Small businesses make up the bulk of the global economy and yet most small business owners are challenged to run their businesses, let alone marketing those businesses to gain new customers and expand.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has been a leading expert in assisting small and medium-sized business owners find creative ways to market their companies. His first book, aptly named “Duct Tape Marketing” has been a top-selling book since it was released in 2006.

John recently came to Austin, Texas, to talk to small business owners about what they can do to make their businesses “more referable” by their customers. He talked about the importance of referrals, and how making a referral of a business or service to a friend is risky. What if that business doesn’t live up to your hype? What if your friend doesn’t have the same experience you do? He touched briefly on how small business owners need to make themselves more referable – perhaps by having a unique value proposition, not by being boring.

He has a new book out entitled “The Referral Engine, Teaching Your Business to Market Itself” which is now available for pre-order at local bookstores and Amazon.

While much of what John talked about was directed at the small business owners in the audience, he explained that the concepts also translate to other types of organizations worldwide. John uploaded his slides from the discussion, which are now available on SlideShare.