Meet 10 new people in your area with 1 connection

LinkedIn can be a great space for meeting potential new clients in your community. Meeting one new person in your service area means possibly connecting with ten more, since that one new potential lead knows at least ten more friends who may be interested in your services.

Let's connect on LinkedIn >>  Approach the platform with professional politeness by including a note sharing how you know me! 

LinkedIn is a platform hosting hundreds of your target market customers. For you, it will be an online resume of your life in business. 

The course Personal Chef Business in 10 Weeks houses an entire lesson on generating leads from LinkedIn. Here's a snippet from the course on how to set up your profile.

Step 1: You’ll begin by creating or updating your LinkedIn profile.

Your profile should project a professional image and be well written. It’s okay to ask for a second opinion or a helping hand if writing is not one of your strengths.

We’ll start with something easy like uploading a photo. Your profile photo is the point of first impression. It should be current, taken within the past twelve months, and be high enough resolution to show up as a good quality photo of your face, from shoulders up.

Don’t even consider using a blurry photo or one that has someone cropped out. Also, avoid using avatars or business logos as it gives off the impression you’re hiding from the public. A photo of you smiling is ideal as it will help you appear more approachable to customers.

Step 2: Your headline is a “mini pitch” of 120 characters that sells you, your value and your services when a customer lands on your profile.

A simple example would be, “Personal Chef helping families eat healthy dinners while saving them time.” The statement includes the benefit to the customer, which is that they save time. If a customer reads this then thinks that they’d like to save time and also eat healthy, they’re likely going to continue reading your profile and click on your website.

Step 3: Your LinkedIn summary or “about” section is the 2,000 character text box at the top of your LinkedIn profile, just below your photo.

It gives the reader an overview of your professional life. Whether you use it to highlight your biggest achievements or show off your personality, the summary is your chance to put your best self out there. It strengthens the first impression a visitor has when landing on your profile.

In this section, you’ll write about what sets you apart from other personal chefs in your community. This could be talking about special skills you have, why you love what you do, or unique knowledge you’ve brought to your industry through life experience.

Step 4: The Featured section is where you can showcase work samples that you’re most proud of.

Not only can you feature your best food photography, but you can also upload videos, published articles, or blog posts that may be of interest to your readers. It’s a place to show off your amazing professional accomplishments.

Step 5: Finally, to complete your LinkedIn profile, you’ll fill in your work experience and education.

Share only those jobs that relate to your current business. Figure out a way to tie each of your past job experiences to your current position. Working at the local coffee shop for two years may have taught you about business finance and accounting as well as how a business operates using systems.

Work experience doesn’t need to be written out in boring fact stating phrases. If you’re a good writer, try writing a short story about how that coffee shop job helped in creating your dream of one day owning your own business.

Be sure to also include any clubs or volunteer work you participated in as it relates to your current position.

Step 6: Next, you’ll have the opportunity to list web links as they pertain to your business.

For now, you’ll include your business website, then come back later to add business social media platforms such as your Facebook business page.

Finally, set your LinkedIn profile to “public” and claim a unique URL for your profile, preferably using your domain name as part of the URL.

Let me know if these LinkedIn profile tips were helpful to you. More about creating a winning profiles can be found inside the course Personal Chef Business in 10 Weeks.

Best Wishes & Much Success to You, Virginia Stockwell

Learn more about the complete course here >>