It’s January and you’ve hopefully had a good break from work. Time to get back into your business and a great time to take stock. What do you want the year ahead to look like, how you can you make it even better?
When doing your annual business review you will often look back at what worked and what didn’t. What were your lessons learnt and what would you love to have more of, or what is it time to let go of.
Perhaps you are mapping out your offers and calendar of events. Reviewing your pricing and even business hours.
There is an element of your business, that may not be as obvious to review – however clarity here is critical to growing a fulfilling business, working with people that make your heart sing and enable you to get paid well for your services.
An often overlooked piece in your review.
What is often overlooked is reviewing the CLIENTS you are working with, working with your Dream Clients is a critical piece of a fun and fulfilling business.
Understanding our dream clients is not a set and forget. Having a focused niche is critical to creating powerful messaging, magnetic content, resources and offers that best serve your clients. It serves as a strong foundation for you being the go-to expert in your niche.
As you evolve so too does your business, and it’s ok to allow yourself to refine your audience too.
Working with clients who you are excited to talk to, who engage and are ready to commit result in you showing up with strong energy.
On the flip side, working with misaligned clients is draining and at worst can result in you doubting your business or letting go of your dreams.
At this time, I encourage you to take stock and get honest and clear with whether you are still working with aligned clients or if it’s time to make some changes.
You may discover you ARE in love with your clients and this excercise may help you to get reinvigorated and inspire some fresh ideas to serve them in the year ahead. Or you will know it is time for a change or even a minor tweak.
Questions to think about when reviewing your Dream Clients
Some questions to ask yourself to get a feel for if there are tweaks to be made are:
- Do you look forward to your client interactions?
- Who are your favourite clients?
- Who seems to be getting the best results?
- Which clients have been a drain to work with? Is it time to let them go?
- What are the patterns showing up? For example where they are in their journey, a specific outcome many get/ seek etc.
Time for a change? Now what?
Sometimes we can get complacent too and the most powerful way to magnetise dream clients is to understand them. Now may be a good time to engage in some market research.
This is something that is critical to do continuously as the more you understand the more you can connect and the more you can serve. However, the new year can be a great time to do this as we typically take stock at this time of year and your audience may be ready to finally make that change. It is also a lovely way to re-engage some you may not have spoken to for a while, be they clients or others in your network.
Some ways to get greater insight into your audience may be:
- Polls
- Past clients interviews
- Audience interviews
- Simply asking questions in groups or social media platforms.
Market Research will also give you powerful insights into what your audience wants and can then feed back into your marketing plan for the year ahead.
It can inform your offers and content when thinking if it is time to shake things up with new ideas or enable you to more effectively share what you are already doing for greater impact.
In Summary, January is a wonderful time to take stock and plan exciting things for the year ahead. As important as the more obvious things to review such as data and financials I encourage you to take time to go within and see if you are still working with the clients that light you up. If not, takes some time to acknowledge who it is you are ready to serve wholeheartedly. Do not be afraid of a pivot. If you feel it is time for a change then allow yourself to evolve. If you realise you are already working with your dream clients then spend this time to fall involve with them again.
I have put together a special meditation that helps you to get into your heart and review your current niche if you have one and if you don’t well now is a great time to get that clarity. It has an accompanying workbook to help you bring it to life and be able to articulate what you do to. My clients have got great value from it and I hope you love it as much as I loved creating it for you.
https://align-marketing.newzenler.com/f/dream-client-meditation
My wish for you for the year ahead is one where you find joy and prosperity in your business. Providing services that light you up with Dream Clients that fill your Soul.
By Lily Rudolph
You can connect with Lily here:
Facebook: Align Marketing
Facebook Group: The Aligned Marketing Hub
Free resources