When the economy is tight and your business gets pinched because of it, it's time to grow your client base in creative ways. Here's how you take advantage of free publicity and increase your bottom line.

This topic of free publicity is an exciting one for me. I've been on both side of the fence on this one and have seen some amazing things done with low and absolutely no budgets. This area is to discuss the strategies and realities of increasing your business on the freebie side.

There are so many creative ways you can go about building not only your business, but also establishing yourself as an expert or "go to" person in your industry. Each one of them begins with Marketing & Publicity.

Let's think outside of the box for a moment. Let's look at all of the ways you can be seen by the public and most importantly, your public. Let's also look at what you want and need your public to see when they find you. It is important that you are always adding value, whatever that may be, to your audience. Always keep in mind that you can be yesterday's news the minute you close your mouth. It all depends on what you left your adoring fans with. Ask yourself these questions:

Am I giving them value for their time?
Can they get what I have to offer anywhere else? [This answer is almost always "YES".]
What sets me apart and how can I over-deliver?
Truthfully, if I were them, would I be drawn to me or the services I offer?
What about me would make them want to know me more?
How can I show the interesting, newsworthy side of me?

The list of questions will go on as you tweak your image, but these few will definitely get the ball rolling for you because all of these things are going to matter when you put yourself out there in the public eye.

Here's a list of many of those avenues that we'll break down in future articles:

Television - Be a culinary expert on a show
Internet - Blog, Podcast, Skypecast, Tweet, Everything Social Media
Radio - Be a culinary expert on a show
Publish News & Press Releases
Publish Articles
Give Demos
Teach Classes
Volunteer your services to Church & Organization Functions
Teleseminars
Youtube & Internet Video

In today's time we are in a better position than we've ever been in. Things that use to cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce years past can now be produced for nothing more than your time and creativity. Instead of being locked into being local you can, thanks to modern technology, be global at the press of a button. All you need is an idea, access to the internet and a unique way of presenting and following up on it.

I'll finish up with these very open ended talking points: youtube; twitter; facebook; linkedin; myspace; photobucket; viddler; ezinearticles; yahoogroups; googlegroups; blogger; wordpress; squidoo; picasa; mindmeister; etc.

We're going to look into each one of these and more and dive into how you can make them work for your image and your personal cheffing business.

As always, it's been my pleasure sharing with you and helping you design strategies to build your personal cheffing business. Until next time...