Book Yourself Solid
The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
by Michael Port · first published 2006
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical guide to finding and winning clients for freelancers and consultants, with exercises for building a steady pipeline of services work. Suits self-employed people new to sales and marketing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Book Yourself Solid-now in paperback-is a complete instructional guide for startingn and growing a successful service business. It gives you simple, yet effective techniques for creating relentless demand and endless leads. It includes more than 200 proven marketing strategies for attracting new clients, earning more referrals, and building profitable, long-lasting professional relationships. If you want to take your service business to the next level, start here and Book Yourself Solid.
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…product at $300 is much higher than if you sell a $20 ebook. Hence, all other things being equal, it's better to start with a lower priced first product. That's also something explained very well in the Book Yourself Solid book (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing...). You first need to build trust with free stuff, then cheap education products, then more and more expensive products or services…
on “Lessons from My Almost Failed Launch” ↗…Freelancers podcast covers a large swath of language independent freelancing knowledge: http://rubyfreelancers.com/ They highly recommend two books for freelancers, "Get Clients Now!" by CJ Hayden, and "Book Yourself Solid" by Michael Port. The Hayden book, in particular, might be viewed as agile marketing, so developers can feel right at home.
on “Ask HN: How does an experienced freelancer get work?” ↗Book Yourself solid. Very interesting if you're a freelancer or building products. I'm 1/3 through the book. Goes a lot into how to create trust and how to adjust your sales and marketing based on the trust you've created.
on “Ask HN: What interesting books are you reading now?” ↗…spending time with. So a good place to start is to think about what sorts of organisations you want to be with, or who you want to be with rather than what you want to do. A nice book which might help is "Book yourself Solid" by Michael Port. It's mostly about how to run a services & consulting business, but he has some early chapters going through exercises that make you think about what you want to do. Perhaps the world…
on “Ask HN: My company has been acquired and I'm kicked out. What should I do now?” ↗Random advice, perhaps, but purchase Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port and do the work therein (there's a workbook and such). It will help with the cold sales as well.
on “Ask HN: How to learn to sell?” ↗…doesn't work that way. Customers will reach out to you with some generic work that they want done "because I know you know NodeJS" even when you say you specialise in something. A good first book to read: "Book yourself Solid" by Michael Port.
on “Ask HN: What is your experience in tech consulting?” ↗…antiquated, but talks about what's important in getting your firm going and how to think about your work's impact on your client. (https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Consulting-Alan-Weiss...) [2] Book Yourself Solid by Micheal Port talks about the best ways to build these client relationships that will result in trust. (https://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketin...) [3] Double Your Freelancing…
on “Ask HN: How do I start my own consulting firm?” ↗I agree, specialize at all costs. Reading “Book Yourself Solid” and doing the exercises was incredibly helpful to me. Good luck! There’s a learning curve to sales and marketing just like engineering but we all believe in you! :D
on “Ask HN: How to get clients for a new, small software agency?” ↗Book Yourself Solid Started sometime last year, haven't touched it in months. Westward Ho been meaning to read it since I was about 10 years old and this spring I remembered I had a 100 year-old copy that's been sitting…
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading, since when?” ↗…true, many people completely ignore marketing, and I did for a while. Now I'm learning, I'm getting books on it and try to fix my deficiencies. I'll write on the blog about it. At the moment I'm reading "Book yourself solid" from Michael Port: http://www.bookyourselfsolid.com I also have another book I just bought in the pipeline: http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com/the-blueprint I'll have a look at the book you recommended,…
on “My Journey Starts Here” ↗