3 Steps to Finding Your Dream Clients (and booking them)!
Choose consistency over overnight success.
No matter who you are, one of the biggest fear factors that come along with the idea of starting your own business, is the idea of how to find clients. You can be confident as heck and still find yourself crossing your fingers and wishing on a shooting star that people actually want the thing you have.
It’s without a doubt the question I get hit with the most: “how do I find clients?”
The only way to truly take that situation by the horns is to define your audience and learn how to concisely articulate what it is that you do.
A bit of pre-work, if you will.
It’s hard to find clients if you don’t know who you’re looking for. But you also need to know what it is you’ll do for them and how to communicate that.
If you’re speaking over everyone’s heads they’re not going to hear your genius idea and their wallets will stay neatly placed in their pockets while they dream up their next dinner recipe.
Once you’ve identified these two things, the rest will come a bit more naturally. This is where your three steps to actually getting inquiries starts to come into play:
STEP 1: Now that you know who your ideal audience is, you can start to think about where those people hang out. Where do they congregate, virtually or otherwise? What do they like to do? What are some of their other interests? How do they communicate with each other? How do they like to communicate with you? Those two styles of communication could be different!
I know it sounds like I’m describing the plot for some stalker Netflix series here, but taking the time to understand your audience and engage with them is a very crucial part of making yourself known and truly “closing the deal”.
Build that report! Make those relationships! Comment, like, and ask questions! Don’t be shy. If they see the value in the thing you’ve already identified they need, they’ll be more than willing to help you perfect it, and then pay you for it! Especially and possibly ONLY, if you’ve also already identified the best way to articulate that value to them.
STEP 2: When you start to articulate your value, your what, the thing you do better than anyone, try phrasing it as a question/solution. While you’re out there in the wild engaging with your perfect clients, try saying something like “Does anyone need help with <x>” or “does anybody know somebody that needs help with <x>” with the <x> being your what.
It might not be the most beautiful, perfect, or buttoned up way to market your services, but it will definitely get the job done. And done is usually better than perfect.
This is actually a new tactic I’ve adopted into my own process of getting clients since a chat I had with my pal Teresa Heath-Wareing about finding work during a global pandemic. Teresa is an absolute marketing powerhouse so I’m always slow with my words when she’s near in hopes to catch a drop of her marketing know-how.
You can listen on to that convo from back in April and catch your own nuggets of wisdom here on my podcast: The Everyday Entrepreneur.
STEP 3: The bottom line here is to have a plan and work it. Consistently. Choose where you're going to show up to find ideal clients or have your ideal client stumble upon you. Be consistent and open minded. Learn every day and keep working and reworking your plan. Decide each day where you're going to be and go there. Take what you learned the day before and capitalize on it. Your first attempt won’t be flawless, but it will be something!
The more consistent you can be in your approach, what you say, and who you target, the more likely you’ll be to learn and refine that process, pin-point your perfect audience and act as an answer to their prayers aka get paid!
No surprises here that the biggest factors that contribute to actually finding clients is knowing who they are and how to talk to them. That might sound relatively simple, but it’s actually a task that comes with some time, real first-hand experience, and some pivoting along the way. You just need a kicking off point to start, then all the rest will come: the conversations, the learning, the pivoting, the perfecting, and the first sale.
If you feel like you still need help identifying your audience and locking in to that starting point, I’m here to help!
Other resources you might find useful:
Why Passion Alone Is Not Enough To Start a Business
3 Mistakes People Make When Describing Their Business (and how to avoid them)
Holly works with professionals to create freelancing businesses using expertise and strengths they already have. Holly is the creator of The Consultant Code, a program will have you up, running, and profitable with your freelancing business in 60 days or less! Want to learn more? Drop her a note at: holly@hollyknoll.com