#45: Barriers to going out on your own - debunked
"I don't know enough people" Hmm. I bet you do.
Want to know how I went out on my own, and how you can do the same?
Or what I wish I’d known before I did?
Well, I’m in the process of writing a book all about it.
The book is the manual I really needed when I started my first business in 2014. I say business, but really it was a vehicle for me to land day-rate contracting gigs.
Still, the lessons learned apply to that environment as well as to the one I’m in now - working 1-1 on individual personal transformation projects. Selling my skills and knowledge.
This edition of A Sterne Talking To looks at the common misconception that we don’t know enough people to sell our wares to, whatever those wares might be.
It’s an excerpt from the work in progress book. Prior chapters cover the obvious routes - social media, in particular LinkedIn, your immediate network - but this one is all about seed sowing.
And the thing with seeds is they can take a little while to grow. Essentially this is more about who you are as a person and how you treat people rather than treating everyone you meet as a potential client. ’Cos that’s not cool. Be a decent human being to other human beings and even the lightest scattering of seeds (sown deliberately or otherwise) might just yield future business.
Anyone you meet might become a customer
This is a slow burner. But, it’s valuable. You must come at it from the right place. And that place is nothing to do with “winning business”. Here’s 3 examples to kick us off.
1. Will
Will is one of my clients. He’s also a friend. But at one time, he wasn’t. He was a bloke I met on a training course.
We got on brilliantly, and stayed in touch. We exchanged details, connected on LinkedIn. Built a remote friendship based largely on banter and piss-taking.
We had a catch up every so often. 3 or 4 years later, when I went out on my own, he began introducing me to his friends who needed some career support, and I wrote their CVs for them. A couple of years later, he asked me if I could help him with his own CV.
He’d gone from someone I didn’t know, to a friend, to an advocate, to a client. And those people he referred me to? Well, they referred me to more people. Many, many more people. I made lots of thousands of pounds from that one human connection, not to mention a friend for life.
Will inadvertently helped me get my current business off the ground more than any one person, and I’m forever grateful. Did I go out and sell to him? Not one bit. Did I tell him what I was doing to earn a living? Perhaps, I don’t remember, but I know he was seeing the value I was giving my LinkedIn followers on a near daily basis.
2. Dot
Once, I was interviewed by Dorothy. I didn’t get the job. But again, we stayed in touch. Kept communications open. I don’t mean every week or even every month, but occasionally.
We had catch up calls now and again. And 4 or 5 years later, it was Dot who I turned to when I first wanted to go it alone 10 years ago, as I’d seen she’d done something similar.
We’ve built a great friendship. And she’s referred me to many potential clients over the years. Last one ended up being a nearly £4k piece of work. Having relationships where business and pleasure can happily sit side by side is just brilliant.
When the lines blur, and you can meet up in a pub for lunch and set the world to rights, and have a hug when you say bye and get in your car… it’s wonderful. 2 humans connecting on many levels.
3. Ian and Dave
I met Ian and Dave through a school dad’s group. We got on really well, and became mates. Over time, they became more familiar with what I do for a living, and so, when they wanted their respective CVs sorting out, they asked me if I’d take a look.
I took them through what they needed to do. Made a few changes myself. I did it as a favour, with absolutely no expectation or desire for reciprocity. However, when their colleagues needed support, Ian and Dave both put me in touch with them. Those people became clients.
I’m not saying you should work for your friends for free. Often friends will say to me “Phil, no mates rates, I want the works and I want to pay you for it”. Your friends are the ones that want to see you succeed. The only people that have asked me for mates rates are people I wouldn’t really call, er, mates. But generally I’ve found what goes around comes around.
Thank you everyone for helping me grow my word of mouth business.
Be open to opportunity, and don’t be a dick
You might meet a friend of a friend in the pub. At a party. On a walk.
Or a stranger in a training course, conference, or networking event.
These are the relationships that need nurturing. And the best way to do that, in my experience, is just to be your authentic, generous self. I don’t meet someone and think “one day this person will be my client”. Most of the time I just want to support people. If I can give them a tip or some guidance in the meantime, great.
I’m not selling. Giving people an experience of who you are, building a relationship – you just never know if it might turn into work in the future.
the 3 scenarios I’ve just given you weren’t examples of when I’ve gone out to build a network and win business as a result of it. This isn’t a hustle. It’s about genuine relationship building. Being interested in people, and showing it.
I’ve just gone out and been me. And if those people end up finding out that I’m not a (complete) knob and that I could actually help them or someone they know – well that’s great, isn’t it?
The best example…
Just being me has helped me more than I could have ever imagined. I said this can be a slow burner - but how about 9 years?
Between 2010 and 2014 I worked at Unipart Automotive. They were one of the biggest car parts companies selling everything from clutches to rubber grommets and flanges to your local garage. I’d been hired to improve and centralise their recruitment efforts.
I started making a bit of a noise in the market and I was approached by a guy who ran employability projects on behalf of the Job Centre. They’d help unemployed people get jobs through skills training and through work trials.
We got on well, and I think we placed a couple of people, but it really didn’t go anywhere. We didn’t even really stay in touch. It was just one of those many short-term relationships that comes and goes.
Turns out Ian (yes, another Ian) then followed me on LinkedIn. I’d see the very occasional post Like from him, but we never had a chat, exchanged messages, or anything, for 9 years.
When I started my CV writing business, I started posting quite prolifically. Out of the blue I had a message from him. He’d seen my content and liked what I was doing. We’d built trust earlier (much earlier), and that grew through the value I was giving through my content.
Long story short, that message turned into a £50k project - through which I supported around 50 new people, and made more than that in new contacts.
It also pushed me to create a whole new business model to bid for the work, win it, and deliver on it. So it was a learning experience too.
I have so many examples of people I’ve met once or twice (or never at all in the flesh), who I was just a good person to. Asked questions. Showed genuine interest. Helped solve small problems without any expectation of a gain, however short or long term.
The truth is, I wasn’t even doing it consciously. It’s only reflecting now that I realise the business I’ve grown now is as a result of inadvertently sowing seeds over the last 25 years.
I’m not saying this to flaunt some “isn’t Phil awesome? He’s such a great guy” ego-trip. I just take the view that if you’re a decent person, help others out, and aren’t a dick, then people will warm to you.
And guess what? You’ve done the same. You’ve sown seeds without realising it.
And if you’re out there, meeting new people every now and then, you still are. And when you get one client, and they give you a review, you can share that with the world. They may refer you. Your word of mouth business is born.
I said earlier this isn’t about selling. It’s also not about ramming what you do for a living down people’s throats in social settings. Someone might ask you what you do. If you say “well, I help xxxx people do xxxx, but better. Or to solve xxxxx problem” … you’re simply having a conversation. You might even give them a couple of examples of clients, or results they’ve had.
If someone happens to mention in chat that they’ve been working through a problem of some kind, I don’t go into full-on coaching mode. I might ask a couple of questions, or mention I client of mine did x, y, or z.
But, you know, I might just casually demonstrate some capability out of desire to help them out, if they want me to. “Would you like a couple of ideas that might help?”… Or I might just sit and listen.
I know many of you might think “I don’t talk about work when I’m out socially. I’m a private person. I don’t want people knowing what I do or making assumptions about me because of it.”
And that’s fine too, but trust and relationship building works both ways. They’ll certainly never ring you out of the blue dangling a 50 grand contract if they don’t know what you do, what you offer, or have any experience whatsoever of the knowledge you have and how you apply it.
The Takeaway
The lesson here, if you’ve not sussed it already, is that you know more people than you think.
And everyone you meet could, intentionally or otherwise, become someone who pays you for what you do. Or could introduce you to someone who would.
Just be you. Don’t sell all the time. Help people. Give them ideas. Sow seeds, and they might well grow.
I’m off to have a scoot back through my network and see who I can drop a line to. Maybe it’s you!
Phil
3 ways to move forward:
1 - Help me help you: What would you want to read about if you picked up my book? It’ll take you 3 seconds to answer and I’ll be more grateful than Mr Grateful of Gratefulsville.
3 - 2 examples of how I make money passively, through create once and sell many times thinking. You can do it too.
Support these articles…
I’ll carry on writing these articles, though you can help me keep going by…
1 - Hitting the Share button and share on socials or with friends by email. Or both.
2 - Hitting Subscribe and part with a little cash.
Become a free Subscriber and you’ll get the fortnightly content from me. Happy days.
Get a paid subscription and you’ll unlock access to 47 articles to help work work out for you and live a better life. Plus the occasional early bird offer, event notifications, and anything else I want to reserve for my paid Subscribers.
See you next time!
It occurs to me now I’ve written it that those seeds are useful regardless of whether you plan to go out on your own. Generally in life they will grow into something useful!
Want to say something about this post? GO right ahead, make a comment :-)