A few weeks ago, LinkedIn released the details for a new tool for small businesses. They’re calling it Open for Business, and it’s going to have a huge impact on the presences of freelancers and small business owners on the platform.

We discussed the impact this will have on your small business – and what you should do about it – on our weekly Small Biz Cafe show. You can watch here.

LinkedIn describes this tool as, “A marketplace that helps freelancers and business owners find new clients on LinkedIn.” In short, it’s a feature that allows users to showcase services they offer on their profiles, as well as search for them specifically. This feature is still rolling out, but if you’re sadly not one of the lucky ones, you can get your name on the waitlist here.

This change might seem like a small addition, but it presents a huge opportunity for service-based entrepreneurs to get more clients. Open for Business makes it much easier and more direct to find people who provide services they are searching for, outside of the scant details users might have listed in their bio.

LinkedIn has been implementing more and more beneficial tools for service-based entrepreneurs recently. There has never been a better time to grow your presence on LinkedIn. You need a strong presence now.

LinkedIn has essentially become a high-level search engine for business services, which means that you, a service-based entrepreneur, need to have a strong presence on LinkedIn for your services. The content you post, your profile, and even your connections, reflect your expertise, your branding, and the value you can bring to others.

You want to make sure that when prospects get to your profile, they see something of value. Open for Business is one piece of the puzzle, but to be truly successful on LinkedIn, every aspect of your presence needs to be powerful.

The time is now. If you’re selling services, you need to go all in on LinkedIn.

Listing your services will automatically boost your presence, but to strengthen it and stand out, you want to perform consistent daily activities that position you as a leader and attract targeted leads. You can grab our free checklist of activities to implement daily on LinkedIn here!