Zero-Cost Expansion Secrets: Boosting Your Safety Consulting Business

Safety Consultant with Sheldon Primus

Links and websites referenced in this episode:
YellowBird referral code: Sheldon1558
https://sheldonprimus.com/
https://sheldonprimus.com/resources/
Speaker 3 (00:00)
This episode is powered by Safety FM.
Speaker 1 (00:16)
Welcome to the Safety Consultant podcast with Sheldon Primus. This is the show where I delve into the ins and outs of the safety consultant industry. I'm your host, Sheldon Primus. Here to guide you through the journey of growing your safety consulting business without breaking the bank. Let's unlock the secrets of business growth using free and effective strategies. You come on. Did I ever tell you guys that... I must have. If you're just listening to this for the first time, the music that you hear on the show is mine. So I do music production and all that stuff. Have been for a long time. Love it, love it, love it. So thank you, everybody, for just listening in. You're going to hear some typing in the background because I am going to look up real quick where everyone's from. So let's do that real quick. What I usually do when I do this is I type in my good friends, the service that I've been using for a while, Chartable. I've been using this one, and this service just basically helps me see where everyone's coming from, tells me rankings and ratings and reviews. So for those of you that write reviews and do ratings for the show, thank you so, so, so much.
Speaker 1 (01:52)
I appreciate it. If you have not done a review for the show or just gave it some thumbs up, then please do. I actually don't have that many ratings. Would you believe that? I have single digits, and we actually have so many more people listening to the show and I would love to see if you guys in my audience can help me out, spread the word. The only way that the algorithm can see that I'm here is by interaction with the audience. So if you have a moment, especially if you're listening to this in a safe place, in a safe way, and you can go ahead and go to your subscriber and like the show, subscribe to the show, then that is going to really help me. I know I should be getting more than six because listen to all these people that actually listen to the show. Number one in the listeners is going to be US, which, okay, I'm a US-based consultant, even though I go over a lot of global things. That's to be expected, right? Number two is UK, number three, Germany, then Thailand, then Netherlands, then Canada, then Chile, then Romania, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Philippines, Spain, Ukraine, Kenya, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Greece.
Speaker 1 (03:15)
You guys are listening. Thank you. Israel, Angola, Korea, Mitterrania, Nambia. I missed you guys from Nambia. Thank you so much for listening. Haven't seen you guys on the ranking for a while. So thank you. Thank you for coming back. Oman and Saudi Arabia, those are all in the rankings. I'm in there. Let's show you guys the chart. At least, I won't show you. I'll just tell you the charts, right? So here's the charts that I'm on. And when I say charts, usually I do the Apple because Apple, by now, you guys probably know that they have the bulk of everybody's rating system comes from Apple. They're like the industry leader. But then I'm also going to tell you where I am on the chartable list as well. So right now for the US government market, I am out of the 200 range. You guys in the US, help me out here. Like, literally, I need your help, ya know? Because I am completely out of the US market as far as the government where I'm actually in. It's just like it's sad. I really want to get in there, and I want to get up on that list so that people have a good chance of hearing everything that I have and hopefully helping them start their business.
Speaker 1 (04:40)
If you can, go ahead, and especially you guys in the US market, like it, subscribe, share with your friends and your colleagues about this show. Even if they're not interested in being a safety consultant right now, chances are there will be later. Go ahead and help me out, US people. Get me on that chart again. Saudi Arabia, you guys have been helping me out. I am now 167 on your chart. India, I'm 212 on your chart. Awesome. I am 107 in Turkey in the government chart. Oh, man, that's awesome. Chile, I am 74 on your podcast, the Apple podcast in the government. That is awesome. So now this is the highest that I am in right now. So here, drum roll, please. I am 54 in Kenya. Can you believe that? Yeah. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So that is the highest rating in the government market. So you could just literally go down to Apple podcast. You could look in the Kenya market. You could look for the top 200 podcasts, and I'm up there in 54. That's awesome. Global reach, though, I am 206 in the chartable charts, and for the US under Chartable's list, not the Apple's list, I am 162.
Speaker 1 (06:11)
So that is really, really awesome. I thank you guys for sharing the show. Those of you that have not had the opportunity to listen to it yet, this is your first time, thank you so much for joining me this first time. I hope I do and share something that's going to help you just level up or even start your business. Don't worry, even though I'm US-based, it doesn't mean that you across the world can't get some good understanding and some information related to safety consulting that will help you with your country. I like to think I'm global. I'm a dual citizen, US and Guyanese, so I'm global. I just want you guys to think that you could do this thing. So that's what I'm here for. We're here to help you guys know that you could do these things. All right, gang. So let's talk about today's episode, okay? So leading into today's episode, let me play you another one. Here's a transition song. That's actually another one of mine.
Speaker 1 (07:30)
All right. In today's episode, we're going to focus on powerful, cost-effective ways to expand your safety consulting business, whether you're a seasoned consultant or just starting out. These strategies are essentials for your success. Firstly, I like to talk about networking. Yes, networking. It's not just who you know. You know that statement, right? It's not just who you know. It's who knows you. I switched it around here, didn't I? I switched it around. It's not only who you know, but who knows you. You really want to attend some of these free local meetups, some webinars, some industry events, play around with that chat box and talk to people, reach out to people. The key is to be proactive, engage in the conversation, and you got to follow up after that conversation. So the follow up, what that's going to look like is getting some emails and keep an email conversation first, getting somebody's LinkedIn and reach out to them on LinkedIn. So just think about networking first. All right. So next thing that we're going to do, just going to try to get your, just let's call it embracing the power of social media. And that's what I just mentioned with LinkedIn, but there's also X, which is formerly Twitter, which... Okay, I got to be honest. I dropped Twitter, and when it was Twitter, it became X, and I was like, All right, I'm done. And then I just recently got back to it, and I don't know. I'm still getting around to it. But when I first got started, and it was like Twitter was a big thing back then, honestly, I used it. I used it quite a bit for my safety consulting. Let's go ahead and LinkedIn, X, Facebook. The more of these places you could get on, that's good. They're truly gold mines for consultants. You could share your safety tips, industry news, engage with the audience, but you still have to do something that is really critical to that, and that's consistency. Consistency for the social media game is critical, and you got to get up on that. All right?
Speaker 1 (10:00)
The next thing to think about is content creation. It is a game changer. It really is. You want to start a blog. If you're more visual, you could create an informative video. Some people aren't scared for that, but if you're going to do a video, you want to make sure you get your company's [e-mail]. You don't want to use that too much, but you're going to use that so you could have a YouTube channel with your company's name. So you don't want to... Don't do it from your personal profile or anything. You want to do it from your company name. You have to be silly with YouTube sometimes. Do one of these. I'm not that silly, right? But you got to do something to get people's attention, right? You get a chance to share your insight on workplace safety, occupational safety, if we call it that, OSHA regulation, risk management. This is going to help you position yourself as authority in the field. That's important. This isn't a free way, but it could be more of a cheap way of doing this. I don't know. I guess there's still some free things out there, and the topic I'm going to say is email marketing. There is some email marketing that is free. When I first got started, well, first of all, email marketing is truly a powerful tool. It doesn't cost you a dime if you start the way I did, which is through Mailchimp for newsletters first. Now, I'm using something else, but I started out with Mailchimp. If you want to get an example of what a newsletter looks like, go to sheldonprimus.com. On the homepage, or I guess it's the About page maybe because my homepage is the blog. So when you first log in, you're going to see the blog, you go to the About page, and then you'll be able to sign up for my newsletter. So what I do is I just keep everybody, just try to give them OSHA compliance tips, some environmental safety tips, just a bunch of other things is how I work my email marketing. But Mailchimp, I honestly started with that, and that's absolutely for free. You want to keep everybody updated on stuff. You could share personal stories. I used to do a little Where's Waldo for Sheldon because I'm a full-time RVer and I travel. People sometimes want to know where I am. I do that on the email list. So email marketing, big one.
Speaker 1 (12:37)
If you're pretty good with public speaking, and I started this version of public speaking by doing classes, and I would go into our organization, and this actually public speaking is going to go into the second one together. So think of this as public speaking and collaboration and partnerships. Those are two things that are separate, but it's going to help you grow your business. So public speaking, a little daunting, I know, but it could be incredibly effective. So you offer to speak in an industry event, a local community event, something similar. Share your journey, your challenges, how you overcome them, and also anything that might be relevant to that trade with OSHA compliance. If you're in the US or regulatory compliance, if you're in another country. That is going to be a way for you to get in with the public speaking. It's going to be free for you to provide the service for the most part at first. Later on, you'll get paid for it. But just to get yourself going, just to get some clients, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about some really cost-effective, cheap way for you to get some clients. This is growing your business as cost-effective as you can.
Speaker 1 (13:57)
The second part of this is where are you going to to and who you're going to use, and that's the collaboration for partnerships. You don't want to keep that... You don't want to overlook that, because if you team up with professionals, this will lead to some mutual referrals and a broader service because you're working off of their email list. If they've been around for a while, they're going to go ahead and promote your actual event. When you're doing your event, though, the thing that you don't want to do is just talk about your services. Epic fail. No good. You don't do that at all, because what you really want to do is talk to them about how they could do their thing with safety and health, whatever your interest is or your topic, everyone has a specialist part of them. So talk about your specialty. I got a specialty in wastewater and safety within utilities, the liquid utilities, because that's where I came from. So that's like permit required confined space, there's lab safety, operation safety. I talk about that stuff, and truly, I could show my process safety management side, all that stuff. I want to tell them First, and when I say them, the people you're collaborating and their audience, the thing that's going to make the most importance to them. Then you could have something in the back. People always want to shake your hand and talk to you when you get done. If you have an effective training, make it fun, don't make it where they're bored. When they come and talk to you and shake your hand, get ready with the business card or get ready with your LinkedIn. Qr codes in the back of the room on a flyer or something else is great. Because then now it goes straight from them talking to you, you got the QR code that you could point to and say, Hey, just scanned this QR code, and you got a business card right into your file. So now technology is there. So might as well use technology to help us out, right?
Speaker 1 (16:03)
All right, so the next thing that we're going to talk about, referral programs. So I do use some referral programs. There's some companies that I have worked with and companies that even people that I've interviewed before, and I was able to get a referral program from them. One of the best ones that I actually have used most recently is Yellowbird. So whenever you go to goyellowbird.com, and you sign up for Go Yellowbird, they're a matchmaking company, if you would. So they'll matchmake where you as the safety consultant, or if you're just moonlighting as a safety consultant, you're going to get teamed up with someone else who is actually a company looking for a safety consultant. So when you go there, just sign up. Now, when you sign up, Use the code Sheldon1558. So Sheldon1558. When you do that, as far as the referral, it's no cost to you, but I get a little kickback from it, and you actually are going to end up joining a network of people that could use you. If you're an organization and you want to hire consultant and you're listening to this podcast just trying to think about how you could be a consultant for your company, but you really need somebody to help you, then go ahead, same thing. Sign up for goyellowbird.com. Put in the code Sheldon1558 and that's going to give me credit for the referral. So that's the idea is referrals. So you get referrals from one person to the next, and that's going to help you grow your business, too, because people will come to you for resources. And if you get a website which is coming up, that's one of the things I'll mention, then you actually are going to be able to start a resource page. So you could go to sheldonprimus.com/resources, and you'll see an example of that.
Speaker 1 (18:13)
Another thing that you want to do is engage an online community. And again, this is something to help you where you're going to gain just so you could look like... I'm not going to say just look like. You are a professional. That's why you're a consultant, right? But you're gonna go ahead and do the engaging part of the community so that you could let people know that you're a professional in this community. They could go to you, they'll send you DMs, and that's direct messages. To your social media. Either it's going to be Instagram or I get them all the time at Facebook. That now could connect you with someone who might need to use your service in a little bit. That's a great way to do it. Just engage the online community, but you're going to add value and no self-promoting, all right? So adding value. Every time you want to do self-promotion, don't. You're going to go ahead and lose them. You want to go ahead, you're going to be typing away, and they're going to start reading the story of you telling about your business, and then you lost them. So don't do that. What you're going to do instead is you're going to add value to them when you join those online communities.
Speaker 1 (19:40)
Those of you that are going to get really fancy and do your own website, I've got sheldonprimes.com. That's mine. You could use your own business .com. Do what's called search engine optimization. You've probably been familiar with hearing SEO. That's pretty critical because what What that's going to do, it optimizes your website with relevant safety consultant keywords. It's all about making your site visible to those who need your service. If they're typing in something about fall protection and you've got a a blog post or something similar about fall protection, if it's search engine optimized, SEO optimized, you could fall in the first few searches, and that will make someone come to your site and see you sign up for your email list or whatever. You have to keep them on there, right? So that's the key.
Speaker 1 (20:38)
Now, I also told you about free workshops. So I'm going to mention it one more time, but I'm also going to add something else called free webinars. So you could do workshops and webinars. There's many webinar services out there. Usually, you're going to keep those within a half hour to an hour. You tell them about your specialty And one of the things you can do with free webinars that everybody's accustomed to seeing is they're going to be looking for the promotion portion of the webinar. So you could do that, or you could do sponsored by, or you could run a video, or you could actually play a voice ad if you want to do it that way. So that's honestly the best way that you guys could do it, and it's going to help you because when you get those webinars going, people will probably look for it. They'll bring some value and help them out. That's all the key, right? You want to keep helping everybody out as best as you can. And those webinars, information that is going to keep people coming back to your services. So that is it.
Speaker 1 (21:44)
But I've got one more tip. Finish him. So last tip. Don't underestimate the power of testimonials and reviews because that's going to give social proof that you are who you say you are. So the best way to do this is going to be start with the networker that you're currently on. Chances are it's going to be something like LinkedIn. Reach out and see if you can get some referrals from people who are in your group right now in your LinkedIn connections. If you could do that, then that's going to help you get started, and it's going to give social proof. That's important. You want to get that social proof so people could say, Well, someone else likes them, then I think I'm going to be good in their hands, too.
Speaker 1 (22:36)
All right. That's a wrap for today's episode. This is one of mine, too. All right. That's a wrap for today's episode. You got yourself a whole bunch of my music in there, and you got me, right? So remember, growing your safety consulting business doesn't have to be expensive. It's about being smart, resourceful, and consistent. Consistent? That's what I mean, consistent. I'm Sheldon Primus. You've been listening to Safety Consultant with Sheldon Primus. Don't forget to subscribe for more insights. Visit my website, www, I don't think I have to say anymore, but just look up sheldonprimus.com. Go to sheldonprimus.com/resources, and you got even more. But until next time, Stay safe. Keep growing. Go get them.
Speaker 3 (23:40)
This episode has been powered by Safety FM.
Speaker 2 (23:46)
The views and opinions expressed on this podcast or broadcast are those of the host and its guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within the past hour are only examples. They should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they are based on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast or broadcast may be reproduced, stored within a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic reporting or otherwise without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast or broadcast, Sheldon Primus.

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