However, before you get into these strategies, there’s two things that you need to make sure you have done first.
FIRST: YOU HAVE TO NICHE DOWN YOUR TALENTS
SECOND: YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR IDEAL TARGET AUDIENCE.
You’ve need to have crystal clear clarity about who you should be approaching BEFORE you start to implement these strategies.
Why?
Because you won’t know where your ideal client is hanging out if you don’t know who your ideal client is in the first place!
To use this strategy effectively, in a strategic and intentional way, you need to be crystal clear on what your niche is.
YOU NEED TO KNOW:
1. Who you want to work with.
2. How you can help them out.
3. What they’re struggling with
4. And how YOU can uniquely help them.
Once you’ve got your niche and ideal client figured out, you’re ready to take action!
Here’s how you can connect with local businesses to help build your business:
1) What local businesses are ideal clients hanging out at?
Maybe a local gym, a health food store, coffee shop, chamber of commerce or local meetups for businesses.
And don’t forget about community centers! Lots of community centers offer workshops and classes to the public.
Just don’t make the mistake of approaching random businesses––you need to be strategic and efficient. Use your time wisely!
One more tip: Connect with locally-owned business rather than large chains––you’d probably get to work with the owner directly instead of having to navigate a bunch of red tape.
2) Be crystal clear on what you have to offer your ideal clients.
You’re most likely to have success with this strategy if you come to the business with a group program or workshop as opposed to a one-on-one service.
Plus, working with a group will be the most efficient use of your time and you can work with more people all at once.
And remember––you have to offer INCREDIBLE VALUE to the business and to the potential participants! Make sure you can elaborate on how your offer will bring value to everyone involved.
Your offer has to be a WIN-WIN-WIN situation: a win for you, a win for the business, and a win for the people who sign up!
3) Before you approach the business owner, make sure you have a solid plan.
You want to present a clear idea of what you have to offer when you connect with a business. At a minimum, you need to be ready to say, “Here’s what I’m willing to do……” and have a detailed plan to back that up. Planning is the key to your success.
A common question I get is: “When I offer a workshop or do a speaking engagment at a local business, should I get paid or should I do it for free?”
The answer? It's up to you to decide.
If you decide to do it for free, make sure that you have an opportunity to do a direct pitch of your services.
You don’t just want exposure––you want clients!
And definitely have an email signup available so you can build your list.
If you decide to get paid for your time, there are a few ways to go about this:
1. Have the business pay you directly. This works especially well with community centers, who often bring in local experts to present workshops to the public. They generally pay a modest fee for speakers and presenters.
2. Have people who sign up pay something to participate. You could use something like Eventbrite where people purchase a ticket when signing up.
3. Have the business split the cost with the attendees––the business pays a certain amount, and you also charge a small fee for people who want to sign up.
One thing you can do is offer to include staff members for free the first time you offer your service––this way, they’ll see firsthand how amazing you are.
You’ll build a deeper relationship with their business because they’ll get to know you and your expertise.
By doing this, they’ll become unofficial ambassadors for your business!
4) If you’re doing a group program, have it online instead of in-person.
The issue here is logistics: If you did your program in person, you’d need a location and you’d have more expenses overall than if you did it online.
Definitely speak to multiple businesses in person, but then take all the people who sign up and have them participate in one online program.
It doesn’t have to be complicated––you can deliver your offer through group Zoom calls, emails, or even a private Facebook or LinkedIn group.
5) Make sure you’re 100% committed to delivering your program and NOT over-promising!
I see this happen a lot––often coaches & consultants feel like they have to add a lot to their offer in order to bump up the perceived value, but this simply isn’t true.
LESS can be MORE!
Too much content can become overwhelming to participants.
Plus, if you add too much to your offer, you can run the risk of not being able to deliver on your promises, and you DEFINITELY don’t want that.
Only promise what you know you can deliver consistently.
So in closing, I encourage you to get out there and approach local businesses. If you make it a win-win-win situation, you can’t go wrong!
I put together a free training, below, to help you with some simple things you can do right now to start working with clients within the next 30 days:
The 5 Step Strategy To Gain 5-10 New
Coaching Or Consulting Clients Each Month.
You won’t want to miss it!
Click below to sign up for the free training, today!
As a BONUS, I put together a free 47 page marketing and branding guide to help you out! After you sign up, you will receive it in your email. Enjoy!
Here's to your success!
Hugs,
Jodi & Jess
PS––Just wanted to let you know that in our Master It All Program this is exactly how we support our students: we get crystal clear on your niche, and then once you’ve got that figured out, we go into everything you need to know to take your business online.
We teach the ENTIRE approach!
Wanna know more?
Click on the RED BUTTON below, before this training is removed. It's that good!
