The difference between a blogging hobby, a brilliant business idea, and dreams that we leave in dreamland without bringing into realworld is simple (but definitely not easy).

It’s taking action.

For example, you can have an awesome idea of turning your blog into your full-time business, but without any passive income or sponsorship plans, you won’t have a business.

You can have a brilliant business idea for an eBook, but without writing it, publishing it, and putting it out into the world, it’s just a brilliant idea for an eBook.

You can talk about your business all day long, but without taking action, you don’t really have a business.

So it’s time to take some action.

If your dream shapes up as a business (or interacts with people at all), your action is to start getting paying clients through the door.

For you coaches and service based businesses, that means booking clients.

And for you product based businesses, that means customers.

Seems simple, right? I have a business, I need clients.

It’s simple, but definitely daunting to get paying clients, especially in the beginning of your business.

So if you’re ready to book those paying clients but are totally baffled as to how to start doing that, you’re in the right place. Let’s walk through what you need.

There are a million things you could be (and probably feel like you should be) doing in the beginning of your business.

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Webinars
  • lead magnets
  • sales funnels
  • whatever other millions of to-dos we populate our overwhelmed brains with.

After working with dozens of creative entrepreneurs, a few business, and my own work, here’s what you need to worry about right now to get those first few paying clients in the door:

  • an offer
  • a way to book
  • a relationship

Everything else like websites, pretty graphics and branding, Pinterest strategies, that’s all great for GROWING your business. For optimizing your sales. But you gotta have something to optimize first. So no matter how imperfect, no matter how much you’re not sure you’re doing it right – either in general or for you and your unique purpose and dream for your business – I encourage you to do it. To try it. To put your offers out there into the world. See who shows up. And see that you can do it. It’s a lot easier to shape something once you’ve got something real to shape.

Okay, I get it, but what tech and strategy do you need in order to book your first paying clients?

Essentially your strategy needs to do two things:

  • get in front of your ideal clients
  • and offer them something awesome (i.e. let’s book!)

We’ll talk more about getting in front of your ideal clients in other posts, but for now let’s focus on having that awesome stuff set-up so that you’re ready to book your paying clients! 

If you imagine that all of your marketing leads directly back to your offer, there’s a point in your relationship building with a potential customer that it’s either buy or bye. So what’s that qualifying process?

Build all this stuff in the background, get organized and clear, and be prepared for a yes!

Example: Someone hops on your sales page -> Presses the buy button -> Is taken to a PayPal payment page -> Pays and receives a receipt -> And gets a welcome email from you with all the info she needs 🙂

Another example: Someone hops on to your sales call and goes WOOT this is awesome let’s do it -> You email payment link -> She pays and receives a receipt via email -> And gets a welcome email from you with all the info she needs.

What often happens: You spend so much time desperately trying to find someone to buy your product or service, someone (finally) does (and you kind of don’t believe it). And all of a sudden, Oh CRAP, I don’t have my payment page set up. Wait do I need a contract? Eff! Should I charge tax? Oh gosh, I’ll just wait to email her… *crickets* 

Make a plan now. When you’re prepared, not only will you be ready and waiting with that system (AND you’ll make it a lot easier and less stressful for yourself), but you’ll also find your confidence in making offers goes up HUGELY because you actually KNOW that you have something to offer instead of just desperately hunting potential clients like a game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

Grab the workbook provided, and let’s create your straight line sales strategy.

Remember you need:

  • an offer and a way to offer it, i.e. a sales call, a sales page, a sales/pitched email
  • a way to book, i.e. a payment page, a coach-booking app/software, a calendar
  • and relationships, i.e. a welcome sequence of emails, a personal touch

The workbook’s got tech resources for allllllll of the stages of this as well, so be sure to grab it by clicking the button below!
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P.S. Set everything up and it’s still not working? No paying clients? Yet no tech or strategy problems in sight? Let’s troubleshoot!

(Hint: watch the video!)