How to secure paying clients and sustain your income as a one-person business
Part 3 of 3 on designing a business around yourself.
When you create from a place of your Unique Contribution, you'll find that people will love your energy, your clarity and purpose and will be cheering you on.
But friends, the online marketing game can lead to exhaustion if you’re not careful. Likes and comments don’t pay your bills. You’re not building an audience, you’re creating a service that people will pay you for.
A service that you can trust to deliver returns, and build a life around.
So keep reading for this important distinction, and how to make clients so you can monetise your one-person business in a sustainable way over the long run.
Creating Clients
Running a one-person business requires being savvy about how you spend your time, and what many new entrepreneurs fall into the trap of is pleasing people with great content, but find that these people never intended on becoming a paying customer. You’re left on a high from the dopamine hit of their attention and can’t seem to escape the trap of creating content but not making any client sales, and feeling extremely busy, but also poor, for too long.
I was at a conference full of marketers the other day, and a woman shared about her foray into video content for her own marketing and how much attention she got. The attention fueled a year-long journey into making funny videos.
But did any of these people turn into paying customers? No. She lamented this story during the ‘‘failure” section of the conference.
I can relate. Last year I spent thousands of pounds and six months planning an online event which had over one thousand sign ups. It was a free event, and it was amazing and everyone loved it.
But it was really hard work. I learnt a tonne but lost so much money in the process as the activity didn’t create paying clients at the end of it all.
So I don’t want you to fall into these same traps.
Here is your checklist to work through to ensure that you can both promote your services authentically whilst having fun, but also make some sales at the end of it.
i) Create your Ideal Customer Persona.
I want to draw your attention to the use of the word Ideal here. Ideal = Perfect version of your Customer. Just because we are painting a picture of this perfect person, doesn’t mean that they are the ONLY person you might have as a customer. We describe the ideal one, so that you can keep them in mind when you build your product or marketing materials and ‘speak to their needs’.
In doing so, you’ll better attract these individuals to your product or service and buying from you will be a no brainer for them (you want to attract the ones who see paying you as the only solution!)
You’ll still attract buyers who are similar to your ideal client persona, and ideally, turn off people who are nothing like it. Money isn’t made equally, and you don’t want people buying your service who you didn’t build for, because they (or you) will have a sub-par experience in this transaction, and you won’t enjoy running your business.
Describe them in detail and give them a name you can refer to as when you are creating a piece of content its’ “Would Jack resonate with this?” etc.
ii) Know the difference between sales and marketing
It can sound obvious but doing ‘sales’ is not the same as doing ‘marketing’. You’re marketing you’re selling 1-many; shouting from that proverbial megaphone and seeing what comes back to you. Sales however, is simply about conversation. It’s having a personal, 1-1 conversation, with your ideal customer and inviting them to work with you. Literally ASKING.
Maybe that sounds wild! In an increasingly social-media driven landscape it can seem like posting a pretty image on Instagram is enough to drive 1-1 sales but I am afraid, it rarely is. The reality of creating consistent sales is much more challenging, and a longer road. But don’t let that deter you!
When you master sales and find it fun, the rest is so easy because you know that the bit that ultimately matters is taken care of.
To get clients to pay you, you must be able to do the following things:
Be seen. Be visible to the people you want to work with, whether online or in person
Be clear. Have a clear pitch and explanation of what you do, why you’re the best, and how you can help them
Listen. One of the most important aspects of sales is listening to what your prospect is saying, helping them to feel understood, and guiding them to the right solution. NB what you offer might not be the right solution for them, so only ask for the sale if it is!
Ask for the sale. Literally say ‘would you like to work together on this’
Follow up. Someone can say yes and then go cold (humans are naturally averse to spending money and taking risks) so don't be deterred if they are not handing over their credit card right away, and see how they are feeling in a couple of days.
Make it official. Have the steps in place to show that you’re an expert, you have a process, and they are in good hands.
This set of actions won’t work every single time – far from it. But with enough attention to getting better at sales, and practice, and clarity about who you help and what you offer, you will get there. I know that you’re someone who cares about doing this properly by the very nature of the fact you’re still reading. That says a lot. You care and you want to learn – this is HUGE in sales and will make you a genuine, ethical seller.
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iii) Get your mindset right.
As you run your one-person business you have to also believe that you are worthy and you can deliver on your promises.
You could have a perfect strategy in place around a one-person business based on your Unique Contribution, but if you lack the right mindset, you’ll encounter a load of resistance, excuse making and doubts. Sure enough, these create a lack of results, and that reinforces your belief that you weren’t cut out for this. As humans we are very good at breaking our own commitments and letting fear and doubt stop us.
As a business owner, selling yourself, you can bet all of your insecurities will stop you making progress if you don’t tackle these insecurities and work on overcoming them.
Being a business owner has a lot of unseen work. Confronting your demons – any feelings of unworthiness that might come up during the process of putting yourself out there for the world to see. Your mindset is key because if you don’t fully believe in what you are selling (yourself) no one else will either.
Brene Brown calls it being in the ‘arena’. Imagine you’re in ancient Rome and thousands of people are seated in an amphitheatre and you’re in the centre, all alone, sharing your message. It’s normal for this to bring up all kinds of stuff.
When this is going on you have to protect your energy, from the WRONG people.
Get support from others who are doing this work too aka who are also in the arena and know what it takes to put themselves out there.
Your 9-5 friends might not be the support you need at this time, but a trained coach who is also a business owner, can be a pretty solid foundation. That’s me, and there are lots of others out there too who can help and I’ve had the privilege of knowing or working with many of them.
If you don’t invest in getting over the mindset piece then none of this other stuff matters.
Making enough money
Creating clients and getting them to say ‘yes’ to working with you, is a huge part of the business- building equation and so if you’re already there, a big congratulations. Ideally, if you have consistent clients coming through you are also experiencing what it’s like to have a consistent stream of income, too.
However, income as a business owner forms a small fraction of what’s important to consider when it comes to actually creating wealth for yourself in the process.
Your income from your client work, has to cover the costs that have been incurred in creating these clients (perhaps marketing spend, a small team, software, offices, branding etc) and then the taxes you’ll be charged on this profit left over. What’s left, you can take home.
Making enough money as a business owner is about pulling all of these various levers and setting your price at a level that your ideal clients can afford to pay, they feel is good value for money, and that gives you enough left over at the end of the month to pay not only for your business but also for your lifestyle.
Let me give you an example of a new one-person business owner, let’s call her Matilda, and how she makes enough money to sustain her. Matilda is in the UK but the same principles apply in other parts of the world!
Matilda has a business, a boutique branding agency which costs her just over £1.5k to run each month, which comes to an annual figure of £20k in business expenses.
As a one-person business, for the time being, all the income Matilda makes is hers to do what she wants with. Each month, this comes to around £3k and covers her fixed costs and her lifestyle. So that’s £36k annual personal expenses. She will be taxed by the government for taking out personal income which we will round up to £4k to be safe, for this example. She sets that £4k aside to pay tax when the time comes.
All in, that's £40k she needs personally, and another £20k to cover the business costs. Matilda’s revenue must be £60k+ to survive, financially.
Matilda’s projects usually take her 3 months to deliver, and to do a good job for her clients, she can take on a max of 3 projects at once. So that’s 12 clients max per year.
How much should Matilda charge her clients?
If you answered at least £5k per project, you’d be correct.
Matilda can’t charge less than this and still cover her costs, and in fact, she may want to charge more in case she cannot get enough clients to meet her 3 per month target each year.
As you can see from the example of Matilda, to make enough money in your one-person business, you must juggle a few different pieces of the puzzle.
You must be able to create a service that is good enough, to charge the fee you need to charge, to have a financially sustainable business (in this example, it's £5k over three months).
You must be able to find and sell to the clients who have this budget and appetite for this kind of service. 12 per year, in this example. Whilst it might be tempting to think “I’ll also seek out the odd £10k project”, the implications of this could be challenging. You might realise you are out of your depth and need extra support, so hire a small team, your costs go up and you don’t have enough money to pay yourself. It's’ all a balancing act.
You must keep an eye on your business costs to stay within budget, but also recognise where you might need to invest more occasionally, to have the tools and skills you need to be successful.
Whilst delivering an excellent service to clients, you must keep an eye out for future business for your pipeline.
The figures in this example might seem aspirational, or they might seem really small. Perhaps you have ambitions to run a 6-figure business, and even a 7-figure one, one day. That’s great and I am here for it. But the equations remain the same.
Sadly, many entrepreneurs have money problems.
Sometimes because of a lack of sales, they cannot create any cash in the business. But sometimes the issue is not a lack of income, but an inability to hold onto it. There is a reason that many lottery winners lose all their winnings within a year or so. That’s because not only is making money a skill you need to learn, but so is managing it.
The wealth you create is a result of these invisible forces at play in your life and every single one of us has a money blueprint; often the result of scripts that are running in our subconscious mind locked in since our childhood.
I hit a decent income and net worth rate a while back and no matter what I didn’t couldn’t seem to surpass it. Then I learnt about these scripts and realised mine was wanting to fit in and be ‘normal’ for my age. I didn’t want family or friends to think I’d gotten too big for my boots so in doing so, was self sabotaging unconsciously, getting rid of wealth as soon as I acquired it.
I’ve had to go on my own journey here.
Running a PROFITABLE one-person business is about taking control of the invisible forces at play (your inner game) and combining it with all of the strategy, tools and tactics (the outer game) to truly be unstoppable, and generate wealth in the process.
I share this with you because it's an important part of the work you need to do, and is something I support with in through 1-1 coaching.
Summary
The steps in this post and part 1 and part 2 can provide you with the a la carte menu for success.
I love guiding people, like you, through content and educational concepts and see my role as business mentor AND trained coach.
We live in an interesting time, with AI’s dominance over many industries looming, it has the potential to do what humans do but better. I know its fear for myself, and for my clients, to disrupt professional credentials.
What AI can’t do for your one-person business is replace YOU – your unique insights, experiences, empathy and networks.
What AI can’t do to replace my role as a coach is offer the human connection required to help someone make change. The changes that my clients experience through coaching are a direct result of the consistency of the process, our relationship, the guides, accountability and cheerleading they get along the way.
These informational steps are a small part of the picture – the rest is in your hands. Will you step up to the plate and put them into action? Will you overcome the mental barriers that every new entrepreneur faces?
For some, these barriers are so great that they never start. For others, they become the reason to give up at the first hurdle. To others still, they accept these barriers exist, but do the work to overcome them. Let that be you.
And if you want someone with the experience to guide you through these steps and help you to break down the specific walls that stand in your way as you go, I can help. The Unique Contribution programme provides transformational coaching to overcome stuck-ness and get into a place of massive amounts of clarity and action. Your Unique Contribution, offers, methods and marketing will be designed exactly as they should be, for you, in just five months. You'll have five hours of support, every single month, where I’ll act as your sounding board, thinking partner and business mentor, challenger and cheerleader, all at once. Reach out to schedule a consultation here.
Whether we work together, or you find your own way towards a fulfilling one-person business, I wish you the best of luck on your path and encourage you to keep tuning into what makes you YOU. There are people out there desperate for something original, something real, and from service providers who really care.
Let that person be you – so what are you waiting for? Go get your offers and process ready and your marketing out there and don’t be afraid to make a mess (and have fun!) in the process.
I promise it will all be worth it.
