If you are like me and many other entrepreneurs out there, we start our solo business for many different reasons, but in the end it really boils down to one or more of the following. We want to:
- Have more freedom in our lifestyle – to do what we want, when we want to do it.
- Enjoy what we do every day and not be bound by a mundane, tiresome 9-5 job that we really dislike.
- Use our services and products to make a difference in the world.
- Have more disposable income so we can actually do and buy the things we want.
The reality however is that it takes a lot of hard work, sweat and tears, and a truckload of dedication and perseverance to bring our business to a point where we can “have it all”.
Through the past 5 years I’ve worked non-stop at this process “to-have-it-all”. I’ve tested and tried many different strategies and tactics and here are the 6 pillars I’m currently building my business on. Since I’ve put these pillars in place, things dramatically changed for the better and it is bringing me step-by-step closer to “having-it-all”.
So today, I want to share these 6 pillars with you
1. Choose Your Audience
It all starts here. The golden rule in building a successful solo business through marketing & attracting clients is this: “If you try to appeal and market your services to anyone and everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no-one”.
Thus, the absolute first pillar of your successful business needs to be a clear knowledge and understanding of who you want to work with (your target audience). Because then, marketing and finding more clients become so much easier simply because you know where to start looking for clients and what to say to them.
2. Master Your Message
A problem that we as solo-preneurs often struggle with is this: People do not get what we can do for them, and it is often difficult for us to put it into words and to convey a marketing message in a clear and easy understandable way.
So the second pillar to create a massively successful solo business is to understand your target audience extremely well so that you can start mastering the message you send out to them and thus have a message that they can understand too. When your message resonates with the clients you want to work with it will inspire people to line up behind you, to support the things you do, and it will intrinsically motivate them to work with you or buy your products.
3. Consistently Reach More People via Your Marketing
Over the years I’ve realized that marketing is not a once-off event, and marketing is not something you do ONLY when you want to sell stuff. It is way more than that. Marketing (when done right) is about authentically communicating and connecting with people in many different ways and through many different platforms to first of all inform more and more people about what you do and the solutions you provide, and then to have them raise their hands willingly to follow you or work with you.
So the third pillar is about creating a continuous and diversified marketing road-map to reach more and more people with your message and attract them to become part of your community / tribe.
4. Build Your Tribe
I believe that in this day and age, if you do not have a client community, a tribe, a list or whatever you want to call it, it will be really hard to consistently grow your business to levels where you can have it all – more freedom, more impact in your world and more income.
So pillar 4 is to continuously build your list with people who are interested in what you offer and who want to know more. Building a community of raving fans and followers gives you instant and direct access to an ever growing “ideal” target audience every time you want to promote a particular product or service. It takes the “pain” out of getting new clients, because the people on your list already know you and are more likely to start working with you.
5. Build Relationships With Your Tribe
People buy from people they know, like and trust. It is therefore important to build authentic relationships with the people on your list so they can get to know you better, like you more and start to trust you. The easiest way to do that is to frequently stay in touch with your list and to be a valuable source of information to them.
With an effective staying-in-touch-strategy you create a connection and bond between you and your prospects where you progressively turn cold leads into warm leads and eventually prospects into paying clients.
6. Make a Difference in Their Lives and Become Prosperous Through Sales
To truly impact someone’s world and to make a real difference in their lives, people need to experience you and what you have to offer. E.g. they need to work with you personally or use your products. That’s the only way they’ll get the true value of what you offer. Thus you have to sell stuff! AND you have to ask people to work with you or to buy your products. Otherwise you won’t be able to grow a profitable, freedom based business where you can continue to do what you love.
Pillar 6 is therefor about having services / products that truly solve a problem for your audience and then regularly asking people to work with you so you can help them solve that problem. The funny thing is that in most cases, people will not pull out their wallets unless you ask them to – so be bold about it and start asking them. Luckily with the other pillars in place, this step becomes much easier since you’ve already established a relationship with the people you ask to work with you.
So, what I hope you took from this article is this: Building a massively successful solo business does not happen overnight (no matter what anybody tells you). But when you put the above 6 pillars in place, that process can be much quicker and you can be more successful than you’ve ever imagined.
Obviously there are a number of finer details needed to effectively put these pillars in place. So over the next few weeks I’ll discuss each of these pillars in more details. Be sure to check back again …. or even better: if you don’t want to miss any of the strategies, sign up here to have them delivered to your inbox, and as a thank you from my side, you’ll receive a free gift that will help you go “from no clients to paying clients”.
To Your Success
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