Knowing Where to Start

I'm guessing that one of the reasons you’re reading this article is because there is a gap between 'where you are' right now, and 'where you'd like to be.' However you are doing at the moment - whether business is going great and you just want to optimise and fine tune your success, or at the other extreme you feel that you are more of a Client Repellent than a Client Magnet, or just if you are somewhere in between-there's a good chance that you’re reading this newsletter because you want more clients and more success.

On a recent marketing survey I ran, several people asked about 'knowing where to start'. Living in Ireland, I am tempted to quote the well known Irish joke, 'I wouldn't start from here', but I think we will get more practical mileage from the words of Theodore Roosevelt:

'Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.'

Is that it? I can hear you ask. Do I have nothing more profound to say on the subject? Well actually, as I look back over almost 5 years since I started this website, I realise that most progress has been made when I followed this advice. Things slowed down when I started wishing, fantasising, and got distracted or lured off track by 'short cuts'. What's brought me furthest? Simply putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again.

There are opportunities right under your nose

For many readers of this newsletter, opportunity is ALREADY knocking at the door. Yet you may be ignoring opportunity because you are too busy making other plans! Russell Conwell's story 'Acres of Diamonds' hammers this point home. The story is about a farmer who lived in Africa and through a visitor became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. Diamonds were already discovered in abundance on the African continent and this farmer got so excited about the idea of millions of dollars worth of diamonds that he sold his farm to head out to the diamond line. He wandered all over the continent, as the years slipped by, constantly searching for diamonds, wealth, which he never found. Eventually he went completely broke and threw himself into a river and drowned.

Meanwhile, the new owner of his farm picked up an unusual looking rock about the size of a country egg and put it on his mantle as a sort of curiosity. A visitor stopped by and on seeing the rock got very excited. He told the new owner of the farm that the funny looking rock on his mantle was probably the biggest diamond that had ever been found. The new owner of the farm said, 'The whole farm is covered with them' - and sure enough it was.

Your present circumstances provide you with EVERYTHING you need to lead you to the future you desire

Most of us don't want to agree with this. We are too attached to 'if only'. 'If only I had.... more time, more money, a different partner, different qualifications, more confidence, lived somewhere different, was older, was younger, had started earlier...' If only our circumstances were somehow different, then everything would fall into place. But what if your current circumstances aren't just conditions to be overcome, but actually provide the very foundation for YOUR unique path forward?

What if your current circumstances aren't a curse, but a blessing? Stop wishing you were somewhere else, and start accepting where you are. In the words of Sarah Ban Breathnach, 'We can never leave any situation that causes us discomfort until we learn to love it or at least see love at work in it'

You Are Surrounded By People Who Can and Want to Help You

One of the first things I do when consulting with a new client is get them to list their existing 'assets': past and current customers and contacts. To some, this seems a little boring - after all the excitement is in getting 'new' customers and clients isn't it? Yet your biggest opportunities lie with people who already know you. It costs 4-7 times as much to acquire a new customer or client than it does to sell to an existing one. But all sorts of things get in the way of people going back to past contacts: fear that they weren't satisfied, fear that they will be annoyed by the approach, even pride!

Do what you can today and let tomorrow take care of itself

As Julia Cameron puts it, 'Take one small daily action instead of indulging in the big questions. When we allow ourselves to wallow in the big questions, we fail to find the small answers.' So instead of asking yourself how you'll make that first million, focus on what you can do to serve someone TODAY.

No magic cures required. Simply do what you can, with what you have where you are. Put your heart into it and do the best you can, and you will be amazed at the new vistas that open up for you.

Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then sign up for her weekly e-zine now at http://www.clientmagnets.com