START! Blog

The sooner you’re able to identify the clients you want to work with the better.

Better for you and better for the clients.

I made the obvious mistake that many do of taking on any client who agreed to pay my fees. But I quickly became busy with a huge variety of business types and client types. Most clients were, and still are great to work with but there was the occasional horror.

‘…save yourself a lot of pain…’

At the same time I was lucky that I only seemed to attract limited companies and not sole traders, which fitted in with the type of work I wanted to do.

So save yourself a lot of pain and make sure you have a very good idea of what your ideal client looks like. Whatever that is – stick to it, refine it over time, but stick to it.

I’m not talking about having a niche, I don’t agree with that. Especially not early on in your practice when you can’t afford to be too picky – you need the cash flow. Being picky isn’t having a niche, its common sense.

Even now, the most important aspect for me is whether I like, respect and think I can work well with a client. It doesn’t matter what sector he or she works in, where they’re based or how big they are.

But you need to work out for yourself. One piece of great advice I picked up from Amanda C Watts was the need to identify my ideal client and produce a detailed ‘client avatar’. Pick your best clients and identify what it is about them that makes them your best clients. Then work out how you can get more of them.

It took me a long time to work out what my ideal client looked like.
I’m not a marketing expert, all I can tell you is that this works for me. Work out who you want to work with and then go and find them.