I was on a client call the other week with a client who completely booked out her roster (with DREAM clients, btw) within 4 short months of opening the doors to her business.
Soooo, how’d she do it?
It takes, intention, introspection and flat-out WERK to get a roster full of dream clients who leave you loving the work you do, the people you serve and the income you make.
And the very FIRST thing you need to do to get to this place yourself is probably going to surprise you.
Because while I’m normally helping my clients make things less about them (and more about the client and the client support experience), if you REALLY want a roster full of dream clients, then you have to start with YOU.
4 ways to book out your biz with a roster full of dream clients
1. Get crystal clear on what you want.
You have to get super clear about what you want BEFORE you say yes to any more clients.
After all, a dream client for you is different than a dream client for me is different than a dream client for Sally Sue, right? You need to be crystal clear about what you want your business to support in your life FIRST.
So, start there. If you want a roster full of clients you love, doing work you love and getting paid money you love too, then answer this Q first.
👉 How do you want your business to support your life?
Once you have greater clarity around what you want your business, your schedule and your life to look like on a daily basis, THEN you can make decisions from that clear place about who you should (and shouldn’t) work with.
And THAT’S how you get a dream roster!
2. Create, communicate and enforce your boundaries.
My client LOVES the work she does, has a roster full of INCREDIBLE clients who value her work AND she gets paid the rate she desires (on time). Even better? Her business is supporting the life she wants to live and how she likes to spend her time.
She was willing to do the work that many of us are (unintentionally) unwilling to do, so that she could see these extraordinary results.
For example, she sets boundaries like a MOFO and is massively clear internally about what she does in her business, what her boundaries are and how she works with clients. Even more, she is incredible about being clear and setting expectations with her clients and then upholding those expectations when they’re pushed.
This is the secret I-want-a-dream-roster sauce, y’all. (And it can also be uncomfortable AF.)
Way too many women in the done-for-you space feel overwhelmed and overworked. If you started a business for work-life balance AND financial freedom… but they’re working all the time for too little money and a roster full of nightmare clients?
You don’t have to live this way.
Instead, ask yourself:
1️⃣ Do I have clear business boundaries?
2️⃣ Do my clients know what those boundaries are?
3️⃣ Do I uphold my boundaries when clients push them?
(Because remember they’re human and they will and that’s okay.)
If you want to continue to grow your business financially, and you want that growth to come with a side of balance and WITHOUT overwhelm, then creating, communicating and enforcing boundaries needs to become a #1 priority. The truth is that no one can respect your boundaries if you don’t tell them what they are.
3. Get on a metric F ton of discovery calls.
What you need to remember is that growth like 0-to-dream-roster doesn’t just fall in your lap.
My client didn’t create this epic business for herself because she’s lucky. She got to this point because she was INTENTIONAL. She has a killer biz because she got the support necessary to compress her timeline from 0 to massive success. She works with dream clients (and has a full roster) because she serves at the highest level. She’s growing quickly and hitting every goal because she’s always available for the uncomfortable stuff that growth requires.
I bring this last piece up because in order to book a roster full of dream clients you need to do a bunch of uncomfortable stuff… like getting on a metric F ton of discovery calls.
It’s like finding your perfect romantic match, right?
Getting on a discovery call is like going on a trial date. It’s a date even BEFORE a first date. It’s an opportunity to figure out if you want to explore dating someone before you commit. (Or, in the discovery call case, it’s a chance to explore working with someone before you dive all in.)
You need to get on a metric F ton of discovery calls because there are a lot of people NOT a match for you and only a small percentage of people that are (and that’s normal and okay).
4. Say NO to the wrong clients (so you can say yes to the right ones).
If you want clients you LOVE who love to pay you and value the work you do, then you need to cultivate the ability to say “NO” (a whole lot).
Because the clients of mine who have these rosters full of dream clients?
They’re hopping on discovery calls and making sure to:
👉 spot and acknowledge red flags (instead of saying yes because they only care about the money and not the fit)
👉 ask the right questions to best understand the client’s expectations (to see if they’re in alignment with how they like to run their biz)
👉 communicate boundaries and expectations of their own and speak up when they need more clarity
And most of all?
The clients of mine who have dream clients aren’t afraid to say NO when they find someone who isn’t a match.
They know that the only way to build a business that works for them is to say no to the wrong clients and yes to the right ones. They know that saying yes to the wrong clients now means getting full with unaligned clients and then having to say no to aligned clients later on. They know there are always MORE clients to be found and they’re so confident in their abilities to sell and serve at the highest level.
A roster full of dream clients happens when you know who IS a fit and who ISN’T a fit — and when you say no to the people who aren’t truly aligned for you and your biz.