(I wrote this for my Burning Pine site, but then realised it belongs on here, too.)
When you’re a small business, a micro business or a freelancer, it’s different.
Whatever you do centres on you. That’s not an ego thing. It’s just that clients are buying “you” – the unique blend of experience, skills, understanding and relationship you bring.
Here are a few tips and reminders for those who find they’ve inadvertently become their own brand.
Understand your USP
It’s probably not your professional skill. If you are a designer, writer or accountant, your clients are probably not (just) buying pictures, words and numbers. You may be an average financial adviser or marketer who is exceptionally good at listening and empathising. You may be an SEO expert or trainer on the invoice, but your value is in being a sounding-board, informal coach or counsellor. It can be hard, but you need to understand what the client is buying, as well as what you’re selling. That’s not easy to put in a brochure, but it’s what drives loyalty, repeat business and referrals.
Make your client look great
That’s your job. Leave your ego at the door and make your client look great to their boss or the board. That’s what pulls you up through their organisation and across the organisations of their career path, building a network of contacts and new clients as you go.
Always be professional
Get up, get dressed, be at your desk. Even though “dressed” is seldom a suit and tie. Even though “desk” isn’t in an office with a PA. Written back when Blackberry was still a thing, there’s a lot of value in Nicholas Bate’s Professionalism 101 (here as a handy download). Nicholas is now at Hunter Gatherer 21C.
And, always be tolerant, patient and resilient
- “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.33)
- Be patient: you’re not your client’s top priority. You’re not top of anyone’s mind all day every day.
- Be resilient: “Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.7); “More things frighten us than really affect us, and we are more often afflicted in thought than in fact.” (Seneca, Letters on Ethics, 13.4)
What do you think? What have I missed?
Photo by Marcus Neto on Unsplash
