Open call for Irish advisers on Enterprise Nation

Small businesses are often referred to as the backbone of the Irish economy. They drive growth, create employment opportunities, and often lead the way in innovation. But they need help!

Enterprise Nation has successfully been growing its membership in Ireland by delivering great courses and useful diagnostic tools. And whilst we’re bursting at the seams with resources, there are times when the one-on-one support of an expert just can’t be matched. Are you that expert?

If you love working with start-ups and small businesses, offer products or services that will help them on their entrepreneurial journeys, and enjoy sharing your expertise with a vibrant community of knowledge-hungry founders, you might want to consider becoming an adviser on Enterprise Nation. It’s the perfect platform to generate leads, raise your profile and increase brand awareness.

Read on to discover the benefits of becoming an adviser and how it could help you to grow your client pipeline.

Create a public profile and promote your business services

Unless you are very well known and connected, clients won’t necessarily be banging down your door to work with you. It’s up to you to find potential clients and communicate how you can help them – and crucially, convince them to pay for your services.

You should therefore consider your Enterprise Nation profile to be a virtual shop window; a chance to create a great first impression and attract potential clients. Not only will your profile appear in search results on Enterprise Nation, but as it’s a public profile you’ll be discoverable via search engines too – so it’s a valuable marketing tool for you and your business.

Just like any other marketing tool, you can tailor your profile to meet the needs and interests of your target market. And from here, small business owners can connect with you, book discovery calls and request quotes through our secure online messaging system.

It’s important for prospective clients to get to know you as well as your business (people connect with people afterall), so you can further personalise your page with a picture, a bio, your location, and links to all your social channels.

Most importantly though, you’ll upload a portfolio of business services. This is where you really get to showcase your full range of expertise – just like on your own website. There’s no limit to how many services you can add; the more you add, the greater your visibility across the site. Your services also appear in the Enterprise Nation marketplace, where members search for their perfect adviser match. That could be you!

Speak at events

Guest speaking can position you as an expert within your field, give you access to a targeted audience, and set you and your company apart from the competition.

From flagship events to daily webinars, we host hundreds of events every year, and we’re always looking for experts to share their knowledge. And as an adviser member you’ll always get first dibs on those speaker opportunities. It’s one of the best ways to generate leads, and you’ll often find a queue of small business owners wanting to speak to you afterwards.

And if you host one of our daily Lunch and Learn webinars, you can even suggest your own topic! From digital marketing to finance, these bite-size events cover all areas of starting and growing a business and regularly attract hundreds of attendees – with thousands more watching back on-demand.

Publish content

One of the biggest perks of being an Enterprise Nation adviser is the ability to write blog posts for a huge audience of eager small business owners. It’s a fantastic way to get noticed by precisely the people who matter: prospective clients. And the benefits go beyond boosted visibility - by confidently writing about your area of expertise, you'll very publicly position yourself as a thought leader in your industry or discipline.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to writing content either. We love anything that teaches our members how to do something, inspires them to think about something entirely new, solves one of their most pressing problems, helps them come across as more professional… the list goes on.

We'll endeavour to share posts across our social channels, and in our weekly newsletters. They'll also appear in search results across the Enterprise Nation platform. And of course, we’ll link back to that all-important profile – where small businesses can connect with you to discuss your services in more detail.

We know that our members respond to different styles of learning so, using our self-serve content upload tool, adviser members can also submit podcasts, webinars and e-Books.

Receive small business insights

Drawing on the data collected from thousands of members and visitors to our website, we understand exactly what areas of support small businesses are looking for, and when they're looking for it. We know the key questions that they’re asking, what challenges they’re facing, how they’re responding to economic changes, and what their top priorities are.

We use this information to shape what support we’re offering. And every month we share these insights with our adviser members – and offer suggestions on how you can use this information to support the small business community.

Host groups

Last year we introduced a new feature to make it even easier for members to expand their network and connect with people who share their interests: Groups.

Groups provide an arena for organic discussion and allow members to share knowledge and experiences, tackle challenges and discover opportunities. Some focus on certain disciplines, such as social media marketing or small business finance. Others are industry specific, such as beauty or food and drink. There really is a group for everyone.

Being an Enterprise Nation adviser member means that you can not only join groups, but you can create and manage them too. As the host of a group you’re the first face that members see when they join, yet again positioning yourself as a thought leader and an expert in your field. You’ll also be notified when someone asks a question, meaning you can offer your guidance and support – and promote your services – to those in need of your expertise.

Advertise your own events and workshops

As a freelancer or business consultant you’ll likely want to explore different ways of generating revenue. Hosting events or running workshops can be a great way of doing this. Not only can you earn money from the events themselves, but you’ll often find them to be a great way to build new relationships – and to win more clients. But how do you get people to attend?

Thousands of small business owners search Enterprise Nation for events every week, looking for affordable ways to develop their skills and make new connections. As an adviser you can upload details of your events – and we’ll promote them on your behalf.

Become a Local Leader

Through our Local Meet-up campaign, Enterprise Nation is on a mission to cure the loneliness often associated with entrepreneurship. Local meet-ups offer a relaxed, informal environment for small business owners to connect with fellow entrepreneurs in their area. They provide a ready-made support network and an opportunity to collaborate, share ideas, discuss challenges and hold one another accountable. And they wouldn’t exist without our network of 'Local Leaders' who each have a commitment to their community and are passionate about supporting small businesses in their regions.

Would you like to host a supportive peer group in your area? We’re on the hunt for more Local Leaders – and there’s no better way for you to position yourself as a small business champion. We’ll be offering these opportunities to our adviser members throughout the year.

If you've got this far, now's the time to start exploring all of the benefits of an Enterprise Nation adviser membership.

If you’re new to Enterprise Nation, sign-up now and start building your client pipeline.

Or if you're already a member, upgrade your subscription to start promoting your business services.