Are you a consultant or freelancer? Do you want to know what the most common mistakes you can make are? These mistakes could cost you valuable clients, income, and time. In this post, we’re going to take a look at 7 reasons why so many consultants and freelancers fail–and how you can avoid these mistakes moving forward. So let’s get started.
Trying to solve a problem you don’t care about
If you don’t care about a problem, it’ll be hard for you to solve it and build a business around it. The best consultants solve problems that they want solved—problems that are painful and affect them everyday. If you’re wondering where to start, look at a problem you personally face. A problem you’re connected to. If your service doesn’t solve a problem that matters to you it’ll be hard for you to have a long term success. You have to be connected and passionate about the problem you’re solving. If you can’t connect with it, how will your clients?
Solution: Pick a market or niche you’re passionate about . If you’re not passionate about it, then don’t work in that niche. If you are passionate about it, then learn everything there is to know about it. The more you know about an industry or market, the easier it will be for you to solve problems for your customers and clients.
Pro Tip : Passion + Knowledge = Success
Helping clients or customers you don’t care about
This is one of the fastest ways to sabotage your consulting business in the long term. You’ll waste time, money and effort trying to help people who you don’t like or care about. You’ll end up trying to solve problems they’re not really having, which will lead to more work for you and less satisfaction for both of you.
Solution: Focus on the people you care about . Focus on helping your ideal customer solve their biggest problems. If you don’t care about them, then find someone else who does.
Pro Tip: Create an ideal customer profile and choose a niche that aligns with your values . If helping people in a niche isn’t something that makes you happy then don’t do it. If it does make you happy then find out everything there is to know about this market or niche so that you can better serve their needs.
Ideal customer + solution = Success
Not knowing how to attract your first paying customers
One of the most common reasons why so many consultants and freelancers fail is because they don’t know where their first customers will come from.
I’ve seen a lot of people try to start a business without doing any research on their target audience, or what they might need. This is a huge mistake!
Not only can you save yourself a lot of time, money, and stress by doing some initial research on your target audience before launching your business, but it can also help you find out if there’s even a market for what you’re offering.
If you’re just starting out, you can’t afford to get caught up in the details of your marketing plan until you’ve got some paying work coming through the door. You don’t want to spend hours and hours working on your website or social media strategy when there’s no guarantee that anyone will even see it.
Instead, focus on what you can do right now: getting out there and meeting people. Talk about your business with everyone you know—and don’t be afraid to ask for introductions! The more people know about what you do and why they should use your services, the more likely they are to refer potential customers your way.
Pro tip: Validate your idea before investing a lot of time and money.
Not starting
You can only validate your business when you start. If you don’t start, then you’ll never know if what you’re offering is something people will pay for or not. If you don’t start, then you’ll never know if what you’re offering is something people will pay for or not. It’s a simple fact of life: if you don’t take action, nothing happens! So don’t waste time trying to find the perfect solution before you get started.
Pro tip : Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Start and incrementally improve
Falling into the trap of partnering with people you don’t really know well.
Partner with people you know well. When you’re a consultant or freelancer, it’s tempting to partner up with other people who can help you reach new clients and grow your business. But while it may seem like a great idea in theory, it can backfire in practice.
The key to avoiding this pitfall is to stick with people you already know—or at least have a good sense of what they’re about. If you’re partnering with someone for the first time, make sure to do your research and check out their past work before making any commitments.
Not using analytics to measure your KPIs
Let’s be honest: no matter how good you are at your job, if you don’t know what’s happening in your business, it’s impossible to improve. You can’t keep track of what works and what doesn’t, and you can’t tell when it’s time to pivot or change direction. You have to measure everything—from the number of leads coming in to the number of clients you’re signing up—and use that information to guide your decisions and make sure you’re spending your time on the right things. For example If you don’t know where your customers are coming from or which channels are working best for you right now, then how will you ever know when it’s time to shift gears?
Pro tip : What gets measured gets managed.
Poor prioritization
It’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new project or client that you forget about the fundamentals. You start to focus on the fun, creative stuff, and forget about all of the boring parts: setting up systems, creating a strong workflow, and making sure you’re building a business that can stand on its own two feet.
This is like eating dessert first—you’ll enjoy it more in the moment, but your stomach will hate you later on down the road when it’s time to do some actual work!
Pro Tip: Use the Eisenhower Matrix, this prioritization framework will help you organize your tasks and activities by importance and urgency. It’s especially useful when you’re very busy but don’t feel like what you do has much impact.
Conclusion
The common theme with all of these mistakes is that they’re easily fixable, and the fixes require nothing more than a little bit of work on your part. Simply put, it takes a small amount of discipline to avoid these mistakes and make sure that you’re doing everything that you can to make your consulting or freelance business a success.
If the advice contained here strikes a chord with you, please feel free to share this piece with others who might also benefit from it. And as always, if you have any further questions, feel free to reach out and I’ll be happy to help you out.
