Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast. Today is day three with guest co-host Alan Heymann, and today we're looking at the topic of how do you find clients? Wait, how do you find good clients? That's a big distinction. Let's go ahead and jump right into that. If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Treasa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question. I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the Boss Responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses, Alan. What is the question for today?

Oh, good question, All right, so day three's question. A listener writes how do I find clients? Okay, wait, let me rephrase that how do I find the good clients?

Oh, a different question.

Yes, I've only been freelancing a couple of months, but I bring years of corporate experience with me. I know my stuff, but so far my clients have been on the lower-paying end of the spectrum. When I see other freelancers in my field talking about their rates, I know I'm drastically undercharging and this isn't sustainable. Not to mention the clients I'm finding are, to put it lightly, difficult. So where do I go to attract the other clients that other people are finding?

This is a great question and I'm really glad that the listener realizes that they're bringing corporate value with them, because I see a lot of people who have done the thing for 20 years who switch over to freelancing and think they're starting fresh, and you're not. You're bringing a lot of value and skill and experience with you and you need to incorporate that. So my first piece of advice would be don't undercharge. If you stick to your rates, if you know what your rates are and if you charge for the value that you're offering, then you're going to weed out those difficult clients. Because when a client, we tell them you get what you pay for. That's how we can justify the value that we offer and the rates that we offer. You get what you pay for. Well, when you're choosing a client and yes, you are choosing your client as much as they're choosing you you also get what you charge, and I have never had a major problem with a higher paying client. They come into it expecting you to be the best and then, when you are, they're just happy, as can be. The lower paying clients expect you to be a step above or below an employee and they'll treat you the same way and I've seen that consistently and I've heard that consistently from many, many other freelancers in every field in my years of doing this. Where to find them? Go, get them, reach out to them, form connections.

I'm big on relationships. This is my thing. I know Jennifer go forth Gregory's L-O-I system. You can go find that on her blog and she was the first guest, so we'll have that linked on her podcast episodes. Go look at her L-O-I system, how she does it, and then try that out.

I'm not incredibly comfortable with L-O-I's. I would rather form a relationship with people. I like to get two or three really good clients in the door and then I immediately ask for referrals, because when you bring a client in with a referral, there's a level of trust. You're not building a relationship from scratch and I think they're better relationships. And that's what this is all about is serving clients, but also having good relationships with them. So that's my advice Find the people that you want, start forming relationships with them.

I say woo them, woo them on LinkedIn. Don't just immediately go and send a DM saying I do this thing. Are you interested? Check out their profile, look at their posts, follow them, respond a couple of times and then, after they know your name and your face, then go into their DMs and ask a question. Form that relationship. I think everyone loves people who ask them questions about themselves or even just give sincere and the word sincere, I think, is really important sincere compliments or kudos when someone does something great. Then those relationships will turn into either good clients or people who will send you the best clients. That's always been my experience. Check out, jennifer. If you're not listening to Ed Ghandia's podcast, do that. He has a lot of information on this in his podcast. Then try things until you find what works for you, because there's no one way to find clients. Just there isn't. How do you handle this Now, alan, you used to do freelancing and now you do the leadership coaching, so I know this is a little different.

Yeah, so it's word of mouth and referrals just the same In my line of work, obviously, there's a very vast range of what people are charging, depending on their level of experience and depending on who their clients are and how they're found. I think what's really important is using your existing network and letting them know what you're up to and being able to hold yourself out there as that new thing that you're now taking on, if this business is new to you and asking for help once in a while.

Hey, is there anybody you think I should be talking to? Is there anybody you think might be a good test for this new service that I'm developing? All of those things tend to work pretty well and it's interesting in terms of the revenue piece and feeling like you're not bringing in enough from certain client relationships, and that can be challenging in a number of different ways. I know it was for me when I was first starting out in my business, one being you have to get comfortable with asking for more money and in doing that, you have to believe that you are worth it and the service that you're offering is worth it.

Then it will follow.

Secondly, there is this kind of scarcity mindset that I think bedevils many of us at the beginning, and sometimes not at the beginning, which is I don't wanna leave money at the table. Maybe a $1,000 project is good enough because it's money in hand, even though there might be a $10,000 project kind of waiting in the wings somewhere. So it requires becoming comfortable with saying no to some of the lower dollar stuff in the belief that the higher dollar stuff will come and in my experience it will. It's just a matter of time.

Yeah, and if you fill your calendar with the lower dollar stuff, you don't have room for the better clients. So you need to do that. And if it's a matter of let's flip this a little bit and say this is someone who's coming in without all of the experience, it's okay to take the I'm not saying take the Content mill prices or those just bottom of the barrel prices, started a decent rate, whatever that rate is for your field, and then raise your prices with every couple of clients Until you get to the point where it's a little bit uncomfortable for you. Yes, because that's when you're starting to get to the good rates and then start raising them again and you'll find that happy zone and you'll find the clients that you want to work with and then you can either stay there or Keep going at whatever that looks like.

Yes, and I would say also be in community with fellow practitioners. You know the community of the audience for this podcast being one example, fellow coaches, for me, in that you never know when there's something that Somebody who does similar work cannot take on for whatever reason, including, by the way, that it now pays too little for what they are demanding for their skills, but might just be the perfect fit for you. Or it's a capacity issue, or it's a subject matter issue. So that is an excellent way to Build and maintain relationships and also find work is through other people who do similar work to yours. I have found that looking at it as a zero-sum kind of competitive atmosphere helps no one, but in fact, being collaborative helps everybody.

Yes, huge on collaboration. Big fan here. Lots of clapping. I every time I turn down a client, I offer to refer them to another writer. So I love when other writers network with me because I learn what they do, I learn about them. I learn when they have availability in their schedule, especially if they post this stuff on social media so that it's out there or in the groups that I'm in with them. But that kind of collaboration is incredibly vital for me. And then when I go in to do a content strategy, sometimes I have room for a lot of collaboration across different fields. So I form those networks. So look at your networks, form your networks. Form networks outside of your family and friends, because working with family and friends can be a sticky widget. But Build that professional network and you're going to find that they're invaluable. It's worth the effort. Even if you're an introvert, it's worth the effort 100%.

All right, that was day three. Join us tomorrow for day four, as we look at a stressed out person.