes of this blog post, I usually like to discuss just 1 or 2.
I also think that everyone should experience working at a startup at least once. Co-founding a startup is a whole other discussion, but at the very least, working at one could be an amazing experience.
But I digress.
Okay the two things.
First, is marketing for our new immigration tool. We’re building it as we speak, and I’m tasked with coming up with our marketing and sales strategies that we want to try – now and in the future – for this new tool.
We’re thinking about it from the ground up because this new immigration tool is targeting a slightly different customer base, so it deserves its own strategies.
Second, been thinking more about my SG content. I find every few months I tend to reflect and refine my content and strategy, and I’m doing it a bit now.
And by refine, I mean figure out what’s working best and focus more on that.
For the Solopreneur Grind brand, so far it’s been:
- my email list/blog
- Podcast
- running networking events
So I’m going to do what most of us solopreneurs should do when running a small operation – focus on what’s working, and cutout the rest.
For those of you in Toronto, it also means more consistent (and awesome) in-person networking events. Stay tuned.
For those of you outside Toronto, I’d also love to hear if you’d have any interest in virtual events – lemme know!
Last week I also spent a lot of time discussing sales, but wanted to write quickly about a related, sometimes more powerful tool for solopreneurs: partnerships.
The main reason is that on Friday, I had two exciting Visto calls with potential partners.
It’s funny how these things work out sometimes, but basically, as we’re building our next immigration tool, I was also reached out to by two gentlemen in the same week to discuss a partnership.
Side note: this is why building your brand and social media marketing is so important for solopreneurs – so people know who you are and can reach out with opportunities.
One person came through a direct intro from LinkedIn, the other reached out on LinkedIn because we’d been introduced and chatted a few years ago (if you do any sort of b2b-business, LinkedIn is a great tool).
Anyhow, it got me thinking. Yes, of course sales are very important.
But what’s even better than sales?
Having qualified people sent to you, sometimes en masse, leading to many more sales than if you had to do it yourself, or cold call, or anything else.
And this can happen if you can secure good partnerships.
So another way to increase revenue, other than cold calling or other sales tactics, is to reach out to other people or businesses who are already selling to or helping people you’re also looking to help.
For example: if you’re selling legal services to businesses, go find an accountant and partner up. If you’re selling marketing services to ecommerce businesses, go find a web developer or copywriter for ecomm businesses and partner up.
The best part of partnerships for solopreneurs is that the sales cycles are usually much quicker – because they’re being sent to you from a trusted source, the potential client inherently trusts you a bit more and it takes less “selling”.
So give it a go – or let me know if you have any questions on partnerships you want answered.
Have a great day, make sure to join here to get my updates right to your inbox, and keep grinding.