Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Start by articulating the unique and important benefit your clients would realize if they hire you. Convince yourself (and us) that you're worth your fee.

To do this, you may want to first interview a few of your prospective clients to find out what they need, how they decide when to use someone with your knowledge and skills, what they do today when they need this kind of information, etc. Understand what they would need to know in order to put you in their consideration set. Pay particular attention to the words they use as they describe their needs.

The work you have done in the past - how were the customers found? Do you have contact information for any of these customers? Presumably you were working for a company in the past and they have that information (and won't give to you), but try to think through how they got their customers and recreate that yourself.

In your area, do property owners hire freelancers such as yourself directly or would they hire a general contractor to handle coordinating a variety of tradespeople working on the job? Who ever is hiring is who you need to keep in touch with.

Also, would you rather only do stonework or do you also have the desire to run the business (talking on the phone, advertising, marketing, etc.)? There's a big difference between being a business owner and an employee. Make sure you understand the dis/advantages of each of these responsibilities before you proceed further.