You are Highly Sensitive, so chances are, you are into woo-woo topics a little bit. Maybe not as much as some, but you can definitely feel that the world works in mysterious ways sometimes! So, let’s look at three ways you can attract clients as a Highly Sensitive Self-Employed Person and set some of that energy woo-woo to work for you!
Self Employment is great for Highly Sensitive People who are experts in their field and who have a passion for helping others.
You can adjust your business model to allow for the self care you need as a sensitive person. Setting up a private practice of any kind gives you a lot of freedom! But being good at what you offer is not enough. When you are self-employed, you have to attract potential customers.
To Attract New Clients as a Highly Sensitive Self-Employed Person: work with what you already have first!
The good news is, that as a Highly Sensitive business owner, you can make use of your sensitivity in lots of practical ways. Below are 3 specific ways to attract new clients that you probably didn’t think of before.
By the way, these are not: go to networking events, post on social networks, build your online presence, try to get found on google, encourage word of mouth, learn about facebook ads, or even hire a business coach (although those are good steps too!).
First, work with what you’ve got. Do not worry about all the ideas and activities you might be able to add to your business 5 years from now. Do not worry about what the competition is doing. First, focus on what you have.
There are good reasons to start with optimising what you have already built for yourself, first. It will help you attract clients as a Highly Sensitive Self-Employed person a.s.a.p. (instead of in 6 months time after lots of complex changes). Here’s how:
1 Clean Your Office, Make it Ready for Visitors
This is a feng shui tip of sorts – but without all the “cures” and gadgets.
By the way – you don’t need to have a home office or therapy space where you receive clients in person, this also works when clients visit you on zoom.
I don’t know about you but when my house is messy and not very clean, I feel shame! Not shame when I’m dancing around in my pyjamas, but shame at the thought of having a few people over.
Well, in a way, attracting new clients is very much like having a few people over!
You need to have a welcoming vibe. You need to open the door and let people in (either virtually or in real life). When you’re worried about the mess and all the things you need to hide to look respectable… chances are, you’d rather have nobody visit at all!
Does shame help attract new clients? I think not! So when you can get yourself into a state to welcome visitors, it will help!
While you’re at it, heck, make yourself a cheese plate. You can snack on it while writing your next newsletter, making a youtube video or dreaming up a new client offer tomorrow.
2. Get Really CLEAR on Who You Want to Work With Next (and attract more of those clients)
I’ve lost count of how many times I ended up attracting new clients while I was writing a sales page, that I hadn’t published yet!
It’s logical to assume that nobody will know about your offer until you publish and promote it. Yet, if you work with intuitive people, many will smell your offer even as you’re still typing it up and working out the details.
Don’t be surprised to hear from someone who asks if you offer the exact thing you’re still putting on paper right now.
The focus you bring to describing who you work with and why, can work magic. Inititially, it’s not the words you share with others that accomplish this, but the fact that you get clear, focused and fired up about the reasons you do what you do.
Doing that shifts something in you. When you get clear, you feel clear and excited and that sends out its own kind of energetic promotional message.
Write a manifesto, review your offer page, work on your book, talk to someone about why you love what you do for clients. By the way – this step is great for introverts because you don’t have to step out of your comfort zone to promote yourself. Today, just get passionate and clear for yourself. Why are you doing this? How do you help people?
P.S. If getting clear is your biggest struggle – set up a Biz Clarity Call with me here so we can dial-in your purpose in a way that you can know and communicate. This is the foundation of your business! Without it, everything will be a struggle, but with it, things will start to flow.
3. Review Your Customer Service Processes to attract clients (and not scare them off!)
This includes: your contact page, contact forms, email address, order buttons and scheduling processes.
- Are all messages getting through?
- Do your forms work well on all devices?
- Are you sure none of them get lost?
Don’t be the Unreachable Expert!
I reached out to a service provider a while back about hiring her. I used her contact form. I didn’t hear back.
I asked in her FB group whether she’d received my message. She hadn’t. I pointed out she had a contact form issue (I’ve been there!). She said to please email her again, directly.
I didn’t.
It’s not that I thought less of her. Technology mishaps happen! But at the same time, I was intending to hire her to help me uplevel my business, while right off the bat, it looked like she needed my help to get some glaring issues fixed! It made me think twice about hiring her.
Also, I’ve been in tech-issue situations before and my experience is that the first tech issue, is typically the first of a whole string of them.
Now – this may or may not have been true in this case. It may or may not be true in your business! Either way, first impressions count and if something isn’t working great, it will deter people from spending money with you.
Check for Tech Issues in Your Business
I’ve had my fair share of tech issues in my work – and I continue to! There is no way to completely prevent tech issues. What is important to do is to get on fixing the ones you KNOW you have, and doing a walkthrough from time to time.
Sign up for your own newsletter, book an appointment with yourself. Make sure it’s all working flawlessly. You’d be surprised how many people experience isssues and never tell you!
By the way – this is why you want to thank anyone who alerts you to tech issues. I know in your dreamy mindspace you’d rather not know, but in the real world, that feedback is gold.
And if someone alerts you to an issue you can’t verify, don’t dismiss it right off the bat. Ask for a screenshot. Yes, maybe they just don’t know how PDFs work in general, but maybe something really is up.
While you are dedicated to offering a service with support and integrity, there are other businesses out there cranking out angry customers by the busload.
As a result, some potential clients will have a wary chip on their shoulder about other people they’ve purchased from. It can take a while to win their trust!
How Small Business Owners Can Stand Out
For us small business owners, the little things matter! We can stand out with personalised support. We offer less things, but we can do them well. We don’t let clients get lost in a maze of phone numbers and re-directs.
All this, when done well, will help attract clients as a Highly Sensitive Self-Employed Person!
Big companies can succeed despite terrible customer service because they dominate the market, offer the lowest prices or are everywhere with their marketing. As a Highly Sensitive Self-Employed person, you don’t have that “luxury” (and why would you want to, right?).
So my advice is to start with cleaning, checking and fixing what you have already created. Get very clear on what it is that you are already offering right now in your current business as-is. That clarity and ease of access will draw prospective clients who are already considering you, closer.
