This blog post is a little different from the usual. It’s a bit of a heartfelt and honest post based on my experience as a new business owner. If you’ve been following me for a while (or pretty much any brand designer tbh) then you’ve most likely heard the term ‘dream clients’, ‘ICA’ or ‘Ideal Clients’ being tossed around like nobody's business! Now, I’m a firm believer in honing in on exactly who your dream client is and speaking directly to them. It’s a big part of my process when working on custom brand and Squarespace website projects. One thing I do want to stress is that it’s ok (and expected) not to know who your dream clients are when you’re brand spanking new to business!  

I’m writing this post to my past self - it’s a post I wish I’d been able to read back then, to learn that it’s ok not to have it all figured out and that actually, it can (in my opinion) be damaging to your business to put yourself in a box right from the get-go just because that’s what all the courses and blog posts told you you should be doing as an online business owner. Having this blog post when I started my business would've saved me time, stress, and a lack of clarity.

When I first started in business, I over consumed content in a big way and took all the courses. I did all the things I thought I should be doing to be successful. And yes, I did learn a lot and loved a lot of the courses and podcasts! But there were a few negative side effects that aren't really talked about in the online space. For me, this meant totally overwhelming and confusing myself. I got lost in a huge pile of other people's experiences and forgot about what I really wanted to be focusing on in my business. Have you ever heard all the talk about having the confidence and valuing your business enough to invest in yourself and into education? Well, I had the opposite problem! The root of this problem was a lack of confidence in myself. I got lost in other people's knowledge and it ended up stalling me. I lost my way and lost sight of who I really was. 

So let's get into it! If you’re still reading, thanks for sticking with me! This post is all about how to organically figure out who your dream clients are when you’re brand new to business just by taking action, being intuitive, and being yourself! 

How to be yourself + figure out who you are as a business owner

You don’t have to know who your dream clients are right from the get-go. In my opinion, it’s far better to tap into who you are as a person (outside of your biz), your brand, and who you are as a business owner. Once you get clear on who you are and embrace your true self and personality, you can inject your unique personality and approach into everything you do in your business. When you do this, you’ll naturally attract the kind of people who you'll love working with. These people will relate to your stories, approach, style, and content. These ideal clients will want to get to know you more and will be drawn to you. It will set you apart from the rest.  You’ll be standing out from the crowd just by being you. Yay!

So being yourself - that sounds pretty easy, right? Wrong! From my experience, it can be surprisingly hard. Especially as a busy solopreneur, it can be oh-so-easy to get swept up in the day-to-day activities of serving your clients. When this happens, you lose sight of who you really are, what your vision is, and what you truly value in life and business.

There are lots of ways you can uncover what makes you, you - so here are a few suggestions! Gab a pen and write down the answers to the following questions:

• List out 5-10 qualities that make you, YOU! (Feel free to add more if you like!) If you get stuck - ask a good friend or family member who knows you well. All points welcome here - good and ‘bad’ - honesty is key here!

• What key skills do you have? What are you really good at?

• What brings you joy? (in both business and personal life)

• What things do you enjoy doing in your business the most and least? List them out from least fave to most fave.

• What’s your story? Why did you decide to start your business in the first place? (pro tip - try the ‘5 whys’ exercise here - for each answer ask ‘why’ again to take your answers to the next level!)

• If you could fast-forward 5 years, what would your dream life and business look like? What does your business become? Who do you help? 

• What do you value the most? 

• What do you take a stand on? Any myths or particular things in your industry that really grind your gears? Why is that?

• What kind of styles are you naturally drawn to? (Design, fashion, music, and so on!)

• What are any key phrases or terms that you use regularly?

Ok, now you’ve written down your answers, think about ways you can incorporate more of your personality and beliefs into your business. Think about the following things:

• How can you infuse more of your personality into your marketing? (Think about social media posts, blog posts, video content, website copy, etc.) 

• How can you incorporate more of what brings you joy into your business? 

• Are there any skills you have that aren’t utilised in your business? How can you factor these in?

• Look at the list of your business tasks that you enjoy most to least - are your least favourite tasks absolutely crucial to moving forward in your business? Any way you can streamline, organise, or outsource these tasks so you can do less of what you dislike and more of what you love?

• Do an audit of all the words used on your website and in your marketing - can you sprinkle in words and phrases in your brand voice to sound more like you?

• Do an audit of all the visuals used on your website - do they reflect your values and vision for your business? How can you tweak the images, fonts, and colours to feel more aligned? If you need a hand with this, check out my post about how to create a brand mood board.

• If you have a portfolio on your website, does the work align with what you want to do more of? How does your portfolio make you feel overall? Add or take away accordingly so that your work is on point with your values.

• Write out some ideas for social media posts or blog posts:

  • That tells your story

  • Talk about the things that grind your gears in your industry - explain how you do things differently

  • Rundown of the things you value the most - tie these values into your business + services or products

  • From the heart authentic posts that embrace all of your quirks - good or bad!

Pro tip - These days more than ever before - people want to make a connection and relate to others. They want to see the face and the real human behind the business! Don’t be afraid to be honest and embrace who you truly are!

To wrap things up, review your answer about your vision for your business in 5 years. Who do you help? What values do they have? Why do you think they’re the kind of people you want to serve? Maybe it’s their industry, or maybe it’s more their personality, values, or their specific problem that you want to solve.

One more tip!

Talk to people! Using your answer to the last question as a starting point, write down who you think you’d love to work with. Don’t just think about industries here - think personality. What are their values and lifestyle choices? If you know someone you could model your ideal client profile, ask questions and chat with them! It's common to be told that we need to niche down by industry, but this doesn't have to be the case. Niching by personality can be a great way to expand your experience with many industries but still work with brands that bring you joy!

Once you understand your dream clients problems, you can start to communicate that in your messaging. As soon as your audience realises you understand their problems, they’re going to see you as the go-to person when they need the service you offer. It doesn't need to be a struggle to create content or market your business in a way that will effectively sell your services. Instead, the answers to these questions should help you see what the pain points of your audience are. Then, you can show people how your services solve these problems!

Summary:

The no.1 takeaway here is to really be intuitive in your business. Be mindful of your feelings. Find your voice. Tell your story. Be you. Dig deep and ask why. When you do this, you’ll naturally attract your people. Then, you’ll figure out who your dream clients really are. But in the meantime, you do you and get out there - get all the experience you can! Take action! Make mistakes and learn from the process. Embrace the ebb and flow and unpredictability of being an entrepreneur. You'll never be done figuring it all out. I know I'm not! It’s only been since I decided to answer the questions covered in this post and really tap into my style and not be afraid to embrace my quirks that things seemed to fall into place and the dream client enquiries started to roll in.

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