If you've been struggling with getting clients and making money in your business, I've got your back. I've worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs just like you. They don't have any money, they're not getting any clients, and they are frustrated about it! I get it.

You think that you're doing all of the right things because you read all the blogs, you've downloaded all the freebies, you're doing what you think you're supposed to be doing...and still nothing's working.

As long as I have had my business, my clients were having the same issues come up over and over again.  I've identified four key areas that need to be in place in order for your business to make any money.

There are a lot of reasons why your business might not be making money; however, if these four things are not in place, I can almost guarantee that you're probably not doing so well. I wanted to share those with you today, so you can have a look at each one and get a sense of whether or not it applies to you and your business.  You can start making changes right away to hopefully correct these things so that you can start bringing in clients, bringing in money and actually feeling like your business is working.

Reason #1: No Clear Message

Reason number 1 that you're not making any money in your business is that you do not have a clear message. If you have no idea what you stand for, it's really hard for people to rally behind you and get excited about what you're offering. Without a compelling vision or message that gets people's attention, you are just another person who is lost in the crowd of others with your expertise. There is no reason why they should hire you over someone else. You need to let people know what makes you different...and what makes you different is your message. You don't have to have any kind of quirky things that you add to your business or business ideas or things that you morph together to make this really unique.

The thing that makes you different is your message and your point of view and your approach. If you don't have one, or you're not sure what that is, then your clients aren't going to know either. It's really important that you do understand what your point of view is and what your approach is because your clients might have tried other things before to fix whatever their problem is. They might have gone to other practitioners or tried something on their own and it's unlikely that they're going to want to fork over more money for something if they think they've already tried everything.

It's up to you to say, "Hey look, I know you've tried these things. I know that you're trying to get from here to over here, and here's the way that I'm going to take you there. It's not like what you've done before. Here's my view. Here's my approach, here's how we'll do it. Here's what I believe is the best way to get you there." When you can do, that they're going to actually feel confident that you can get them there. All that is part of messaging. We're not going to dive fully into getting clear on your message right now but just know that you need to have a clear message and you need to really understand what your point of view is and what your approach is and why it differs from anything else out there in order for anyone to feel good about giving you their money.

Reason #2: No Clear Market

Reason number 2 that you're not making any money is that you do not have a clear market. Maybe you're trying to sell to everyone, or maybe you've become obsessed with those client avatar exercises where you outline all of the details about one specific person and be a real nitpicker about it, and it is making you confused.  And you still can't even figure out who your niche is. If you're not sure how to actually choose a niche, maybe you have a couple of different target markets that you know you could work with, and it feels arbitrary to choose one at random. It's really tricky to know which is the best direction to go in.

If any of these applies to you, it's no wonder that you're not making any money because it's really hard to sell when you don't know who you're selling to. You absolutely need a clear market. Niche can mean a lot of different things.  To me, your niche is what problem you solve and then knowing who has that problem at a very base level. There's a lot more that goes into getting clear on your market but just know that if you can't clearly articulate right now who you're selling to, then making money is going to be really, really hard.

Reason #3: No Clear Packages

The third reason you might not be making any money is that you don't have any clear packages to sell. Even if you have a clear market and a clear message, if you're still selling at hourly rates, or you have a bunch of different options of how people can work with you (and none of them are really that clearly defined), it's really hard for clients to trust you. It's like telling someone that they can come to you and you'll fix their problem in a minimum of four sessions but it might take longer and the results are really up to them, and it's $300 a session and we'll just see how it goes. Versus someone else saying, "You have this problem? I can solve that problem. It's going to take three sessions and here is the price. Here's what you're going to get at the end of it. I've done it many times before, here's where you sign up." There's a lot more confidence instilled when you have something really clear and specific to sell.

You might also have too many options. You might have what you think are packages, when really the only thing that makes them different is the amount of time that people work with you. I see this a lot with life coaches, where they say, "We can work together twice a month, every second week for 3 months, or we can work together every week for 6 months, or we can work together once a month for 3 months." There's all these different options, but the only difference is the amount of time that they spend with you. But your clients have no idea how time they need to spend with you. It's up to you to tell them.

If any of this is sounding like you, or you don't even really know what a package is, then this might be one of the main things that's getting in the way of you actually making any money in your business. It's much, much easier to sell when you have a clear package, when you're able to say to someone, "Hey, you have this problem, I created this thing, it's specifically for what you're struggling with. Here's how it works. Here's how we do it. Here's how much it is."  Do you notice all of that confidence there?

Reason #4: Not Putting Yourself Out There

The fourth reason that you're not making any money in your business is that you're not putting yourself out there. Keeping yourself your best-kept secret is not that sexy. Similarly to being scared of what people think.  If you are new to business, it can feel super vulnerable to start putting yourself out there and telling people what you're doing and letting them know that you're available for hire. But being scared of what people think is not going to make you money in your business. I know it's scary and you're going to have to get over it.

The other way that I see people holding themselves back by not putting themselves out there is thinking that they're putting themselves out there but they're actually not. If you're posting on Facebook and not really getting any results, it's not surprising. Posting on your Facebook page is not going to be the way that's going to get you in front of new audiences and get you clients. Similarly with blogging.  I see a lot of people get really excited about blogging. They sit down and they make a content marketing plan and a calendar, they schedule in all their blog posts. That's great, I love it, and I think blogging is super important. I think there's ways to make it work for you to get you clients, but just writing a couple posts and putting them on your blog and then posting them again on your Facebook page is not actually getting you in front of new people. It's getting you in front of the people who already know you... And what you need is NEW eyeballs.

While blogging and posting on Facebook, there are several different ways that you need to be actually putting yourself out in front of new people. You need to keep in mind that you need to diversify.  Doing one thing - blogging, social media, whatever it is - is not the only way. I have a couple tricks up my sleeve for how I help my clients actually get themselves in front of new people. But do a little bit of a tally and see if you can make a little list of all of the different ways that you're putting yourself out there and ask  yourself how many of them are actually getting you in front of a new crowd of people.

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Once you have your foundations really clear, you understand your message, you understand who your clients are, you have clear packages to sell, you need to get them in front of as many people as you can. If there's one thing you take away from this, it's tell everybody that you know what you're doing once you're clear on what you're doing. I often see people do this backwards, where they'll tell everyone they know what they're doing but it's not clear enough, so then nobody wants to hire them, and then when they do get clear they feel bad telling people again because they feel like they already told them and miss their chance.

Nail the foundations, make more money

Do these four steps in this order, messaging, niche, packages and then tell everybody that you know and put yourself out there. I won't say I can guarantee, but I can almost guarantee, that you will start making money in your business if these four foundations are in place.

These are the beginning pieces of the puzzle and each one these can be fleshed out in much, much more detail.

I highly encourage you to take a step back from everything that you're doing and really re-assess these four foundations. If even one of them is off, take a little bit of time to get it back into shape before you start moving forward. The money and the clients are going to start coming in much, much faster that way.