Amanda McVicker (0:00)
Hello and welcome to today's episode of The OBM Educator. Today we are finishing up our back to business series. And so throughout September, we have been talking about kind of like the idea of like back to school cause September, August back to school season.
I've been really feeling it with, you know, just restart and refreshing in business. And I think a lot of people have as well. And so put together this series called back to business.
So going back to the basics of, you know, setting up your OBM business. So this was great for new OBMs or people wanting to become OBMs and, you know, how to set things up, but then also people who've been OBMs for a while and, you know, maybe have lost the momentum or, you know, just struggling. This is kind of like going back to the basics of what you can implement into your OBM business.
So we first talked about what is an OBM, you know, just a better understanding of what an OBM is. And then last week we talked about ideal clients. And then in this series, we were supposed to also talk about packages, packaging, but then I remembered I have a really good episode already of how to set up offers and packages as a new OBM.
And so I'm gonna link that in the show notes. So we're gonna kind of skip over that. And this week instead, we are going to talk about how to, you know, find clients.
This is my number one question that I get asked, how can I find clients? Where can I go to find clients, right? Because without clients, we have really no business. We have an expensive hobby, depending on what your expenses are. And finding clients is for the most part, usually for most people, going to be the biggest hurdle for getting started because there's so much to it, right? If I could just, if I had the magic answer where I said do this and you are guaranteed to get yourself a client, like we would all be booked out OBMs doing great, right? And that's just not the reality.
And so it's going to be different for every person and it's going to be different for every type of person that you're trying to find. And so what we can do is we can talk about best practices and we can talk about places that, you know, people find a lot of success in finding clients, but there is work obviously that goes into it. It's not a guarantee, but what I'm going to be talking about today will be more than the typical marketing things that you hear, right? Got some, you know, recommendations that I've personally had success with and others that I know others have had as well. So let's get into it.
Welcome to The OBM Educator. I'm your host, Amanda McVicker, a veteran OBM who serves six and seven figure entrepreneurs, as well as educates new OBMs with the skills and competence they need to start and grow their own successful online business management business. Follow along as I share valuable insights, behind the scenes sneak peeks and proven strategies to help you build a better OBM business.
So talking about finding clients, they are out there, right? You know, as long as there are businesses, there are going to be people who need the high level support that an OBM can provide. As the online space is booming more and more, you know, that number of people increases.
And sometimes it actually has more to do with like an information disconnect, or, you know, a lack of knowledge around what an OBM is. It's still a relatively unknown term outside of this little online space that we've created. And as I've talked about on the podcast multiple times, OBMs are great for all sorts of different types of businesses, brick and mortar, medical, therapy, agencies, right? There's so much more than just the business coach, life coach needing an OBM, but they don't necessarily know that the role of an OBM exists.
And so the way that you are going to reach them is really more of a find and reach out to them, right? There's the idea of attraction marketing, and we'll talk a little bit about social media. Like we obviously can't count that out, but there was, you know, a time in the online space where attraction marketing was the thing, and it was just, you know, you have to be so persuasive in your writing and your social media posts that the right client will see it, and they will just reach out to you because they wanna work with you. And that might happen now, but people are a lot more discerning with their hiring now more than ever, right? And it's the same way of maybe you have hired a coach or maybe your own assistant or something.
And if you, you know, hired based on vibes or something like that, you might've gotten disappointed or burnt based on, you know, the interaction. And so people are really looking for a specific type of person, but they're also a lot more cautious on who they reach out to, because you know, as soon as you reach out to someone about inquiring about services, it, for a lot of people, it's just nonstop badgering, you know, hey, just following up. Hey, just following up and not saying that's a bad thing, but it makes people cautious in wanting to reach out in the first place.
So the idea of like the attraction marketing is not going to be the quickest way to, you know, find clients. You know, once you get clear on like that ideal client type that we talked about last week, not necessarily a niche, but you know, the type of person that you're wanting to find and work with, once you get clear on who that is, you have to go find them. And so I'm gonna talk about three different ways that you can make connections and find people to potentially work with.
And so the first one is going to be the one that it's always my first answer, and that is referrals. So if you don't know my story of, you know, growing and scaling my OBM business, it was built on referrals. I received my first client, you know, through more of a connection piece.
And within two weeks of working together, they had referred me to who would become my second client. And then my third client was also a referral and same with my fourth, and then I was booked out. And so because of those referrals, I was able to tweak my client roster.
You know, when it wasn't working out with one client, I could go to another client and say, hey, you know, I have a spot opening up. Do you know of anyone who needs an OBM? And they had people. And so I built my business and my client roster to be this, you know, really good group of business owners that I've worked with for years, because I trusted the person who was giving me the referral and knew that they weren't gonna refer someone that it wasn't gonna be a good fit.
And so if you haven't had a chance yet to reach out to past clients, current clients, you know, even if they're like your VA clients, they might know of someone who was looking to hire in that OBM level. Even your personal network, you never know who knows someone or who has a business or a need for hiring at that kind of level. And so putting it out there, puts your name out there.
And that's how people are going to learn about you. The second way that you can find potential clients is through networking events. So this could be in-person or virtual, depending on where you live, what access you have to networking.
I would say, if you are in any sort of metropolitan, there is some chamber of commerce or networking group or something like that, that has entrepreneurs that are looking for this type of support and maybe just not knowing it. I have had a lot of success with a networking group called NAWBO, which is it's N-A-W-B-O, the National Association of Women Business Owners. Here in Kentucky, there's a chapter and I know they have chapters all over the country, but they have in-person networking events.
They have resources to help you with growing your business in general. And they connect you with other women business owners who are growing and scaling their business. But look for groups, maybe like a BNI group or just other type of networking opportunities that are in your area.
Because if you have not done an in-person networking event, there really is like nothing like it in terms of getting leads, right? Everyone is going with the intent that I am looking for business connections. There's no like, oh, I'm reaching out to someone, maybe they just wanna be friends, or wait, who's pitching who? Like all of that stuff, it kind of goes out the window when you go to a business networking event. Because they know that you are pitching your things, they'll probably pitch their things if it's relevant.
But there's no fear of being salesy or too much. You're making those connections for the purpose of finding clients. And then if you don't have anything in the area, look for virtual options.
There are Facebook groups that are specifically created for virtual networking. If you take some time, devote some time each month to making those connections, you are going to gain a lot more traction than if you're just posting on social media. Which does bring us to our third thing, which is social media.
It can't be ignored in the sense of finding clients because it is our main marketing tool, right? As online businesses, if you're not comfortable with social media, then you better have a good network around you to help with getting clients because social media is going to be the main marketing area that you are going to focus on. And this is gonna be different than just the content that you put out. We can talk about that another time.
But focusing on pain points and solutions and things like that. But more, what are you doing on social media, right? So we already talked about how attraction marketing is not going to be the quickest way to get clients. So what is a quicker way to make connections? And that is going to be actually reaching out to people, doing lead generation, showing your face, right? Getting on stories, making it personal, that it's not just the posts that you put out on your feed, but it's actually they're having an opportunity to get to know you.
That's the thing about referrals and in-person networking or virtual networking. Is they're having the opportunity to get to know you in real time, right? In-person networking, virtual networking, you are face-to-face with them, you are talking, they're getting their feel for you. Even with a referral, likely they're getting a referral, the person who would be hiring you, getting it from someone they trust.
And because they trust that person and that person trusts you, you're able to skip through so much of like the back and forth of, okay, like, can I trust you? Can I get to know you? Like all of that stuff. And so on social media, you have to do that in a different way. And so that is going to be through those personable tactics like posting on stories.
And you don't have to share like your whole life or anything, but being able to, you know, come on and talk about your day and the work that you're doing and the clients that you have is going to help potential clients see what it would be like to work with you. And then focus on making connections. If someone comments on your post, comment back.
If someone sends you a DM or replies to your story, reply back. If you've come across someone and you're like, wow, I think it would be really cool to work with you, you know, connect with them, follow them, send them a DM. Hey, you know, I really love what you're doing with XYZ, particularly, you know, your podcast or your course or this blog post that you wrote or something like that, right, make it personal and then make that connection, right? You can semi cold pitch from there or you can build the friendship a little bit, but be intentional about the connections that you're making because that's where clients are gonna come from on social media, not necessarily your posts.
So I hope that this was helpful as you are looking to find clients and looking to, you know, where's the best place to be doing that. This back to business series is really about like getting that foundation back in your business. So I hope that it was helpful.
Starting next week, we're actually gonna be doing a new series and I don't have a title for the series yet, but it will be a three-part series. And we're gonna be talking about getting your backend client ready, getting booked. And so that's gonna be going more into like the discovery calls and the follow-up process there and then boundaries, which is always a big one.
And so I know that series is going to compliment this one very well. So I hope you will listen along to that as well. I will talk with y'all next week, bye.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The OBM Educator. I hope what you heard today is helpful for you on your OBM journey. If you loved today's episode, I would so appreciate you sharing it and leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Want to be a guest on The OBM Educator? Fill out the form in the show notes and I'll be in touch. Join us next time on The OBM Educator.
