The Desert of Arizona
Clear 68 Degrees
There are other ways to get clients, even without going the route of the platform attraction model. Publishing a newsletter or podcast or something is actually work.
And it is slow, and it takes focus. And for the person who is better at making excuses than making progress, it brings you immediately FACE TO FACE with your biggest challenge.
There are far more reasons I can think of NOT to do this than to do this. Reasons not to do this are easy to come up with.
So let’s peek into the future and see how client attraction works without a platform working for you.
There are tons of service providers in this situation. So many, in fact, that entire businesses are supported solving this very problem.
Take, for example, 99designs.com.
If you’re a designer, this is a way to get a steady stream of clients… maybe.
But because you’re choosing to “outsource” your lead generation, you must play a game on the terms of someone who is not interested in your goals or priorities. This is the problem that 99 Designs solves. They are the connector. They connect designers without sufficient deal flow with people who need designers.
It’s great… but not equally great for both parties.
Because when you submit a project there, the designers actually all do the work FIRST and then they hope they get picked and paid.
Think about how it would be if that’s how your business worked.
Now no one’s holding a gun to the heads of these designers. They choose to do this. But my hunch is that they wouldn’t choose to do this if they had clients already searching THEM out. That’s what a platform can deliver.
The bottom line is, you are going to pay a price either way. You either pay a price to build a platform or you pay a price in another way… like doing a bunch of work for which you never receive anything in return.
It’s 100% your choice to make. Just be clear on what exactly that choice is going to mean down the road.