Summary: When I think in terms of building a client base proactively, to me, that means deciding in advance, what type of clients do I want? What types of clients do I not want? And then really going about putting together the processes and strategies that are necessary to attract exactly that type of customer.<br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic of growing your client base proactively. Welcome, Jay.<br> <br> Jay: Hey, thank you for having me on. I'm super excited about today's topic.<br> <br> David: It's great to have you here.<br> <br> Jay: Yeah. And I know this is a big question for businesses. I've heard the phrase. "If you're not growing, you're dying" So growth is a constant thing that you have to be thinking about. How do you do that proactively?<br> Overcoming the Day to Day<br> David: It's a great question because so often we get caught up in the day-to-day of what's going on. Particularly in the early stages of a business, when you don't have as much business as you need, it can be really scary. What a lot of people tend to do is they just sort of default to whatever it is that they think is going to bring in business. And they lose sight of the fact that if they aren't proactive about it, you can really fall into bad patterns that can create problems and perpetuate a cycle where you're not generating the revenue that you need to grow and scale.<br> <br> Jay: Yeah, this is such important information because I think most people don't start a business because they know how to grow a business. They start a business because I have a great recipe and I'm going to put it in a food truck. Or I'm an attorney even, and I've learned the law or a dentist or a doctor. Those people are not trained or taught how to grow their business. They're taught how to do their craft. So this is outside of anything they've been taught.<br> <br> David: It's really funny because there was an electrician here earlier today at our house. He was taking care of some things. And we were having exactly this conversation. Because he used to work for another electrical firm. He decided to start his own business. And we started talking about "what they don't teach you in electrical school" essentially. Right?<br> There's More to Growing Your Client Base Proactively<br> I know how to do electrical work, but do I know how to find customers? Do I know how to find the right customers? Do I know how to handle the billing and do collections and hire and fire and do all the other things that become necessary when you have a business. It's a whole different set of skills. But you're right. And from the standpoint of our topic today, in terms of growing proactively, a lot of business owners really don't know how to go about that. They don't know how to do it, which is the reason we're having this conversation today.<br> <br> Jay: Yeah. It can be so daunting. So where do you start? I mean, you know, so many ideas, you got social media, you've got all of these different tools available to you. Where do you begin?<br> <br> David: Well, I think for a lot of people, if you want to take a strategic approach, you want to think in terms of the types of clients, you actually want to have. The types of customers that you enjoy interacting with. By and large, these are going to be people who are pleasant to deal with. They're people who have money and aren't afraid to spend it. They're people who appreciate the value you bring to the table. And a lot of times we don't even think of that.<br> Taking Just Anybody<br> Again, particularly in the early stages, if somebody is willing to pay us for what we do, we're like, "okay, great, I'll take it!" And I think that can really be a mistake. Because it can lead us to establishing the type of client base that we might not want to interact with on an ongoing basis.
