Tips to Connect with Clients for a Side Business

Most new consultants struggle, not from lack of skill, but from distraction. They chase visibility without clarity. Post content before building a message. Offer free calls with no strategy to convert. Motion is great, but motion without a plan creates motion sickness. I learned this the hard way. Once I applied the Critical Path to my own business, I stopped chasing random tactics and started landing premium clients consistently. In project management, the Critical Path is the sequence of steps that determines how fast a project can be completed. → Delay a step, delay the outcome. The Critical Path Law says the shortest route to consistent clients lies in the few actions that can’t be skipped or outsourced. Delay them, and you delay success. Here’s The Critical Path to Winning Clients: * Clarify your market: Stop being generic. If your message works for “everyone,” it converts no one. * Build visible, valuable content: Not just tips. Create posts that reflect your prospect’s inner dialogue. * Engage like a strategist, not a spammer: Leave meaningful comments daily. Focus on creators and prospects who shape your space. * Send DMs with relevance, not desperation: No cold pitch decks. Start conversations. Ask thoughtful questions. Offer insights. * Create an offer too good to ignore: Free strategy calls feel vague and valueless. Instead, offer something specific: → A 30-minute Profit Diagnostic that reveals $100K+ in hidden profit opportunities. → A Marketing Review that shows why the best customers pass them by (and how to fix it). Make it so outcome-focused and risk-free, your prospect would feel irresponsible for saying no. This sequence is the critical path to getting your first 3–5 premium clients—without burning out or begging. P.S. Want to know exactly where you are on your consulting journey—and the fastest way to level up? Take my "Consulting Archetype" quiz. In 2 minutes, you'll get your personalized growth plan based on your current stage: https://lnkd.in/gdq7_HzM

Is this you? You spent years honing your craft, tackling every challenge the corporate world threw your way. Now, you've made the leap to solo consulting, and the open landscape feels… Daunting. Where do you even begin? You have a well of expertise, but how do you translate it into a client-magnet value proposition? Stop guessing, start talking. The first step? Unlock the goldmine within your existing network. It's not about cold calls or LinkedIn spam. It's about tapping into the powerful connections you've built, learning who your ideal clients are and what they need, and refining your offer based on their insights. Here are 3 simple steps to turn your network into your secret weapon: 1. Identify your champions. Think of past colleagues, clients, and mentors who know your strengths and understand your potential. Reach out for informal chats, coffee meetings, or even phone calls. 2. Ask the right questions. Forget sales pitches. Focus on active listening. Ask about their current challenges, pain points, and unmet needs. This is where you'll discover the missing pieces of your value proposition. 3. Refine your message. Use your newfound insights to reshape your offerings. Craft a clear, concise message that resonates with your ideal clients and highlights how you solve their specific problems. This isn't just about getting clients. It's about building a thriving practice based on authentic value and genuine connections. It's time to stop spinning your wheels and start building momentum. Your network is waiting to be activated. Go out there, start talking, and watch your solo consulting journey take off.

Massive but often overlooked reality check for fractional execs/consultants: Your greatest source of profitable “new” clients are nearly always current and past clients, colleagues, and those in their immediate circle. They know you, they know your work, it’s familiar. Yes, it’s important to be sharing knowledge / success / setbacks / hopes and dreams with the world on LinkedIn, and “shooting your shot” with some occasional cold outreach. But with extremely few options (like literally two), I can trace ten years of client “trees and roots” growth and probably 70% of revenue to my first major client retainer in 2015. Here’s 5 practical prioritization tips: 1) Focus on delivering amazing results for clients always, 2) Dedicate most of your biz dev efforts on your closest circle i.e. people and places that already know and trust you. Ask these people for referrals. 3) When doing cold or lukewarm outreach, focus on direct adjacent sector or similar work streams and be precise “In 9 months, I helped _____build an sustainable community engagement program that [insert very specific results]. 4) Share what you know and love on social and accept speaking invites to events and platforms. 5) Make referrals and get referrals. When something is outside of your wheelhouse, be diligent in connecting the potential client with someone who can knock it out of the park. I guarantee you both parties will remember when they’ll need your skillset. ———————————— And that’s it for now! Anything else folks want to add?

Want to start a side hustle as a consultant or fractional exec? Asking yourself how to get your first client? It'll be tapping your networks. Especially "hyper connectors" - people who seem to know everyone and have built their careers on relationships. Identify the hyper connectors in your network, reach out to them, and share what you can help their community. They can help you find the right people to talk to and vouch for your expertise. Over time you can give them a % of the deals they've helped you close. I've been through this myself over the last year. After working at LinkedIn and creating a Chrome extension with my team with > 20k users, I reached out to over 50+ people, saying, "We've built a successful Al app. If you know someone who needs help doing the same, let us know." That led to our first few customers and gave me the confidence to go full-time. Use simple approaches to get started. I have to remind myself that often even over the past few months! What else have you done to get started? What other questions have been on your mind as you think about starting this journey yourself? #AI #Consulting

Tips to grow your consulting business? Here's how I've achieved double-digit growth for 4 straight years. 1. Be prompt Answer emails quick Solve problems quicker Admit you're out of your lane quickest 2. Be professional If you say it; make sure it happens. People will smell BS quickly if it's all talk & no action. Hold secrets & IP tightly. No one hires a gossiping consultant. 3. Talk upstream & downstream & horizontally Some of my best clients have come from folks above / below in marketing. Some would view them as competition. I never have. Other referrals have come from logical segues in business cycle. For example, CPG brand wants to GTM > hires a co-manufacturing consultant > then will need a brand. Co man consultant refers us. Pay these ppl for these intros 4. Be a real person Sounds stupid, but easier said than done. Ask clients about themselves Get to know them Show them some of yourself. LinkedIn is a great tool for this. I also put several diff items on my Zoom screen to generate convo. 5. Solve problems that you aren't paid to. If you're a savvy business consultant; you'll be able to help solve for things outside your zone of genius. For example; many clients ask about payment providers for their hemp brand. I have built a network of folks who can solve this problem. I make intros all the time. Saves clients time. Makes me look smart. Sometimes I also benefit from a rev share; sometimes I don't. I don't refer based on best rev share. I focus on best fit. The rev share is just gravy. Keep solving problems for them & they'll keep bringing you new ones. TL;DR: 1. Be prompt 2. Be professional 3. Network around your clients 4. Be a real person 5. Solve problems you aren't paid to.

Moving into #consulting and quitting my W-2 job, was a bold move. I am very blessed with an extensive #network of previously built and some newly built relationships…that have led to opportunities/clients. The timeline to meeting, and then exceeding, my previous #salary feels like a Cinderella story. And was honestly…..uncharacteristically quick for those making this transition. Here are some of the things that contributed to the success: 1) Knowing what I’m not great at - could I help companies build out their compensation structure? Can I help with creating organizational career pathing? Could I manage an HRIS system? Probably. But I know and understand my strengths/experience/knowledge/background. The value I can provide is higher in other facets and areas of operations. I don’t want to be “good”…I want the services I provide to be “great.” Which leads to my next point: 2) Honesty - honest with myself, honest with prospects, honest with my clients. What can I knock out of the park and wow people with? If I’m not the best resource….I will admit it, and refer another business/consultant for those services. *gasps at turning down business* 3) Identifying my ideal “customer” early on - before I knew my niche services, before I knew my tech stack, before I even figured out business accounting (still working on that last one)…I knew my customer. And I haven’t wavered on it. I’m B2B. I could easily provide B2C (coaching services/resume reviews to job seekers). My suite of services can be “good” if I have diversified customers. But true service models are “great” with focus. Increased efficiency, experience that turns to systems, consistency in producing results. 4) Providing value - every single client I have….started with providing value, sharing/demonstrating knowledge, and developing genuine relationships. Before they even transitioned to a paying client. Collectively, my current client base is from professional relationships that I’ve had for 8 years. Most of the relationships are from them being job seekers from the past, for some I was actually the job seeker, others were just two people curious about what each other do for a living. While building relationships is absolutely one of my natural (and refined from practice) biggest strengths. Every single one of my current clients knows me as a resource that they asked quick questions to…learned from…laughed with…and was their personal hype man (sometimes therapist)….before they were “clients.” 5) Business Development - I give a standing ovation to everyone in the Consulting space that doesn’t come from a sales background. You can offer the best, most effective solution in the universe. But if you can’t attain clients…if you can’t bring in revenue…it doesn’t matter. I don’t think I could be successful in this space without my internal experience. But I would fail without my sales and agency background. 6) My experience leading/developing/mentoring team and building things from scratch