3 Types of Client Personas I Avoid so I Can Grow My 1-Man Consulting Practice
Knowing who to work with is an understated growth hack
If all you have is 4 hours every evening to grow your 1-Man consulting practice, the following energy equation will apply.
Knowing who to avoid = Time saved = More time to focus on great clients
And great clients help build our 1-Man consulting practice. Our experience can be captured in case studies that attract more clients. The energy feeds on itself.
This is a proactive growth strategy.
I walk away from clients with high uncertainty. Those folks are out to squeeze $5,000 out of a $1,000 service. The clients who choke the life out of you because they paid.
You should know yours.
And if you haven’t… it is time to do so.
Identifying Your Ideal Client Profile
I believe in this thinking.
You must know your ideal client profile. That provides a benchmark for those you avoid. Life gets easier.
My ideal client persona is one I just signed last week.
Let’s call him Peter.
He runs a small-scale warehouse fulfillment business. Peter takes the goods from the big players, stores them, and delivers them within a 50km radius of his location. It is a last-mile delivery business.
Peter was referred to me by a varsity friend.
We spoke for 2 hours over dinner. Peter told me 3 things. Here they are.
- Managing his team through KPI transparency
- Automation of KPI collection
- Consolidating results
Peter is crystal clear in his objectives. He is unclear about his journey. To me, as a 1-Man consultant, that is good enough.
I signed him on for a 6-month consulting engagement.
The 1st Type of Client Persona to Avoid — Clients with Unclear Objectives
Clients like Peter is hard to come by in the world of 1-Man consulting.
Jonathons are more common.
They are unclear about their needs. They have fuzzy ideas bubbling in their heads. They are hard to understand.
- Are you saying that your top product sells less than the accessories? — Ah huh
- Is that a problem you want to solve? — Ah huh
- How pressing is this problem? — I have no idea
You can see where this is going.
I escape from Jonathons. Because it is impossible to put a due date on the engagement completion, given unclear objectives. Losses are guaranteed.
The 2nd Type of Client Persona to Avoid — Clients with Unrealistic Expectations
Unrealistic expectations come in all shapes and sizes.
The most common one is budget. A few consulting clients confuse value with a commercial budget. Sally is one.
I met her 4 days ago.
She spoke to me about improving team dynamics through effective and timely communication over dinner. Sally wants me to run a series of workshops for her team. I listened.
And then, she said this.
“Aldric, can you run 3 workshops, 2 hours each, with 5 attendees per session, for $150?”
I sipped my cup of black without making any responses.
In truth, I don’t see the point of making a counter.
I declined her request politely and offered to pay for dinner. And then I walked away.
The 3rd Type of Client Persona to Avoid — Clients with Decision Paralysis
Oh man, the flippers.
You must have encountered flippers at least once. They hem and haw. Their knees shake as soon as someone challenges their thinking.
Flippers, like Eric, cannot hold their decision fort.
Eric was a client of mine. Was. I terminated my working relationship with him because it was too painful.
He stifled the progress of the consulting engagement in the following ways.
- “Aldric, I was thinking, maybe we should not do things this way… is this way better?”
- “Good question. Can I get back to you within 3 days?”
- “Aldric, I am not sure. What do you think?”
Instead of progressing through the consulting engagement by getting things done, the opposite happened. Nothing was done. We were accumulating question marks as time passed.
I threw the towel after 3 months.
It was too much for me. And there was no way I could collect the subsequent payments by delivering work. There is no work.
And so… I terminated this client.
Knowing Who to Avoid Sharpens Our Focus as a 1-Man Consultant
You need great clients to work with as an owner of a 1-Man consulting practice.
They don’t have to pay you millions. But they should not hold you back. Toxic clients prevent you from growing your 1-Man business because they suck your life energy clean.
If you are already suffering at work, the last thing you want is to suffer in your own 1-Man business.
Heed my advice. You are better off without clients like Jonathon, Sally, and Eric.
Parting Keynotes
Clients are everything in the world of 1-Man consulting.
That does not mean we serve all client personas. We must identify our ideal client persona. For me, that is Peter.
But that is not enough.
We must also identify those personas to avoid. They hold us back. The consulting engagement might be prolonged, delayed, or canceled for no good reason.
I got burned by Jonathons, Sallys, and Erics many times.
Learn from me. Avoid them.
Your 1-Man consulting practice will take off without them.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
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