Build your business on a book

by Catherine MacCoun

My own business took off when I faced an inconvenient fact. Most of my clients were self-employed consultants, and they kept wanting me to write them brochures. People don’t hire consultants on the basis of a brochure. People don’t even read brochures.
            I thought these clients would be relieved to be talked out of such a pointless expenditure, but actually they seemed rather downcast. For the independent professional, working out of a home office, glitzy sales literature may be the most solid physical evidence that their enterprise actually exists. On paper at least, the solo entrepreneur can appear to be as big and as firmly established as the corporate competition. Even if they convince no one else, brochures help independent professionals to believe in themselves. Recommending that my clients do without one was a bit like telling them to show up for a sales presentation in their underwear.
            That’s when it dawned on me: what these clients needed were books. A book actually demonstrates what a brochure can only claim: that its author is an expert. A bestselling book can catapult the solo entrepreneur to the top of a crowded competitive field, and form the foundation of a business empire. The author’s name becomes a brand. (Think of Tom Peters, Suze Orman, and Steven Covey.) But a book needn’t be a bestseller to bolster its author’s credibility. Authors are just naturally assumed to be authorities. Even a book that sells very modestly can launch a flourishing solo career.
             Take Work Less, Make More, for example. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect its author, the late Jennifer White, spent more to promote it than she ever earned in royalties. Though young and rather sketchily qualified, she set out to establish herself as an executive coach—a profession in which it is notoriously difficult to attain a foothold. Her book did the trick: within a few years, her coaching practice had grown into a national franchise. This had less to do with the number of copies sold than with Ms. White’s genius for converting readers into customers for spin-off products and services: newsletters, workshops, toolkits, coaching sessions and franchise licenses.
            Think of a book as a marketing device, rather than a source of profit in and of itself. It serves as a prop for all your other promotional activities. It gives you a reason to send out press releases, and gives journalists a reason to interview you. It lures visitors to your website and becomes your tag line whenever you announce a seminar, present at a convention or make a public appearance. These speeches, seminars and presentations—and the potential clients they attract—are how you will actually make your money.
            Books are an especially congenial marketing strategy for people who dislike self-promotion. Instead of writing hype—or hiring someone to write it for you—you write about a subject that interests you. In the process, you further develop your knowledge and ideas, and become more articulate about what you do. The book proves to you—as well as to its readers—that you really do know what you’re talking about. Some clients report that their business starts to take off even before the book is published, because the process of writing has fired their enthusiasm and enhanced their self-confidence.
            If the idea appeals to you, check out the articles listed at right to learn more.