Why You Should Always Look For New Clients
14 Nov
Business Coach, Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise, Marketing, Productivity

Why You Should Always Look For New Clients

If you’re in the middle of a successful season in your business, you may find yourself coasting along and neglecting prospecting for new clients. After all, it’s only natural that you don’t feel the need to look for future customers when you have plenty of work. It simply doesn’t feel necessary when you’re up to your ears at work!

In reality, you should always be on the lookout for new clients even when you’re busy and your books are full. Why? Because finding and nurturing clients requires time and proven methods so by the time you’re needing them, it’s too late to start if you’re behind the ball.  

You may be busy right now but you can also bet there are people out there, right now, who need and want the services you offer and are a perfect match for your business. Now is the time to connect with people online and start interacting with them. 

Another reason to always be on the lookout for clients is the likelihood that, at some point, you’re going to lose a client that you depend on. What would happen to your business if you lost one of your biggest clients? Would you be able to manage the gap in income? Do you have prospects to pursue if you need to bring in more revenue?

So, how do you maintain your current business while always looking for more? The key is being organized. Here are three easy tips you can use right away: 

  • – Come up with a strategy for finding new clients and then systematize it so you don’t have to think about it.

  • – Create regular content to post on other people’s blogs as well as your own. 

  • – Search regularly for new people to connect with on social media.

Take these tips or choose a few simple strategies of your own for finding new clients that you can do on an ongoing basis while still performing work for your current clients. Then, spend a bit of time each day on client acquisitions using your chosen strategies. By investing even just a half-hour into this goal daily, you’ll be on your way to stockpiling your leads for a rainy day. 

Signs It’s Time To Exit: Leaving A Hostile Work Environment
28 Oct
Business Coach, Confidence Culture, Grow Your Expertise, Inspiration, Productivity

Signs It’s Time To Exit: Leaving A Hostile Work Environment

Finding fulfillment in your job is a nearly impossible feat if you are in the midst of a hostile work environment. You can be leading the best projects and interacting with the clients of your dreams, but none of this will matter if the workplace environment is harmful to your mental health and wellbeing. 

In fact, a shocking 50% of employees in the United States workforce are unhappy with their current jobs. This number can be greatly reduced if more individuals have the tools to understand the signs of a hostile work environment.

4 Signs That It’s Time To Leave Your Job 

When the downsides of your workplace environment begin to outweigh any of its benefits, it might be a sign that it’s time to leave. Here are 4 of the most pressing signs that a workplace is no longer serving you: 

#1: People Don’t Listen To You

Whether it’s a fellow coworker shooting down your ideas on a project or your supervisor ignoring your input at a meeting, one of the first signs of an unhealthy work environment is when your opinions and ideas aren’t being considered. Each and every member of a team brings a different perspective to the table, and if yours isn’t valued, you should probably look elsewhere for a team that values collaboration and open communication. 

#2: It’s Difficult To Focus On Tasks

If you find yourself struggling to focus on the tasks of your job, it might be a sign that you are no longer passionate and motivated to accomplish the objectives of your position. Trouble focusing can also occur when the stressors of the workplace’s culture are at the top of your mind instead of the job itself. Either way, be mindful when this feeling starts showing up more often than not.  

#3: Your Identity Is Marginalized

Even in 2021, marginalization in the workplace is still a pressing issue that many people in underrepresented communities (LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and people of color) face. Some of the biggest signs that you are being marginalized in the workplace are when your work is accredited to someone else, not getting a promotion or raise despite your accreditations, or not feeling as if people have confidence in your abilities. 

#4: Stress and Sadness Is Taking Over Everything 

When an employee is undervalued and overutilized, the stress in the workplace can easily take over. While any workplace is bound to have periods of busyness, if extreme stress and pressure are commonplace even in the slower months, it is probably a sign that your company’s culture isn’t taking your work-life balance and mental health into account. 

Find Your Dream Job With Coach Allison Todd Today 

You deserve to be in a job where you are heard, seen, and valued for who you are and what you have to offer. If you’re ready to improve your business’s workplace culture and environment, or perhaps want to quit your job and start the business of your dreams, I am here to help you get started today!

How To Make Black Friday Profitable For Business Owners
27 Oct
Business Coach, Digital Marketing, Grow Your Business, Marketing, Productivity

How To Make Black Friday Profitable For Business Owners

With an enormous $9 billion dollars spent by consumers on Black Friday in 2020 alone, this day undoubtedly presents businesses with an incredible opportunity to have more traffic and profit coming their way by partaking in the festivities. 

4 Tips For Running A Seamless Black Friday

With Black Friday and the holiday season just around the corner, it is the perfect time for businesses to start thinking about their strategy for participating in the sales and deals of this iconic shopping day. Here are 4 tips and tricks for running a profitable Black Friday: 

#1: Offer Loyal Customers Exclusive Perks 

If you have already done the hard part of making a sale and converting someone into a loyal customer, it is important to make them feel valued before the Black Friday experience by offering them exclusive perks and deals on top of the ones you’re running for the masses. This will make them feel more inclined to participate. 

Whether it’s through an SMS text or a targeted email, get your subscribers and loyalty program members excited for your upcoming deals by early access to deals, additional discount codes, and more. 

#2: Promote Your Upcoming Deals On Social Media

With 420 billion users active on social media in 2020, using these platforms for marketing is one of the most important tools for getting the word out about your businesses’ Black Friday events. 

Promoting on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, and other popular platforms is a great way of creating buzz around your deals in the days leading up to it. 

One of the most important tactics to get engagement you desire are by using Black Friday-specific hashtags and captions so that people can find you more easily. 

#3: Go Above And Beyond Traditional Discounts

With thousands upon thousands of brands partaking in discounts on Black Friday, it is important to find innovative ways to stand out against the competition and create more incentives for consumers so that they focus on what you have to offer. 

Some of the best ways to go above and beyond are to offer free gifts and perks in addition to discounts, offer free shipping with every purchase, and provide future discounts after they make a Black Friday purchase. The possibilities are truly endless, so get creative with it! 

#4: Don’t Miss The Benefits Of Online Shopping 

One of the most important aspects of planning a profitable Black Friday is focusing on online shopping. With 93.2 million consumers online shopping on this day in 2019, it is just as important for businesses to take advantage of digital Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in addition to the traditional brick-and-mortar Black Friday deals. 

Watch Your Black Friday Profit Soar With The Help Of Coach Allison Todd 

If you are looking for new ways to improve your business’s profitability for Black Friday and beyond, I am here to help. As a coach and consultant with 20+ years of experience, I am energized by the opportunity to transform entrepreneurs and corporations alike. 

To learn more about a partnership, don’t hesitate to shoot me an inquiry today! 

Sales Success Part 1: Building The Know, Like, & Trust Factor
18 Oct
Business Coach, Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise, Marketing, Productivity

Sales Success Part 1: Building The Know, Like, & Trust Factor

Attention sales teams: want to be let in on a little secret? Relationship building is the key to sales success. You can have the best product or services in your marketplace, but if you don’t create an authentic relationship with your audiences and prospective customers, all of these traditional factors become obsolete. 

While product might have been the draw that brought new clients to your door, it is your personality and customer service that keeps them coming back. 

What Is The Know, Like, & Trust Factor And Why Does It Matter?

To put it simply, having the know, like, and trust factor are the three secret ingredients to becoming a more personable salesperson. Achieving all three of these “it” factors will allow your customers to feel more comfortable and confident with their purchasing decision. This is because these factors will help them… 

  • – Know who you are and what you care about
  • – Enjoy your personality and like spending time with you
  • – Trust your judgement and recommendations 

3 Steps For Building The Know, Like, and Trust Factor 

Let’s dive into tangible ways to build your companies know, like and trust factor: 

#1: Build The Know Factor By Honing In On A Unified Brand Message

One of the most effective ways of showing consumers who you are is through maintaining a strong and unified brand voice before, during, and after the sales process. This is because a brand voice communicates your brand’s values, beliefs, perspective, and overall personality. 

#2: Build The Like Factor By Being A Good Listener 

Let’s face it: who doesn’t love feeling seen and heard? Showing interest and listening to your customers needs and goals is especially important for increasing likeability and closing your sales. One insightful statistic revealed that 68% of B2B consumers are lost from a salesperson with indifference or perceived apathy, not from making a mistake. 

#3: Build Trust Factor By Creating Killer Content 

One of the best ways for winning prospective clients over is establishing your credibility as an authority in your industry. When you position yourself as an expert, they are more likely to trust your product and believe its benefits once they get to the sales process. 

Content marketing is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. In fact, 96% of the most successful content marketers believe their audience views them as credible and trusted. Some of the best pieces of content for establishing trust and credibility include in-depth blog posts, articles, and podcasts. 

Elevate Your Sales Strategy With Allison Todd Today

If you are ready to nail your next sales pitch, I would love to help you reach all of your goals. With 20+ years of experience helping businesses hone in on an effective sales strategy, I am ready to take your business to the next level. 

For even more dynamite tips and tricks on building the know, like and trust factor for sales success, click here to check out part two of this blog series today! 

Sales Success Part Two: More Tips For Building The Know, Like, & Trust Factor

Are you sick of prospective clients slip through the cracks? If so, it might just be the perfect time to focus on the personal component of sales. While it can be all too easy for an eager sales team to see dollar signs when looking at clients instead of a person in front of them, it is crucial to look at them as human beings first and foremost.

In fact, establishing WHO you are as opposed to WHAT you are selling in the sales process is crucial for keeping customers coming back for more. So much so that 42% of consumers would pay for a more welcoming experience and another 65% find positive customer experience more influential than advertising! 

This is where the importance of building your know, like, and trust factor comes into play. 

3 Bonus Steps For Building The Know, Like, & Trust Factor

In addition to part one of this blog series, I’m back more ideas for helping you increase your know, like, & trust factor to create a more personable sales process: 

#1: Build The Know Factor By Putting Your Name Out There 

The more often someone has heard of you and your brand, the more likely they are to feel confident in what you have to offer. Some of the best tactics for boosting your brand awareness and know factor for your target audience are by snagging guest blog post slots on credible sites, creating content with other businesses in your industry, and appearing as an interview guest on a show or podcast whenever possible. 

#2: Build The Like Factor By Finding Shared Interests

While the majority of the conversations with your audiences and clients should be focused on the business side of things, creating more real human connections will make the interaction more memorable. Within the small moments of chit-chat and building rapport, try to find a shared interest or belief to keep you connected and build up your like factor.

#3: Build The Trust Factor By Staying Authentic To Yourself

If a salesperson or company isn’t being open and honest about their true thoughts and opinions with prospective clients, it can lead to feelings of distrust. On the other hand, maintaining authenticity will remind clients that you are more than just a business trying to make money. 

Some of the easiest ways to stay authentic are by answering questions transparently and avoiding overtly salesy language. In fact, 61% of consumers report that one of the top ways to create a positive sales experience is when companies aren’t pushy. 

Don’t Wait To Achieve Your Sales Goals With The Help Of Allison Todd

By putting these ideas into action, you’ll be well on your way towards better customer service and increased sales in no time. Whether your business is in the stage of ideation, launching, or scaling, business coach, I cannot wait to help you bring all of your business ideas and dreams to life. 

To learn more about what a partnership with an experienced business coach can look like for your company, don’t hesitate to get in touch to get started today! 

6 Ingredients For Building The Know, Like, And Trust Factor

  • Step #1: Build The Know Factor to show customers who you are 
    • Action Step #1: Hone in on a consistent brand voice throughout your messaging 
    • Action Step #2: Put your brand name out there as much as possible 

  • Step #2: Build the Like Factor to create strong relationships and rapport with clients 
    • Action Step #1: Actively listen and show excitement for who your consumers are
    • Action Step #2: Find a personal connection with customers through shared beliefs and interests 

  • Step #3: Build The Trust Factor by establishing credibility 
    • Action Step #1: Create online content that shows your brand’s authority on a subject matter
    • Action Step #2: Maintain authenticity in every client and audience interaction 
The Lean Growth & Scale Plan by Coach Allison Todd
17 Oct
Business Coach, Entrepreneurship, Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise, Productivity, Team Management

The Lean Growth & Scale Plan by Coach Allison Todd

  • 1. How To Grow Your Brand Without Losing Its Voice Or Values
  • 2. The Simple Way To Grow Your Brand Without Losing Touch With Your Values
  • 3. Don’t Focus On Brand Growth Without Reading These Essential Tips First

Want to grow your brand but struggling to figure out the best way to go about it? Developing and expanding your business should be an exciting time. But often, information overwhelm turns it into a stressful one. 

By getting back to the basics of who you are and what you want your brand to stand for, you can create a growth strategy that feels authentic and real—two things customers love. 

Sometimes Less Is More 

These days we want everything all at once. When it comes to business, this translates into developing a blog, building up social media, starting a podcast, creating a YouTube channel, and writing a book. 

It’s easy to convince yourself that you need all the bells, whistles, and TikTok followers to be successful online. But ditching some of the “clutter” will help you focus. 

Growth by subtraction helps business owners zero in on the areas they want to develop.By taking some of these plans away and focusing on one step at a time, your business will grow at a steady rate. 

Make Technology Is Your Friend—Use It Effectively

There many intuitive tools and platforms out there that can help your business. But not all of them will suit your business needs. So choose the software wisely by only using technology that: 

  • – Segments leads and customers so you can create highly targeted marketing content and campaigns.
  • – Measures prospect engagement with your website and marketing campaigns to focus resources on those prospects showing “buying signals.”
  • – Generates leads with premium content offers embedded on your website and marketing content.
  • – Tracks your sales activity and follow-ups with CRM software.
  • – Manages and monitors your sales pipeline to keep you on track towards your business goals.

Tech makes growing a business easier if it fits. It should never make life more difficult. 

Turn Your Website Into Your Online Sales Guru

Humans ask Google a LOT of questions. So if you want to get discovered online, invest in a decent website. Make sure it has strong SEO and the copy and content are well written. 

To grow a business, it’s not enough to leave a website to stagnate. It needs to be updated regularly and checked using online analytics tools. If it’s not working, figure out why and make it right. 

Mix It Up With A Variety Of Marketing Channels

Cold-pitching may have worked 10 years ago, but unless you’re at the top of your game on how to cold-pitch, it’s a limited marketing strategy.  

And when it comes to blogs, writing generic listicles bombarded with CTAs and hoping they’re going to bring in leads isn’t going to work. Get creative with your blogs, mix it up with education, entertainment and value (hey, just like this one.) 

Evolve your business development approach to keep up with the evolution of the buying process.

Embrace Video Marketing

Cisco predicts that “by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017.”

Miss out on video, and you’re missing out on a HUGE number of marketing opportunities. 

Not a fan of being on camera? Good news. Not all videos have to feature you. They can be: 

  • – Tutorial videos
  • – Case studies
  • – Customer support and how-to videos
  • – Social media posts like reels and IGTV

Get Yourself A Business Coach And A Supportive Community 

Business can be a lonely old world sometimes, especially if you’re the one at the top making all the decisions. 

Reaching out and joining a community of other entrepreneurs provides a system of support. And hiring a business coach shows your keen to invest in yourself and your business. 

The Business Growth 90-Day Plan is an effective way to boost your brand without losing its integrity. Click here to learn more and discover if it is a good fit for your business.

Customer Journey Map - Part 2
14 Sep
Business Coach, Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise, Productivity

Customer Journey Map – Part 2

A few months ago, we talked about what it means to have a [customer journey map] and how to create a customer journey map.

Today, we’re going to unveil the five stages of the consumer decision process so you can include them in your customer journey map. Then, you can build your business, increase your conversion rate, and, ultimately, succeed as a brand owner. 

Quick Re-cap: What Is a Customer Journey Map?

As we defined in Part 1, a customer journey map is a diagram – or many diagrams – that show each of the stages your visitors go through when interacting with your brand. This can be from visiting your website for the first time to interacting with your brand’s business Instagram page, to even buying a product or service. 

What Does Any Good Customer Journey Map Need? 

The main contribution to any functioning customer journey map is research and data. Without data, these are simply drawings without any underpinning evidence. 

The customer journey maps need to reflect the customer’s search intent and sentiment, individual goals, and touchpoints. 

There should be multiple customer journey maps to cover all bases. That means having a single customer journey map for your website will not suffice. Instead, you need to consider the different directions and journeys each individual will take. Use a heat map to determine the patterns and trends of the activity on your site.

It also demands journey maps for your other platforms. Think about how someone may navigate through your social platforms or blogs. Customer journey maps are effective but only when they’re used properly. 

What Are The Five Stages Of The Consumer Decision Process?

Customer journey maps rely on understanding the lead. The first factor in determining is where the lead is within the five stages of the consumer decision process:

1. The Awareness Stage

At this point, the lead becomes aware of your brand. This could be through a search engine, word of mouth, or any other marketing platform you’ve been using to advertise and promote your business. 

2. The Consideration Stage

This stage includes careful consideration of your product or service and often demands intense research. The consideration stage lasts longer depending on the price of your offer. The higher the price, the longer this phase lasts. This is down to the price being more of a risk. Competitors will be considered at this stage, too. 

3. The Decision Stage

Your prospect makes their decision at this stage. They will either purchase from a competitor, move back a stage, or purchase from you. 

4. The Retention Stage

If a purchase has been made, this stage is where the magic happens in terms of ROI. Research proves that if someone has already made an initial process, they’re more likely to purchase again. Adobe has demonstrated that 8% of website visitors who are existing customers constitute 40% of overall revenue.  

5. The Loyalty/Advocacy Stage

This phase takes the retention stage to a whole new level. This phase includes writing reviews and spreading positive comments through word-of-mouth. This phase encourages new leads to enter through the first stage, and so the cycle repeats once again. 

Why Do I Need To Consider The Buyer’s Stage In My Customer Journey Map?

As mentioned, the most effective customer journey maps are deeply rooted in research and data. But it’s also fundamental to understand your audience in depth.

The buyer’s stage will help cater to your customer journey maps with their current stage in mind, allowing you to personalize strategies to help each lead climb up the ladder, phase by phase, until they reach stage 5. Once there, they can help bring in new leads for you, playing their own part in guiding new leads up the ladder. 

How To Use The Buyer’s Stage In My Customer Journey Map

Now you’re clear about why you need to include the buyer’s stage within your customer journey maps, let’s consider how you can do this in practice. 

As with many marketing strategies, the key lies in understanding your target audience well. Once you are able to track data and view the common patterns and trends, you’ll be able to sort and categorize this data into buyer’s journey sections. 

This will allow you to consider the best methods to help them move up a stage. 

You will need various methods for each individual stage, focusing on techniques and elements that will help them up a level. 

For example, consider the consideration phase. At this point, your leads are locked in an internal battle trying to make a choice whether to spend money on your product or service, take their business elsewhere, or simply not buy anything at all. Therefore, you need to consider techniques that will help bring them over to the right side: purchasing from you. 

Some strategies that could help with this are using social proof or offering a discount. 

Implement The Buyer’s Journey Into Your Customer Journey Maps Today

As you can see, the buyer’s journey is absolutely critical when mapping out the navigation journey of your lead. By incorporating it, you can tailor your strategies to help them reach the top of the tower. Without it, though, you’re shooting blind, and you’ll find it challenging to achieve stage 5 status. 

Customer Journey Map
17 May
Entrepreneurship, Grow Your Business, Productivity

Customer Journey Map

Do you know how your customers bet from your social media website to a full cart ready for online check out? How do they move from their emails to your sales page? Most importantly–do you know what may be keeping them from selecting that final “checkout” button? If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions, it’s time to delve into a Customer Journey Map.

What Exactly Is a Customer Journey Map?

A Customer Journey Map is a visual representation of the choices your customers make when interacting with your brand. It helps illustrate the interior minds of your clients to better understand their needs, desires, and issues as they traverse across your company’s touchpoints–which are your business’s website, social media channels, and any marketing or sales team member interactions (i.e. customer service providers). 

Customer Journey Maps allow a business to see their products and services from the customer’s perspective. This is invaluable information, because it can help you identify where any pain points are that could lead to you losing a customer, like a bad link or unclear website copy.

These maps generally start out pretty rudimentary. A business takes an excel sheet and fills it out with key events, customer motivations and needs, and any areas of tension within the customer experience. From this, a visual is created to better track a customer’s journey. This structural analysis can help a business organize their procedures and products in a more logical, optimized manner that can lead to more commerce. 

How Do You Create A Customer Journey Map?

As discussed previously, Customer Journey Maps visually communicate the ways a buyer persona may travel through the various touchpoints of a company to reach their end goal. The illustrative part of these maps is invaluable, since the buyer’s journey is no longer a linear one–it can be cyclical, multi-channeled, and go in several different directions. It helps translate all the moving parts of your commerce into one digestible whole.

The first step in creating these maps is collecting data from your current customers. This can be a lengthy process, but the information will inform your buyer personas as well as the map itself. 

Next is mapping out all the touchpoints of your company. This includes any websites, social media channels, and direct interactions with team members that a customer could have. It’s meant to cover all the potential paths a customer could go down, as well as the brand’s response. 

This map indicates if your customer is reaching their goals and, if not, how they can. It will also include customer sentiments, pain points, and actions, plotted in sequential order. An effective customer journey map is one that promotes empathy and provides a clear vision for improving customer interactions.

Why Is Customer Journey Mapping Important?

The answer to this question is multifaceted. As we’ve already talked about, a buyer’s journey in the modern age is a complicated one, it’s tough to narrow down how a client gets to their online cart, and why they may abandon it without checking out. 

Customer Journey Mapping takes all of this complicated information and turns it into something that informs not only the methods through which a business conducts business, but also how a product can be better.

The Basics of Business Operations
07 May
Entrepreneurship, Grow Your Business, Productivity

The Basics of Business Operations

So, you’ve made the leap to start your own business. Congratulations! Or maybe you’re an established business owner looking to scale your company and unleash its true potential. Either way, you need a solid plan. By defining your business operations strategy, you can ensure that your company runs smoothly and set yourself up for success.

What Are Business Operations?

Business operations clearly define everything that your organization does, how it functions, and how it generates revenue. It measures inputs and outputs to determine the efficiency of your business functions. Without a distinct business operations model, you not only miss out on tangible metrics reporting your business’ productivity, but it’s very challenging to grow your company.

The Foundational Elements of Business Operations

Although your specific business operations will vary based on your industry and organization type, they will always include a few basic elements:

Your Systems

Your business systems refer to the processes you use to perform anything business-related. That means product manufacturing or production, equipment maintenance, service execution, sales processes, payroll system, among others. Don’t forget that people are part of your business system.

Ensuring that you have a solid hiring and staff training system will provide you with a foundation for a successful team. By maximizing the efficiency of your business systems, you can make your business as productive as possible.

Your Team

Your team members contribute significantly to your business’ productivity- and it’s not just who you hire but how you manage them. Business operations strategies allow you to clearly assign roles and responsibilities to maximize efficiency within your workforce. But, unfortunately, underperforming team members could be keeping your business from thriving. You can use these signs to help identify employees that might need some extra guidance or correction.

Your Finances

Managing your financials is key to a thriving business. Through your business operations plan, you can keep organized financial records, track day-to-day transactions, define your business’ financial position at regular intervals, and ultimately avoid financial issues. Be sure to enlist the help of a trusted financial professional to keep your monetary management aligned with your business operations strategy.

Your Marketing

What is the most powerful way to make your professionally managed business more profitable? Get your name out there! Through strategic marketing efforts, you will build brand awareness, generate leads, and successfully convert those leads to paying customers. As part of your customized business operations, a marketing specialist will define your ideal audience to optimize your marketing strategy.

Transform Your Business with Innovative Business Operations

Even with an established business operations system, your business’ success isn’t necessarily guaranteed. Therefore, it’s important to consistently reassess the performance of your business operations to ensure that they are optimized for this ever-changing market. If you are ready to leverage your business’ potential, find out how our data-driven business operations models can get you results.

08 Feb
Grow Your Business, Productivity

Why You Should Always Look For New Clients (Even When You Don’t Need Them Now)

It’s only natural that you don’t feel the need to look for new clients when you have plenty of work. 

When you’re up to your ears in work, it doesn’t seem necessary to keep searching for new clients. 

But in reality, you should always be on the lookout for new clients; This is because it takes a great deal of time to find and nurture clients.

You have to build relationships with people who might get you work. You need to connect with them online and start interacting with them.

These methods take time to implement.

Just because you’re busy with work right now doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who’s a perfect match for your business.

But most of all, what happens if you lose a large client now and you’re out of work? You’ll have a gap before you can cover what you’ve lost, and this will affect your income. 

If that gap continues for too long, you might have to take on less-than-ideal work to pay the bills. However, if you have new prospects lined up, you’ll have some choices. 

But how do you keep doing this when you’re busy? The way to do it is to be organized.

Create a strategy for finding new clients. Systematize, so you don’t have to think about it.

For example, create regular content to post on other people’s blogs. Search regularly for new people to connect with on social media.

Choose a few simple strategies for finding new clients that you can do on an ongoing basis while performing work for current clients. 

An excellent way to manage this is to spend a bit of time each day on client acquisition. Set aside a half-hour or hour each day for these activities, an amount of time that won’t take away from your working time.

It’s better to have too many leads and too much work than to be left without any.

It’s only natural that when you have plenty of work, you don’t feel the need to look for new clients. 

When you’re up to your ears in work, it doesn’t seem necessary to keep searching for new clients. 

But in reality, you should always be on the lookout for new clients. This is because it takes a great deal of time to find and nurture clients.

You have to build relationships with people who might get you work. You need to connect with them online and start interacting with them.

These methods take time to implement.

Just because you’re busy with work right now doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who’s a perfect match for your business.

But most of all, what happens if you lose a large client now and you’re out of work? You’ll have a gap before you can cover what you’ve lost, and this will affect your income. 

Why you should always look for new clients

If that gap continues for too long, you might have to take on less-than-ideal work in order to pay the bills. However, if you have new prospects lined up, you’ll have some choices. 

But how do you keep doing this when you’re busy? The way to do it is to be organized.

Create a strategy for finding new clients. Systematize so you don’t have to think about it.

For example, create regular content to post on other people’s blogs. Search regularly for new people to connect with on social media.

Choose a few simple strategies for finding new clients that you can do on an ongoing basis while you perform work for current clients. 

A good way to manage this is to spend a bit of time each day on client acquisition. Set aside a half hour or hour each day for these activities, an amount of time that won’t take away from your working time.

It’s better to have too many leads and too much work than to be left without any.

03 Feb
Productivity, Start Your Business

Identifying Your Edge

As micropreneurs, we are the underdogs by default. In most cases, we find ourselves in a competitive and highly fragmented market space.
Standing out and cutting out your share of the market is an uphill battle. However, it would be best if you didn’t give up.

Understanding your edge

There is always a unique space for your business to fill; you have to find it.
The key to successfully running a small business lies in understanding your edge. Your edge can be a number of things:

  • Your personality,
  • the price of your products,
  • your eye for details,
  • your distinct position in the supply chain,
  • the authenticity of your design,
  • flexibility, etc.

As much as I love KFC, it isn’t my favorite restaurant as it doesn’t meet my preferred dining experience. I love to eat at a restaurant where I feel at home, where the waiters and chefs are my friends.

Not just polite but friendly and slightly chatty. My favorite restaurant fits this profile. What’s more, my friends are like me, and this restaurant has become our go-to hang out spot.

Why you should always look for new clients

We walk in, and we feel like stars with everyone greeting us and sparking short conversations before going about their business. On slow days, it isn’t uncommon for a staff member to sit with me and chat.

Therefore, My favorite restaurant’s edge: isn’t speed, variety, or taste. However, those bases are well covered. My favorite restaurant’s advantage is the interpersonal relationship it builds with every one of its customers.

A short interview with the owner made me realize that it was an intentional strategy. His niche was to make his customers his friends and part of his community.

The good, the bad and the profit of being your own boss.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Identifying your niche isn’t going to be easy. However, once you do, you would easily carve out your market share and even expand it over time.

The best place to start identifying your edge is by understanding what extra or unique value you want to offer.

Once you have your advantage figured out, the next step is infusing it into your business and your brand. Your edge is going to keep your customers loyal and make them ambassadors of your product or service.

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