There was a time when I couldn’t afford a McDonald’s meal.
It was 2012, I had recently started a graphic design business so I could work online and travel the world but... clients weren’t exactly knocking down my digital door (aka. inbox), so money was tight. Really tight.
My friend and I were in town when she said she wanted to go to McDonald’s. Not wanting to tell her I couldn't afford it, I followed her in and got in line. I was SURE my card would decline and I didn’t want my friend to see, so I told her I had forgotten my purse and asked if she could pay for my lunch and I'd pay her back.
Fast forward to now and things are wildly different.
I built a six figure business working three days a week and traveling the world.
I saved £110k+ in my twenties.
I have the time and financial freedom to travel for 3-6 months a year. (I’ve lived in New York, Seoul, Central America, London and traveled to over 17 other countries.)
I was able to make my dream of living off-grid a reality.
I buy all the McDonald’s I want. (Just kidding. I try to eat more veggies now! Although McDonald's is still my weakness...)
So, how did I go from not being able to afford a McDonald's meal... to twenty-something six figure business owner with £110k+ in savings?
It started with figuring out how to book clients consistently and make predictable income.
Consistent clients = financial security.
It was only once I had consistent clients that I was then able to live the freedom-filled lifestyle I craved.
Maybe you haven’t started your online business yet and you get the sweats just THINKING of how you’ll get clients consistently and pay your bills without a steady paycheck?
Or maybe you already have your own online business but you’re not making much money and instead of clients, you hear crickets?
If you're struggling to book clients consistently, here are 14 of the MOST common reasons why. They're based on what I've seen in my own business and my 1500 students and clients businesses over the last 11 years.
You can keep scrolling to read the article, or listen to this article as a podcast episode by hitting “play” on the player below!
14 mistakes that are stopping you from getting clients consistently
1. You're doing too much busy work and not enough money-making activities.
"Busy work" means tasks that make you feel like you're being productive, but don't actually get you results. (i.e. get you clients or grow your audience.)
For example, if you spend hours each day agonizing over what to post on your Instagram story but you rarely get clients from Instagram, that's busy work. It FEELS productive but doesn't bring in results.
If you know where the majority of your clients come from, you need to invest your time in that instead.
2. You tell yourself you hate marketing and you're not good at it.
If you believe you are not good at marketing (or you tell yourself that you hate it), you won't do it. But you NEED to market your services to keep your business alive. Expecting clients to magically fill your roster each month with no effort from you is like going to the gym twice a month and expecting a six pack for summer. Unrealistic, right?
If you want consistent clients, you have to market your services consistently.
And that's a lot easier to do when you stop telling yourself you “hate marketing” and you're “no good at it.” Find marketing methods you DO like and you ARE good at!
3. You haven't been able to follow a plan in the past so you don't bother now.
Business is one giant experiment and we have to try things, pivot, try things, pivot until we find a plan or strategy that works for us.
You are capable of sticking to a plan. You just need to a.) find a plan that works for you and your personality/energetic capacity, and b.) acknowledge what is stopping you from sticking to the plan and DO something about it. In the past, have your marketing plans been too complicated? Not enjoyable? Do you have limiting beliefs that are sabotaged your plan? It may sound a little harsh, but the only person standing between you and a stream of consistent clients is you. Don't allow a few failed plans or strategies to stop you from getting up and trying again.
4. You rely on referrals OR on one social media platform.
These are great ways to get clients but shouldn't be your main marketing sources. You can't control whether someone refers you to others or not, and you can't control social media because algorithms prevent your content from being seen by all of your followers. So use these marketing methods but don't put your eggs solely in those baskets. Implement marketing strategies you have more control and ownership over, like email marketing. (I teach email marketing strategy in depth in my program! Alongside Instagram marketing, marketing mindset, and more. Everything I’ve learned in 11 years as a full-time online business owner is in that self-study program.)
5. You seem like a copy of everyone else in your niche.
The online business world is oversaturated. There's a lot of competition, and it will only increase. The only thing making you stand out from your competitors is YOU. So make sure you let your personality shine and tell your story (as it relates to your brand.)
In my program, I use the hero journey framework to help my students understand what their own hero journey looks like in relation to their brand so they can infuse their journey and story into their messaging and stand out. (And if you don’t run a business your stories relate to, you can tell your clients stories. With permission of course.)
This does NOT mean sharing your past trauma (unless you feel called to.) The hardest things I’ve ever endured have never once been shared online, and never will.
No, I mean… share stories that relate to your brand. They can be happy stories, small stories, they don’t always need to be big or traumatic (unless, again, you feel called to share those.)
One of the stories I share often in my business is the one at the start of this blog: the time I pretended I forgot my purse so I didn’t have to feel embarrassed when my card declined. This is not a traumatic story for me to share, but it was a big turning point in my journey. It’s a story other business owners can probably relate to. And if it helps others feel seen and helps us develop a deeper relationship then I’m happy to share that story.
6. You're not doing the damn marketing.
I mentioned this earlier so I'll keep this point brief: you can't expect consistent clients if you're not marketing consistently.
If you don't enjoy marketing, your options are:
Outsource it if you can afford that and still maintain at least a 50% profit margin. (Ideally you want to be around 60%-70%, but as long as you don’t go below 50% then your profit margin as a solopreneur is healthy.)
Get a 9-5 job where you don't have to market yourself. No shame in this. 9-5’s can be great!
Choose marketing strategies you enjoy, and develop more mental toughness by getting on with the hard marketing tasks you don't like. (Because let's face it - even the marketing strategies you enjoy are going to be boring / hard at times! But if you can crack on with it anyway, over time you teach your brain that you can do hard things. And if you can do hard things, you can do anything.)
In an effort to stop this article from being reeeeally long…
Below are the next 8 points in one sentence each! Listen to the full podcast episode to hear more details on each of them. The episode is one of my most value-packed episodes ever, so I promise it’s worth your time.
7. You don't have a clear niche or clear messaging, therefore you confuse potential clients and don't stand out from the crowd.
8. You self-sabotage because you have low confidence or don't actually like the services you sell.
9. You consume more content than you create.
10. You have no marketing strategy or funnel. No strategy = no clarity. No clarity = feeling overwhelmed by the thought of marketing. Feeling overwhelmed = never marketing your services because you don't want to keep feeling overwhelmed. See the cycle?
(If you’re looking for marketing strategies to implement and you’re ready to learn how to create a marketing funnel, these are things I teach in my program.)
11. Your pricing is too low or too high. (Yes, despite what the gurus may say, there's such a thing as pricing too high. Curious to learn more? I explain it in the audio episode!)
12. You aren't selling what your ideal clients REALLY want, or talking about it how THEY would talk about it.
13. You're not attracting the right kind of people to your content & website.
14. You're not good at storytelling or evoking emotion. Buying is an emotional decision and business owners that can sell with emotion-driven stories often succeed the most. (As I mentioned earlier in this article, this doesn’t have to mean sharing your trauma. You can evoke emotion and sell through story without trauma needing to be a part of it.)
About Nesha
Hey there! I’m Nesha, host of The Simple Business Show. I teach freedom seekers how to make a full-time income online without working full-time hours, so they have the time, location and financial freedom to live the life they dream of.
When I’m not working you’ll find me building my own tiny home, reading fantasy books (ACOTAR anyone?), or traveling the world with my backpack and my laptop!
Looking for more ways I can help you? Here they are:
Organize & Automate - Join 1400+ students and learn how to organize your entire online service-based business in just two weeks (on the side of your regular routine!) so you can stop stressing AND amaze your clients.
Simple Sales School - Learn how to get a consistent flow of clients so you can build the income & financial freedom you desire.
1:1 Coaching - Join Momentum and work with me for 3 months as we remodel your business and take it from where it is to where you dream of it being
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