Whenever I’m chatting with or coaching new business owners, I consistently hear things about potential clients ghosting, not receiving many inquiries, or not receiving inquiries for the *right* pieces. All of these are HUGE obstacles we face every day, and all are solved by the same answer – if you aren’t receiving the right inquiries, it’s probably because you aren’t reaching your ideal client.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to be reaching the right type of clients for your business and your passion. Your business depends on it, and more importantly, your happiness as a person depends on it. There will always be those projects that simply pay the bills (which is great, YAY), but what we want to strive for are more clients and projects that truly set our passion on fire and make us excited to get up in the morning and hustle!
Now, the truly difficult part is nailing down WHICH projects those are and WHO are those clients that stoke your creative fire. This worksheet is designed to help you narrow down who that one most ideal client might be for your business, and to help you come up with some actionable steps to take towards reaching them!
My friend Madalyn of Madalyn Yates Photography sat down with me to fill this out on The Doorbell, our YouTube Channel – check out that video HERE. We go over a few rules and things to consider, as well as showing you some of our own answers to give you an idea of how to get the most out of this exercise. I learned a few very important things about the future of Design by Laney just by filling out the worksheet myself, which are leading to a fairly big overhaul of our policies coming in the next few weeks (spoiler alert)! This just goes to show that no matter where you are in your business, you always have some room to grow – who knows, maybe your ideal client has changed since you last sat down and thought about it!
Most importantly, make sure that you fill out the last blank where you set some actionable steps (this is my favorite term if you haven’t picked up on it yet!), because otherwise this exercise is a waste of time. Think about where you can find this client, and be there as often as possible. Let me know what you think of the exercise by commenting below and subscribing to our blog and The Doorbell YouTube Channel!
Download your Ideal Client Worksheet by filling out this form!
Hi, I'm Laney!
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I make wedding invitations and I teach artists how to work smarter, make money, and run a business that works for you.
Great video! I’ve done these exercises before and found it to be a great resource!
Thank you so much for your comment!!! These are always great exercises to re-evaluate every once in a while!
Please email me your checklist. It sounds like a wonderful tool.
[…] Consider who the ideal person you want to sell to is – this is called your ideal client (read more and download our free worksheet) and it’ll help determine where you should be in the […]
Would love to download the resource! Where is the link to it? I’m not seeing a form to fill out
Hi Sara! Sorry about that – we had a coding issue on the blog. You should be able to sign up here: https://design-by-laney.mykajabi.com/forms/573214
[…] That depends on what type of client you’re looking for! If you want to sell to engaged couples, you’ll look in a different place than if you want to sell to businesses, or dog moms, or yoga teachers, or whatever your specific niche is. I have a whole worksheet you can download to figure that out for your stationery business! Ideal Client Worksheet […]