by Alice Seba
Do you take clients?
Online business is an amazing opportunity for more hands-free and passive income opportunities than most other types of businesses.
You can publish content that works for you for years to come, you can build lists of thousands of people who eagerly buy from you over and over again and you can do it all in your pajamas if you feel like it.
It’s a pretty sweet gig that a lot of people strive for.
As someone who started with doing a service business on the side to pay the bills, I can say that it’s a lot easier to focus on the more passive forms of income. The hours are shorter and the headaches are fewer.
But the interesting thing is that taking clients is often very valuable to a more passive income-based business.
A number of years ago when I was at a seminar lunch break, Alex Mandossian shared his formula for becoming an “expert”. I can’t remember exactly what he said and he said it eloquently, but one thing that stood out for me is him saying that one of the routes to becoming an expert is to help others achieve what you want to be an expert in.
And it made perfect sense.
Here’s Why Clients Are a Good Thing
- Better Understanding of What Works: If you’re out there working one-on-one with people, you’ll know what really works in your niche. If you help people improve their content marketing, you’ll have a better of idea of what works across niches and discover new strategies that you may not have if you were just working on your own projects. If you help people quit smoking, you can see first hand the struggles they have, what helps them make progress and what sets them back.
- Knowing What’s Really Happening Out There: Sitting in a passive world puts you in a bit of a bubble. You can observe through comments your readers leave you, social media, forums, etc…but you’re only seeing what people tell you. If you take on clients, you have hands-on access into what is happening in your market right now.
- New Discoveries: By working with clients you can discover new ways to help others achieve their goals that you may never have known by working with your current set of experiences. More experience is always a good thing.
- Credibility: It’s one thing to be in the trenches yourself, but serving others and gathering testimonials is social proof you can use to establish your credibility. For example, let’s say you want to be a weight loss expert. You’ve lost 100 pounds, which is an amazing feat, but what can you do for others? If you take on clients, you can prove yourself, collect detailed case studies and gather very powerful testimonials.
Doesn’t Selling Information Products and Books Accomplish The Same Thing?
The obvious next question is whether or not selling information products or books can achieve the same thing. Sure, you can get feedback from customers and gain credibility through customer success, but you’re still arms length from things. You don’t get to see the day-to-day and what people are actually working on, how they struggle, etc. There is so much you can learn very quickly and intimately by taking on a few clients.
Do You Have To Take Clients?
So, am I saying you have to take clients to become an expert? Not at all, but it is a quick route to really gaining the experience you may need. And for those seasoned in their niche, it’s a great reality check every now and then that allows you to bring so much more to the table for your current readers and customers.
The choice is yours, but the question still is…do you take clients?
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