Lindsay Mitrosilis Consulting

View Original

Untapped Territory: Finding Corporate Opportunities as a Small Business Owner

Don’t you think the small business world has started to feel a little… cutthroat?

I mean, for lack of better words, it feels like a culture of everyone going after the same clients and customers and kinda slamming each other in order to come out on top.

The “unpopular opinion” posts have become a place to air everyone’s dirty laundry and business secrets, as if the person writing it doesn’t have flaws, too.

And despite the fact that most of us optimists and go-getters believe there’s enough to go around, it is starting to feel a little CRUNCHY, don’t ya think?

Well, today I want to talk about some potential untapped territory that’s out there for small business owners.
Hear me out.

It’s the corporate world.

Listen, I know MOST small business owners went running and screaming from corporate into what they do now, but I’ve seen a big shift in the willingness of corporate companies to bring in outside experts and contractors for some sweet opportunities within their organizations.

The SUPER SWEET parts of this are:
Corporate companies have budgets for everything. That means you typically don’t need to do as much selling or convincing, because they probably have it in the budget.
Now more than ever, corporate companies are seeing the need to add value within their organization for their employees by investing in things to help their people level up and become better versions of themselves.

So, if this is true, what exactly could it look like and HOW do you access opportunities like these? Let’s get a little more specific, shall we?

Examples of Small Business Opportunities within a Corporate Environment

For the writer
Corporate companies have a wealth of internal communications, and they don’t always have these things assigned to an internal team member. Emails, campaigns, internal communications, manuals, and more. When you portray yourself as an expert and leader in your industry, corporate businesses will be open to outsourcing something in the hopes of a fully managed and delivered product as well as the results that come with it.

For the wellness expert
With more companies paying attention to promoting wellness within their employees’ lives, there’s room for experts inside of the initiatives being created. If you’re a wellness expert, you could become a creator or coach inside of a wellness challenge, or you could possibly even create a comprehensive wellness program that will be implemented across the company.

For the graphic designer
These days design skills are needed for more than billboards or giant ad campaigns. With that said, corporate managers could outsource a whole project to a contractor or they might even invest in education for their entire team on a platform like Canva from an expert designer.

How to Access Corporate Opportunities as a Small Business Owner

It’s important to note that the ideas I listed above are just that. They’re IDEAS. The key thing to know as you head into creating a brand that can call in these types of doors to open is that it could look a million different ways. Being open to sharing your expertise in any way you can is key to recognizing opportunities when they present themselves.

With that said, I think the best way to access corporate opportunities as a small business owner is to get on LinkedIn.

I’d recommend any small business owner to take a simple approach using the Mitrosilis Consulting framework of Post, Connect, Engage.

If you want to learn how to do that as well as setting your profile up for success from the get-go, click here to join our LinkedIn Bootcamp where we lay it out for you step by step!

Interested in getting to know some more unexpected opportunities that can be found through LinkedIn? Check out this blog post.