There’s no doubt that LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool – over 575 million people use it, more than 260 million of them on a monthly basis and of those, an extraordinary 40% access it every day.1 Last year, in 2019, LinkedIn made it easier for contractors to promote themselves to prospective employers by listing their services on their profile. The ‘open for business’ initiative proved successful with 130,000 service providers and freelancers opting in across the US. As a result, LinkedIn decided to roll out the feature globally. This feature offers a massive opportunity for you to secure work right around Australia and even overseas by promoting your skillset. But you’ll also need to brand yourself appropriately on LinkedIn and use techniques like your professional profile and search engine optimisation to really get yourself known and connected with the right people. Once you’ve got your profile right, you can use LinkedIn in a number of ways to build new business contacts and secure new contracts. Here are just a few examples of its business-building potential: Start a conversation – Initiate conversations with potential clients you’re connected to via LinkedIn Messaging which opens a chatbox on your existing screen for more relaxed, live back and forth conversation than an email allows. Find new contracts – Use LinkedIn ProFinder to connect with prospective clients. You’ll need to apply to use this service but once approved, ProFinder matches your skills with LinkedIn members requesting service providers. View requests and submit proposals from your LinkedIn inbox. Grow your profile and credibility – As your business grows, and with every successfully completed project, be sure to seek relevant endorsements and recommendations from happy clients or professional supporters. Showcase your work – Use LinkedIn’s work samples feature to create a portfolio of the projects you’ve completed that prospective clients can review. Upload images, videos, documents and presentations. Regularly post to your feed with case studies, photos and third party short articles that your clients will be interested to read. Talk about the projects you have underway or completed – describe how you overcame challenges, results achieved and how the project met your client’s objectives. Win an award? Make sure you upload a photo to highlight your achievement. Share your expertise – Write an article that demonstrates your expertise in your area of work and upload it to LinkedIn Pulse – simply click the “Write an article” button on the status update box to get there. You can also use Slideshare – LinkedIn’s version of PowerPoint – to share data-heavy articles and blogs. How to Manage Your Growing Contract Business Now that you’re well on your way to securing more contracts for the new year, you’ll need to consider how best to manage them. At the Ayers Group, we can help you with all your contract management – from setting up contracts through to invoicing, payroll and even putting you in touch with experts to finance assets and grow your wealth. Talk to an expert from the Ayers Group today.