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Using LinkedIn- An Amazing Business Resource

Since joining The Learning Labyrinth recently, I have been hearing from Gary just how great LinkedIn is as a tool for completing any business task that you have in hand, and the week before last I had the chance to prove it to myself.  Resourcing with LinkedIn is free, easy and great things can be achieved with a click of a button, or two.
 

On Thursday I was offered the chance to do a presentation, on the following Monday, to an important new potential client in London. I had been trying to schedule to meet with them for some time but in the end the opportunity came so quickly, that none of the material I wanted to show was even designed, let alone in a presentable fashion!

I panicked! And my first reaction was to try and push back the meeting to give me more time. But by doing so, I might jeopardise the chance to meet entirely, since they were already squeezing me into a very tight calender, and due to the time sensitivity of the project it really was in my best interests to meet on that given day.

So, a presentation that would normally take 2 weeks and be a slow, considered process needed to be crammed into a little under 2 days! I normally work with Sam Hextall, a talented and multidisciplinary Graphic Designer, but he could only help me with one days work at best, and then not until the Friday morning. The weekend was also out of the question for both of us due to family weddings and other important commitments. I really needed some professional help, and quick!

Then I remembered that Gary had told me about using LinkedIn, not just as a way to source employment and reconnect with old business acquaintance's, but as a really effective tool to complete any business challenge. So I jumped on to my LinkedIn page and began to search for groups of designers with the specialty of design that I needed. Within a few minutes, I had found 2 or 3 groups that looked promising, each with over three hundred members!  I joined the one called CTGF that looked the most specific to what I was looking for and made a post to that group with a desperate cry of help-


I got to work putting together the initial design work and by lunchtime I had a response back from a delightful person called Linda from Kentucky who was just starting her work day.  She sent me examples of her style, which was perfect for what I needed and I read some recommendations that had been posted on LinkedIn about her work ethic. After a quick conversation on Skype to finalise details and payment, which was very reasonable, I began to send her over the initial designs to be worked on. In this way, I 'fed' her the work as I completed it and by 11pm (and a more civilised 6pm, her time) we were all done and dusted. The completed artworks were ready for a (very impressed) Sam to complete the next day, without time pressure.

I cannot tell you how relieved and happy I was at the printers with the entire presentation done by 3.30pm on Friday. Additionally I have sourced 8 Freelance Designers who also responded and the quality of their work means I will be able to do to a lot more projects like this in the future but hopefully with not such a tight deadline!

I would definitely recommend using LinkedIn whenever you have a task, such as finding a great accountant, coach or any kind of subject expert- there is an immensely rich database right at your fingertips at LinkedIn.
 

To get to know how best it can work for your business TLL have an introductory offer of £95 (normally £295) for our LinkedIn course on September 29th-  To learn more about the workshop click here.

Best Regards

Jo