One of the first places to start really is creating a picture of your Ideal Client so that you can know what you need to do to promote yourself. It will help you in creating your message on your website, your general core message about what you do and it will help you to set boundaries around your business to support your picture of your ideal client.
Figuring out who your ideal client is often comes from knowing who you don’t like working on. For example: I don’t like working on people who are always late or canceling at the last minute. To me that shows that they do not value my time. My cancellation/no show policy reflects this value. I charge the full rate to anyone who missed an appointment or gave me less than 24 hours notice. So one of the aspects of my ideal client is that they value my time and work.
When you work on less than your ideal client you will often find yourself drained, frustrated or uninspired. It greatly increases your chances of physical injuries as well as emotional/mental burnout.
Forming a picture of your ideal client is also a process. Sometimes it takes working with people in general to get an idea of what it is that you like and don’t like.
In general, your ideal client will value and appreciate your work and time. They will refer people to you without having to ask for referrals. They will pay your going rate and come regularly.
So begin by creating a picture of your ideal client. The sky is the limit! Don’t hold back. Don’t worry if you don’t see some of those things in your current clients. This is a process of creating a business of ideal clients. You may have to take less than ideal clients to pay the bills and get by. As you get busier you will also see more clearly how these less than ideal clients drain you.
Another example from my practice: I am a contracted provider with major medical health insurance companies such as Blue Shield, Aetna and others. There is one insurance company in particular who pays $25 less than my cash rate even. Most of the people coming in with that insurance are also mis-informed of their coverage and think that they can just come without a prescription and think they can come just for maintenance massage. They can’t. So my schedule seemed to be filled with these clients and it was very draining to deal with them and get paid inadequately. There is one other insurance company who paid almost double what they would pay but when people called, I couldn’t get them in because I was booked with the lower paying clients. I finally had to draw the line and stop taking the lower insurance. It took me about 3 years. I kept going back and forth with it. One day I finally just said no more. A few slow months but then all of a sudden my schedule is filled with the higher paying insurance company and I rarely get calls from the lower paying insurance. I almost doubled my income.
So it isn’t something that will happen overnight although it can if you have financial reserves to back you up.
Use the Ideal Client Worksheet.
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