1648: [Part 1] How to Find Clients for a Service-Focused Side Hustle by Claudia Pennington with Side Hustle Nation

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. How to Find Clients for a Service-Focused Side Hustle, Part 1 by Claudia Pennington with SideHustleNation.com. Thinking about starting a service-focused side hustle? Looking for clients to launch your side hustle? For new side hustlers, finding clients is often the number one concern. You might be unsure how to go about marketing yourself and your services to attract potential clients. You might even have some fears about the sales process once you connect with potential clients.

[00:00:30] At the beginning, I was afraid of putting myself out there. Maybe you can relate. I worried that I wouldn't find clients. I worried about not being able to answer every question a potential customer would ask me. I worried about pricing. I worried about everything. Remember that you are only new once and everyone starts in the same place, with zero customers. Find and pitch your first potential client and you'll have some sales experience. Each new pitch you send will help you build experience and gain confidence.

[00:00:58] Sales and marketing are the lifeblood of every business and non-profit organization. Embrace any discomfort you feel today. You're not alone. Every side hustler felt some amount of trepidation when they first started, too. That's why communities like SideHustle Nation are so important. As you work to overcome your fears, focus on the clients you want to serve and how you want to serve them. What service can you offer? Everyone needs help with something.

[00:01:24] If you're still thinking about what kind of service or services you could offer, do this exercise with me. Grab a notepad and pen. Draw a line down the middle of your piece of paper. In the first column, list the service or services you're considering. Nick's Notes You don't need to be the world's foremost expert in any field. You just need to be slightly better or more available than your target customer. Example services from MyResume would include babysitting, ski teaching, house painting, content writing, and book editing. End note

[00:01:55] In the second column, write the names of people you already know who would benefit from these services. And with that, you have your first list of potential clients. It's really that easy. Nick's Notes If you can't think of any potential clients by name yet, that's okay. Think of the industry connections you have or how you might get your offering in front of the people who need your service. More on that from Claudia. End note Once you have some ideas about the services you could offer and the clients you could serve, narrow down your list of services to one.

[00:02:25] Which service appeals most to you? Which service reaches the largest number of potential clients? Nick's Notes Which one excites you the most? Which one are you most likely to actually execute on? End note With the service you have in mind to launch your side hustle, it's time to dive into finding clients you could pitch today. B2B or B2C Who do you want to serve, businesses or individuals?

[00:02:49] If your side hustle is B2B, that is, business to business, you're looking to provide a service like copywriting or digital marketing. Nick's Notes Or administrative support, graphic design, web development, bookkeeping, or dozens of other business support functions. Need inspiration? Check the categories on Upwork or Fiverr to see what you might be able to offer. End note

[00:04:11] It could be small business owner meetups. It could be in online software support forums. Small business owners in need of help are out there, online and offline. Nick's Notes My latest book, Buy Buttons, features hundreds of marketplaces you can set up shop where clients already are. End note Using any or all of the aforementioned resources, you are likely to find warm leads. In other words, businesses and individuals who are already looking for help.

[00:04:38] What I like about warm leads is that the process is less salesy. When a business or an individual is already seeking help, the conversation flows easily, and your lead is likely to move from prospective client to current client more quickly. Identifying Ideal Clients Let's say that you are a side-hustling digital marketing consultant like me, and you want to help business owners drive traffic to their websites. Any business with a website can use that service to increase leads and sales. Who do you know today?

[00:05:08] You need just one name to start. So, reach out. Set up a coffee date with this person or a Skype call if this person isn't in your area, and see how you can be of service. Focus the conversation on the needs of this person and how you might be able to help him or her. If you're a side-hustling house cleaner, for example, you could help everyone from the elderly, to DINX, which is dual income, no kids, to parents with a new baby. Who do you know who recently had kids? Reach out to just one family to start.

[00:05:36] Make sure your friends or relatives know that you're starting a cleaning service, and see if they might be able to introduce you to their friends. This is where Facebook can be especially useful. Nick's Notes Seriously, it all starts with your network and spiders out from there. If you're really clear about your service offering, it makes it easy for people to refer others to you. Even if your immediate network might not need your service, they might know someone who does.

[00:06:00] If you're top of mind for some specific offering like ACT test prep for high schoolers who struggle with math, you're in great shape to get that referral. Same thing in the B2B world. I know there are dozens of content creation services out there, but I refer people to Copywriter Today all the time because there's no guesswork if it's going to be a fit. To be continued.

[00:06:25] You just listened to part one of the post titled, How to Find Clients for a Service-Focused Side Hustle by Claudia Pennington with SideHustleNation.com. And a big thank you to Claudia, who is a guest writer on the site SideHustleNation. She is a digital marketing consultant and trainer with more than a decade's worth of experience in online marketing.

[00:06:45] She's become an expert in search engine optimization as well as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager through her work with small businesses, startups, and Fortune 500 companies. Claudia trains side hustlers, freelancers, and small business owners in the fundamentals of digital marketing and SEO. So you can check out the article online. I do have the link for you in this episode's description as usual. And thank you to Nick at SideHustleNation for letting us share work from his site today.

[00:07:14] And that's going to do it for today's installment. Hope you have a great weekend and I will see you back here on Sunday where your optimal life awaits.