The big question for anyone thinking of starting a service-oriented business is how to obtain clients. Our industry may be “hot,” and our personal qualifications and skills may be outstanding, but neither of these factors ensures that clients will be calling, texting, or emailing us with work requests on a regular basis.

Rather of waiting for clients to come to you, you should be proactive and go out and find them.

Here’s 5 creative ways to market your business and find clients:

1. Start talking about your business
2. Find your tribe and network
3. Volunteer
4. Comment and engage
5. Write a business blog

Start talking about your business

If you’re not talking about your new business, then who will?

Training to talk about your business from the moment you start is important in landing potential clients. You never know how people will react when you tell them about your business. Some may be interested in the business process, some not interested at all and other will begin to tell you how much they need your services. THESE are the ones you should be paying attention to. Always have your business card on hand and offer to meet for coffee, get chatting!

Find your tribe and network

We know it may be daunting going out there and networking with people within your niche, but year after year, networking will fill your business with new and repeat clients.

A few tips when networking:

• It’s not about socialising (though you’ll probably make awesome friends).
• It’s all about forming relationships with new people, which leads to the finding of amazing clients.
• It’s all about making contacts that will lead to future collaborations.
• Make sure the time spent is worthwhile – groups typically meet once a month, and you must go to benefit, so choose an organisation that has your target audience or links to your target to achieve your goal of getting new clients.
• Collect those business cards and connect with them one-on-one to build a relationship and develop your network! Keep in mind that these new business acquaintances will be your best referral sources and sales team!
• It may be scary, but go in and find the other person who is standing alone and appears to be lost, and you’ll make an immediate friend!

Volunteer

Volunteering is another excellent approach to expand your client base. You never know who you’ll be working with who might require your skills or who knows someone who could benefit from your assistance!

Comment and engage

Commenting on blog posts and social media feeds you follow is a great approach to expand your network and eventually attract new clients.

• Be polite!
• Provide value, support, and encouragement.
• DO NOT PROMOTE OR SELL YOURSELF!

It’s incredible how much it will assist you in meeting new people who will eventually become clients or collaborative partners.

Write a business blog

A blog is an excellent approach to attract customers and welcome people in through your virtual front door. By creating content that is valuable to them, you can use a blog to open the door to new clients.

Only time and smart strategy are required for business blogging. It’s an opportunity to create content that can be linked to and used across your social media networks, resulting in increased traffic to your website.

You control your blog content, so you get to decide where and how often you distribute it.

Remember – Google LOVES all that fresh content!

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