Doing Business in China

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How home businesses to develop client base
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How home businesses to develop client base

 A great way to breakthrough in your business in order to take profitability to the next level is to invest 80 percent of your time in the 20 percent of your clients who are generating 80 percent of your business. Not only is this the first stepping stone towards competitor-proofing your best clients and revealing additional untapped business from them, but it will also enable you to consistently attract superior client referrals.

Defining Your Ideal Client
There is an old marketing maxim which states that it is more important to reach people who count than it is to count the number of people you are reaching. Most entrepreneurs aren’t very deliberate in terms of how they generate referrals. Very few have an actual plan in place, and most are simply happy to get a referral, of any kind, regardless of the actual quality. Consistently generating quality referrals is achieved by design, not by chance, and therefore it is critical to identify the specific qualities your ideal client should encompass. A simple way to execute this is via the triple “A” format.

Triple “A” Format
The first “A” speaks to Action. Describe the degree of action the ideal client takes to generate the level of revenue you are striving for. The key here is to position yourself as a specialist who works with high caliber clients, rather than as a generalist who will work with just about anyone. By distinguishing yourself as an expert professional in specified areas, you are able to project scarcity to the marketplace and give clarity to potential clients — since your focus will be on attracting and working with clients whose specific needs fit for your precise skills set and values. A specialist is far more attractive to higher caliber clients than a generalist, and is compensated accordingly.

Developing Your Client Classification
Once you’ve created your profile, you then need to examine your existing clients and classify them in accordance to their degree of fit with you — how well they align with your values and skills set. Again, if 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients, you must invest 80% of your time and effort into the clients within the 20 percentile. If you don’t, chances are that the 80% of your clients who generate 20% of your revenue will do most of the referring. And more often than not, they will refer clients who, like them, are only looking for the bare minimum. While on the surface this of course means more clients for you, they are not the caliber you are striving for — those that would generate more business and revenue — but rather they would be of less quality that will ultimately create more hassle factors that outweigh profitability.