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I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “there’s no free lunch”. Well, it’s true. Before you can decide to gallivant around the world and be paid for it, you’ll have to pay some dues by honing your craft, building your reputation and growing your clientele. Your business should be developed enough that you can count on a steady stream of new business to continue flowing in through your marketing efforts even while you travel. If you are gone for a long period there will be some natural fall off of old clients. You certainly don’t want your income stream suddenly to dry up when you’re 4000 miles away from home! So–how do you do this?
Building a Reputation
As Henry Ford said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do”. Reputations are built on histories of excellent and consistent performance. Nothing will replace this no matter what money you spend on marketing. That said, however, here are some tips for building that great reputation faster:
- Provide excellent service. You’ll want to turn your current clients into raving fans. Let them do your marketing for you by gushing about how great you are every chance they get. One of the best ways to do this is to become an expert in who your clients are and in what they need. Ask for regular feedback to see if you are fulfilling these needs or if you need to add/change something about your service to be better. Then make the changes.
- Be consistent. You’ll need to develop systems for getting in touch with new clients, and maintaining contact with current and former clients so that you can provide consistent communication and service.
- Toot your horn. For many of us more humble types, tooting our horn about how great we are feels uncomfortable. However, some tooting can go a long way to building your reputation faster. Be sure to include testimonials on your web site, brochures or other marketing materials. In networking groups take opportunities as they present themselves to talk about what great products you provide and how much you love your business. People will feed off your energy and begin to talk about you with the same enthusiasm.
Building a Clientele
As you build your reputation, your clientele will naturally begin to grow. It is important to remember that it is 6 times more expensive to bring in a new customer than it is to bring back an existing customer. If you want to be able to get away for an extended period of time, you won’t want to be spending all your time and money in constant hard marketing. Therefore, it is imperative that you do all you can to keep those hard won customers happy, returning, and selling for you by word of mouth.
- Take some time to think about your business and your customers. Develop a very specific definition of what you do and who you do it for. This will be your core marketing message that you will share with others repeatedly as you build your clientele. For instance, if you are a web site designer, saying, “I design small and large web sites for personal or business use” is nowhere near as effective as “I design 3-7 page web sites for small business owners in the retail field”. Be specific!
- Join and be active in 2-3 networking groups in your area, preferably a year before your departure, to increase the numbers of people who hear about you, what you do and to increase trust.
- Meet individually with friends, family, and existing customers who know, like, and trust you. Ask for their help. Tell them about your plans and ask them for referrals of people who could use your services while you are away. There is no better introduction to a new customer than the trusted referral of a friend.
- Most importantly, keep those existing customers happy! You will best do this by creating consistent systems within your business to serve and maintain contact with your audience.
- Lastly, remember your customers who are unable to travel the world as you do. If the line of communication with your clients is loose and friendly, keep them abreast on your travels. And it’s always nice to receive a souvenir from some far-away place.
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