Before we dive in, I should level with you…
I used to think anyone trying to build a client business was insane. The idea of begging local businesses for a few grand a month to run their marketing just seemed dreadful.
And on the other side of the spectrum, trying to land huge enterprise clients just seemed like a pipe-dream for a startup consultancy.
It was also the perfect storm of all the things I hate: reporting deadlines, full calendars, endless calls, demanding psycho clients, capped revenues, etc.
Growing it to any kind of scale would also be aggravating. You’d need at least 5 clients paying $3K/mo before you could even think about hiring your first employee – and it would take 28+ actively paying clients each month just to hit $1M in revenue.
Basically – the client “business model” looked more like an attempt to juggle 20+ different part-time jobs…
No thanks!
So, even though I was frequently asked if I did consulting, for years I shunned the idea of ever taking on clients.
That all changed one day in 2015…