This video is all about how to start earning a consistent $2000 a month. The reason I’m going with $2000 is not because 2000 is some kind of magical number that you have to make in order to be worthy of anything in life. Not true. It’s just that $2000, for me personally, was the amount of money that I really, really needed and wanted to earn every month in order to feel legitimized as an entrepreneur.

Now keep in mind, I was living in the Midwest of the United States, and I was about 23, 24 years old when I had this goal. So, that might need to be adjusted for your circumstances. Maybe you have a spouse or a partner who has an income, maybe you have a family, maybe you live in an expensive place, or a not expensive place, it might be a little different for you. But whatever that dream income level is where you would feel like, hey, I’m a real entrepreneur now, I am actually making money with my business on a consistent basis, that’s the amount I want you to go with today. I’ve got five tips for you, let’s do it.

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Step #1: Assess what’s already working for you

Okay, so step number one is going to be to assess what’s already working for you right now. A big mistake a lot of new business owners make, new entrepreneurs make, is putting too much pressure on their business to make money from the beginning, and really choking the business to death. It’s not exactly the most creatively stimulating thing you can do for your business.

That said, caveat here is that if you need to make money to survive, starting a business is not really the easiest way of doing that. I really highly suggest getting a job. In fact, I saw Marie Forleo post a quote earlier this year saying that entrepreneurs that have a side job while they build their businesses are actually more successful than people who don’t. So please get a job if you need the money, don’t choke your business to death, okay?

So let’s talk about figuring out what’s already working in your business. If you’re already making money, what I want you to do is get out a piece of paper, and just write down what are your sources of income currently, and how much have you made in the last month. Maybe look back at the last 6 to 12 months of how much you made from each of those sources of income. This is gonna be eye opening, you’re gonna see some patterns, and you’re gonna see where maybe your lowest hanging fruit is.

Step #2: Figuring out if your pricing/business model can get you to your goal income

Step number two is to figure out if your current pricing or business model is going to get you to the goal income that you have. So when I teach business models in my course Yay for Clients, I break it down for my students. If you wanna make $2000 a month, you could do it by having a high end offer that’s about $500, and a lower end offer that’s about $100. If you had a high end offer of 500 and you got two clients a month doing that, you’d already have $1000, and you could get 10 clients at your lower end offer of $100, and then you’ve got $2000 a month.

To be really honest, for really any niche I’ve ever worked with, those aren’t that high of price points. They might feel like it to you because you’re not used to charging that kind of money for what you do, and that’s gonna require some mindset work to get used to stepping into charging that amount of money. Which is totally normal, because that’s the kind of value that you’re creating for your clients. So look at your prices and ask yourself, how many clients would you need every single month, in order to hit your revenue goal? And is that really statistically reasonable, or possible?

Step #3: Where is your lowest hanging fruit?

Step number three is to look at where is your lowest hanging fruit for getting more clients. Normally, this is not from social media, and online marketing, and growing your email list. You’re gonna find that when you’re starting out in business, most of your clients are actually gonna come from referral or word of mouth. I often work with people who say they are not really getting any clients, and the ones they are only coming from word of mouth. And I’m like, yeah that’s kind of how it works, there isn’t really another way of getting started in business.

In fact, even when you are growing your social media presence, you are doing online marketing, you are nurturing an email list, you’re still gonna find that most of your clients, especially when you start doing more expensive, higher end services, are going to come from word of mouth. That’s totally normal, and it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. It means you’re doing something right.

So here’s where I don’t want you to just look at what kind of services are my clients hiring me for, but where are those clients coming from. How are they finding me already? And I wanna give you some examples of what this might look like.

First example is, my original business, when I was a French tutor. And the way that I found clients was I went to the local high school, I had a meeting with the French teacher at the high school, and I told her I was a tutor, my background, that I had a French degree, I had spent a couple years living in Paris, and that I’d already been working with people and had some teaching experience. And she put my contact information on her website, and started referring me to all of her students and their parents, which then turned into a referral machine for my business. In fact, it was the only way I got clients back in the day, and I was making enough money to get by from that business model.

This is really similar to when you go to the doctor and the doctor refers you out to a specialist for what you need. If that type of model might work in your business, for example if I was still a copywriter, I would wanna team up with some web designers, branding experts, other people who I know my target clients are going to when they also need my services.

Step #4: Reach out to people and pitch yourself

That brings me to step number four, which is to reach out to people and pitch yourself. Can we have a little conversation about the fact that if you never ask people to work with you, if you never ask for the sale, if you never actually book people, you’re never gonna have clients. The clients aren’t gonna do the work, it’s up to you to bridge that gap between someone who is very interested in working with you, and somebody who is actually paying you for your services.

So here’s the formula for making an offer that people can not refuse.

#1: Reach out to your current network

Number one is to reach out to your current network. This is wherever people are currently who already know, like, and trust you. In most people’s situations, especially if you’ve had a career before this and you’re just making a change, you already have an established network. Those are the people that already know, like, and trust you. So even if you don’t have online marketing or a social media presence, go with the people you already know.

#2: Offer them a deal or a promotion

Step number two is to offer them a deal or a promotion. So it’s putting together a special little offer that you are going to tell them about, and let them know that this offer is something that is not normally available that you put together just for them.

#3: Give them a deadline for booking this offer

Step number three then, is to make sure to give them a deadline for booking this offer. So whether it’s that there’s a limited time, which I recommend, or a limited number, which I also recommend, let them know, I’ve only got three spots, I would especially like to work with you. People love that. Tell them you want to work with them specifically. And let them know when the deadline is and that you know, hey if you miss out, we might not be offering this again, which is totally true.

#4: Make it a no brainer

Number four is to make it a no brainer. The way to make it a no brainer is by giving people all the details, positioning it as an offer that’s gonna help them to get a result that they specifically desire. But the real key here is to remember that your goal is to be getting clients, and that when you just wanna get some clients in the door, the last thing you wanna do is be positioning yourself with uber premium pricing.

Prepare yourself for 10 times more clients in the future

The last tip I have for you here is to prepare yourself for 10 times more clients in the future. So, one reason you’re not getting as many clients as you want is because you are not prepared for all of those clients right now. The first tip is to create signature services. Having signature services is gonna help you to get better results for your clients, save you a ton of time, and position you as an expert so that you can charge more money.

Systematize your work

The second tip I have for you, which goes hand-in-hand with the signature services, really can’t do this until you create a well-packaged offer, which is to systematize your work. This means that creating a step-by-step process for what you do, having email templates, having the way you do things, having things set up in your project management system, and knowing exactly what to do every time a new prospect comes into your inbox.

Prepare yourself mentally for more clients

And the third thing is to mentally prepare yourself for more clients. And I want you t envision getting 10 emails right now. You check your inbox and you got 10 emails, all of a sudden, of people who are seriously interested in working with you. The reason why we do this with 10 new clients is because 10 new clients really shows you where your over customization, and reinventing the wheel every single time you get a new client, is going to sabotage you if you don’t fix it now.

All right, so now that you are really prepared for getting 10 new clients, how about I give you some strategies, some more specific strategies, for how you can find those clients. I have got an awesome, ultimate, exhaustive checklist for you called 64 Actions to Take to Get Clients Now, and it is organized in categories of the types of actions you wanna take, including things you can do to systematize your business, market your business, reach out to your network, etc. in much more detail than I could go into in this video.

Make sure to leave a comment and let me know, which one of these steps do you think you could take to start earning your $2000 a month, or whatever that revenue number is for you. And then, of course, don’t forget to subscribe to my channel. And I will see you next week.