Intellectual Capital:
The first law of Physics: You can't be in more than one place at one time.
As a small business, you make your living sharing your expertise with clients. But you only have so many hours in the day, which limits the number of clients you can work with -- which, in turn, limits your income. But there's a way to get around the limitations of time and space: make your intellectual property available to a much larger audience by turning it into a tangible product -- a book, a white paper, a piece of software, anything you can produce once but sell many times.
When I suggest this strategy to many business owners, their response is: Who, me? How can I, a humble service provider, create a product that people will actually want to buy?
You not only can, but you should. Transforming your intellectual capital into a product is a great way to market your services, it's potentially profitable, and it's way easier than you might think.
If you make your living independently, you know something other people don't. All we're talking about here is creating a product that puts that knowledge in some kind of concrete form. The only requirement is that you create something that isn't specific to one client -- that can be used and, therefore, bought by more than one customer.
What's In It For You?
One big benefit of turning your intellectual capital into something you can sell: You expand your market. Many potential clients, particularly small businesses, may not be able to afford your services. Turning your expertise into a product lets you serve such customers. Although you make less per sale than you would for in-person service, you can reach a much wider market -- some of whom may later decide they want to hire you. It's a great way for prospects to get to know you before they hire you.
You also build credibility. Have you noticed that the most respected (and highest paid) pros in your field have their names on books, articles, and other information products? Having their names on a dust jacket, the byline of a white paper, has a way of convincing people they know what they're talking about. That added prestige has a way of increasing both their hourly rates and their market visibility.
Last, but not least, "productizing" your intellectual capital can generate extra income independent of your most precious resource: time.
Write About What You Know
When it comes to creating an information product based on what you already know, your possible subjects divide into two broad categories.
First, you can create a product based on a subject you know particularly well. Tech journalist Dylan Tweney, for example, had done a series of stories on ecommerce. He turned that cumulative knowledge into a white paper on the role of content on ecommerce sites, which he sells independently, much as one of the big research firms might sell one of its reports. If you're a graphic artist, you might create icons that people can download from your website. If you're a programmer, you might create a particularly clever bit of shareware.
The second approach: Create something that teaches people how to do what you do. David Garfinkel, president of Overnight Marketing, a direct marketing service in San Francisco, is another good example. He writes direct mail copy for a living. But he can't write copy for everyone who might like to hire him. So he developed a series of audiocassettes and a workbook that share his tips for writing good copy. "I give them what they need to know to learn what I do."
Multimedia Options
What specific form should your expertise take? That depends largely on the kind of intellectual property you're trying to sell. If you're producing a mass-market version of the products you create for individual clients -- a piece of software, a graphics file, a market report, etc. -- it'll take whatever form your work usually takes. But if you're trying to teach buyers how to do for themselves what you do for your one-on-one customers, you can put what you know into a new form.
Books give your credibility the greatest boost. If your name's on a book jacket, most people think, you must know something.
Unfortunately, getting your name on that jacket is also the hardest info-product strategy to pursue.
While they don't have the prestige of books, workbooks , booklets , newsletters, white papers, and tip sheets are all easier and cheaper to write, design, and produce.
Booklets, for example, can be mass-produced for less than a dollar each and sold for three to 10 times that. Workbooks are good for how-to topics, because of their interactivity. Newsletters, in print or electronic form, are good if your information needs to be updated and sold periodically. White papers and tip sheets are great for conveying the results of research you've already done; an environmental consultant I know provides a list of businesses that sell office furniture made from recycled materials to environmentally conscious office managers.
You can also package this same information electronically, as e-books and downloadable PDFs, which you can then make available as a download from your website or via email. The big advantage of the electronic versions is that you don't pay for printing, packaging, postage, or (for now) sales tax, so the cost of producing and distributing them is close to zero. Readers also get near-instant delivery.
If you make your living making presentations, you might consider producing audiotapes or videotapes . The only problem with this strategy is that both formats demand relatively complex production resources. Of the two, audiotapes are the easiest and cheapest (less than a dollar each) to produce. Videos are much more expensive to create (which drives up the selling price) and aren't always guaranteed sellers. Proceed with caution.
If you're going to create a product like those you create for individual clients (a software application, graphics file, report, etc.), you don't need us to tell you how to do it. But if you're going to create something you haven't done before (a book, white paper, PDF file, etc.), here are a few key guidelines for making sure that what you know is effectively translated into something you can sell.
Pick Your Format
The first, most obvious step is to decide which medium to exploit. Assuming you're not going to create the same old work product you always do, what kind of intellectual merchandise makes the most sense for your particular expertise? The answer depends on several factors.
Next, think about your budget. If your funds are limited, self-publishing a book or producing a videotape aren't really viable options. You might want to consider a booklet or an audiotape instead.
Finally, think of your schedule. Books and videos and, to a lesser extent, audiotapes take time to produce. If you want to get your products on the street soon, better to consider something short and easy to produce -- like a booklet or tip sheet. Be realistic and, when in doubt, start small.
Select Your Target
Identify your market and figure out what they'd pay to know. Targeting specific "niche" markets is the best way to go. Not only is this more effective and less expensive than trying to "go wide," you'llbuild a reputation as an authority within that specific audience -- a reputation you can exploit for future publications.
Invest some time upfront studying your potential marketplace. Do enough research on your chosen niche to know who'll buy your product, why, how much they'll spend (and won't), how they'll hear about your product, and what your promotion must say to get them to buy.
Spend some quality time in your local library's reference section. Look to the Encyclopedia of Associations to find out which industry groups to target. Look at the Oxford Directory of Newsletters and Bacon's Media Source to find out what they're reading, and scan the Net for sites your target market frequents.
Contact associations, editors of industry newsletters and magazines, and others who are intimately connected to your market. Talk to your existing clients, to find out what sorts of information they could use.
The point is, you should have a very clear picture of who your audience is and how you'll sell them your product before you start to produce it.
Marketing & Selling
No matter what format you choose, you'll have to spend some time and effort to let folks know your products are available and worth buying. Needless to say, you need to price them so they're profitable. Know how much each copy costs, then charge more. Ask around and study the marketplace to find out what other, similar products are going for. The more valuable and exclusive the information and the lower the self-promotion quotient, the more you can charge.
When marketing your products, emphasize the benefits they deliver rather than the steps or processes within the products themselves. If you've created a booklet on "Ten Ways To Organize Your Office," emphasize the results: "gain an extra hour a day" or "never lose another phone number."
The best way to move your products without spending much money is to go "viral": encourage word of mouth. Announce your products to your existing client base. List them on your website. Create flyers and include them in all your mailings. Take samples with you to networking events, trade shows, and speaking engagements.
Cross promote products through workshops (yours and others'). Solicit volume sales to trade associations and business groups within your chosen niche. Write a press release and distribute it to the media your customers consume -- industry newsletters, trade associations, newspaper business sections, radio, and television outlets.
Finally, don't stop with one product. Once you distill your expertise into a book, booklet, white paper, or audiocassette, look for ways to expand your product line. Go deeper into a subject with products that command more money. Round out an expensive product offering with less-costly reports or tip sheets. Do everything you can to get all your valuable intellectual capital out on the streets, where people can buy it. It's a great way to break the "time trap," get some new clients, and generate some extra income in the process.
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Copyright © 2003 Steven Van Yoder
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