On a scale of 1-10, how weird is it that I’ve known most of my clients longer than I’ve known my husband?

Wait. Don’t answer that.

It’s not that I married my husband a few months after meeting him, it’s more that I’ve been with most of my clients for a very, very long time.

I knew Dr. Danielle Dowling before she was a doctor, back when she didn’t have a Facebook page and she was juggling a full-time job with grad school and clients. I started writing for Maria well before she became a mom (little Callum is almost two now!) and the first time I talked to Rikka was during a pit stop on my spring 2012 road trip around Louisiana.

Is there a secret to long, super loyal professional relationships? Honestly, part of it is luck. I lucked into finding clients I like who happen to be so good at what they do they’re still in business (and can afford me) five years in.

But the stuff of great relationships is made up of four probably obvious things and one slightly less obvious thing. If you’d like to create awesome, business-building, long-lasting professional relationships, here’s what you can do.

The probably obvious stuff

Do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it Click To Tweet
If you only read one sentence in this entire blog post, let it be the one above this. This seems ridiculously, painfully obvious, but you would be floored by the level of flake-dom that occurs in the online world.

If your clients have ever hired anyone before, they’ve probably experienced people missing deadlines. People ignoring the guidelines. People failing to invoice. People ignoring the word count or the swipe files or the hex codes. People jacking up the price without notice. People bailing on a project when things get hard. People failing to double-check for typos or dead links.

When you don’t do these things – when you’re reliable and prompt – you’re already ahead of the pack, setting yourself apart. You will never, ever, ever lack for business. Ever.

Be good at what you do
As crazy as it sounds, I think being good at what you do is less important than being reliable and prompt.

A magazine editor friend said it best. “I’d rather hire a decent writer who hands in their work on time, with the right word count, on the right topic than a genius writer who’s always late and over the count. I’ll hire the reliable, decent writer over the late, genius writer every single time.”

Refer + introduce people
I do my best to work with clients I love and whose work I believe in. So when my friend is looking for a therapist or life coach, Danielle and Katie are at the top of my list. Elise writes about food psychology and Kenden writes about meaningful meals? Well, clearly they should be introduced. Natalie writes about entrepreneurship and Susan helps entrepreneurs build teams – obvious guest posting opportunities, right?

If your client is looking for a good VA, a talented photographer, an SEO guru, or a web developer and you happen to know one – hook them up. If your people could help each other, introduce them! It’s easy and it’s good karma.

Promote their stuff
You don’t need to tweet or blog about every single thing your clients do, especially if your followers or readers aren’t your client’s ideal customers. But if you think your people might like what your client is up to – like Danielle’s book or Elise’s #12tinychanges challenge – share it.

Your people like knowing about awesome, helpful things! If your clients are creating awesome, helpful things go ahead and share them! Again, it’s easy and it’s good karma.

The less obvious thing

Treat your clients the way you’d treat any other human you like + respect
When I got married, Danielle sent me a bouquet and Maria sent me an amazing set of cheese knives (because girl knows the way to my heart.)

On Norma’s birthday, I sent her a link to Sam Heughan saying happy birthday in Gaelic (because I know she’s a devout Outlander fan.) When I was in Santa Monica, I met up with Alexa for breakfast and when I was in DC, I stopped by Elise’s house to meet her gorgeous dogs and stuff my face with her food.

Just like any other human being, clients like to feel appreciated and valued – not just because they employ you but because you have an on-going relationship and you like each other. Show your clients that you like them! Like, as human beings!

Do you have long-standing professional relationships? How do you stay in touch and let your clients and vendors know you appreciate them?

This guest post comes to us via Elise Blaha Cripe. Elise is a blogger, crafter and goal setter in San Diego, California. In the spring of 2015, Elise launched GET TO WORK BOOK, a daily planner + goal setting workbook designed to help you make progress on your big goals. The 2016 GET TO WORK BOOK is currently available for pre-order here.

Goal setting is one of my favorite topics (to write about AND think about) and I find myself spending a lot of time doing both. I am so honored Sarah invited me over to be a guest and share some tips with you. Technically, these are going to focus on setting goals to improve your small business but I really think they can be applied to anything.

Business goal setting tip #1: Don’t be afraid to think big picture

Before you start thinking about how you want to work on and improve your business, it helps to consider where you actually want to be headed.

Are you trying to quit your day job? Become a fortune 500 company? Make enough to spend your summers backpacking? Knowing your “end-game” is so valuable because then you know more about what you need to be doing today. Maybe you need to be saving more of your profits. Maybe you need to be re-investing more. Maybe you need to develop more passive income streams. It’s hard to know what to focus on until you have at least an idea of what you want your future to look like.

Business goal setting tip #2: Choose something measurable

Good goals are specific. Of course, you want to “improve sales” or “grow your newsletter” but instead of just saying that, determine some numbers.

How much do you need to improve your sales? How many newsletter subscribers would you like to gain this month? Determine measurable goals, write them down and then work towards them. The satisfaction of “hitting” those numbers is awesome, but even if you fall short, you have a real amount that you fell short and that can be helpful when coming up with what to shoot for next year or next month.

Business goal setting tip #3: Be realistic (but challenging!)

As Pinterest quotes will tell you, it’s more than okay to dream big. But when it comes to goal-setting, I have found that going too big is never good. You want your goals to be realistic - something that you can actually achieve - but also inspiring enough that they feel challenging. It’s a semi-tricky balance to find, but through practice (and trial and error!) you can get there.

Business goal setting tip #4: Set deadlines

Without a deadline, a goal is just a wish. Click To Tweet It’s easy to set goals without thinking about when you’ll realize them, the trouble is, without a firm completion date in mind, it’s really tricky to actually accomplish anything. When do you want to launch that ebook? When would you like to be able to hire an administrative assistant? What month is the absolute last month you can go live with your website?

Again, you want to pick something realistic (probably not this Friday) but challenging (probably not four years from now). When considering deadlines, it also helps to stagger your projects and goals. Don’t make everything due the same month or try to launch everything at beginning of the year. Give yourself (and your customers!) some time to avoid burnout.

Business goal setting tip #5: Break it down

Once you have your realistic and measurable goal(s) in mind, the next step is to break them down. This is the “how” portion. How are you going to get from A to B? What do you need to do today, this week, next week and next month to get there? What are some action steps? I have found that the more action steps I list out and schedule as to-do list items the better. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by a huge project. Instead, let yourself get busy working on smaller steps on a daily basis.

Business goal setting tip #6: Remember, this is fun

Coming up with goals and striving towards them can be a hugely satisfying exercise. At times, it can also feel really hard. But on the whole, you’re growing. You’re expanding. You’re learning and you’re making progress. All of those are good things and all of those will pay off for you and your business.

I encourage you to think of the whole process as something enjoyable. Remember that you get to choose your goals; no one is setting them for you. Pick the stuff that makes your heart race and your stomach flip a bit. Then get to work.

What goals are you setting for your business? Making your goals public is a great way to hold yourself accountable - tell us in the comments!

When you decide to go into business for yourself, within five minutes* a smart and well-intentioned person will appear at your coffee shop and hand you this book.

They’ll probably fall all over themselves telling you how it changed their business life, made sales and marketing dreamy easy and how you really need to readitalreadyokay?

If you’re not familiar with Start with Why, it’s a lovely, well-written business book that suggests businesses and leaders are more successful when their reason for being in business is inspiring. Those who are able to inspire will create a following of people – supporters, voters, customers, workers – who act for the good of the whole not because they have to, but because they want to.

We’re more likely support people/leaders/business who have high-minded, meme-worthy mission statements and ‘manifestos.’ (Holstee, I’m looking at you.)

So it follows that we self-employed types believe we should have an equally inspiring reason for being in business.

“I want to help women stand in their truth and re-connect with their innate wisdom.”
“I want to help entrepreneurs end the overwhelm and overcommitment.”
“I want to help busy moms find ways to be healthy and active so they can give their best to their kids and partners.”

And for the last, oh, ever I’ve been doing my best to come up with my own professional “why.”

If we met at a networking event** and you asked me why I’m a lifestyle blogger and ghostwriter I’d say something like:
“I want to help busy entrepreneurs free up time and space to do the work that lights them up.”
“I want to create a space where people can share their stories and connect with each other.”
“I want to help people to live adventurous, intentional, creative lives of their own design.”

While those are partially true, here’s the whole truth:

I want to be self-employed because I like taking six weeks off to road trip around America.
I want to be self-employed because I want my income (rather than my employer’s income) to reflect my hard work and creativity.
I want to be self-employed because I want to go to a matinee on a rainy Tuesday afternoon if I damn well feel like it.

(but none of that looks very good on a poster.)

And for a long time, I felt really guilty about this. Was every other self-employed creative completely selfless? Was everyone else trying to save the world through copywriting and business coaching? Didn’t anybody else want to earn more money and take longer vacations?

And then I watched this periscope and Hilary Rushford gave voice to my deepest, darkest secret. 

You can become a copywriter because writing comes easily to you and you like it. You can become a life coach because you give great advice and your family moves around a lot so you need a location-independent career. You can become a wedding photographer because you have a good eye, you already know how to use a DSLR, and your friend needs a second shooter.

These are all totally valid reasons to go into business.

Of course, (of course!) you should do work you enjoy! Obviously, you should be proud of the work that you put into the world. It’s very, very nice to have a larger plan or vision for what you’re creating.

But if you’re looking for permission - this is it. 

This is your permission to pursue something because you want to make more money. Or because you want a career that works with your kids’ schedules. Or because you’re good at it and it comes easily to you.

When you like what you’re doing and the life you’re living, it’ll come through in your work.
And that’s enough.

…

Do you feel like you need to have a high-minded, world-saving ‘why’ behind your work? And if you have one - what is it?

* sliiiiight exaggeration but also not really
** which we wouldn’t because I hate networking events

photo via unsplash // by joe beck // cc