Talking to entrepreneurs I often find most of them are uncomfortable in any stage they are in provided their company has not hit the “mature” stage yet (the two stages before are startup and infancy). Even the brave soles who have started their dream, gotten it off the ground, earned a profit, and can support themselves seem to fear the ever frightening question “what comes next?”

There is always this sense that at any point, any moment, that clients could stop showing up, people would stop buying products, no one would visit your online application anymore.

A technique that can quell those fears is called “Snowballing.” Snowballing is much like it sounds, yet set a small ball of snow at the top of the mountain and push it down watching as it grows on it’s own. This of course sounds easier said than done, and every industry/project/product is different and requires a different method. What I aim to do is to inspire you to think of how you can do this, rather than tell you how to do it.

Look at 37 Signals who blog about their product updates and thoughts, they have some 80,000 subscribers to their blog. How did that start? How many of those readers sooner or later try one of their products?

High quality content is how it started. They set the simple idea of blowing off some steam, expressing their emotions, and venting online, on the top of a hill and let it gather readers daily as that idea rolled down the hill. As it gathered a reader, that reader would mention it to another, who would mention it to another.

Eventually they were left with a giant of a readership who followed the products, the lessons, and the thought process that 37 Signals offered. If only 1% of people who read the blog try a product that is still 8,000 subscribers. At an average of $50 a month in subscriptions you are looking at a minimal of $400,000 of revenue just from a weak estimate pulling from a select crowd. Chances are those users are telling other potential users, who don’t even care to read the blog.

I also used the art of snowballing as I grew my company. My goal was to get my companies name mentioned in as many places as possible. Again this is a very simple idea, a small ball of snow placed atop a mountain that will pick up size, speed, and power as it grows. I started off by posting on local news forums, blogs, and other locations those in my community read often. Every once in a while I had something to say, and I left my company name as the tagline.

This is just the beginning however, as a person needs to see your company name 3 - 5 times before they remember it. So I joined the local chamber of commerce, made sure to submit a testimonial that would get placed on the website, and held a few small networking events so the company name would get into the business calendar.

Simple idea, anything I can do to get my companies name in front of people. It started to pick up speed. Other companies, even in the same field as I began talking about the company, mentioning what I would do next, and even sent a few clients over that they couldn’t help.

I pushed it further, joining the local networking groups that could use website or design help. This allowed me to get mentions/credits on the e-newsletters, websites, and at events.

The snowball grows larger.

Eventually what I found is that my company name became common knowledge for the business owners in my area. When I met new people lots of people had herd about my business, and even mentioned what about my website they liked. With out having to find me online, get a referral, now people talk about how they want to work with my company because they have herd of it, seen it everywhere, and it seems larger than life.

This all started with dedicating less than one hour a week to getting my companies name out into the public space. The word of mouth discussion causes the snowball to grow, gain power, and gain speed.

What is your snowball?

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