In order to build our businesses, it’s important to consider whether it makes sense for you to join a professional group. Examples of professional groups include:

• Your local Chamber of Commerce or Women’s Chamber of Commerce
• A doula association or birth network
• Your certifying organization such as DONA - some communities create local chapters of larger organizations
• Business groups that form to offer education and networking opportunities

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Image by churl via Flickr

One way of marketing yourself and your birth business is to write articles that could attract potential clients. On Day 22, I talked about Writing as one of the strategies one can use to market a business. Writing gives business owners visibility and credibility.

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I realized I probably should have started off the week with this post. Well, better late than never, right?

When designing your website or marketing materials, what should you be focusing on? What does everyone want to know when looking for a new product or service?

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So you’ve worked on your elevator speech and you have a powerful statement about what you do for your ideal client. What will you say if the response you receive is "Tell me more"?

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This is an article by C.J. Hayden, MCC, reprinted with permission.

If you’ve been in business for more than five minutes, you already know that the best way for any self-employed professional to get clients is by referral. But the process of building sufficient word of mouth to produce the number of clients you need can seem daunting. You can count on some referrals from your existing clients and people who already know you, but that’s a fairly limited number. How can you start getting referrals from people outside your circle?

Actually, a better question is how to increase the size of your circle to include more people. In order to refer you business, people need to know, like, and trust you. They want to be sure that you will take good care of the clients they send you. For that, they’d like to be better acquainted than just hearing your name.

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