Take Your Startup Viral

With the Help of MARIA

These entrepreneurs grew their businesses by teaching

others the tricks of their trade. You can, too.

Establish Your Expertise,

and Don't be Afraid to Share it
Passi says entrepreneurs can establish themselves as experts in

a given field by carving out a niche in already-crowded marketplaces.

Once they find a specialty, she says entrepreneurs should prove their

expertise in that field by publishing books and papers on the topic.

She has written a book, Winning the Toughest Customer,

The Essential Guide to Selling to Women, and has written articles that

appear in publications spanning the globe.

"Medelia is the leader in teaching others how to sell to women,"

Passi says. "There's no one else who specializes in it. I'm it.

Once you really determine what you niche is,

you can make sure you're known as the expert in whatever that niche is."

Nazarian, too, found that sharing her expertise in two books

about copywriting helped establish her as an expert in her field.

Still, she says she had to get past the idea that she'd be putting

herself out of work by teaching others a skill she got paid to do.

"Once I got past the fear aspect,

I realized that the folks who are taking me up on the do-it-yourself

copywriting are the clients who are never going to hire a copywriter,"

says Nazarian, who still takes on copywriting work herself.

"So it's not like I downsized myself out of a client so much as

I am serving a group that wasn't being served before."

Know how to package yourself. Nazarian says she quickly

learned she had to market her training as simple and user-friendly,

not academic and intense. Her first book was titled

Copywriting 101 for Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs,

Coaches and Consultants. Her second: One Minute Copywriter.

"I took what sounded cumbersome and school-like and made it

sound easy, quick and do-able," she says.

"I'm into providing really quick ways people can get good copy."

Passi says developing a simple seven-step sales

process and branding her program "WomenCertified"

has helped crystallize the complex art of selling to female consumers.

"You need to have a program you can duplicate," Passi says.

"There are a lot of people with an expertise.

The question is whether they can transfer that knowledge and

create a franchise around it."

Teach Other Teachers
For Passi, creating a franchise around her knowledge meant training

a cadre of assistants to teach clients.

She now employs 35 "specialists" who are trained to teach clients her

"WomenCertified" program, which lessens her workload and helps

net more clients than she could on her own.

"I wish someone had told me years ago that it's better to create

a product around your expertise rather than try to be

a one-man-band and blanket world with your knowledge,"

Passi says.

Hall, too, says she benefited personally and professionally

from training hundreds of "smarties" to teach clients

about social media and internet marketing.

"No matter how you cut it, there are only so many hours each

day you can be working with clients,"

Hall says. "If you don't package your services, you will run yourself

exhausted--and cap your potential revenue."

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