How Do You Get Your First Clients When Nobody Knows You Yet?
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[00:00:00] How do you get your first clients when nobody knows you yet? One of the hardest parts of private practice is this. Nobody tells you what to do when you have the website, you have the credentialing, if you went that route, you have your license, you have the business, but then nothing happens.
No inquiries, they're not consistent enough. No clients, maybe they don't come back. Or maybe you have one client and then silence. And honestly, this is where many dietitians start thinking, "Maybe I picked the wrong niche. Maybe I need better marketing. Maybe private practice isn't for me." But usually it's not the problem.
So today I wanna talk to you about how I think about getting your first clients and mistakes that make this stage harder and what I would focus on instead, and I walk this framework through with my clients. The first mistake is that many dietitians think that they need a complete marketing strategy, and you probably don't right now because in the beginning you don't need 50 clients and 10 [00:01:00] funnels and massive reach.
So what your first clients actually give you is a lot of confidence, encouragement, and information that you can use to improve your marketing efforts. So people think that first clients provide revenue, and they do, but really what they provide is even more valuable information because your first clients teach you what problems repeat.
They teach you what questions appear, what, expectations to set, and what people will actually pay for. And client work creates real data that can help you make better decisions in your practice. So I want you to pause for a second and ask yourself, "What am I trying to learn?" Or ask yourself, "Wait, am I trying to look established or am I just trying to learn?"
So what I would focus on instead, and what we teach our clients, is that if I had zero clients today and I worked with a client, a dietitian who has zero clients, in our business here at Dietitian Boss, we'd focus on conversations. [00:02:00] Not perfect marketing, just having conversations, talking to colleagues, asking for referrals, networking, talking to existing relationships.
If you don't have any clients, talk to preceptors. Make a list of who you know in your community to start trying to get attention. Local connections matter. Conversations are gonna create information. The next thing would be one clear problem. So you don't need the perfect niche right away, although that, that absolutely helps.
You need a clear problem, and that comes before defining your specialty. Examples include blood sugar regulation, weight loss, digestive symptoms, eating consistency, intuitive eating, eating disorder, et cetera. And clarity helps people recognize this is for me. One clear service is important because many people start with memberships, courses, communities, programs, downloads, and you just need one simple service, even just one simple one-on-one offer, because sessions are gonna teach you things, give you confidence to start increasing your rate and [00:03:00] learning what people want and what they'll pay for,
So for example, let's imagine that you help busy professionals struggle to eat consistently. Now, suddenly your networking is gonna change, and your content changes, and your messaging is going to evolve because... Not because you changed yourself, but because you became more clear with what you're targeting.
Biggest mistake is that dietitians ask, "How do I get more clients?" Instead of asking, "How do I get better information about what people want?" 'Cause early on information is absolutely more valuable. So the final thought today is that you don't need perfect branding, beautiful colors, huge following, advanced funnels, five different ways to market.
You just need some traction, even just small traction, because just a little bit of traction is gonna help you create a learning path, and that's gonna help you with growth. So three actions I want you to take this week include action one, write down what problem do you help solve, even if it's vague at first.
Action two, identify one place conversations could [00:04:00] happen. Maybe it's in person, and if so, where? Be specific. If it's online, then definitely be specific with that as well. Action three, ask, am I optimizing for learning or perfection? Because remember, learning is important at this stage, so we want to align our goals with our stage of business.
if you want support building your practice from our team without overcomplicating everything, I want you to check out the membership over at dietitianboss.com called Dietitian Boss Library. Thank you for listening.
We'll see you next week
