7 Ways A Book Can Build Your Business
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If you’re running a business, you should be writing a book—especially now, when the economy has been turned upside down by a global pandemic. As professionals and entrepreneurs adapt to the new normal, many of the same old challenges remain, like finding new customers. Except it just got harder. Whether you’re a consultant, coach, lawyer, or real estate agent, a nonfiction book about your area of expertise will increase client inquiries, build your contact list, and generate income opportunities.
You don’t need to be a great writer to write a great book. The most important requirement is that you know something your customers don’t know. When you share that information in an easy-to-consume format, it increases your name recognition and builds a connection with the reader. Your book makes it easier for someone to take the next step and reach out to you.
Here are seven powerful ways that writing a book will help build your business.
1. Writing a book creates hidden opportunities
About a year after my first book was published, I received a phone call from the United States Justice Department. One of their devoted employees had read my book and developed a training program for thousands of their staff. This person was thanking me for the inspiration I had provided. My first reaction was to hire a lawyer and sue the government for the unauthorized use of my intellectual property. Then my wife, who is an attorney herself, reminded me that the Justice Department has about 9,500 lawyers on staff. I quickly reconsidered my lawsuit.
Instead of taking legal action, I found an unexpected opportunity to address probation and pretrial offices around the country. For the next several years, the United States Justice Department was the single biggest client of my speaking and training business. I made a lot of great contacts and developed an appreciation for the dedicated employees in district courts across America. It was good for my business and good for me. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t written a book.
Books open doors that you don’t even know exist. They get shared between friends. People blog, tweet, and post about them. They’re given as gifts. Journalists will search for the keywords that your book happens to capture in its title or subtitle, and then they write an article that mentions you. Writing a book will uncover opportunities to grow your business—opportunities that won’t be found on your marketing plan because they’re hidden.
2. A book establishes your expertise
You run the best landscaping business in your area. You know everything there is to know about the local soil structure and drainage. You can plant shrubs that deer won’t destroy. You understand how microclimates vary from one part of town to another. You know it all. But potential customers don’t know that. They don’t necessarily believe it just because you say it on your website. So show them; write a book. Tell stories about some of the really interesting problems you’ve solved for others like them.
You’re an expert. It will be easy enough to prove it once the customer has a chance to work with you, but first they have to decide to become a client. Make it easier for them to reach that decision. Let them download the ebook from your website. (This also captures email addresses and permission to stay in touch.) Your book doesn’t have to win the Pulitzer Prize. It just has to tell your story so customers can see that you are the expert.
3. A book builds your brand
You’re not the only financial planner on the planet. There’s probably at least one other real estate agent in your community competing for your customers. Those other mobile pet groomers can probably afford the fuel to drive across town and service your neighbour's cat. Potential new clients have many options. Why should they think of calling you? The answer: your brand.
Many business owners believe that their profession alone implies a brand. But that’s not the case. Simply hanging out your shingle as a lawyer only tells the public that you have the qualifications to address legal problems. A brand tells us why someone should pick you instead of another attorney. Imagine searching online and finding a book called The Stress-Free Divorce. “Stress-free" implies ease, guidance, and support; before you even click to buy the book, you already know what this author/lawyer’s brand stands for. You might even skip purchasing the book and go straight to the contact page because the brand is what matters.
Writing a book helps you to clarify your brand and then it then becomes your brand statement. Through it, you get to choose exactly how you want to position your business to a world of new clients and customers. Books work so beautifully as branding vehicles because people trust what’s in a book more than what’s on a website. That’s because a book is social proof. You tell real stories about real problems that you solved in your own unique way. Writing a book builds your brand.
4. Your book can help you find the right kind of customers
Some businesses want any and every customer they can get. A grocery store doesn’t care if you’re a Silicon Valley billionaire or a part-time taxi driver. If you need milk, they’ve got it and they’ll sell it to you. But an accounting firm might specialize in certain kinds of work for businesses of a specific size. A real estate agent might only market waterfront properties or high-rise condos. The preferred client for your counselling services could be teens with eating disorders.
No one likes turning away customers, but you can’t be all things to all people. If what you’re really good at is best suited to a unique kind of client, you can attract that type of person or company with your book. This is an extension of brand building and establishing expertise; by working with the perfect kind of customer to solve very specific problems, it allows you to charge higher fees..
5. Writing a book creates a new revenue stream
You own a Mexican restaurant and the customers who come to your establishment are naturally going to be from your area. There’s not much you can do to convince someone to drive a hundred miles for your fish tacos. But if you wrote a book of recipes that included some of your family specialities, the world is suddenly your oyster, so to speak. Someone in Finland can buy a copy thanks to the miracle of self-publishing options now available to authors online. They might even open their own Mexican restaurant near the Arctic Circle. What do you care—they’re in Finland and you just made 25 bucks.
Books that cost a few dollars to print can easily sell for ten times that amount. Ebooks can be even more profitable. You can create an entirely new revenue stream that boosts your bottom line without having to hire new staff or expand your operations. In the uncertain economy of a digital world, and especially a pandemic marketplace, writing your own book can create a new avenue of relatively passive income.
6. Writing a book elevates your game
You’re great at what you do, but you could get better. Getting better translates into more business through increased referrals, improved reviews, and an uptick in recognition. But getting better often ends up on the back burner when you’re the boss. You’re too busy just doing the everyday things your operation requires.
Writing a book is an evaluative process. You have to evaluate the things you’ve done, your systems, your values, your successes, and then you decide which ones to include in the book. Something interesting happens during this evaluation. When you describe what you do on paper and reread it as you refine your writing, you start to see your business with fresh eyes. Writing a book turns you into an expert, a type of self-consultant who reviews the business from a more pragmatic and less personal perspective. You want to make sure that the book has value to the reader and doing that helps you identify areas to improve. The result is not only a better book but a better business.
Here’s an example. During the writing of one of my earlier books the editor asked me to change a chapter title that was originally called “Follow Your Passion.” He said that everyone was writing about following your passion. I needed to say the same thing in a new way, a better way. I came up with “Follow Your Compass.” It might sound like a simple semantic change, but it made all the difference in the book and differentiated me from other leadership speakers. It was a richer, deeper concept that allowed me to explore new areas for growth with clients and that helped grow my business. That particular chapter was so popular that it became the foundation for developing a new speech. I became a better speaker by writing a book. You can get better at whatever you do by telling your story to your customers.
7. Writing a book attracts disciples who spread the word
Last week I received an email from someone I met almost 20 years ago. He mentioned how much he loved one of my books. So much so that he rereads it every year. Martin is a busy coach, consultant, and workshop leader. He said that he never fails to mention my book when he’s working with a new client. Martin always has a few copies on hand and often gives them away as gifts. I had no idea that Martin had become a disciple. And it was not the first time I had heard from someone like him.
Your book might also attract people who love what you have to say. It will speak directly to them because of the kind of person they are and the type of challenges they face. It doesn’t have to be a self-help or leadership book. Any book written with care about what a person does can touch many lives and many hearts. You won’t always know what that impact is firsthand. Emails from people like Martin are the exception, but books do attract disciples, and that’s very good for your business.
Books have a multiplier effect. They take what you do and magnify the message through others who resonate with your values or your approach to your chosen profession. It’s really quite extraordinary how it works. It’s also very satisfying to know that someone else is spreading the good word about you and your work because they believe in what you do.
So, open up your laptop and start writing. The world, and your future disciples, are waiting to hear what you have to say.
Steve Donahue is a professional speaker, book coach, and the author of two bestselling nonfiction books. His works have sold over 100,000 copies and have been translated into Korean, Turkish, Russian and Greek. Steve helps new and experienced authors turn their book ideas into well-crafted publications that delight readers and inspire change. To learn more, visit his website at MyBookCoach.ca.
