Free advertising for business owners

My daughter turned three on Saturday.  I’ve been feeling a bit sad about how quickly she is growing but thankfully before I was able to get too nostalgic, the list of things I had to do for her birthday party in the park entered my head and I went into “let’s achieve this” mode.

Fast forward a few hours and the party was in full swing, the weather was great (thank God) and I was surrounded by lots of little people running around playing and laughing.  There were a few parents of her little friends that I hadn’t met and as I did the rounds and introduced myself I felt knew the inevitable question was coming……..”what do you do?”  I think I’ve mentioned here before that I’m not a massive fan of this question.  The most direct answer is “I’m an accountant” and the response to that is generally one of awkward silence.  Renae tells people she is an “excellent accountant” or something similar.  I like her style because no doubt she gets a laugh.

At business bootcamp, the marketing guru discussed this exact situation.  He sees this question as an advertising/growth opportunity which was really interesting for me as I don’t generally view my meet n greets with other parents as a way to grow my business.  His take was that if you are asked “what do you do?” you need to have an answer that is engaging and encourages further discussion.  This in turn helps you to not only promote yourself but your business which can only increase income and drive business success.  Through general conversation, you can grow your business – you just have to know what to say.

So my new response when people ask me what I do?

I help people just like you meet their tax obligations while paying the least amount possible.

Well, that’s Winno’s recommendation for me to say anyway – I’m still a work in progress.