How To Really Grow Your Client-Based Business Online

What if I were to tell you that it is not about blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your website?

What if I were to go even a step further and say that if everything you have been working so hard on that is not giving you results needs to be stopped?

Well, I actually said it.

STOP.

If you are working hard to try to stay on top of all these activities that “experts” who sell success through these activities have declared a must for online success (like blogging or being on every possible social media channel), it is time to stop.

One more Facebook like is not going to bring you the results you need.

Seriously. Think about it for a second.

Building a business on your own terms, a business that allows you to do what you love and help people is one of the most important skills you can develop and I take it very seriously. That’s why we are going to concentrate today on the big picture of and the keys to what it takes to build a profitable and sustainable client-based business that attracts awesome clients ready to invest in working with you.

AND… we are going to start by what you need to stop doing. Most importantly in this day and age of information overload, you will learn what NOT to do and costly mistakes to avoid. That will take you immediately out of overwhelm and into action.

Order and sequence

The amount of misinformation out there can be overwhelming and even more dangerous, it can lead you to "collect" bits and pieces of tactics and try them out of sequence.

Building a successful business requires the right actions done in the RIGHT ORDER and SEQUENCE.

If you were to build a house, you wouldn't decorate the living-room until the roof is in place. There is nothing wrong with living-room decoration per se. It just needs to happen at the right time. Likewise, some people start by building the super-duper website with a membership site and a forum but they don't have enough clients yet.There is nothing wrong with a website with a forum per se and as a business strategy it has its place. It usually makes much more sense to have a well-established business before starting a project like that (especially if you are not attracting as many clients as you know you could be helping).


Stop overloading yourself with information

More information is never the solution to information overload.

Get yourself a proven plan and implement it. This will take you out of the vicious cycle of information overload and overwhelm and put you into the virtuous cycle of pride. Pride is a constructive energy to build from (we are not talking about arrogance but genuine pride of the business you are building and the work you do).


A proven plan based on principles and not on tactics

A powerful way of eliminating overwhelm is to stick to the fundamentals and skip the tactics, no matter how sexy they look and how bright they shine.

Gravity is a principle. If I drop the pen I have in my hand, it will fall onto the floor of my office.

One way of evaluating a plan is to make sure that it is based on solid business principles. The channels might change (remember the time when there was no Facebook?) and the principles remain.

However, a plan is not enough. You need to implement it (i.e. you actually need to do the work) but you know that, right?


Stop doing the wrong things and things wrong

What do I mean by this? Stop the website, social media, networking. Stop activity for the sake of being busy and work on your business fundamentals. Once you have the fundamentals ready, you can use them as the foundation for all your activities.

Let me give you an example. Let's say that you are working on the logo for your website without knowing what your magnetic marketing message is. Very soon you will need a new logo. See what I mean?

Get your magnetic marketing message first and then you can have your logo created. You will be using the message on your website, social media, networking, etc.


Don't model the big names in your industry

At least, not without understanding their strategy and where they are in their businesses. The strategy of a large company with a significant marketing budget is very different from the smart strategy for a solopreneur.

Get a plan for your business and stick to it, no matter what the other players in your field are doing.

And... Don't copy your competition, either.

Why not? Because you want to be unique AND, from a very practical perspective, because you have no clue whether what they are doing is giving them the results they want. In other words, you don't know if it is working.

This is one of the biggest online pitfalls. You cannot see behind the scenes. Most people copy what others are doing because they assume that if they are doing it, it must work…


Master your marketing

You don't need to become a marketing expert but you do need to become an expert in marketing your business.

Oh, no the m-word again!

I used to feel like that, too until I understood the real meaning of marketing so let's start by defining marketing.

Marketing is the clear communication of the value of what you are offering.

As simple as that. People need to understand what you offer and how it can help them.

Marketing is simple but not easy...However, marketing is the number one most important activity in your business because it will attract clients, which is the only way of making money with your work. If you cannot communicate the real value of your contribution so that the right people get it and start saying “I want to work with you”, all the tactics in the world are not going to help much.




Next Step

Decide on the activities you are going to stop doing for now and just press pause. In that free time, start working on the activity that is going to move your business the further the fastest.


Till next time… remember your awesomeness is portable. You can take it with you anywhere.
With love
Ana