Know Your Ideal Client

Did you leave the bump and grind of the corporate world to end up working with an endless stream of PITA clients (pain in the a**)? Being a solo-preneur, time is your most valuable resource so treat it as such. That means qualifying potential opportunities to know if they are right for you.

Making appropriate choices about what clients to take on is crucial to your success. If you’re just started out, you might be apprehensive to assert a niche or target a specific market concerned that you are shutting out prospects. As the saying goes, when you try to be everything to everybody, you’ll be nothing to no one.

Online Marketing and SEO Gurus talk about driving traffic to your website but if the traffic won’t lead to sales, why bother? Attracting a small funnel of the ‘right’ traffic to your site is better than a plethora of the ‘wrong’ traffic.

Understanding your target market is a start however; successful solo-preneurs will tell you that it’s more important to have a clear image of the client you want more of. Working with the people that want and are able to pay for your services will not only improve your income but also your overall happiness.

Start by creating an Ideal Client Profile to give you a clear image of who that person is. You need to invest your time in this process and be very detailed so you know your perfect client when you see them.

My Ideal Client: (not a complete profile – just an idea to get you started):

Female, 45+ years, solo-preneur, in business 3+ years, over $200K in annual revenues. She is a coach, consultant, speaker, accountant or offers other professional services. She has a monthly workload for me and trusts me with the day to day care of her business and clients.

I’m not suggesting that you decline new ventures that present themselves because they don’t fit your complete Ideal Client Profile. But this is an excellent exercise to help you understand and measure prospective clients and projects.

Use your profile to guide you when mapping out your marketing plans. Monitor your analytics regularly; who is buying from you? Who is visiting your website, reading your blog? And remember, both you and your business will evolve over time and so should your ideal client profile. Add this spreadsheet to your business plan and revisit it habitually.