If you clicked expecting to read about God’s word on the solution to surviving this economic decline, then you might be a little bit disappointed.  In this post, I will be outlining a few channels in which I manage to strum up business, but the bottom line is:  Regardless of what ideas I give you, it still takes consistent hard work on your part to take advantage of what I’m about to share with you.  You control your own destiny.  Remember that.

With that, I give you:  How to Make Money in This Bleeding Economy for Professional Service Providers.

You may not realize it, but you may fall under this category.  If you offer marketing, web design, sales, PR, or IT consulting services, then you obviously offer professional services.  But in addition, things like dog walker, baby sitter, adult care, rehabilitation, physical training, catering, personal chef, writer, or even nightlife promotion all fall under the category of a service provider.  It’s just up to you to utilize the tools that the web offers to turn yourself into a professional.

How do you go about getting people to know who you are, what you do, and to hire you??  That’s the hardest part.  Good thing we have this thing called the internet that has millions of resources to utilize.

www.servicegem.com

This site was literally just launched not too long ago.  It can be looked at as a social network where service providers can market themselves and service seekers can find someone who provides a service they need.  REMEMBER:  The early bird gets the worm.  This site may be empty now, but if you are the only service provider listed for your location and area of expertise…not too hard of a choice for people looking for that service!

There is a very extensive and ever growing category list with sub-categories that helps list you under the right service.  That way it’s easy for people to find what they are looking for…your services!!  The site has a great search feature that allows you to easily locate service providers that are local to you (a babysitter in California can’t be at your door in New York in 2 hours!!).  All part of the qualification process that filter leads so that the only ones calling/emailing you are great potential clients.

This isn’t just a site that sits there though, it’s active and alive!  In the coming months there will be a social media marketing strategy that involves user generated content where you, the pro service provider, can use short “blog” posts where you are incorporating your expertise in the industry your service is in to show off to the “service seekers” how “expert” you are.

The best part is that it’s free to join on both accounts.  Service providers only pay based on valid quality leads that they send your way.  You can set a cap on how much you want to spend so you control your budget.  Keep your eye on this site because it could be a big source of business for services providers of all size and locale.

Craigslist.org

By now if you haven’t heard of craigslist, then you probably haven’t realized the internet is on computers yet (to quote Homer Simpson).  I wrote a little blog post about craigslist perpetuating the spread of Bed Bugs.  Don’t let that deter you from using the site (other than from buying used furniture!!) though.  Craigslist is one of the best resources there is to strum up new business.

Now here’s my theory on why this is a great resource.  Companies struggling in this economy can’t afford to hire someone on a full-time basis providing medical benefits, paying employee tax, insurance, etc.  But they have work that needs to be done on a specific project they are working on.  If they can’t afford to hire someone on full-time, they need someone to work as a 1099 contractor.  But, as many of you probably know, finding good contractors is not an easy task.  Many times the project requires some specific knowledge of the business and expertise in what they are executing.  A head-hunter is way too expensive to pay to find someone (remember they can’t even afford to hire someone on a full-time basis).  So more and more of these companies are turning to craigslist as a cost efficient and effective means of finding someone.

Go on craigslist now and look in the job postings or even the “gigs” postings.  You will find requests for all kinds of work.  Now, the trick then becomes, getting them to notice your response with the other thousands of responses they are getting.  That my friend is up to you.  I have my methods…but you’ll have to pay me to get me to reveal my secrets!!

www.Linkedin.com

Linkedin is another interesting story.  It’s probably the most successful social networking sites that targets the business audience.  When it first came out, it was just another friend connector.  I really didn’t use it that much.  But with the user base growing as large as it has combined with the upgrades and improvements they made on the site, this can be a great resource for finding business.  The job posting section is the main resource I’m referring to when finding business.  Like craigslist, businesses that can only hire on contractors on a project-by-project basis are posting their needs on Linkedin like crazy.

What’s great about Linkedin is that because you have your own profile, you have a lot more resources to utilize to sell yourself.  You can post much more than just your resume, you can link to websites of projects you worked on, list organizations your involved in, and simply paint a picture of who you are as a business person.  Let’s face it, we’ve all had instances of working with someone that was an “expert” but miserable to work with.  With Linkedin, this can be avoided.

There’s also a feature that allows you have people “recommend” you.  This can range from friends to family to colleagues to previous clients.  And nothing is a better testimony of the quality of your work than a client success story…written by the client!  Not only is this a great feature to have when seeking work, it’s almost a necessity.  I see a lot of the posts out there noting that they prefer candidates with strong recommendations.

You will face the same challenges as you did with craigslist:  Thousands of people reply to job postings.  So again you have to be creative in your ways to get through to that person reviewing all these replies.  And again…no I won’t share my secret!!

So there are a few ways I wanted to share with the world on how I strum up business.  It’s a tough world out there now and we all need to love and support each other so that we all make it out on top when the economy (and it will I promise) turns around.