Lessons from 5 clients

GM!

There’s been a lot going on around the Optimal hacienda.

In the last 2 weeks I’ve added 2 new (paying) clients for Ghostletter, my marketing agency, taking the total number of clients to 5.

It’s been a non-stop thrill ride of lessons.

So, naturally, I’m going to share them with y’all (my favorite group of people on the web).

Without further ado, here’s the top lessons I’ve learned about online business in the last 2 months.

1\ Online business is the same as offline business

There’s nothing magical about the word “online".”

Just because you show up, this doesn’t mean that people will start depositing their hard earned pesos into your online banking account.

No, the same principles that Dan Kennedy wrote about 30 years ago in How to Make Millions with Your Ideas still apply today.

The medium is just different.

You still have to sell something that addresses a problem for real people, then get that offer in front of them.

Basics, baby.

2\ Sales is hard; get good at it

This is the first time in my life that I’ve actually had to learn sales.

And it sucks at first, for me anyway.

But it is essential.

Luckily, the first couple of people I pitched were people in my network that were both good at sales AND didn’t mind to tell me where I was missing the mark.

So valuable.

After a couple of tries, I was finally on the right track and closed the next call with a complete stranger.

There’s no magic bullet here either.

You just have to get the reps in and iterate.

3\ Referrals are king

The last client I got came from my first client.

I did a good enough job that my first client started getting the attention of someone else in his network and felt good enough about my work to recommend it to them.

This was worth thousands of dollars in ad spend.

And I got it while getting paid to do stuff for my other clients.

Amazing.

There’s a reason my Grandpa had his own business for 40 years and never advertised once.

4\ Proceduralize everything

I’m still VERY early stages.

But every single thing I do, I write it down in Notion and add it to a checklist I’m building.

If you plan on growing at all (I do), then you need an eye toward the future. And that means hiring people.

Without procedures in place, you’ll spend all of your time training your first couple employees and not getting any work done.

So make those SOPs immediately.

It’ll pay off.

5\ Communicate, communicate, communicate

I don’t think you can over-communicate with clients.

Now, there are probably some instances where you can OVERSHARE, but I don’t think you can be too forthcoming about what you are working on for your clients.

They like to know they are top of mind.

Especially in these early stages where I’m still figuring out procedures and processes, letting my clients know where everything stands has been super important.

Tactically, I’m doing this:

• Responding to every email within 10 minutes

• Texting and calling back immediately (if possible)

• Having weekly or bi-weekly update meetings for progress reports

6\ Pick something you won’t get tired of once the honeymoon phase is over

The newness wears off.

Every.single.time.

And then the work starts.

When you get to this point it becomes super important that you pick work you like to do.

If you didn’t pick something that gives you energy, you won’t make it through this part.

So, make sure you measure twice and cut once.

It’ll pay off.

And that’s it!

I hope this was helpful.

Stay tuned for more lessons as I figure all this out.

Cheers,

Swanagan