By Lynne Williams

Are you sending a sales pitch when connecting with people on LinkedIn, or are you making an effort to start building a relationship first? Hopefully, it’s the latter.

As a self-employed sole practitioner, I am a member of the “job seeker” club with the millions of others searching for jobs. However, I am a job seeker of resume and LinkedIn clients, rather than the full-time W-2 job, until I complete my doctoral dissertation. Then, I will seek opportunities in higher ed career services.

Because of the “corona times” we are in, I find that many people are sending me pitches on their financial services, franchise opportunities, animated videos, social media services, transformational coaching, etc. and they don’t even know me. They could be across the country or a few continents, and they are already pitching me in their first communique after we connect.

PLEASE DON’T DO THAT ON LINKEDIN!

If you are desperate for work, explore LinkedIn’s Profinder to register yourself as a freelance or independent contractor. Although I am registered on it, I have never processed any client work through it, as all my work comes from word of mouth referrals.

There are groups on LinkedIn for freelancers, like The FlexJobs Group, so explore that and see if there are any opportunities for you there.

If you really want a very comprehensive list for W-2 remote jobs, freelance links, and other resources that took many hours to put together, you could support my local nonprofit and help yourself at the same time. Ensure you save the link in the automated receipt that comes from our Salesforce immediately upon purchasing as a Bronze member (or apply as a BENG member if you are a mid to senior-level or C-Suite or a business owner). For 9-½ to 13 cents a day, you can’t beat this investment in your career, and all the time it will save, as the research has been done for you.

As a solopreneur, you need some kind of platform to get your “one to many”, so read this Harvard Business Review article on The Best Business Model in the World, and perhaps you will gain some insights. Speaking of business models, don’t miss Chester & Delaware County SCORE’s upcoming October 8th workshop on Leanstack Canvas Business Plan on a Page. I’ll be there!

Make sure that you use keywords on what you do, rather than stating CEO or President of XYZ Company, in your LinkedIn headline. Think logically about what someone would type in Google to find someone like you. They would use keywords because they have never even heard of XYZ Company before.

Since LinkedIn has recently expanded the character count to 220 characters in your headline (from 120), take advantage of using more keywords to explain what it is that you do.

Another thing you can do in the Experience section is click on “Self-Employed” under the Employment Type drop-down rather than leave it blank. The other options, just for the record, are Full-time, Part-time, Freelance, Contract, Internship, Apprenticeship, or Seasonal.

Make sure you build a Company Page for your business. Read here and here how to do that.

Need to learn more about LinkedIn? Register with the Chester County Library for the Saturday, September 19th LinkedIn Part 1 of 3 series starting up again. Can’t beat three hours of FREE training as a library patron! I am celebrating my seventh year at the Chester County Library this month as a LinkedIn instructor!

Missed the previous LinkedIn article on Speaker WOW, LinkedIn, & Get Weird Click here.

>>> If you have an interest in attending a workshop on Sat Oct 3rd and 10th, 8:30 AM – 12 PM, on Racism & Sexism in Society and the Workplace, please send an email to lynne@aroundtheclockexecs.com as I have a workshop presenter committed to those dates and space is limited.

Upcoming September Online Zoom Events

Register as noted on the events tab on the website and join our meetup (see step one of this Google doc). To attend the speaker meetings for free for a year, become a Bronze or BENG member. Your membership or sponsorship supports our nonprofit to help job seekers in career transition and self-employed and employed with career management.

• 9/14 Career Success Group Networking Meeting
• 9/14 Use Your Strengths to Generate Results in Your Job Search
• 9/15 NAILING the Remote Interview: How to Look, Sound, and Be Your Best
• 9/15 Building Autonomy in the 21st Century KNowledge Economy
• 9/15 Business Executives Networking Group (BENG)
• 9/16 PowerThinking Resiliency Building Call
• 9/16 Contract Law for the “Soon to be Employed” & “Soon to be Self-Employed”
• 9/16 Business Executives Networking Group (BENG)
• 9/17 Nonprofit Career Network Monthly Meeting
• 9/18 Interviewing Techniques with The Interview Doctor
• 9/19 Linkedin Part 1 of 3 Three Hour Workshop
• 9/21 Career Success Group Networking Meeting
• 9/21 Virtual Job Seeker Support Meeting
• 9/21 Business Executives Networking Group (BENG)

________________________________________________________________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lynne Williams, Ed.D. Candidate (she/her/hers) is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a nonprofit with over 6300 members and alumni. Contact Lynne by phone at 484-393-2951, email at director@greatcareersphl.org, on social media @GreatCareersPHL and #GreatCareersPHL and connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lynnewilliams. Read our SCORE Success Story as a 2020 Small Business Achievement Award Winner!

.________________________________________________________________________________________________