Selling Yourself – Knowing How to Build & Advertise Your Skills

We have previously covered a small selection of places you can search to take online courses. There are thousands of courses to choose from to learn new skills; from colleges and universities, to the Reed job site. They also vary in price – from free to thousands.

No matter your interest – makeup, languages, dog grooming or computer coding – there will be a course suitable for you.

But what if you don’t want to take a course? What if you just want to use your common sense, on top of the skills you already have?

Everyone has something they’re good at. Something you can do better than anyone else. Whether it’s public speaking, your natural flair for design, or sign language you’ve learnt from watching TV. Maybe you are a budding photographer. Perhaps your sewing skills are second to none.  You might even be the King (or Queen) of building flat pack furniture and general household maintenance.

Whatever skills you possess, knowing how to market them is key to ensuring that not only can you earn money, but you can get work. Who knows – you could even turn it into your new business!

Experience

If you have something you think you’d like to do, as either a side hustle or as a main source of income, you’re going to need experience. The more you do something, the better you become. Ask around friends, family, your local network, to reach out and see if anyone can benefit from your skill.

If you’re starting out, keep your prices low and politely ask that in exchange for your cheap rates, if they would mind writing a testimonial for you.  Word of mouth will always be the best way of generating work.

Advertise

Setting yourself up with a Facebook page is a good start, especially as its free. The best form of advertising is free advertising. Think Facebook recommendations; people are actively asking for the best, yet most reasonably priced, person for the job.

If you have a USP (unique selling point) – for example, a female handy woman, or you’re a naked cleaner (no judgement!), make sure you focus on that. That could be the difference between you and someone else getting the job.

You can also brush up on new techniques/ ways of doing your job/ skills you offer. Again, if you don’t want to do a course, then offer your skills for free, or at a discounted rate, in order to gain experience. TikTok and YouTube videos are your friend here.

Be Honest!

Never lie about your skills. Don’t say you can do things you can’t – it will become glaringly obvious when you start work, and that word of mouth reference you are after will really backfire on you. Instead, be honest about what you can do, what you can’t, and what you are and are not willing to try.