What's Bugging You?
What's bugging you about your business? Is it cranky clients? Too few clients? Non-paying clients? How about your environment? Are you in the perfect space for your business? Location right for you? How about the hours you work or the need for you to be there no matter what? Are you able to take vacations? Are your vendors treating you well? All of these things and more depend on your intent, your desire, and your clarity about what you truly want from your business.
What does this mean? It means the clearer you are about what you want from your business, the easier it will come to you. And if you are not clear, you will get a random assortment of circumstances, people, etc. to make your business life less than ideal.
One of the exercises I ask my entrepreneurial clients to perform is to write down their "ideals". What is their idea of an ideal client? Many know they want clients, but they wrongly think that means whoever walks in the door and buys is a good client. I suggest that you can have all ideal clients simply by defining what that looks like and focusing on receiving them.
Let me give you an example. I was recently talking with a fellow coach who was bemoaning the fact that people only wanted to be coached at night and on weekends. I was surprised since I have no evening or weekend clients. Early on, in my business, I defined my ideal working hours as 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday with Fridays being mostly administrative days. In the two years, I've been a professional life coach, I've only had two potential clients ask for times outside these hours. One wanted 7 am (I don't think so!!) and the other 9 pm at night. That's kind of amazing when you think of it. But really it's not. It is my ideal. I decided it was what I wanted, I wrote it down not only in my business plan, but in my journal and just accepted that it would happen that way. Consequently, I am attracting the right clients for me, ones who can meet with me during my working hours.
I suggest we all write "ideals" for all the facets of our work, especially those that are not working for us in our professional lives. For example, to define the ideal client, here are some possibilities:
My ideal client will:
All content copyrighted, 2006, Life Unfolds and Mary Anne Fields. All rights reserved.
What does this mean? It means the clearer you are about what you want from your business, the easier it will come to you. And if you are not clear, you will get a random assortment of circumstances, people, etc. to make your business life less than ideal.
One of the exercises I ask my entrepreneurial clients to perform is to write down their "ideals". What is their idea of an ideal client? Many know they want clients, but they wrongly think that means whoever walks in the door and buys is a good client. I suggest that you can have all ideal clients simply by defining what that looks like and focusing on receiving them.
Let me give you an example. I was recently talking with a fellow coach who was bemoaning the fact that people only wanted to be coached at night and on weekends. I was surprised since I have no evening or weekend clients. Early on, in my business, I defined my ideal working hours as 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday with Fridays being mostly administrative days. In the two years, I've been a professional life coach, I've only had two potential clients ask for times outside these hours. One wanted 7 am (I don't think so!!) and the other 9 pm at night. That's kind of amazing when you think of it. But really it's not. It is my ideal. I decided it was what I wanted, I wrote it down not only in my business plan, but in my journal and just accepted that it would happen that way. Consequently, I am attracting the right clients for me, ones who can meet with me during my working hours.
I suggest we all write "ideals" for all the facets of our work, especially those that are not working for us in our professional lives. For example, to define the ideal client, here are some possibilities:
My ideal client will:
- pay my fees and prices on time, happily, and will appreciate the true value of my work
- be generous with their money, their time and their energy with regard to my work
- appreciate me, my methods, my work and love the results of our time together
- show up on time
- be easy to work with
- be open to change, ready to change, eager to change
- value my time and be ready to work during our calls and during the week on their assignments
- will happily refer me to other "ideal clients" often and easily
- will want appointments during my working hours, will keep appointments or let me know way ahead of time if something comes up
- will be the kind of person I am able to help either easily or with a reasonable "reach" on my part
- will be able to easily afford my fees
- will know when our work is completed and will have a finishing session to gain closure with the process
- will have a good sense of humor, be easygoing, and apply right effort
- be happy to be coached by phone
- will also attend workshops and classes and buy my products
- will write great testimonials for me
Here are some other areas where you may want to define your "ideals".
- Ideal office or work environment
- Ideal finances
- Ideal vendors and suppliers
- Ideal employees or support staff (accountant, printer, banker, web developer, etc.)
- Ideal product
- Ideal service
- Ideal working schedule (hours, weeks per year, days per week, etc.)
- Ideal equipment, fixtures, furnishings
Will you give it a try? Just write it down. Make it a living document as you will want to refine it as you experience what is coming your way. Make it firm in your mind that it is what you want and then just expect it to come your way.
Feel free to ask questions or leave a comment below.
All content copyrighted, 2006, Life Unfolds and Mary Anne Fields. All rights reserved.
posted by lifeunfolds.com @ 8:31 AM
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