Youve found the lamp, youve made your wish and you are waiting excitedly for the genie to appear and you wait and you wait and yet - nothing.

Youve left the corporate world and discovered the joys of being your own boss.

Youve decided to be a consultant and make your fortune by offering your years of experience and great range of skills to anyone with a pulse.

Youve told a few friends and family about what you are doing and have even been to few meetings with past colleagues and business acquaintances and handed round your business card

Youre now waiting for the phone to ring, youve even checked its plugged in and the telephone mast is still standing nothing, not a peep.

This lamp isnt working. Wheres that genie?

I call this a wishful thinking strategy.

Some Independent Business Consultants (IBC) whether they be in marketing, sales, IT or HR, assume that just by talking to people, just by having a website or just by having a glossy brochure they will automatically get clients. And its this assumption that will ultimately cause frustration, stress and despair as their consultancy flounders due to a lack of clients.

Your consultancy is a business and a business requires a workable, systemised infrastructure to make it truly successful.

The development and sustainability of a profitable consultancy requires thought, planning, trial, review and thought in all areas of the business.

Those businesses that are truly successful have numerous common factors 2 of which are

1. Clarity of who their ideal clients are

2. Sustainable client acquisition systems

Random, ad hoc and unspecific activity may give you clients in the short term but in the long run it will not.

Imagine you want to be a world class freestyle swimmer. Would you just go out for a run a couple of times a week, perhaps go for the odd bike ride at the weekend and only eat healthily on alternate Mondays?

Or

Would you have a daily, weekly and monthly training plan, which was swimming, and specifically freestyle related, targeted swim meets to test yourself in a competitive situation and have a diet plan designed especially for you?

You know the answer!

So why assume that just getting out there will get you enough of the right type of clients on a consistent basis? There is no genie!

So many IBCs have a random, unfocused approach to

* Who their ideal clients are

* Where they can find them

* What specific problems they have

* What specific solutions they have to offer

that it is no wonder that they

* Do not have the types and numbers of clients they want

* Do not feel their efforts are being rewarded

* Do not get many referrals

* Do not succeed as IBCs for long

Running a successful business requires structure and thought especially in the client acquisition process. As Confucius said

Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in"

So take a look at what client acquisition activity you are currently doing, which is unstructured and unfocused and decide on how you can make some shifts in how and on what you spend your time more productively.

Who do you know that seems to have a steady flow of their ideal clients? Ask to spend 30minutes with them to see what they are doing so successfully borrow their genie!

Beverley Hamilton 2005