I was thinking heavily today wondering what the biggest challenges that most offline consultants encounter when they are trying to start or grow their offline consulting businesses. At first, my mind wandered in every direction since there are potentially unlimited amounts of “reasons” why they aren’t making money.
In fact, you may find yourself in that same exact place as I did just a few short months ago where offline consulting makes a lot of sense and could be very lucrative but seems impossible to get your first check from a real client.
But then I finally decided to focus on what stopped me from getting paid as a professional marketing consultant. It came down to three things.
- Not Believing That I Could Deliver The Goods – Although I had invested a lot of time and money learning how to use the internet to get leads and start businesses, I did not feel like I was properly equipped to help other businesses use the internet to impact their businesses. I felt that I was missing the key ingredient to getting real results. I also started looking at the competition and was jealous of their website and presentation that I didn’t have at that time.
- Fear Of Both Rejection And Acceptance – This is a tough pill to swallow. Imagine being scared of taking action because you may be rejected. Even worse, imagine actually getting a YES and then being consumed with the thoughts of how to actually deliver on what you’ve been paid for! Either one sucks, but they’re all in your mind (as it was for me).
- Now Having Easy Ways To Do The Work Over And Over Again – Once I started getting clients, my frustration changed from that of not getting clients to actually getting them and spending way too much time physically doing the work that I promised them. It almost made me not want any clients again.
Now that I identified these issues, I finally got to the point where I had to overcome them once and for all so that success can really start pouring in.
What I did was create a series of standard marketing procedures that would help me have the confidence knowing that what I was offering was Highly Valuable To Businesses (which tackled point 1 above), made it easy for me to know exactly where to Start Once You Get The Yes (point 2 now void) and finally have a system in place to Shorten The Amount Of Time You’re Spending Delivering The Goods (point 3 all gone!).
And guess what, the fear and frustrations that I used to have are now completely gone (and replaced which bigger and better ones which I’m already in the process of knocking out too) and I’ve been able to easily get paying offline clients much easier!
So, now its your turn. Tell me your biggest frustrations about getting started online AND tell me how helpful it would be to have a standard, high value product to offer your offline clients that will take you under 1 hour to complete while charging at least $500 for.
Let’s hear it! I’m here to truly help you succeed in your offline consulting business.
Alex,
When I ready your article above regarding the “Offline Consulting Challenges” I have to say it is DEAD ON! All I can say is that in point number 1 you took the words / feelings right out of me – And then I find myself even asking more questions regarding the the same issue such as how do I begin once I get a customer, how do I access there information, how do I sounds like the “expert” when I am unsure of some of then steps I need to do to accomplish the goal, who to outsource the work too etc. I could go on forever.
I hope this helps you -
~ Lori Walker
Well Lori, I completely understand your frustration. You’re definitely not alone and as you can see, I fell into that awful place too. Here’s exactly how I overcame it. First, I decided that enough was enough and I wasn’t going to let that feeling stop me from giving my family and myself the life I know I can have.
Next, I focused on the things I did feel comfortable doing and have done for myself during my time attempting internet marketing to the internet marketing audience. I had created many blogs, written articles for article directories, create autoresponder campaigns, etc. So then I created offerings surrounding those things I already had experience with because I knew I could deliver on those.
At first, I wasn’t offering everyone other marketing firms were offering but it really didn’t matter because I knew that I would bring something unique to my service; ME!
From there, I started getting bigger jobs and learned as I went. I also asked many questions in forums and things. The point is, start with where you are and what you have now so you don’t get consumed with what you don’t have and don’t know. You can even partner with someone else who fills those gaps that you have and can even teach you along the way.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I’m here to serve.
Alex
Grade A stuff. I’m uuqnestionably in your debt.
[...] If you’re having trouble making it as a successful offline consultant, it’s most likely that you’re facing at least one of these 3 offline consulting challenges. [...]
[...] If you’re having trouble making it as a successful offline consultant, it’s most likely that you’re facing at least one of these 3 offline consulting challenges. [...]