As a grant writer in business for yourself, you will often find yourself approached by people or organizations who want to hire you, but you know for sure that they are not a potential client. Either they have not budget for grant writing, they only have a seedling of an idea, they have no community support, or they don’t know the first thing about grant writing. While it is easy to turn these people away, why not look at them as potential clients who simply need a little guidance to find their way back to you when they are ready. A website with loads of valuable information is a great way to do just that.
This idea came to me because I work for a school district as the only grant writer. I look at all of the teacher as potential “clients” – they won’t pay me for my work, but they may approach me at any point with a request for help on finding money for their ideas.
Many teachers call me with a great idea but not much of a project design, and so I built a website with very basic information on how to find a grant, how to build a project, and how to write a grant. All the information was tailored specifically for teachers in my district. Now, when I get an inquiry from enthusiastic teachers who are not quite ready for my help, I can refer them to the website and tell them to take a look at the articles and other grant-related sites to see if their project design is solid. This helps encourage them to continue developing their project, rather than discouraging them because their project it in its infancy. It will also help me because when they return to me for help, they will have a good basic understanding of grant writing and its methodology.
For those teachers with a great project going who wants money for something very specific (computers, field trips, t-shirts) I can refer them right to the website, point out a few possible grants, and send them on their way.
Its a great tool to give to teachers who are interested in finding grants, but don’t have the time to do all the preliminary research on their own. It also serves as a great way for me to hear all the possibilities in the district for grant ideas!
Why not use this technique in your business? Think of the last 10 offers you got from clients that you instantly knew you would not take and pinpoint what was missing. If it is as simple as giving them a better understanding of project design or ideas of how to move their project forward, why not put this on a website that you refer them to. That way, when they are ready to come back to you, they will be well-educated and much more serious clients.
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