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Imagine if you could stand out from other people in your industry. Imagine if you had a dedicated marketing department working away without you having to do anything. Imagine if you could spend several hours a day with hundreds of your ideal customers explaining your product or service.

If you are a business owner, coach, consultant or entrepreneur, you will have built up assets in your business. These might be marketing materials such as business cards, brochures and fliers. They might be items of content such as blog pieces, social media posts and articles. They might be processes and systems, email lists or physical products. All of these things are important to help you grow your brand and attract new customers. But what if you could combine all of the above into one asset that would work harder for you than anything else in your toolkit?

That is what a business book can do. Below are three reasons why writing a book is the best thing you can do for your business this year – and how it will change the way you do business forever.

Trust

Trust is what makes people buy. Without it, everything you do is just noise. And the only way your potential customers are going to trust you is if they have spent time with you. Points of contact can be through social media or your website, but ideally you would spend real time with each of your leads. That isn’t physically possible, but speaking to them through your book is the next best thing. Every business owner I speak to who has a book has said they have scored new clients as a direct result of someone reading their words and beginning to trust them.

Credibility

When the media want to speak to an authority on a subject, they search for an expert. But how do they know who the expert is? Experts write books, so if you want to become an authority in your field and increase your credibility, becoming an author is the best thing you can do. You want more speaking engagements? Become an author. You want people to turn to you instead of someone else in your industry? Become the expert.

Reach

After Google and YouTube, the third most used search engine in the world is Amazon. This proves that, even in an age of bitesize online content, when people really want to discover something they want a book. And this is how a book works hardest for you. Whether it is discoverable on Amazon or you give it away at seminars, you can reach more potential clients with a book than through any other method. You won’t have to search for your clients; your clients will find you.

I have no doubt in your ability to transform your business with a book. You just have to find the time and knowledge to write it. To do this you will need three things:

•  A structure, or ‘recipe’, for your book that you can follow so you don’t go off track.
•   A tailored writing schedule that will allow you to put aside a small amount of time each day to get the job done.
• The accountability and feedback of someone else to keep you motivated.

I  have put together 10 straightforward tips for getting started with your own book at www.publishing-workshop.com/blog. Or contact me at sophie@publishing-workshop.com for a free chat, where I can tell you:

• How to work out what to write about
• How to use existing content in your book
• How to identify exactly who your ideal reader is
• How to write a ‘recipe’ for your book
• How to write a great blurb and introduction
• How to beat writer’s block
• How to use marketing strategy in your book
• How to create a writing schedule that will get your book
  written in as little as 4 months