Your Children Have No Shoes

Mochi ka apna juta tuta

(Or a darker and Englisher version of it: The cobbler’s children have no shoes)

That is the reality for many small service providers/agencies

Can’t count the number of times I have seen

– A web dev company with a broken website designed in the 80s perhaps
– A social media marketing agency with no engagement on their own accounts
– A SEO agency that appears to be doing everything under the sun
– A design agency with no website and only behance portfolios? Lolz
– A mobile dev agency with portfolio of dead apps no one uses apparently

We often are so focused on current client work, that we fail to have anything to show for it

I mean, I get it

Why worry about improving your presence, when you already have active work, active payments, and so on — so forth

Well you are losing out on the best thing about being an entrepreneur/business

Organic Engagement

Your current clients know what you do best

And they might refer you to who they know

STILL

You are losing a big chunk of new work because you fail to rise organically among the competition

And I am sure you are nodding your head right now in agreement, issue is,

it is REALLY FREAKIN hard to make time to work on your own things, especially when you are kinda doing well without the need for it

I get it, I have been there, and it takes discipline to make time to work on your own website, brand, portfolio etc

BUT

Just focus on a few key things, which have the biggest ROI as a solopreneur/freelancer/small agency — things you don’t need hours but minutes to manage:

1  – Get testimonials every chance you get, get them on LinkedIn if possible as endorsements since that takes the headache of authenticity away

2  – Have a quick, easy, clear, no BS way to get in touch, no complicated forms, no 20 clicks, just 1 button, that takes the person to schedule a call with you

3  – Have a 1 pager of service offerings ready to go, a concise packages kind of document, google Saas Pricing templates, these are really easy to create with Mr gpt friend yes pal buddy

4  – For heaven’s sake get a domain, you can get one for like 5bucks, skip the Mcdonalds, have a domain YOU CONTROL, and then redirect it to whatever

5  – Don’t worry about having a fancy website, have a microsite (https://saqibtahirpk.bio.link) is mine — concise, clear, to the point and point your domain to it

And that’s it.

With growth and time, you can always optimize.

But don’t confuse current work with future stability, be on the lookout.

Baby steps.