The Small Biz Book started off as a mini-course, but I wanted to cut costs and deliver a usable tool to help small businesses everywhere, so I turned it into a downloadable book. And to be honest, as a professional writer, I felt more comfortable doing it this way!

The book takes you step by step through the process of writing a book.

Why would you want to write a book?

“I have enough to do creating products, talking to customers and spending a crazy amount of time – and often money – on social media posts in an attempt to spread the word. Why on earth would I spend my valuable time writing a blooming book?”

First of all, I’m not talking here about a 500 page novel, the book you are about to write is:

quick and easy
totally about your business
completely free to create
and makes a wonderful promotional tool to help you get off the social media ads hamster wheel.

Many big companies and corporations produce their own books, catalogues and magazines (think in-flight for example) and there’s no reason small businesses can’t do that too. You may say “but the big corps have gazillions of staff they can give the job to”, and yes that would be true. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the finished product is any good (think in-flight for example!)

The big boys also have huge advertising budgets which means that social media and other media platforms will favour them and get their ads in front of eyeballs before their smaller budget customers. Annoying, I know, but that’s business.

Also, the dreaded algorithms change with no warning, and the powers-that-be can drop your ad, even your whole social media presence at the drop of a hat. This isn’t scaremongering. It’s just a fact and the more you can protect yourself against having all your eggs in one basket stomped on, the better.

So back to the book…..

A book of your business can be used in a couple of ways;

• as a lead magnet – a giveaway to encourage new email subscribers
• as a free gift for customers

and you could, perhaps, even sell it! But for now, we’ll concentrate on a promotional tool. I would suggest using your book as a giveaway OR a lead magnet, but not both. You can always make a second version if you decide to at a later date.

The book itself will be predominantly about you and your business, and because you’re the author, you choose what to include.

I’ve created a couple of test books about businesses I know nothing about and found they took around 8 hours each to complete. I can’t guarantee you will finish your book in eight hours but you may also finish it in half the time.

Work on it for half an hour every day and it’ll soon be a viable product to add to your portfolio, whether as a free giveaway or a saleable item.

Only 30 minutes! How easy is it to lose 30 minutes or more scrolling through social media posts?!

The Small Biz Book is broken down into seven easy step-by-step tasks

Read through the whole book once – don’t worry it’s a quick read 🙂 and then go back and work on the tasks from Step One.
You’ll find a couple of example books at the end; one for a service business and one for a product business.

Use these as templates if you like. They’re designed as a four chapter book with your own brand or style in mind.

Copy how they’re laid out and change what you need to suit your small business. If you have a better idea, go for it!

Creating your own book will give you extra business kudos, attract more customers and develop connections with your existing customers. And without spending an extra penny!

You’ll need a laptop, PC or tablet with Word or an equivalent software – as long as you can export as a pdf you’re good. You’ll also want to add some pictures of your products/business. You probably already have them, but if they’re only on your phone, send them to your laptop ready to pop into the book. 🙂

Okay, let’s get on this. The Small Biz Book is available as a pdf at Etsy right now for less than a fiver (£5).

The Small Biz Book at Etsy

Supporting small business always.

Happy Writing!

Linda x

P.S. I’ve been commissioned by a couple of big publishers and can provide a book-writing service if you’d like to go down that route. Get in touch if you want to discuss having your book written for you. But, honestly, as a small business, you may want to keep your costs down and this little adventure of writing your own book is the way to do it!