How and when to write a follow-up email after receiving no response

 When a client doesn’t respond it can lead to delays, doubts and awkward conversations.

When a client doesn’t respond, it can feel awkward and lead to endless doubts and questions on your part. By following up with them, you can figure out exactly what’s happened and help get things back on track. But how do you follow up respectfully?

Below, we explore how and when to send a follow-up email and give you a number of potential templates to use in a variety of different circumstances.

We will be covering:

• Why clients might not be responding and how you can turn this around
• Why you should send a follow-up email and how this can improve your response rates
• What to consider before following up with a client
• When to send follow-up emails and how often you should send these
• How to write a follow-up email and what to include
• Example follow-up emails to help you get started

Let’s dive in!

Why don’t clients respond?

Not receiving a response from a new client is unnerving to say the least, especially when you’re a customer-centric organization. Remember that no matter how excited a client is to work with you, they’ve also probably got 1,001 other things going on and for many of us it is a constant struggle to reach ‘inbox zero’.

In fact, marketing report shows that 40 percent of consumers have at least 50 unread emails in their inbox at any given time – yikes! There is every chance that your email has been lost in their inbox among the seemingly endless sea of unread emails.

It could also be that they’ve discussed your impending projects with their colleagues and have identified a couple of potential roadblocks. Maybe they’re awaiting sign-off from their manager. Maybe their accounts team has told them that if they’re going to proceed with you, then they need to come up with cost-savings in other areas.

There are all sorts of reasons why a client might not respond in a timely manner. Try not to let your imagination run wild – just touch base with them so you can get the ball rolling.

Why should you send a follow-up email?

According to research sending just one follow-up email could increase your response rate by 22 percent. It was also shown that the first follow-up email is the most effective with a 40 percent higher response rate than the initial email which sits at around a six percent response rate.

There are a number of instances where a follow-up email might be appropriate, and a few where a follow-up is warranted and even expected. Depending on the industry you work in there may be a number of factors that dictate when and how often you need to follow-up with clients. For example, if you are working in an industry where compliance plays a significant role you may be required to follow-up with clients – and there may be consequences for failing to do so.

Sending a follow-up email is generally considered a good practice, if not to remain compliant and check a box from your side it also shows you are engaged in the client’s journey and helps to set and reinforce expectations.

4 Things to consider before sending a follow-up email

There are 4 golden rules to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to send a follow-up email.

1. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone

Email is the fallback that many service professionals use to communicate with clients. Emails are great. After all, they allow clients to respond when it’s convenient for them, they can take their time composing the appropriate response, and it provides an irrefutable log of all back-and-forth communication.

However, it’s a lot easier for your email to get lost in a client’s inbox (or to be read but promptly forgotten about) than it is for a client to ignore a phone call. If your emails seem to continually go unanswered, then it might be time to pick up the phone.

If you have sent your proposal to a client you can give them a quick call to let them know they should have received a proposal from you. This also gives you the opportunity to confirm they have received it and answer any questions they may have that could have delayed their acceptance of the proposal.

2. Automate when you can

Clients aren’t the only ones who are busy – and you can improve your efficiency and save time by automating your follow-up email process. Following up on multiple emails to different clients can become a time consuming process. Automating parts of this process will help with the heavy lifting. Depending on the platforms you use there are many different ways to automate some or all of the follow-up process.

For example, Ignition’s proposal reminders feature allows you to send reminders to clients who are still yet to accept your proposal. You can choose how many days to wait before sending a reminder and select the total number of reminders to send out until they accept your proposal.

3. Always give the client a call-to-action

CTAs or calls-to-action help to remind a client of what you need from them – whether it’s key information, an answer to your question, sign-off on a project, or payment.

Giving the client clear instructions helps them to action things from their end as quickly as possible. We recommend making the call-to-action as direct as possible so that you can avoid any potential confusion.

CTA examples:

• Include a ‘schedule a meeting’ link if you are following up to confirm a time to meet with them
• Ask a clear question, for example, asking for a time to meet with them
• Position your questions at the beginning and the end of the email if you are chasing information
• Provide a direct link for your client to pay an overdue invoice

4. Make sure you actually need to follow-up

Cover yourself first and check that you haven’t already received a reply from the client. It might have disappeared in your email, or they may have contacted someone else in the team.

Follow-ups can be awkward enough as it is – let alone if you make a mistake and actually did receive a reply from them. So before you send a curt ‘As per my previous message…’ email, double check that you haven’t already received their response (and check those spam and trash folders just in case!).

How long should you wait for a response before following up?

It can be hard to know exactly when you should follow-up if you haven’t heard from a client. On the one hand, you want to keep on top of things and make sure they don’t lose interest. On the other hand, you don’t want to seem too pushy.

It is generally considered good practice to wait at least two to three days between your follow-ups. Clients, like anyone else, are often busy which may mean it takes a few follow-up touchpoints to prompt a response. It is easy to forget that you’re not always going to be your client’s top priority and sending a follow-up email too quickly can make you appear rude or even annoying in some cases. We recommend sending a gentle reminder a couple of days after your initial email to get back in touch whenever they’re ready to proceed.

Here are some basic guidelines:

• Assess the urgency. If a client hasn’t responded about a project that’s due to be completed by the end of the week, then perhaps send a follow-up a day or two after your original message. However, if they haven’t got back to you about your availability for a project in a month’s time, then consider waiting a week or so.
• Rely on context. Small talk at the beginning of a meeting can provide you with invaluable information. Perhaps a client apologizes for joining the call late and explains they’ve been in back-to-back meetings, or perhaps they casually mention that they’re preparing for a big company-wide initiative that’s about to launch. If this is the case, leave more time between follow-ups. Not only will this make your email less likely to get lost in the ether, but it’ll also ensure that you don’t end up annoying them during a really busy time.
• Don’t let your proposal go cold. In general, wait no longer than a week without following-up on a proposal that you’ve sent over. Provided they had not already given you an expected timeframe for their response. Proposals may require sign-off from different stakeholders, or you may want to make sure that the proposal has been thoroughly read. Sending a follow-up email may also surface any final questions the client has before they are ready to sign off on the proposal.

How often should you send a follow-up email and how many should you send?

There is no one-size-fits-all rule for the number of follow-up emails you need send to a client – that is dependent on the circumstance. What we do know is that sending two to three follow-up emails is considered to be the optimal amount – with the first follow-up email being the most effective. With data also showing that sending an excessive number of emails is generally not the answer either.

Avoid taking up too much of a client’s time by constantly chasing responses, limit it to three follow-ups if you can – the effectiveness of follow-ups is shown to drop off after the fourth email. Try to get the small details sorted out via client intake forms, text, phone, or a messaging platform such as Slack – try communicating with your client in the format that is easiest for them if you are after a quick response.

What to include in a follow-up email

1. A short but compelling subject line – try to include part or all of your request if possible. E.g. Reminder: Overdue invoice requiring payment or Following up on business expense report.
2. A warm and friendly greeting or an appropriate greeting based on your rapport with the client.
3. In the body of your email make sure to include the objective in simple language. This has been shown to improve the likelihood of receiving a response and your request being fulfilled.
4. Provide context where necessary, forward the original email or provide any necessary links of documentation to avoid the client having to search for it and potentially delaying their response.
5. Sign off with a tl;dr or summary of your request and provide a clear call to action to prompt a response or the desired action from your client.

How to Raise Your Prices (without losing clients)

 Discussing rate rises with your clients can feel like an icky subject, and one that I tried my darn hardest to avoid for as long as possible.

But here’s the thing – you didn’t quit your 9-to-5 and start your own business, only to work harder, earn less, and feel overwhelmed a.f. all the time.

The 4 secrets to communicating your rate rise

The 4 essential element for raising your prices are:

• Be very clear about your new rate (including updating your pricing on your website).
• Communicate your value and credibility, using stats wherever possible (for example, “over the past 6 months it’s been wonderful watching your business grow thanks to [insert your service]”).
• Communicate the “why” behind your rate increase (for example, “the new fees will help me to get them more inline with average market rates”).
• Give your clients plenty of notice

Tip: ensure your contracts include a line about potential price increases.

Here are my scripts for raising your prices in a way that’ll make your clients want to stick around.

Your email scripts

Package your services in a new, client-centric way:

“I wanted to let you know about some exciting updates I’m making to my services. I’ve created these so I can further help my clients achieve XYZ.” 

Lock them into another retainer or package:

“Every year I reassess my offerings, and in the new year I’ll be raising my fees. If you’d like to lock in your current rate for another X months, please let me know and I’ll book you in for another pack.”

Create a VIP experience

“In X months I will be increasing my package prices, however I currently still have X number of spots still available at the current rate. I’ll be opening up these spots to my database at the end of this month, however I wanted to give you the opportunity to jump in first.”

Lastly, give your clients an opportunity to discuss this further with you over the phone.

And now you’re ready!

How to deal with “bad clients”

 Oof. “Bad clients.” Unfortunately when you run a service based business a few not-so-ideal clients come your way. These clients come in different forms — they no longer align with your services, go out of scope, request endless revisions, or don’t adhere to your process. Whatever the situation is, I thought I’d shed some light on this not so fun topic in hopes that you can move past it with grace.

First things first, we need to accept some responsibility (channeling my mother’s voice here)! However they stepped out of line, we need to acknowledge our role. Maybe we didn’t set firm expectations to begin with, establish appropriate business hours for communication, or create a timeline with feedback deadlines assigned to our clients. There are ways that we could have better directed the process. I’m speaking from experience here!

I’ve seen this celebration pop up over the past couple years over “firing clients…” that I don’t love. As if when we fire a client we should rejoice, have gusto, and feel empowered. Listen, I never have felt this way. Instead, I feel deflated. Just worth a mention here, our goal is to best serve our clients, so saying goodbye to them shouldn’t be a moment of celebration! That’s not a great way to run a business.

But… sometimes it’s necessary.

So, I wanted to share my experience on how to deal with these tricky situations.

Learn from the experience

Before hopping into how to let go clients, let’s learn how we can avoid these situations moving forward. Ask these questions to yourself, or even jot them down in your notebook:

What went wrong?

Where could you have anticipated the wrong turn?

Is there a way you can set some better boundaries for future clients?

Is your contract secure? If not, get covered. Now. (here’s the contract I recommend)

Option 1: Continue working together

You’ve found yourself in a bit of a sticky situation, but not all hope is lost and you’re hoping to salvage the client relationship. You recognize you need to establish new terms, or possibly set some boundaries, with your client and then you can proceed with the project.

This can be tough to stomach for those of us who are people pleasers. Part of us considers continuing the project as is, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances if only to avoid confrontation. Yet, another side of us knows we should stand our ground as a professional. Not to fear, I’ve got some helpful tips to guide you through this rough patch.

Out of scope clients: This is probably the most common client dilemma with designers! If your client requests work outside of the original agreement, by all means let them know if they are unaware. Let them know you’re willing to work together, and the cost for the additional work.

Communication: If your client calls you outside office hours, texts instead of emails, or drips revisions through several messages rather than one response, you have an issue with communication. In this case, I’d recommend responding through your preferred communication channel and establishing your preferences. Be direct and clear to help steer them in the right direction.

Revisions: Another common pain point with client work. If your client needs to exceed the rounds of revisions allotted in your process, let them know how they can proceed. I typically have an hourly fee I use for additional revisions, and will tell the client how much I anticipate for the additional work. For this response though, your client needs to be aware of how many revisions are allotted in your process. Ie: don’t surprise them with a bill. They should anticipate it coming!

New projects: If you’ve had a past difficult client who wants to continue working together, you’ll need to establish some boundaries. This is if you’ve already wrapped up the initial project and realized you weren’t firm in your process, but now need to re-establish expectations. In your response you can mention that you’d enjoy working together, however since the last project you’ve adjusted your process. Then dive into the details.

Option 2: Back away… slowly

So, you’ve opted to cut ties with your client and move on. You realize that it isn’t the best fit, and isn’t worth your time/energy to continue working together. I respect that.

But what next? You’re anticipating a fallout of sorts, and that’s giving you anxiety and stress. (been there!)

Here’s some guidance if this is you (and I’m sorry if it is!!)

• First, take a deep breath. As mentioned before, recognize why they aren’t the right fit. You’ve gained clarity in the process, and that is huge!
• Don’t feel obligated to continue working together if it isn’t the right fit, or you feel abused as their designer. It’s your business, and you can say no!
• Try to resolve the situation first if you can, and then if it is clear it’s time to discontinue working together.
• If this client is a hot mess, avoid passing the problem along to a specific designer. Instead, you can recommend websites that have design directories they can select from.
• Schedule a massage or movie after you hit send on your “break up” email. Otherwise you’ll be refreshing your inbox nonstop!

5 Ways to Ensure You Consistently Have Clients

 There’s plenty of positive aspects to entrepreneurship… getting to do work you love, setting a schedule that works for you and your ideal schedule, the possibility of making a tangible impact on the people and society around you… but unfortunately, thrills don’t pay the bills.

There’s also a feast or famine cycle that’s inherent to the small business owner lifestyle. One month you’ll have so much work you’re struggling to keep up, and the next you’ll be digging for pennies under the couch cushions.

But just because this happens to “everyone” doesn’t mean that you have to play along with the game. With a little bit of thought and sustained effort, you can keep your client stream consistent.

How to get a consistent stream of clients:

1. Promote yourself regularly.

It’s challenging to think about the “next” thing while you’re engrossed in current client projects, but it’s important to look ahead in your calendar. Don’t wait until you’ve wrapped up that big project or ended a contract before you start looking around for the next one.

You’ll be more confident about promoting yourself and taking on projects suited to you if you start looking before you hit that couch-scavenging stage.

• Try plugging your e-newsletter on a weekly basis through your social media feeds.
• Share testimonials from happy clients on social feeds and in your newsletters.
• Share snippets of your working life… nothing confidential, obviously, but enough to let people know you’re actively engaged with projects.
• Heck, you can even announce that you’ve got client openings for the summer/two months out/etc, and invite people to book a chat with you.

Remember, people need to be reminded that you exist. It may feel icky to promote yourself so bluntly, but people only see about 1/18th of your posts (and take action on even fewer of them).

2. Maintain good relationships with past clients.

It’s always good to check in with your past clients — especially the ones you really loved working with. This doesn’t have to be a “Hey, I’m looking for work,” sort of email, but simply a friendly, “I was thinking about you and was wondering how things are going!”

You never know when they might have a new project to work on, and keeping in touch keeps you top-of-mind when their colleagues are looking for someone to hire.

Pro tip: If you collect their contract information (email, phone number, address) in your contract, it makes it super simple to follow up later with a card or a note.

3. Make it easy-peasy to contact you.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… make it easy to get in touch with you! Don’t bury your booking link or contact info three pages deep on your website. (And definitely stop doing these other things that are driving your potential clients away.)

Busy entrepreneurs can’t waste 30 minutes looking for your email address. Make it super simple for them to send you a message, tell you what their project is, and get information about how you work.

4. Shoot for quality, not quantity.

The worth of your work is not in how much you churn out, but in the results you get for your clients. This applies no matter what you’re doing… whether it’s a gorgeously handcrafted wedding dress that makes the bride feel amazing, a gallery of family photos where Mom feels good about how she and her kids look, or webcopy that turns readers into customers and gets all the likes and shares.

Do your best work, and the results will do the talking for you. Follow through on the expectations you and your client talked about in your discovery call and outlined in your contract. People who do good work are hard to find, and your reputation will spread.

5. Generosity is not a short sighted act.

There’s a fine line between giving away all your hard work, and giving enough away so that a potential client has a good idea of your knowledge and professionalism. Some entrepreneurs, especially newbies, can struggle with undercharging and giving away too much of their time, and that’s not what I’m talking about here.

Being generous with your knowledge through blog posts, free webinars, and answering questions in public forums can reinforce your position as an expert in your field. Once people realize they can trust your expertise, they’ll start hiring you to meet their needs.

How to Run a Successful Business: 10 Steps You MUST Have

 If you’re in business for yourself or are thinking of starting your own business, you probably want to know how to run a successful business, right?

You might be even wondering what makes a business successful compared to all of those businesses that fail within the first few months or years of starting. (According to the Small Business Administration, over 50% of businesses don’t make it past their first five years!)

I want to make sure you’re part of the 50% that succeeds.

Let’s start learning.

What makes a business successful?

• The definition of a successful business is a business that grows in the long-term and is profitable.
• To me, success means freedom.
• So, when you ask: “When is a business considered successful?”

My answer is that a business is successful when:

• It keeps making money
• Your clients or customers are happy
• You get to live the life you’ve always dreamed of
• Now, let’s learn how to make ALL of that happen.

10 ways to grow a successful business

What are the strategies to grow a profitable business?

It comes down to a combination of different things.

Let’s explore my top 10 ways to make a successful business.

1. The right business idea

Let’s start with some good news:

To run a successful business, you don’t need to come up with the next Amazon or viral social media app.

What you NEED is a business idea that helps you build your business as fast as possible and offers real value to a specific target market.

There are many different possible business models. But when you’re just starting out, coaching or consulting are a great choice.

They’re profitable and simple to start — no need for major funds.

In fact, you could most likely start TODAY. That’s because you already know things that others will pay for.

Here’s how you can figure out what that is:

Write down things you’re good at.

Think about what people often ask you.

For example, maybe friends frequently ask you about your cooking skills? Or perhaps they’re curious about your amazing public speaking skills?

This helps you find out what you can sell — your business idea.

Need a few examples?

Here are some ideas my clients have come up with within the coaching space:

• Relationship coaching
• Career coaching
• Marketing and sales consulting
• Health coaching
• Brand consulting
• Spiritual coaching

Of course, starting a coaching business isn’t the only option.

Here are some ideas for other business models:

Freelancing: Offer specific skills or services on a project basis. Think of graphic design or content writing.

A creator or influencer: Build a following and monetize your content or promotions. You could become a YouTube vlogger or an Instagram fashion influencer.

 E-commerce business: Sell physical products, such as funny T-shirts or home fitness equipment.

Selling online courses: Sell your knowledge or skills in a structured format. For example, you could offer a digital photography course or baking tutorials.

Subscription/Membership model: Offer exclusive content or products for a recurring fee. Ideas: monthly gourmet boxes or an exclusive writing club.

Apps: Create tools or platforms for mobile or desktop use, like a workout tracker or a recipe suggestion app.

There are MANY ways to start.

You just have to figure out what’s right for you.

The next element you need to have in place are goals.

Let’s take a look at them.

2. Goal setting

To run a highly successful business, you need a map. And that map comes in the form of clear goals.

By setting the right goals, you success-proof your business and get rid of a lot of unnecessary worries.

Sure, you can’t plan for everything. But you can be prepared.

According to research, there are other good reasons to have business goals. For example, studies show that they:

• Provide motivation to do the work
• Help avoid wasting time on things that don’t matter
• Increase persistence and reduce the likelihood of giving up
• For this to happen, you need to set the right goal.

For example, “I want to make a lot of money this year” is NOT a good goal.

I like big goals. But if you make a goal without a plan to reach it, it’s just a dream.

Instead, you might set a goal of “making a steady amount of money every month.”

Some other good first-year goals are:

• Think of a business idea (see above)
• Set up a solid business plan
• Get your first customers (see step 6)
• Collect your first three testimonials

The best goals make you a little nervous, while still being within reach.

3. An entrepreneurial mindset 

What are some characteristics of a successful business owner?

Besides a great business model, the MOST successful business owners have another thing in common: they have an entrepreneurial mindset.

This is the KEY to a business that thrives.

In fact, not having it is the reason why so many businesses fail.

Challenges and problems will come up in business. If you can’t handle them and take action, your business won’t last long.

Studies show that our brain often tricks us into focusing on the setbacks rather than the wins. This is called a negativity bias.

Luckily, our mindset is flexible. We can change how we think.

When you learn to see more opportunities instead of roadblocks, you’re likely to push through challenges. You start to believe success isn’t just for others but for you too.

After having learned this myself through trial and error, I now pass this entrepreneurial mindset .

This is the difference between those who dream of success and those who actually achieve success:

4. Leadership skills 

To build a successful business, you need to be a leader. Here’s why:

Building a team

As your business grows, you can’t do everything by yourself.

That’s where a team comes in.

According to Gallup, one of the top reasons people leave a job is their boss. Good leadership skills help you pick and keep the right team members.

The best leaders don’t just assign tasks; they inspire and lead by example. Like when a deadline is tight, they’ll stay late with the team, motivating them and making them feel valued.

Planning for the Future

Leaders think about what’s next. They have a vision and big plans, and they tell their team about them. This helps everyone work towards the same goals.

Research shows that when everyone understands the goals, businesses do better. It connects employees to the company’s ​​mission and lets them see their part in it.

Leading yourself

Being your own boss means there’s no one above you setting the pace or direction — it all comes down to you.

So, even before leading a team, you need to lead yourself.

This means staying disciplined without a boss and constantly learning.

5. The right systems

To run a highly successful business, you need to have the right systems.

Now, if you’re just starting out in your business, maybe this isn’t something you need to worry about today.

But this is something you absolutely should be thinking about as soon as possible, because a true business is a system.

In other words, your business doesn’t depend on any one person to continue running.

Besides, you didn’t start your business so you’d have to work on it 24/7 in order to make sales, right?

What are the core principles of your business?

To do this, you have to identify what the core pieces of your business are.

You also need to document them so that if you or someone on your team were to take a day off or step away from the business, the business would still run without you.

I know that this can feel really overwhelming, so what I usually recommend is not necessarily to create a massive organizational chart with all your systems at once. (Although you’re probably going to do that at some point).

Start with listing out the top five most frequent things that you and your team members do in your business.

They can be a list of:

Common customer support questions

Things you do frequently, like setting up and sending a newsletter, or maybe posting on one of your social media platforms

This way, you can knock out the most common tasks first.

Once you get some quick wins with your systems process setup, then you can move on to the long-term process of documenting and systematizing everything.

In terms of what to use to document your business processes, you can use Google Docs. 

What systems should you use in your business?

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the main categories of systems that you need to have in your business.

These also happen to be the other elements that are critical to running a successful business, so we’ll be talking about what these are throughout the rest of this tutorial.

I can’t take credit for how I’m going to break out the systems for you, because although I’ve been doing this in my business for quite a while, I didn’t realize how they were falling into certain categories until after I read Mike Michalowicz’s book Clockwork.

I highly recommend that you check that out the next time you’re looking for a good book on really streamlining your business.

More specifically, the systems you’ll want to have in place are a:

• Lead generation system
• Sales mechanism system
• Delivery system
• Money collection system
• Finance tracking system

Let’s first take a look at lead generation.

6. Lead generation

Lead generation is one of the critical system categories.

In other words, how are you attracting new potential clients to your business?

At this point in my business, we have many, many sources of traffic that delivers us leads on a daily basis…

We have partnerships with businesses that have audiences that are complementary to ours and help promote us.

In addition, we sometimes write articles for great publications that drive their audience to us. 

We also focus on driving traffic through lots of other channels like our Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.

Not only that, but we also have content on the blog to help people find us via organic search as well.

Here’s how I did start…

From day one, I kept in mind what I just shared with you — that these were going to be systems as soon as possible.

So I thought, all right, I’m going to do a combination of the most powerful organic channels for my business first.

And I’m going to combine that with paid traffic because that’s going to allow me to both connect with people organically as quickly as possible while also generating traffic as consistently as possible.

This way, I’m starting to build an audience AND set that consistent foundation to really drive people to me in my business all the time.

For me, with my business, that number one social media platform was Facebook groups. Following a simple, daily marketing plan in Facebook groups, I was able to manually generate a lot of leads for my business and build solid relationships with future clients.

Aside from that, I ran traffic via Facebook ads. We also tested and continue to test lots of different platforms, but Facebook was our #1 paid traffic source.

Once I had those two systems in place, I knew I had that consistent foundation of traffic and sales coming in.

I wouldn’t have to be worried in my business about making money or driving leads today in order to keep the lights on, or having to be worrying about the feast and famine cycle that so many small business owners go through.

That made a massive difference.

With a consistent income basis, I was able to go out there and slowly build up all of my other traffic sources over the years without worrying about revenue.

Build up your lead generation funnel the right way

That’s something that I recommend for the majority of my clients as well, so that you can have one traffic source that provides that consistency first, and then layer your other traffic sources on top of that.

If you try to do too many at once, you’ll get overwhelmed and burnt out and nothing good comes from that, which is why I recommend doing it this way.

A note of warning though — make sure you’re not “wasting” those leads by adding the next element as soon as possible to your business…

Now, what most people do at this point is that they sit back and say, “Great, now I know how to run a successful business.”

But not so fast. There are still a few more steps we need to look at.

7. A sales mechanism 

The next element that you have to have is a sales mechanism. Something that automatically converts those leads that you’re now generating into customers.

Because you don’t want to have to just hope and pray for someone to find your sales page and buy from you, right? You have to have a system for doing that.

For us, my favorite way is through automated webinars. In fact, we drive almost all of our traffic through our free automated master classes.

Having these automated webinar systems allows us to automate our conversion process so that we’re making sales every single day without me having to be personally involved.

Once you’ve got that going, can you guess what’s next?

8. Delivery of your products or services 

It’s delivery. Because after you make the sale, you have to deliver on the product that you just sold.

As you can see, having a support system allows us to have any one person step away from the business for whatever reason (like a much-needed vacation!) and still have us be able to deliver an amazing customer service experience.

That’s what the delivery process looks like.

This is something that way too many new business owners don’t focus enough on or think about when they’re starting out — how to scale and systematize that delivery process.

But here’s the thing, when you’re in a service-based business, you have to lead with that support, that delivery.

You can’t grow the front of your business, the leads, the conversions, and the sales, and then think, “Okay, I’ll figure out how to catch up in my delivery once I’ve made more sales.”

This is something where as soon as someone buys, they’re going to expect that service, and if it’s not good, you’re not going to continue making sales. That’s why this piece is so important to be thinking about from day one.

Next, moving on to possibly the most important piece to the survival of your business…

9. Money collection

The fourth element, which again a lot of newer entrepreneurs don’t think about, is the money collection.

You are doing an awesome job attracting leads, you are making sales, you are delivering the best service and product possible, and… you need to get paid for it!

The ONE thing you have to set up right now

First, if you don’t have an automated order process, you need to set that up ASAP.

You should have a system that automatically charges your clients, so you’re not waiting for them to pay you every month when they feel like it.

The two systems I recommend for doing this are PayPal or Stripe.

What to do when someone defaults on their payments

Once you have that taken care of, you still have to realize that there are going to be people who need help updating their credit cards or billing information. Or people who may default on their payments, so you have to go and collect those payments.

(This is all just part of being in business! It’s not about being desperate or mean, or bad, it’s just hey, you’re delivering an awesome product and you need to be paid for it.)

We have systems that automatically send out emails when someone’s monthly payment doesn’t go through. They’ll get a few emails, and then, if after a certain number of days, they still haven’t updated their billing information, they’re going to get a call from someone on our team.

After that, they’re going to get one more call, and if after that, after we’ve given them many, many chances to honor their payment and they still haven’t, ultimately we’ll send them to collections.

This is something I very firmly believe in, where you have to walk that fine line between offering the best service and taking care of your clients, but also taking care of yourself and your business too.

Finally, let’s move on to the final yet highly important step…

10. Tracking your finances 

As a business owner, you need a clear picture of your finances.

What are your business costs?

Are you making a profit?

How much can you put back into your business?

Keeping track can be straightforward. In the beginning, a simple Excel spreadsheet is usually enough for your accounting.

Frequently asked questions about running a successful business

Ever wondered:

“How long does it take to run a successful business?”

“Is it hard to run a successful business?”

Or my favorite: ”Is it really worth it to start a business?” (YES!)

Well, the right business books answer all those questions.

Here’s my top pick:

“Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz

 “The E-myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber

“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

Each book is packed with awesome business tips for beginners as well as many other tips for running a successful business.

7 Rules of Dream Client Attraction

 “I’m doing all the things, but I’m not attracting any clients… what gives? How do I fix this?”

Oh man, I KNOW this pain. I started my business with tons of marketing and behavior change experience, but ZERO experience in sales. As a marketing project manager in the nonprofit world, I had no clue how to actually make money.

So I buckled down and learned a strategy that worked for me, and allowed me to create clients through ATTRACTION MARKETING instead of scammy scales tactics.

And in my experience, there are 7 RULES to client attraction, and you’re going to learn all of them today! Like, right now!

This is for you if:

• You’re ready for paying clients, and you’re EXCITED to get paid for your amazing expertise…
• …but you don’t know how to actually get them in the door!
• You want an approach that’s about ATTRACTION instead of making as much noise as possible. Quality over quantity!

Attracting your dream clients doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are a few rules you should know! Some of them will come naturally to you, and others will be a little bit harder. But if you follow all of these rules, and you’ll be attracting your dream clients in no time!
1. Have a clear offer + message

 The first rule is to always be CLEAR and as simple as possible in your message and your offers. A confused mind doesn’t buy! Trying to pack your marketing with too many ideas or too much information overcomplicates things and creates confusion and paralysis, which is the opposite of a sale! Keep it simple, keep it straightforward, and remember that clear is better than clever.

 Try this simple formula:
Describe the problem. Most _______ struggle with ______…Describe how you solve it.  I offer ______ to solve that problem…Describe the outcome. …So that you can ______.
If you can express what you do in one clear sentence, you’re on the right track!

2. Understand them + speak to their situation

Show that you understand their situation and that you’ve taken the time to really STUDY their problem from their perspective.
Anything less will make you seem irrelevant to their situation! If you walk into a hospital because you broke your leg, and the hospital staff tries to sell you vitamin supplements, it’s clear that you’re in the wrong place and you’ll leave to find a different hospital!
Do your research, ask questions to understand their pain points, and position your offer to speak directly to that pain. Make sure you’re giving people what they want and need, whether it’s an offer, or a message, or a free resource!

3. Make them feel special + catered to

If you’re going to attract your dream clients, you have to focus on serving certain clients and not others. In order words, you have to commit to showing up and helping a specific type of client EVEN IF IT MEANS losing out on other clients. Imagine someone sends you and 500 other people a group text asking, “Wanna go on a date?” It’s clear they were just asking everyone they knew, hoping someone — anyone! — would say yes. It’s not about you. It’s about THEM. But if they reach out directly to you and say, “You’re my dream girl. I love X, Y, and Z about you. Go on a date with me?” that’s a whole other story. If you don’t make your ideal clients feel special, you’ll just stay lost in the crowd! Figure out exactly who you’re speaking to, define ONE person, and build an experience around them.

4. Stand for something that matters to them

Every great brand stands for something bigger than its own success! When you stand for something, you signal who you are. You signal your values. You let people know who you are… that tells them who you’re for. So, what do you stand for? What are you passionate about? Why should anyone be excited or care about what you do? Once you know this, everything else is so much easier.

5. Build trust + credibility

Building trust is one of the most important elements in your customer’s journey to working with you. If someone isn’t sure they can trust you, they won’t likely buy. You build trust by investing in people and giving them a chance to get to know you, learn from you, see that you know what you’re talking about, and understand how you see the world and approach problems.
Great content isn’t the only way to build credibility. You also build credibility by showing that others trust you – through testimonials, reviews, and media appearances like guest blogs and podcasts.

6. Get seen in the right places

To attract your dream clients, they need to know you exist. You need to show up in the right places and be SEEN so you get on their radar. How else will you bring your dream clients calling? Stop hiding – start showing up!

Even if it’s awkward at first, even if you “mess up,” you need to embrace the process and commit to showing up despite the fear. Get in the habit of doing things that scare you, and showing up in ways you don’t feel ready for, and you’ll move forward faster than you can imagine!

7. Stay on-brand and on-message 

This goes back to “a confused mind doesn’t buy.” If your dream client sees you and likes you, but you’re totally different the next time they see you, they may wonder if they can trust you…or if they ever understood you to begin with. That second-guessing makes it hard to move forward with a purchase with any degree of confidence! So be sure you’re consistent in your message, your visuals, your offers and what you communicate you can offer your dream client. That doesn’t mean to never evolve or explore the limits of what you offer – it just means you should be thoughtful about what you say and do.

Keep Your Clients Coming Back For More

So you’ve been going at this freelance thing for a while now. And you are left wondering, “How do I keep my clients coming back for more?”

It’s no secret that it is far easier to obtain additional business from current clients than to acquire new clients. To increase revenue, business strategists encourage the practice of up-selling or cross-selling. I hate those terms because they allude to selling your client something they don’t need. For example, I never want to “sell” my client on a fancy, cost-prohibitive, printed brochure when their business may reap more rewards from investing in a website redesign. Instead of “selling” your client additional products or projects, how about focusing on selling yourself as an asset to their team?

Here are 5 practical ways you can keep your clients coming back for more:

1. LISTEN MORE THAN YOU SPEAK

Take the time to truly listen to your clients. Ask the right questions. You may find that what they think they need is very different from what they actually need. Show them that you are looking out for their dollar, and they will value you and your work for years to come.

2. UNDER-PROMISE & OVERDELIVER

This is key.  Don’t put yourself in a position where you can’t reach deadlines or are delivering sub-par work. If you set realistic expectations and communicate clear deadlines, your clients will be willing to wait for quality work.

3. FACETIME

And no, I’m not talking about the app. You can accomplish a lot over phone and email these days, but nothing develops a business relationship as effectively as in-person communication. Schedule a coffee date to introduce yourself and brainstorm. Your client will not only be invested in the project. He/she will be invested in you.

4. CHECK IN

Don’t be a fair weather friend. Check in with your client a few weeks/months after project completion and ask how things are going. Ask if there is anything you could have done to make the project more successful. Show you care about more than a paid invoice.

5. BLOG REGULARLY

You knew this one was coming. Regular blogging will not only do wonders for your website’s SEO, it will enhance your client relationships. Your clients want to know you as a person, not just a designer.

4 Things You Need to Do Weekly to Grow Your Business

With goal-setting activities underway, you need to start coming up with ways to show results and that you are trying to achieve your goals. When it comes to growing your business and ensuring the right blend of the market, there 4 Things you need to be doing Weekly (if possible, Daily) to continue to grow your business. 

Now you might be asking – Why Weekly? Why not monthly? Or Quarterly? To be honest, if you want to see a patterned growth that can become predictable to future targets, you need to be in the habit of doing these at the very least weekly. Otherwise, it leaves a lot of gaps in the procedure as time passes, plus you end up missing opportunities more often if you don’t regularly and frequently check-in.

Prospecting/Connecting with New Clients

Now, this might seem like a no-brainer, but is it? It takes a great deal of work, as you have experienced, trying to get your product or service out, so your niche client sees you. The key is not to stop doing this once your doors are open. It doesn’t have to take long; it could be 15 minutes a day – it could mean engaging on social media, cold pitching a new vendor/client, or even going to a breakfast networking event once in a while. These are all great opportunities to expand and meet others.

There are a lot of amazing “systems” out there to help you in the process if you need help implementing it.

Keeping your relationships warm with your Existing Clients

By taking this time and implementing it, it, in the end, becomes priceless. Some of the ways to keep your relationships warm could be email marketing, special promotions, thank you events for certain groups of clients – the sky is the limit. This also doesn’t have to cost an arm-and-a-leg to do either – it can be as simple as a personal email to a client to ensure they know they are appreciated to “customer gratitude” events. These show to your clients that you are not only appreciative of their money and time, but also that they have in some way added value to your business as well – for without their comments or feedback, you might not be in the place you are right now!

Engaging relationships with Media

Now, I’m not just saying “take out an ad in the paper,” I am meaning having engaging conversations with their marketing teams to see if there are missed opportunities (sometimes they will strike a deal if there are costs applicable). There are also opportunities for publications that distribute to readers for free that you could reach out to. If you are in a cottage country area – do they have a magazine that they spread to the seasonal residents that could update them on what is new in your business and showcase you? I’m thinking of resources like the Cottage Country Connection etc.

They also have many connections that could maybe help you in your branding updates etc. if you are not satisfied with your current suppliers etc. They also can share your business with their network if they see a need and make this something of a reciprocal relationship.

Referral List Building

This is touched on in your conversations with media and keeping your conversations warm with your current clientele a little, but what harm is there to ask for referrals from your existing client base. What about Affiliate credits? Does it make sense to monetize your referrals through Affiliate Status?

It is an effective strategy to utilize their already built network of connections to expand your outreach further – and you could return the favor to them as well as time passes as to create a symbiotic relationship of growth and exchange. 

It never hurts to better support local businesses (particularly in a time of crisis) to keep them open and to keep asking and to share in return as you find clients as well.

Is that it?

No that isn’t it, but that is it for now – let’s face it – by doing these steps every week, not only are you helping to keep your business top of mind, but you are also opening up opportunities to monitor and track the different niches in case there was one that was missed, as well, it helps you identify where you need to put more effort/time into related to your marketing as to ensure that you can keep these conversations flowing, often and with favors returned.

Did we miss anything? Are there some other Must-Dos each week? What about programs to help you set up and implement but down the road, brings value to your business as well for future goals. We look forward to hearing what you think!