As a Solopreneur, Don’t be #OpenToWork on LinkedIn. Do this instead!

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If you provide services to companies as an independent consultant or to business professionals as an executive coach, you should be using LinkedIn to help build your business. It’s an excellent tool to establish your credibility, create awareness about your expertise and services, expand your network, and of course, keep in touch with your existing connections to help foster referrals.

Although it’s a terrific platform, using LinkedIn effectively is getting more complicated as new features and tools are added. Some are useful to us as solopreneurs, others not so much. This article discusses two of the more recent LinkedIn tools that can be used as a solopreneur to help drive awareness of your services and build your pipeline of prospects.

The #OpenToWork Banner

When you are looking for new clients or additional projects, it’s tempting to put the little green #OpenToWork frame around your headshot. Surely, it’s a good thing to let the world know that you’re available, right?

Wrong. As a self-employed professional you don’t want to use the #OpenToWork banner for three reasons.

First, it implies that you’re unemployed and looking for a full-time job, which you are not; you’re just looking for additional clients or projects. The feature was created to help job-seekers be found by corporate recruiters for full-time positions, not for contract work, interim positions, or fractional roles.

Second, when you use this feature with or without the green banner, you’ll get offers targeting full-time job seekers. Just like swimming in the ocean with an open wound will attract sharks, it’s better to avoid the unwanted attention.

Third, using the green banner actually sends the wrong signal to your potential clients. Think of it from your prospect’s point of view. Would you rather hire someone who happens to be available or someone who is always in demand? You don’t want to come across as needy or desperate.

So what to do instead?

List Your Services at the Top of Your Profile

In addition to optimizing your personal profile for solopreneurship, list the services you provide at the top of your profile to quickly show the viewer that you’re available to hire.

It’s easy to do once you know how. The key is to create a free LinkedIn Service Page, which is different than a page for your business. (Though I recommend that too, so your business logo appears on your profile.) A LinkedIn Service Page is a dedicated landing page to showcase your services and business at no cost, and it allows you to receive requests for your services. (You don’t have to be a LinkedIn Premium member to do this, but there are some additional features that are only available to premium members such as adding a button to your profile to “Request Services”, or adding media to your Service Page, neither of which are very important.)

Here are the steps for creating a basic LinkedIn Service Page as a solopreneur.

  1. Click on your photo in the top menu bar, then View Profile.

  2. Click the button to Add profile section and then select Add services.

  3. Complete the set-up information.

    a. Note: You have to select the services in priority order because you can’t rearrange them once selected. Peruse the lists in the various categories first and jot down the services that apply to you. Rank your list and then actually select them in your preferred order using the Add Services tool.

    b. In the About section, give a very brief explanation of your services and links to your webpage, blog, etc. You can adapt this little formula: “I help X do Y by Z.”  For example, “I help CX Leaders create compelling customer journey maps using the DARMA™ method. Learn more at www.SeatonCX.com.”

    c. For work location, if you prefer to work only in your area then check that box. If you don’t care where the work is then select “available to work remotely,” or select both boxes.

    d. For pricing, select Contact for pricing. (For other tips about pricing, I recommend the book “Name Your Price” and PICA’s workshop listed below.)

    e. Select the checkbox to allow buyers to message you directly even if they’re not a first-degree connection.

  4. Click the Next button.

  5. Preview the information that will appear on your Service Page.

  6. Click the Publish button to make your Service Page viewable by members.

Voilà! The services should appear on the top of your profile, though you may need to refresh the page to see them. Now the world knows you’re available to be hired as a solopreneur, not an employee. 🙂

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