You’ve been there I’m sure. You want clients, heck anyone who will pay you is the perfect client and then you get a tricky client. They are hard work, they are late, they don’t pay and they don’t take your advice.
Years and years ago I had a client called Becky (not her real name). She was an absolute pain in the arse. She questioned everything I did for her and her horse, she wanted every exact detail on the tiniest things and I used to dread her frequent calls, texts and voice notes. Seeing her car pull up at the yard would make my stomach drop.
I promised myself I would not let anyone make me feel like I couldn’t do my job ever again, and then a while later I realised a few things:
This lady was a nightmare because she had numerous stresses in her life and being hard work was giving her an outlet. Anger, frustration and pain from other sources were coming my way. This had nothing to do with me or my capabilities.
I was also to blame. I let her walk all over me. I didn’t set a clear boundary. I didn’t decide which clients I did and didn’t want, I just wanted any. I didn’t tell her that she couldn’t email me at 10pm and expect an answer, or give me 5 minutes notice to have her horse ready. I just kept jumping through hoops feeling crappier by the day.
When you feel like a magnet for clients you can actually attract the clients that you want, not just anyone who has a horse. I know. Mind Blowing!
You feel like you are doing all the things … posting on your page, sharing posts in local Facebook groups but nothing. It’s a ghost town. No clients are booking your services.
Or perhaps you feel like a rabbit in the headlights? You know you need to be taking action in your business but you don’t know what to do or where to start.
I’ve been in both of those situations and it’s not fun.
If you don’t have all the clients that you really want right now here are the reasons…
1. You don’t know what you want – ‘how many clients do you actually need or want in your business right now? So many people are really vague on this- and the mind doesn’t work well with vague.
2. You don’t believe it is possible – perhaps you don’t feel that people want to book you, or you don’t think that there are enough clients. What are the limiting beliefs that hold you back around this?
3. You don’t feel that people want you – you are repelling clients without knowing it. This can be a hard realisation, but the feeling of ‘not being good enough’ plague most practitioners and can really hold you back.
4. You aren’t taking any action – you do need some strategy in place to move your business forward
5. You are talking to the wrong people – if you find your content isn’t landing then you are either saying the wrong thing to the right people, or simply talking to the wrong audience
6. You don’t know the steps – just like training a horse you need a plan to move your business forward
Getting clear on who you help, and how you help them is essential for moving your business forward. You also need to know who your services are NOT for. Who are the clients that you aren’t best placed to help, and who do you not want to work with?
This can seem crazy – why would you turn away business? Let me tell you that making a clear decision about who you do and don’t help can be transformational for your business. It improves your marketing, your messaging is clearer and you stand out to the right people.
