Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / Skip My Mistakes: What I Wish I Knew Before Starting My $25k / Mo Fractional Business

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Skip My Mistakes: What I Wish I Knew Before Starting My $25k / Mo Fractional Business · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
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  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
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  I'm your host, the founder and CEO of My Lands.
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  Today we're going to give you the road map of everything I
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  wish I had known going into my business so that you can skip
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  all the mistakes that I made. And I've learned from thousands
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  of others at this point. So skip their mistakes also and
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  go through all the best practices as you were.
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  Whether you're starting out or whether you've been doing this
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  for years. My guess is you'll learn
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  something from this episode. Before I get into it, I have to
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  tell you about our new product. It's so exciting.
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  getting clients. So come check us out.
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  wait list and giving them a shot.
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  So come check it out at mylance.co.
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  You can sign up right there. You can also ping me on LinkedIn
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  directly. OK, let's get into it.
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  I'm actually going to start with things I did well that when I
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  look back over the years that I would absolutely do again.
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  The first thing is at the beginning of my business, I
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  spoke to everyone that would talk to me and those
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  conversations either resulted in a new client or at least client
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  interest or a referral to somebody else who may have
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  either referred me to someone else or became a client.
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  And I would just keep taking calls.
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  And those calls led me to a really interesting place both in
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  learning what I had to offer, what companies problems were,
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  and just basically learning how to navigate those conversations
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  from a get to know you to a, is there an opportunity for me to
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  support you? And the best way I did that?
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  This is the second one is I was always really curious about what
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  was going on on in their business.
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  So I would ask tons of questions.
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  How are you thinking about this? How are you thinking about that?
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  What do you do here? And I asked all those questions
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  in my area of expertise. So I'd ask them about
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  automations, I'd ask them about operations, I'd ask them about
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  pricing, I'd ask them about marketplace dynamics.
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  And eventually they get to a point of like, oh damn, like we
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  really could use you. You clearly know a lot.
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  But I was able to demonstrate that I knew a lot from my
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  questions and got to learn what's going on for their for
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  their business. So I would make the
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  conversations really all about them and not about me and what I
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  wanted and what wasn't. Like, it doesn't matter, right?
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  What was important was what's going on in their business and
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  can I help them? And so the the last thing that
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  I'd say that I would certainly do around these calls is I'd
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  always ask for an introduction. If there was not a fit, it's
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  like who else in your network should I be talking to?
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  So highly recommend that I would go, you know, referral out to
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  referral out to referral out to referral.
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  And then I'd end up with a client.
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  So I would talk to everyone. Another thing I did is I asked
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  for big money right up front. I didn't work for free.
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  I didn't work for a smaller amount because I was starting
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  out. I just asked for the big number.
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  And I don't know where I got that courage from, but I just
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  did. I was like, I'm going to charge
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  20 grand a month or 250 an hour or whatever it is.
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  And I never undersold myself. I never said yes to a client
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  where I was like, oh, I'm getting underpaid.
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  This doesn't feel good. I always felt like I was
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  winning, and frankly, I felt like the client was winning too
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  because I was still generating so much more value than they
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  were. Even when they were paying me 20
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  grand a month, I knew I was generating way more value than
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  that, probably like millions of dollars worth of value.
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  And that's just how it goes, frankly.
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  Like that's how it needs to go. Otherwise it doesn't make sense
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  to even hire you. And the last thing that I did is
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  when it didn't work out with a client, I didn't take it
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  personally. So if someone just said like,
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  Hey, it's not a good time to work together or you're too
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  expensive or whatever it is, I was like, OK, no worries.
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  And it was kind of on to the next.
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  And I really had this mentality of like, let me go find
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  companies where it's genuinely a really good fit.
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  And those companies are going to happily pay me good money and
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  I'm going to enjoy working for them.
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  So I didn't, I never took it personally.
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  And I think that's the really common thing that I've seen is
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  that is that you're, you're a lot of fractionals are nervous
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  about asking, worried about that rejection, don't feel good about
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  themselves. It's like it's really not about
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  you. It's not personal.
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  It may just not be a good fit for whatever reason, or they
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  don't have budget or the problem isn't big enough or whatever it
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  is. It's not about you.
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  OK, now to the mistakes or let's call them lessons.
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  I'm going to call them lessons. Lesson #1 is do not bill hourly.
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  I billed my first client hourly, 250 an hour.
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  I had no idea what I was doing and I was keeping a timesheet
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  and the client was kind of hesitant to ask me for more
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  things because I was quote expensive and so it was just, it
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  made no sense. Also because I was adding so
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  much value it didn't matter how many hours I worked.
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  But that's a mistake I made early on and never made again.
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  One client I did hourly and that was it.
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  From there on out, I did almost all retainers or I did a few
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  project based pricing with clear deliverables, but really stuck
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  to retainers. And I would just say this is how
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  I work. I work for, you know, 12 grand a
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  month for this scope and you will get this output from me and
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  we'll renew it month over month. And if the scope needs to
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  change, we can change the scope like no worries.
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  And that's just how I did it. So never hourly again.
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  That's lesson #1 lesson #2 is do a ton of outreach and do it
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  early. I was really playing more of the
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  referral game and it worked for me.
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  But I would certainly do more outreach.
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  I did some and it was very effective, but I would do even
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  more. I would just send out tons of,
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  you know, knowing what I know now, I would send out like 20-30
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  notes a day, right? Which ends up at 100 or more a
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  week. And even if your hit rate is
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  relatively low, sending 20 a day, even if you personalize all
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  of them just does not take that much time.
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  You can do the whole thing in an hour and you're going to get
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  responses, you're going to get on the phone and you're going to
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  just get so many more opportunities to close clients.
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  If you're just doing the outreach and not worrying about
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  my offer and my niche and all these kinds of things, like
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  especially early on, I would literally like throw those kinds
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  of things out the window and just like test the waters.
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  You're going to learn about your offer, you're going to learn
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  about your niche as you go. And it's such a catch 22.
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  It's like people don't really want to do their outreach
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  because they don't really know their offer.
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  And it's like that is actually the way to figure it out.
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  So the lesson there is just send those notes and be really
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  curious about what you learn. Don't be so tied to the outcome
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  of like, is this working? Is this not working?
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  Just be curious about what you learn.
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  You're going to learn so much in the doing of the outreach versus
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  like sitting behind a screen and trying to figure out like, OK,
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  what's my offer and what's all these things?
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  Just get out there and do the thing.
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  And the only needle moving activity early on in your
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  business, or frankly I'm going to say almost anytime in your
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  business is doing outreach is just getting on the phone,
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  finding a way to talk to your customer.
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  The only thing that truly matters, especially in the early
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  days and then in the later days, the only thing I would pivot
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  that to change that sentence to, to, to say do the outreach and
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  also do an amazing job servicing your clients.
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  Like that's the only other thing that then ends up mattering
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  because they, they, they keep you and you keep getting paid
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  and they refer you. So do an amazing job and do lots
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  of outreach. The rest of it is, is kind of
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  window dressing, frankly, to that point lesson.
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  And this is actually something I did well.
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  I did not spend any time with a logo, a website, a business
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  plan, or anything else. Any of those kinds of nice to
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  haves in the business. I didn't spend any time on them.
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  In fact, I never had a website for my consulting business and I
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  did it for over 2 years. I had tons of success.
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  Not a single client asked for it.
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  Not a single client cared. I didn't have one.
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  It was all about my experience validating myself and the value
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  that I brought to the table. That's what mattered.
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  So I'm so glad I didn't spend time or money on a website or
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  logo or positioning myself or anything like that.
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  I learned the positioning stuff over time with just by having
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  clients and the website and logo stuff never ended up mattering.
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  The only thing I did end up spending a little bit of time on
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  is I did incorporate an LLC. I got the LLC taxed as an S
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  Corp. That allowed me to save tons of
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  money on self-employment tax. I did get an accountant to work
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  with me on my bookkeeping and saving money and all that kind
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  of stuff so I do recommend that but I didn't have that at the
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  beginning. I had my first client for months
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  before I did that and that was totally fine.
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  The one tip there is just keep your business and personal
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  expenses separate because you can write off the business stuff
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  later. Lesson #3 is really don't worry
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  about your niche. I mentioned this, but do tighten
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  it over time. So at some point in your
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  business, you are going to need to do proper marketing.
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  You're going to need to do, you know, you know my recipe.
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  It is LinkedIn content. It is new connections on
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  LinkedIn and it's engaging with your network and existing
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  connections on LinkedIn. Those are those are the things
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  that you need to do and you need a niche in order to do that
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  because otherwise what kind of content are you putting out
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  there? Who are you adding as
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  connections? Like you really need to know who
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  your ideal customer is. At the beginning.
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  You don't, right? That's the difference at the
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  beginning. You're using your network,
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  you're just doing outreach. You're just saying like, hey,
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  I'd like to learn more about your business.
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  Where can I help you? So you get those conversations,
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  you get your first initial clients and then you start
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  seeing what's going on in the market with my value problems,
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  I'm seeing all those kinds of things.
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  And then you narrow in your niche and you continue to do
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  your networking because you always need to be doing that.
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  But then you can really develop, OK, who's my customer?
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  What are their pain points? What's my unique value add and
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  what are the proof points in my career?
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  Doesn't have to be a consulting business in my professional
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  career holistically that validate this story because
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  that's what we're building. We're building a story, right?
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  I'm Bradley. This is what I've done.
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  This is who I help. This is the pain point I solve.
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  My unique value add is this, and I've done it in the past so you
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  can trust me like it. It really ends up being that
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  simple, but you build that overtime.
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  I'd say literally over the first year, 18 months, two years of
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  your business, you're kind of figuring that out along the way
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  and refining it and constantly iterating on it to a point where
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  frankly, even when you get quote UN quote there, I still think
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  you're listening to the market and iterating every few months
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  on does this positioning change a little bit?
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  Like what am I seeing in the market?
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  How do I need to pivot a little bit?
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  It's a constant like living breathing thing that you will
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  hone as you are servicing clients and doing marketing.
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  The next lesson is obviously keeping existing clients is a
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  lot cheaper than going out and finding a new one.
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  And So what I did, and I highly recommend this and I would
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  frankly go back. So I'm going to call it a lesson
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  like do it even more is get do an amazing job in what you're
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  hired to do, but get involved in other aspects of the business.
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  You can ask lots of questions, you can meet with other teams.
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  You can see what's going on. Like don't overextend yourself
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  too much and make sure you're doing an incredible job with
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  your initial scope, of course. But when you get involved in
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  other areas of the business and you're adding value, then you're
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  they're going to keep you on for longer.
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  And I actually did have this where multiple clients either
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  couldn't get rid of me. They're like, shoot, we really
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  need Bradley. He's involved in all these
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  things or they kept me on retainer after because I was
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  adding value from a strategic perspective or a thought partner
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  perspective or whatever it was with multiple different teams.
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  So I would certainly get as involved as you can.
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  Maybe not right away, right? Do your job, get in a like,
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  build amazing rapport and trust with the organization, but start
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  understanding what other parts of the business are doing.
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  Of course, depends how big the business is, but there's, you
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  always know, there's ways to just kind of poke your head into
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  things like, hey, what's going on here?
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  What's going on here? How can I help?
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  And you just start getting involved and they literally
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  can't get rid of you. Like they will start, they will
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  be paying you forever. The next lesson is build a
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  system before things get absolutely crazy.
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  I never really built a system for myself to track my pipeline,
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  to track my projects, to automate things on the back end.
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  This system might include a virtual assistant.
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  I have one now. It has completely changed my
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  life. I love him to death, but and I
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  have all these systems now, but I didn't have this when I was a
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  consultant and it's a lesson. And when I say a system, it
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  could be things as simple as setting up Zapier.
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  So when people book calls on your calendar, it goes into a
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  CRM. And then when you have those
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  calls, the transcript gets sent over either to the CRM and it
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  drafts in a follow up e-mail in your inbox.
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  Like there's tons of things you can do that just take the busy
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  work of things off your plate and keep your life just
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  organized, right? You know which clients you have,
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  you know when revenues coming in, you know when invoices are
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  due, all those kinds of things that are just a little bit
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  annoying. Like probably most people don't
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  enjoy doing them. But think about those things
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  that you need to be doing. I think CRM is a big one.
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  Pipeline tracking is a big one, invoicing, scheduling, emails,
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  calendar management, you know, notes for different clients,
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  like keep a Notion instance clean or whatever you end up
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  using. But create a system that's
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  reliable for you, that makes your business of one or two or
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  whatever you have, But most people here are businesses of
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  one. It just makes it that much more
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  manageable because you do have to do everything that a normal
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  business has to do, but you're only one person.
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  So setting up those systems and just building them as you go,
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  Like I just write down, all right, what is all the manual
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  stuff I do every single week? Let me just start automating it.
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  And Zapier is your friend. It is such incredibly powerful
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  tool and it's not expensive to use.
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  I could go on and on and on, but I promise to keep these episodes
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  about 15 minutes. So we're going to end it here.
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  There's hopefully lots of Nuggets in there that are
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  helpful for you as you are growing, scaling, starting,
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  making, maturing your business. So with that, I will leave you
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  again, Bradley Jacobs here. Come check me out on LinkedIn.
• 14:49
  Come check out our new product at mylance.co.
• 14:52
  We also have a free community. So if you just want to start
• 14:54
  there, come join the free community.
• 14:56
  And I hope you got some value out of this.
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  If you did, means a lot to get a rating on the podcast.
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  Means a lot for you to just reach out to me on LinkedIn.
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  I love getting the notes I hear from people like, hey, you're in
• 15:07
  my ear at the gym or whatever it is.
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  It really does mean a lot to me. And you never wear know where
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  it's going to go. I had someone do that and then I
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  had her on the podcast a few weeks later.
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  So you just you just never know. It never really hurts to reach
• 15:19
  out and say hey, like got some value out of this.
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  So anyway, have an amazing day. I hope you are feeling confident
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  in in what you're doing, even if you're not having those big
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  wins, but confident in your process, confident in what you
• 15:33
  bring to the table, and knowing that even if you're not at your
• 15:36
  goals, that you are putting in the time, effort and learnings
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  in order to get there. Have an amazing rest of your
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  day. I'll talk to you soon.