#59 - The Perfect Client | Autopilot Your Business

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Welcome everybody! In today’s podcast we are talking about the perfect client – revealing the lessons we have learnt over our years of running businesses. In the last week we’ve been doing a bit of a comparison and want to let you know too, how to be that perfect client yourself so that you are able to see faster, more effective results.

What did Andrew and Heather learn this week?

Heather has been further delving into content creation and the tools that you can use to help with that. She has used Klout for a while which did used to be purely to measure your influence, but their most recent update is as a content curation site for you to schedule content of interest across your social media accounts.

Andrew came across a new start-up called Spritz . They are changing the way that people read by changing how words are presented to you. Instead of reading left to write, it flashes one word at a time on the screen but allows you to set the speed. For the company creators, they have discovered how the brain works in terms of reading comprehension.

The Perfect Client

Themes we have noticed: what makes someone successful? Conversely, what makes them fail? Note: Our observations today relate to service-based businesses such as coaching.

What holds people back?

Wanting to change the processes of the experts you have hired! (“A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!”)
Wanting to keep too much control / thinking they know everything.
Being obsessed by small, insignificant details. (For example getting caught up in individual aspects of branding – get your first version up and running and make tweaks later).
Changing or being unclear on milestones or important areas of your business.
Thinking too small, i.e. not thinking ahead to the next steps. Let the people you hire know where you want to go in the future.
Basing everything on cost. Sometimes you are better off to pay a bit more for someone with experience.
Not knowing whether there is really a market for you before putting so much time in.

What do successful clients look like?

Complete clarity of roles when they come on board (what we do + what they do).
They already have tested and know there is a market. They know the dos and don’ts and can explain clearly to us.
They know we are the experts in our field and are willing to listen to recommendations.
When giving a change or piece of advice back to the provider, keep it open-ended for the expertise of that person you have hired. Remember you can be very emotionally attached as a business owner so being willing to listen to objective feedback is important.
Content – the people doing the best right now are those who are hands-on in developing but get others to edit and distribute.
Respect – for example paying invoices on time. Those people seem to get results faster too!
Check-in processes – revisit and clarify understanding.

Remember as a business owner, you are in control and can always say no if the client in front of you doesn’t seem to be the right fit.

Here is the video Andrew mentioned: