From Contacts to Contracts: Use a "Love List" for Solopreneur Success

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From Contacts to Contracts: Use a "Love List" for Solopreneur Success

Most solopreneurs find the majority of their work through referrals or repeat business from previous clients. These successful independents are the ones who come to mind when the need for their services arises. As I explain in my book, Succeeding as a Solopreneur, the two keys to making this happen are being memorable and nourishing your network. Using a “love list” is an excellent way to do both because it keeps your name fresh in people’s minds.

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How to Develop Your Tagline to Win More Work

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How to Develop Your Tagline to Win More Work

One of the six keys to success as a solopreneur is to be known for something and be memorable. When you are perceived as an expert, you’ll get more referrals and win more work. Narrowing your niche is an important step in the right direction, but you’ll also want to develop a tagline as part of your branding.

A marketing tagline is short phrase that helps people remember you in a certain way. Just like the phrase “Just Do It” makes you think of Nike, your tagline should make people think of you when they hear it. Ideally, it should say what you do and the results you achieve.

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Taming Your FUD Monster to Create the Consulting Career of Your Dreams

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Taming Your FUD Monster to Create the Consulting Career of Your Dreams

The one thing all independent consultants and coaches have in common is we all get FUD from time to time: FEAR of change, UNCERTAINTY about how to address a situation, and DOUBT about trying something new. When these emotions crop up, I refer to it as the FUD monster. I imagine a hairy gremlin on my shoulder, whispering nasty self-doubt into my ear. Here’s what you can do to tame your FUD monster…

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How to Get Your Client to Pony Up and Pay

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How to Get Your Client to Pony Up and Pay

Sometimes, no matter how many times you remind a client to pay you, they still don’t send the money. Your client might give all sorts of excuses, or worse, they stop replying to you at all.

Whether it’s $5,000 or $500,000, it’s still worth taking the time to get the money you deserve, and you may not even need to hire a lawyer or collections agent. Based on personal experience, here are some things you can do on your own.*

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Win the Work with Samples

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Win the Work with Samples

Everyone knows that consulting services can be hard to sell because it’s often perceived as expensive and too theoretical. To combat this bias, demystify your process. Using work samples and deliverables to show prospects how you do what you do will go a long way toward eliminating their skepticism. 

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Legal Alert: Independent Consultants May Need to Comply with New Corporate Transparency Act

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Legal Alert: Independent Consultants May Need to Comply with New Corporate Transparency Act

Although the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) sounds like it only applies to large corporations, it affects you as an independent consultant if your business is structured as anything other than a sole proprietorship. If your business is an LLC, C-corporation, or filing taxes as an S-corp, you are legally obligated to fulfil the reporting requirement that kicked in at the start of this year. This article tells you what you need to know and how to comply so you can avoid unnecessary fees and penalties.

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Narrow Your Niche to Win More Work as a Solopreneur

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Narrow Your Niche to Win More Work as a Solopreneur

Many solopreneurs make the mistake of marketing themselves as a jack-of-all-trades. They think that putting themselves out there with a variety of services and expertise means they’ll be hired for more work. The exact opposite is true.

Being memorable generates referrals and credibility. This is why you want to be “The Person” to talk to for a given situation. Think of it from your potential client’s perspective. If someone is going to spend tens of thousands of dollars, they want to hire an expert, not someone who has “done something sort of like it,” or “done it once or twice,” or who may be able to help them. They want to hire a specialist and you want to be that person.

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Use the Power of Intention for Critical Conversations

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Use the Power of Intention for Critical Conversations

As consultants, our ability to communicate effectively is vital to our success. Whether you’re meeting a potential client for the first time or you have to deliver some difficult feedback, it’s hard to over prepare.  That said, I suspect most of us don’t do enough preparation for these important conversations. Sure, we may jot down our key points or put together a flawless presentation, but have we prepared our brains to seek the outcomes we desire?  …

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As a Solopreneur, Don’t be #OpenToWork on LinkedIn. Do this instead!

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As a Solopreneur, Don’t be #OpenToWork on LinkedIn. Do this instead!

If you provide services to companies as an independent consultant or to business professionals as an executive coach, you should be using LinkedIn to help build your business. It’s an excellent tool to establish your credibility, create awareness about your expertise and services, expand your network, and of course, keep in touch with your existing connections to help foster referrals. Although it’s a terrific platform, using LinkedIn effectively is getting more complicated as new features and tools are added. This article discusses two of the more recent LinkedIn tools that can be used as a solopreneur to help drive awareness of your services and build your pipeline of prospects.

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Use ChatGPT to Boost Your Productivity as a Consultant

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Use ChatGPT to Boost Your Productivity as a Consultant

Of course you’ve heard of ChatGPT but are you using it to work smarter and more efficiently yet? If not, you should be! Recently the Professional Independent Consultants of America (PICA) hosted a members-only roundtable discussion to help people jumpstart their use of this powerful tool. Special thanks to Alexis Hultine of Digital by Design, and Dave Seaton of SeatonCX for leading the session and sharing their insights. This article was written by ChatGPT using the transcript of the roundtable.

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Figuring Out Your Billing Rate as an Independent Consultant

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Figuring Out Your Billing Rate as an Independent Consultant

Too many solopreneurs undercharge for their expertise. They don’t know to add a hefty margin to cover things like self-employment tax, business expenses, health insurance, and nonbillable time spent on business administration. Or they haven’t raised their rates consistently over time, or they haven’t switched to a fixed fee. This article explains how to determine your “base rate”, and the external factors that will impact your pricing. …

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Business Development in the 21st Century

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Business Development in the 21st Century

As self-employed professionals, we’re experts at helping our clients solve problems but we often struggle when it comes to building a healthy pipeline of leads. For most of us, prospecting for new clients is the very last thing we want to do.  But what if there was a way to make it less of a chore and maybe even enjoyable? …

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Start Each Engagement with the WOW Factor

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Start Each Engagement with the WOW Factor

One of my “whys” for becoming a solopreneur nearly 20 years ago was to have more quality time with my daughter. Self-employment would not only let me set the boundaries I needed, but it would also allow me to manage my time as well as my clients’ expectations. To do this…

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How to Generate Referrals Without Asking

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How to Generate Referrals Without Asking

Last month, we took our first look at insights from Stacey Brown Randall’s webinar, “How to Generate Referrals Without Asking.” We discovered her penetrating critiques of referral-generating “best practices,” and we learned about the science of referrals. Ultimately, we discovered that the common wisdom isn’t so wise, and that the best referral-generating strategies are the ones that empower referrers to serve their own social networks, boost their own senses of self, and close the loop on generous reciprocation. This month, we’re pivoting out of philosophy and into practice.

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How to Generate Referrals Without Asking

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How to Generate Referrals Without Asking

A few months ago the PICA community gathered for a webinar with Stacey Brown Randall, a leading light in business referrals strategy. She spoke about one of the biggest problems in solopreneurship: the feast-famine cycle.

How do we put a stop to that cycle? How do we bring more clients into the fold? How do we systematize the business development process? And how do we do it all without spending money and effort on digital advertising and direct marketing?

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4 Tips for Putting Your Best Self Forward

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4 Tips for Putting Your Best Self Forward

You have less than a second to make a good impression! If you want new clients as a solopreneur, you must make a good first impression. Clients hire experts who are accomplished and trustworthy, so obviously you need to convey those qualities immediately, but not just when you meet someone. You need to project confidence and professionalism well before your first conversation, like on your LinkedIn profile. Specifically, your headshot. Here are four tips to make sure you’re not inadvertently turning prospects away.

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What Clients Look for When Hiring a Solopreneur

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What Clients Look for When Hiring a Solopreneur

After decades of working with some of the worlds’ best consultants, coaches, and solopreneurs, I’ve assembled a list of qualities that contribute to their success. You don’t need to check all these boxes, but if any strike a chord with you, weave them into your marketing, such as your website, LinkedIn profile, presentations, and proposals.

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Get More Business as a Consultant by Adding a Logo to Your LinkedIn Profile

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Get More Business as a Consultant by Adding a Logo to Your LinkedIn Profile

As a solopreneur, good marketing is critical. A well-polished image can attract clients by conveying competence and professionalism. It can differentiate you from competitors, and it demonstrates that you take your business seriously. A professional image enables prospective clients to see you as credible from the very first impression. You know this, but you may still have the lame blue-gray square on our personal LinkedIn profile…

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Self-Employed? Think APV: Always Provide Value

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Self-Employed? Think APV: Always Provide Value

As a solopreneur responsible for finding your own work, you may be tempted to adopt the ABC sales mantra, “Always Be Closing,” as described so powerfully by Alec Baldwin in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. But when you’re self-employed, ABC might be the kiss of death to your business because nobody likes being sold.  As coaches, independent consultants, and financial planners, we’re problem-solvers, not salespeople. We want to be remembered and trusted, so put the client first.

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Use a Professional Email Account to Boost Perceptions, Pay, and Profit

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Use a Professional Email Account to Boost Perceptions, Pay, and Profit

Conveying a professional image is critical to maximizing pay and profit when you’re self-employed. One of the easiest and most affordable ways to be perceived as a professional is to use a business email address.

If you’re using an email that ends with @gmail, @hotmail, or @outlook, or a “fake business email” like JohnDoeConsulting@gmail.com, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Instead, present yourself as a professional by using an email with the name of your business as the domain. For example, John@PremierConsulting.com or…

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