Is there anything more important than visibility to the solo entrepreneur?  Your first reaction might be… yeah, sales.  That would be putting the cart before the horse.  People can’t do business with you if they don’t know about you.  It starts being visible.

Solo entrepreneurs can’t afford to be the best kept secret in town.  You need to be seen and be heard.  It’s not that business owners don’t know that.  There are just so many options, it can be hard to know where to start and how to stay focused, especially if you don’t have a marketing plan.

Here are 3 things you can do right now to increase your visibility:

Write an article.  They say content is king and writing content is one way to establish yourself as an expert.   Think of all the mileage you can get out of one article.  You can post it on your blog, you can re-post the blog on your social media pages and groups, you can put it in your newsletter, and you can post it to article directories.  If you write one article per week by the end of a year you will have a very nice sized library.  The possibilities are endless once you have your library built up.

Interact on social media.  Are you just posting all the time or are you taking time to respond to other people’s posts?  Being seen isn’t always about promoting your products and services.  In fact, you will gain credibility.  There’s a lot of promoting on in social media so it isn’t to hard to stand out from the crowd.  Start an actual conversation in the groups you belong to on Facebook and LinkedIn.  Ask questions, find out what other people think, and reply to other people.  The more your name shows up in the comments the more you build your visibility.  Focus on contributing quality comments.

Get involved.  Are you going to any networking events this week?  Make it a point to introduce yourself to other guests in either an official or unofficial capacity.   Talk to the person in charge of running the meeting and find out if they need help.  Many networking groups rely on volunteers to help greet and lead table discussions.  Most of them will give you a special badge to wear indicating that you’re someone in the know and will usually give you a shout out at the meeting.  Your there anyway, why not take advantage of the opportunity to get extra visibility?

My encouragement for you is that you will pay attention to how visible you are this week and implement 3 new avenues for visibility.  Be seen, be heard, and don’t be the best kept secret in town. Remember, you can achieve whatever you believe as long as you are willing to work for it!

Liz Uram is the owner of The Coach & Mentor Group.  She has a variety of products and services to help solo entrepreneurs implement their big ideas.  Visit The Coach & Mentor Group to get free resources.