“Build your personal brand. Build a community. Build a following. Build a subscriber list.”
How about you build a business instead?
I don’t know about you, but I have a mortgage and bills to pay, so I need to earn money. And to do that, I need clients who pay me in return for a product or service.
Having a great brand is irrelevant if it doesn’t help me attract the right clients.
Your first priority as a freelancer or business owner should be getting sales and delivering on your promises.
And while building your brand can help generate leads, you need to turn those leads into happy customers.
It’s too easy to confuse engagement with results. But it’s easy to get engagement. Post a pet picture and watch the likes come rolling in. Talk about something super personal, and you’ll be flooded with comments.
But will that engagement help you make more sales?
It might help you get a huge following – you might even have a lot of people expressing interest in what you do.
But until those “potential customers” actually make a purchase – until their interest translates into cash in the bank – all you’ve got are fans, not customers.
And fans aren’t going to pay the bills.
So focus on building a business with systems and processes to attract, nurture and convert your ideal clients, then deliver above and beyond their expectations so they keep buying from you and recommending you to others.