Throw an event for medium-sized local businesses where they can learn about a topic of relevance to you and also meet other medium-sized local businesses which

Throw an event for medium-sized local businesses where they can learn about a topic of relevance to you and also meet other medium-sized local businesses which are interested in learning about that topic. You will be the belle of the ball, by construction. You can make your presentation 95% pure education and just 5% a hint that you have commercial interests in this area and people will threaten to take your hand off with how fast they give you checks. This trick builds consultancies. Do not underestimate how many topics you know which are a) worth significant amounts of money and b) which you'd BURY the average decisionmaker at a local medium-sized business in skill levels. The median journeyman Ruby on Rails programmer is already more qualified to talk about e.g. backup strategy than every. single. person employed at a local law firm with $10 million a year in billings.