How To Get Clients Online

Introduction

If you have a service-based business and you are waiting to get more followers before you start selling your services, this is for you. There’s really good news here. You do not need to have a large audience or even any audience at all to get started and to even get paid for your services. I’m going to show you how.

Hi. I am Marcela a business coach for service-based solopreneurs and founders who want to build simple, profitable businesses to live life on their terms. Here, I share strategies, tips, the mindset required, and all sorts of tools and resources to help you on that journey. So let’s get started.

Point 1: You Don't Need a Large Audience

Point number one is when we start our business, there can be this misconception that we need to have a really large audience, especially if we’re thinking about building a business online. And actually there’s really good news.

We can have zero followers and zero audience, and we can still get our business up and running, get paying clients and get that momentum going.

Many people delay starting because they get really overwhelmed with the fact that they do not have any followers. They don’t have an audience, and they don’t have any social media presence or maybe just a very small amount, and so that creates procrastination and overwhelm. The truth is that at the beginning, especially for service-based businesses.

It’s all about building relationships, and it is about building trust instead of having a large audience that can be built as we go along and we progress through our journey. But when we start out on our businesses, it’s really, really important to focus on that high touch conversations, relationship building, and trust building.

And that’s what’s going to actually get us started and get us going with our business. The good news is that trust can be built with a small number of people and we can still build a profitable and sustainable service-based business. When I first started my business, I didn’t have a huge following online. There were mostly friends or people from my past careers, and I didn’t have any kind of online presence really. So what I had to do was that I went out there and built relationships, a lot of them in person, but also through connecting with people online and started having conversations, practising what it was that I was wanting to offer in terms of value, building my confidence, and literally getting out there and getting those reps so that I could get myself to be known for this new thing that I was doing.

Point 2: Start With the People You Already Know

Point number two is that we actually start with the people that we already know and the people we’re already connected with. You are connected to so many more people than you actually realise. If you think about it, you will have a number of contacts on your phone. You will have email addresses that maybe are stored in your email server.

You will have LinkedIn connections, potentially Facebook connections, Instagram connections, other sort of social media platform connections. All of these things count. These connections are your network and they will help you to start getting yourself out there with this new service that you are providing.

So do not try to jump ahead to connect with people that are complete strangers online before you maximise your network. It doesn’t mean that you have to necessarily sell to your network, but connect with your network. Let them know that you’re offering this new service. Get excited about what it is that you’re offering.

Go out there. Tell them your idea. Get some feedback, get some connections going, get some conversations going and start seeing what resonates, what people connect with, what feedback you get. This is really valuable and you will find that there are people interested in what you have to offer and every single person in your network will have their own network and so on and so forth. So it’s a big spider web of people and it’s all about going out there. This is what people often miss is the simple things done repeatedly. If we don’t go out there, let people know that we’re offering a service, then it’s gonna be really hard for people to actually connect with us and be able to know that we’re offering this.

And so that’s never going to lead to any paying clients. The point here is to start using the people that you are already connected with to start bringing your message out there and to start having those conversations so that you can see what works for you in terms of your business, your offerings, and the kind of things that people are looking for with regards to your services.

So a lot of people freeze at this point and think, oh, but what do I say to people? Especially if it’s your network. I know this happened to me because it felt awkward. I felt like, oh, I don’t wanna bother people from my medical world or from my military world, or my friends, the connections that I had in terms of my immediate network.

Right. So I really resisted this at the beginning, so I do get it. If you’re feeling resistance, I understand. But if you go out there with a genuine desire to help and to add value, and you have something interesting to offer, you don’t have to go out there and be salesy or pushy. You literally just let people know, hey, I am offering this new service.

I’m offering this new thing to X sort of people. Do you know anyone that could potentially be interested? I’d love to offer them a free chat for us to just go through what it is that they’re looking for. That’s it. You don’t even have to say it to the person. You ask the person to see if they know of anyone, and of course if they feel like, oh, actually that’s something that I could potentially benefit from, then maybe they will come forward.

So there has to be no icky Conversations or sales pitches for this to work. It literally can’t just be us going out there letting people know that we’re offering this. And you may be surprised at how interested some people may be because they already know you. They already trust you, and so whatever it is that you’re offering, they already know you as a human, and you’ll be able to build that trust in terms of that new service so much more easily than someone that’s completely unknown to you.

Point 3: Create a Specific, Clear Offer

Point number three is to create a really specific, clear offer. A lot of us, when we start out, we want to help everyone and we want to use our skills with as many people as possible, and we may not know exactly who we want to work.

That’s okay. But we do need to try and be really specific in terms of the thing we’re taking to market. So what is that one specific offer? Who is it for and what problem is it solving? Or in which way is it adding value?

So there are some examples that I can give you. For instance, if you are a weight loss specialist, you could create a simple offer where you help women in their postpartum.

Six to 12 weeks to reconnect with their bodies and to find a way to naturally and organically lose the weight from the pregnancy in a way that feels really supportive and really gentle. So that is a nice specific example of how you could support someone through a weight loss journey, but it’s a specific moment in their time.

So postpartum specific group of people, women who have just given birth and for a specific period of time and in a specific sort of way. So you could use maybe your specific method, you could use a specific gentle way that you help people when they’re going through something like postpartum body changes and so on. So I was thinking about how can I use my expertise for a specific group of people and help them to achieve a specific outcome.

This is so much easier than trying to go out there and saying, Hey, I’m a weight loss coach for everyone. That is gonna be so much harder because you will just get lost in the noise, even if you’re having conversations with people directly, it is gonna be a lot harder for people to identify themselves in what you’re offering.

So less generic offerings and more specific offerings are always going to help you to find those clients that will benefit from that specific thing that you’re offering.

I’ll give you an example. When I moved to Canary Wharf a few years ago, I was looking for a personal trainer and I found a personal trainer who had something on their back that, said that they were a personal trainer.

I literally went up to them and started chatting to them and stuff, and we went for a coffee and I asked them, what sort of personal training do you do? They said, oh no, I do everything. It’s like, okay, but what do you help people with? Oh, I help them with everything. Okay. Yeah. But do you help them to lose weight or do you help them to gain muscle , and they were sort of just saying, no, I help them with everything.

And it was really interesting because, even though I met them in person and we had a coffee and they seemed perfectly nice. The fact that they said to me, I help people with everything and I help everyone with everything, it put me off because I thought, Hmm, maybe they’re not going be great for my specific circumstances.

Had she said something like, I help women in their late thirties to early forties who have had an injury or are recovering from an injury to get back into fitness in a way that feels good to them, and in 90 days to be able to run five kilometres. That would’ve been a lot more interesting to me. Because that would’ve been me, right?

If she had said, I help postpartum women, I would’ve been like, okay, that’s not for me. But had I been a postpartum woman, I would’ve identified myself in that message. Do you see what I mean? So it’s really about finding a way to communicate yourself and your message to the right person that you’re trying to target.

And if you don’t know who that is. You can just try experiments honestly, entrepreneurship is all about messy experiments done quickly, several times again and again until you see what works. And it’s not for you to decide completely in your mind. The market will give you a lot of signals of interest or not.

But if you don’t go out there and try it with real people, you’re not going to know what lands. So it’s really important to actually think, okay, I’ve got this kind of rough idea. Of an offer that I want to put out there, I want to test it. I want to go out there and try and find 20 to 30 people that could potentially be interested in having a chat about this.

And you go out there and tell people that’s it. You literally just tell them you’re offering this. Do they know anyone that could be interested? If so, you’d love to offer them a free consultation. That is literally how you get started. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that, but doing that repeatedly over a period of time.

That is what gets the momentum going in a service-based business, especially when we’re working one-to-one with clients, which is usually the way that we start a service-based business.

Point 4: Use Conversations to Build Trust and Make Sales Okay.

Point number four follows on from the previous points, and it is that we need to use conversations. To be able to build trust and make those sales we need to offer an opportunity for us to be able to have a conversation one-to-one with someone that has shown some kind of interest in our offer.

So let’s say that you’ve been reaching out to your network, maybe on WhatsApp, maybe through text messages, through emails, through contacting people who you are connected to on social media. And then you get some people saying, yes, maybe I could be interested or I know this person who’s interested.

Let them know that you’re happy to offer them a free consultation, a discovery call, a coffee chat. It could be online, it could be in person, whatever’s most convenient for you and for them. And during that conversation, your aim is not to sit there and say, oh, I do this and this is what I offer and this is what I sell.

What you’re doing in that conversation is to sit back. And to listen, to ask them questions, to ascertain what their biggest problems and challenges are, and for you to then be figuring out whether you are the right person to be able to help them. If you are, then fantastic. At the end of that conversation you can say, actually that is exactly the kind of thing that I do for clients or the kind of thing that I do in this.

Let’s say you’re still maybe an employee this is what I do in my work and this is how I’m now going to be using my expertise in this business that I’m building. And then you can take it or leave it, that’s fine. But by having that conversation, you can get a lot of data. You can get a lot of insight into what those potential clients are looking for, and then you can find out if there’s a mutual fit.

So get those conversations going. Invite people to have free conversations. When we’re starting a service-based business, we have to give a lot of time in order for things to start. Gaining momentum and that is okay. It’s kind of part of the process, but that time is actually really valuable because they will teach you what they’re looking for.

If you pay attention and if you ask the right questions and if you allow time and space to listen, the answers will come and those people that are interested in your work, they will inform you. Of what it is that they exactly need, and that’s going to be really valuable for you because then you can refine your message around that and that is more likely going to get you those clients.

Something that’s really important to remember here is that as humans, we need to have trust with other humans, and if we’re paying for a service, we need to feel trust in the other person, trust that they’re a good human, and trust that they have the capability and the expertise to solve that problem for us, and to add that value.

When I was working as a doctor, the patients that felt the most trust in what I was doing because we built good rapport, because we built a relationship. Those were the patients that would be compliant with medication, compliant with treatment, would come back for follow up and would get the best results, and is exactly the same when it comes to a service based business.

Whatever it is that you’re doing, build relationships with your clients, with your potential clients, with your community, with the audience that you’re building.

Because humans need to trust humans, and that is the most powerful and sustainable way to build a service-based business, especially at the beginning when you are starting out with no audience.

Point 5: Momentum Beats Perfection

And point number five is that momentum beats perfection. You really don’t have to have any perfection here. Like I said before, you’re going to get a lot of data and insights from the people you speak to. It is far more important to have a rough idea of what your offer could look like, what it is that you’re going to offer, who it is for, and what problem you’re solving.

Make it specific and start having conversations with people. Go out there and test it in the real world. That is going to give you so much more momentum and results than trying to just figure it out in your head. And unfortunately, what I see again and again, and even in my own experience, I must confess, is that we spend so long trying to see if we can figure it out and get it perfect here in these four walls.

Trying to get it all done in our heads. Having an echo chamber and having no one to speak to. That is not the best way in any way. It’s not going to allow you to understand what it is that your customers actually need because you’re not speaking to anyone. It’s going to drive you crazy because the answers won’t come from doing that.

It is likely if it does give you some answers, they’re likely not the right ones because you have figured them out without getting real time data from people in the real world. So it honestly is way more about getting the people out there and understanding what the demand is before you refine that offer, that is going to be so much more effective.

And of course the more you do this, you will improve so rapidly you’ll be so impressed with how quickly your offer gets refined how quickly you understand your clients, because you’re speaking to them in real time. You’re getting feedback, you’re getting testimonials, you’re working with them.

So please don’t make the mistake that all of us make, which is to just stay in a room, trying to figure it all out on your own is far more effective. To go out there and speak to people, and it’s going to get you the results that you want, even though I know that that’s the hardest part because there’s so much resistance.

Often it can feel really scary, but that is how it works. Even if you’re shy, just have a conversation one-to-one with people. You don’t have to go to large groups if you don’t want to, but do make those connections and put yourself out there. If people don’t know you exist, there is no way you’re going to be able to sell to them.

So no matter what happens, you need to go out there, create some activity, create momentum, speak to people.

Summary

To summarise, if you want to get your first clients online, stop waiting to have a huge audience. Reach out to the people in your immediate network and the people that you are already connected to.

Create one clear specific offer.

Use conversations to build trust and focus on momentum, not perfection.

Look, I know what it’s like to be in your shoes and I just really want to reassure you that it can work. It does work. I’m sitting here with coming up to five years of running my own business, and it can feel so scary when we don’t know what we’re doing, but the information is out there. The main thing where people get stuck is that they don’t go and implement it.

It’s easier than we think, but we do need to go out there and actually do the work. So I’m wishing you all the best. Really good luck with getting your first clients. I’d love to know how it goes and pop a comment underneath this video or this podcast, and I would love to hear from you. I think that would be really exciting.