So you’re stuck in a Catch-22: You feel frustrated with your current business situation but are unsure how to level up your business. You don’t want to invest more time in marketing, but deep down, you know it’s the only way to get more clients and increase your sales. What should you do?  

The term “Catch-22” is now commonly used to describe any situation where an individual cannot escape because of a contradictory rule or limitation. In this episode, I’m going to tell you how this famous paradox relates to you getting into marketing and profiting from your ergonomic services. I’m going to share a 5-part process that I believe is very useful if you’re building your ergonomics consulting business, whether full-time or as a side hustle. 

The Catch-22 For Ergonomic Consultants

Catch-22 gained currency as the title of a 1961 war novel by Joseph Heller. A common example of this paradox occurs in the context of seeking employment: To apply for a job, you need relevant job experience. But to obtain the necessary work experience, you need a relevant job.

The exact same predicament also happens to many of us Ergonomic Consultants when building our Ergonomics Consultancy: You want to successfully drive enough businesses to your services and gain experience, so you’re reaching out to several clients. But here’s the kicker. They won't hire you if you don’t have a Rolodex of clients or an impressive portfolio filled with client success stories. So how do you overcome this Catch-22? 

The question that I often get has to do with this perceived barrier between where you are right now and where you want to be. There’s typically a huge gap between where we are now as Ergonomics Consultants/business owners and that opportunity for your business. We all know that there's a need for our services.

For some places out there, there’s such a high demand for our services, yet there’s a low supply of Ergonomics Professionals. So what I want you to do is do a quick Google search to find out who else in your area is offering ergonomic services. You'll probably just get one local person doing this. Even if there are a few people in your city doing it, there’s still a lot of room to market your services in a more opportune way to get those clients. 

There’s a lot of opportunities for us out there, yet many Ergonomics Consultants fall flat with reaching their ideal clients. I believe this is because it’s not the most qualified person who gets clients. Rather it's the person who markets themselves the best.

Our clients aren't aware of the certifications that you may or may not have. They just want their problem solved. So my question is: As someone who wants to position themselves in a way that drives clients to their business, what can you do when those clients have a huge problem that needs to be solved? The good news is that there are ways that you can get your foot into the door when building a relationship with clients that you want to work with. Below is a five-part process that I think is very important for ergonomics consultants, especially with marketing their business. 

Five-Part Process for Successfully Growing Your Business

1. Define Your Ideal Client Avatar

The first important step is to do ideal client avatar research. This should be the foundation for your marketing. If you're not doing this, you're making a big mistake. Defining your ideal client avatar is so important because not everyone is your ideal customer. So if you want to target corporate clients, you're likely going to need to reach out to Human Resources. 

To do your ideal client avatar research, you need to figure out who you want to work with. Your ideal client avatar can change over time, but the research needs to be accurate. You want to get between 5-10 "ideal client avatars" on the phone and ask them certain questions directed at determining their professional limiting beliefs, fears, needs, wants, and desires. If you can get those answers, you’ll have a clear idea of how to position your services to attract their attention.

2. Produce Content Consistently

One thing you need to remember when building this part of your business is that marketing is a lifestyle, and we need to consistently market ourselves. When you're producing content, ask yourself what type of content production you love doing and what connects the best with your audience. In order to come up with good content, you want to make something that would create desires for your services. 

3. Engage With Your Ideal Client

The next thing is getting your content out there. It’s not enough to create valuable content, and hope that your ideal clients will find it. Find out where your ideal client likes to hang out. They could be hanging out on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or other platforms. You need to do some due diligence and track your engagement with your ideal clients, like where you get the most traction and where you get the most leads for your business. 

4. Look For Redundancy In Your Marketing Channel

Ask yourself what channel you want to use, and you want to focus on just one channel first. Choose one platform that will give you the most engagement, the most traction, and the most leads. Once you’ve determined your chosen platform, I want you to go all-in on that platform. Post content, engage with your audience, follow up with people, and build relationships without trying to sell. One mistake that I see many people make is that they spread themselves out too thin on various platforms, then they wonder why their business isn’t getting any leads.

5. Collect Emails

After your audience has read your content and acknowledged interest in your services, make sure that you collect their emails. It's so important. This is another mistake that I see a lot of Ergonomics Consultants out there doing. You can get emails without having a fancy website. You can build something with either MailChimp, ConvertKit, or something that's free. The goal is to invite people to your email list with either a landing page freebie or a newsletter and then get them to know, like, and trust you. There’s a huge opportunity if you can get them to your email list. You can share information about your business or highlight your expertise as an Ergonomic Consultant. But most importantly, you can make offers. 

In Summary: The 3C's 

I do believe that a good marketing strategy can be summed up with these three Cs: Content, Consistency, Connection. If you have valuable Content that your ideal clients want to see, you’re Consistent in marketing (like posting on social media), and you’re nurturing your Connections, then you can overcome the Catch-22 that prevents you from getting clients and growing your consultancy.

Learn How to Scale Your Services

I’d like to invite you to a three-part video live training that I’m going to be doing starting next week, September 20th. The first training is going to be about how to do a root cause analysis. This is a foundation for any sort of training that you're going to be doing in ergonomics, and I'm going to give it for FREE. The second training is going to be about the value ladder and why most ergonomics consultants are leaving opportunities on the table. And the last training is all about how to leverage your time on the internet. I'm going to share some marketing tips that can work for you 24/7. If you want to successfully grow your consulting business, then this is an opportunity for you to gain some highly valuable learning. To join in this free training, just sign up here to save your spot.

The week after the training, I'm going to be opening up my program called the *NEW* Accelerate: The Business of Ergonomics for enrollment. Accelerate helps Ergonomics Consultants like you use a variety of modern marketing strategies to get more reach for your services.  If you’re interested in joining my Accelerate program, just click on this link to get on the waitlist.