The Executive Think Piece

Have you documented your client intake process? As an online business manager I know there are tons and tons of processes but I want to start you guys at the beginning - your client intake process. The Client Intake Process Defined My Client intake process includes the series of steps I take before the onboard process. The intake process consists of all of the steps taken to get in front of a client through having them sign your contract and pay that initial invoice. Those are the steps we will be covering in our client intake process.

Choosing the right business name is super important. The message your business name conveys is a key take away for a potential client. If nothing else, it's the one thing that we want them to remember. Your business name should set the tone for establishing your brand identity. There are three points of importance when it comes to choosing your business name - authenticity, availability and brandability.

To watch the video about this topic, click here . Who is your ideal client? If your answer is "every client is an ideal client" or "I don't know," you are probably wasting a lot of time trying to find a good client. We need to know with some manner of precision who we are looking for as we go about looking for clients. Not only does this minimize the actual time we will spend on clients that are not a good fit, but it will also influence everything from the platform we choose to the materials we present to the skills we highlight. See, if we really learn about our ideal client, we can start to speak to them more directly.

Do you know where your client is most often? In the past, I found clients on Upwork, in FB groups, in membership groups and largely via word of mouth referrals. Recently, I've found VAs on Instagram and Upwork, and have given referrals and recommendations to colleagues, in person and in FB groups.

Listen, it's a lot to start a new business and know how and where to get clients. But like everything else... It's a process. It's a process that needs to be discovered and defined and tried (repeatedly) and revisited and updated and tracked and yes... documented. There are some general principals that can be applied to any business, sure, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no one sure-fire way to anything in business (or in life for that matter). But there is one skeleton key that I will share, the key to attracting clients is no secret.

Processes are the set of steps you take to execute any specific task related to managing your business. It can include everything from the information you gather, the way you gather it, to the system's you use to incorporate to the information in the execution of your task. your operations is to create the highest level of efficiency possible for your business as a whole.