Personal branding is a tough one for me – and maybe for you, too.

I’m reading up on it in an attempt to represent a stickier version of me. (And by stickier, I mean a version of me that will stick with you, not a version of me covered in unthinkable sticky stuff. Ew.)

I asked a few of my friends the friendly and only a little confrontational “what makes you so fucking special?” in order to answer the question better myself.

I’ll be sharing the answers with you this week (see below to be included).

I cleverly reached out to branding expert Abby Kerr for her take – I had to beg her – on how to work out what it is that makes you so special.

Her answer is below, far more eloquent and thoughtful than I could have managed. Emphasis is my own.

***

This is a question everybody faced with crafting a personal brand has some anxiety over.

What would make a potential client or customer choose to work with *me* or buy from my brand as opposed to a peer or competitor? How am I different? What makes me remarkable? In fact, “what makes me so fucking special” is the question that underlies most of the client inquiries I get. (People want to partner with other people who can *see* what makes them special.)

As a brand editor and a digital copywriter for online creative entrepreneurs, my business is helping people clarify their point of differentiation and bring it into the light in a way that connects with their intended audience. However, I like to approach this mission from the POV of not what makes a person *different* from everybody else, but what makes a person idiosyncratically *them*. Solely and individualistically.

For example, although two web copywriters may be similar stylistically in how they use language, their articulation of the benefits of their offer and their approach to working with clients may be radically dissimilar. The values underpinning each copywriter’s brand may be quite divergent. One copywriter may attach her benefits to the value of attention, while the other one may attach hers to the value of authenticity. These two will likely have very different “right people.”

Online markets are flooded with entrepreneurs trying to exploit their points of differentiation, and push off of their detractors in the space to make themselves appear resolute, renegade, and bullet proof in their approach. Frankly, the quest to exploit one’s point of differentiation is endless and tiresome. And it *sounds* tiresome on social media — all of these people who are *so* effing sure about the way the world works parading about in 140 characters.

My perspective on sharing what makes you so fucking special in an online market? Know your sweet spot. Rest in it. Don’t work so hard to try to convince people that your approach is the right one and others’ approaches are wrong. The online world doesn’t need more zealots and dictators. It needs more individualistic, actualized approaches to making art and doing business, from people who are secure enough in the value they provide to be cool with others providing value in a different way.

You? You’ve already got your sweet spot. It’s built into your DNA. you just have to recognize it and articulate it.

Read more about Abby and what she can do for you over at AbbyKerrInk.com

***

What’s your take? I’m looking for some meat to chew on over the rest of this week. If you want to comment, great. If you want to email me, great. But help me out here …

What makes YOU so fucking special?

This weeks quest: An answer to the question “What Makes You So Fucking Special?” is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

You don’t NEED to spend money on anything much any more.

Sure, you can - should - invest in stuff that enlarges your brain-matter, but there’s a HUGE amount of no-charge information and resources out there today that you can absorb, cannibalize and put to use without putting your hand in your pocket even once.

The “freemium” model is so incredibly prevalent right now, that you can get a world-class business education for the price of an email address (nothing at all).

By means of example:

• Free digital copy of Book Yourself Solid for immediate download
• The “Pre-Summit” events of the World Business and Executive Coach Summit

The first one is one of the best business books ever written, as far as I’m concerned. You can get it for nothing.

The second is a series of free, short, pitch-free webinars that are promoting the “main event” of the WBECS. I’ve registered for about three of them.

But is it all an exploitative scam?

Here’s how the freemium model works:

By giving you something of ostensible value I achieve one or two things:

1. I peak your interest sufficiently for you to pay to “see more”.

It’s the peep-show model, or the bikini concept.

Rather like the puppy dog close, (“take the puppy home for the weekend, little girl, and there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of you bringing it back the next day”) or the free trial, these give you a TASTE of what’s to come.

Drug dealers do it (in stories at least – I’ve never met a drug dealer who gave me anything for free in real life).

You try it once, you have a dabble, a sniff, a smoke. You see how good things could be, you get high off the fumes, and you pay for your next hit.

2. It activates the law of reciprocity.

By giving you something, I’m creating a sense of obligation. Human nature dictates that having received X, there’s a good chance that you will part with Y.

A lot of coaches offer “free consultations” for exactly this reason. Even if the session was crappy, your prospect may feel he “owes” it to you to book another, paid consultation.

But free is never free, right?

There’s the catch. the obligation.

There’s always some kind of obligation attached to accepting freebies. You’ll either get hit up by follow-up emails or you’ll have to sit through a sales pitch at some stage, right?

Well, yes and no.

Most online freebies require registration. If sharing your email address is a problem, create a new, unique one solely for this purpose. If you use Gmail you can set up filters.

And as for sales pitches – either in webinars or in follow-up emails, the pitch always, ALWAYS comes at the end. You can simply ignore it once you’ve got the information you came for.

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Cialdini’s Influence that sums it up much better than I could.

Recall that the rule for reciprocation entitles a person who has acted a certain way to a dose of the same thing. If you have determined that the “fire inspector’s” [MK: read "information marketer"] gifts were used, not as genuine gifts, but to make a profit from you, then you might want to use them to make a profit of your own. Simply take whatever the inspector is willing to provide – safety information, home extinguisher – thank him politely, and show him out of the door. After all, the reciprocity rule asserts that if justice is to be done, exploitation attempts should be exploited.

Profiting from the Freemium Product Peddlars is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

I mean seriously, what kind of person makes you get up at 2 o’clock on a Friday morning to get on the phone with him?

If you don’t know Clay Collins or who he is, then you’ll want to read this post in its entirety. It’s important.

I first met Clay in Las Vegas back in October 2010. He was hanging out with a bunch of reprobates in the casino bar at the Luxol hotel.

I asked him what he’d like to drink.

“Something really dark, like, the darkest beer they’ve got,” he said.

Should have been a sign of things to come.

The barman and I held up some bottles to the light to ascertain which of those tasty alcoholic beverages fit the bill the best. We settled, if I remember rightly, on a bottle of Guinness.

(Sidenote: Guinness in a bottle is absolutely not the same as Guinness on tap. When I lived in Malaysia they used to have this foul-tasting concoction called Guinness Export. It was like treacle.)

We talked for a while. I asked him what he did for a living (Clay, not the barman).

He said “I help people sell things before those things exist.”

Right.

Anyway, the night drew on. I went to catch up on some zzzs and Clay went to ride a rollercoaster with Johnny B Truant, if my memory serves. I met up with him briefly before he went to catch a flight back home.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

“Hic!” I responded.

When I got home from Vegas and the Blogworld Conference, I realized it was time to start doing some online marketing. I was brand new to getting clients on the internet. Up until then I’d driven business my way using the old boy network and by picking up the phone.

PLUS, I was about to move to Malta – one of the smallest, furthest-flung spots of Europe (population: 400.000) – and didn’t know a soul.

Traditional advice said “build a list of people hungry for your stuff.”

So I started to build a list.

I month later I had a grand total of 99 people on my email list. Pfft. That list included my parents, a couple of my friends and about eighteen email addresses of my own.

And I’d never sold them anything at all.

My open-rate (the number of people who were actually opening my emails) hovered around the 50% mark.

And I was now in Malta, with no personal network to speak of. And I rather urgently needed to bring in some business.

I’d kept an eye on Clay’s stuff since meeting him in Vegas. He still owed me a drink, after all.

Good thing I did.

In December 2010 he released something called the High End Blueprint (details below) which promised to bring an immediate influx of clients to your business in a very short period of time. It involved leveraging your list, though, so I thought I was screwed.

But here’s what happened:

Following Clay’s advice to the letter, with my puny list of 99 people, most of whom weren’t reading my emails, I signed three new clients and generated just under $4.500 of revenue – paid upfront – in under three days and off the back of one email.

Yep, Clay Collins is a Clever Fellow.

And devilishly good at what he does: the dark prince of internet marketing.

I’ve since gone on to generate considerably more business – and considerably more revenue – by following his ideas to the letter.

On Thursday I’m hosting a live training session with Clay so that you can learn from him too. Click here to reserve your seat.

Over the course of my professional career, I’ve invested thousands of dollars in training material, conferences, motivational experiences, books, pdfs and downloads.

Some of them have been good, some of them have been so-so. Some of have been terrible.

Only two have really had a profound and life-changing effect on my work, satisfaction and standard of living (I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll keep banging on about it until the cows come home.)

The first is the work I’ve done with Michael Port, founder of the Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training.

The second is the ongoing training I receive from Clay and his team over at the Marketing Program.

So … here is your important 3-step call to action:

1. Register for the free training session I’ve convinced Clay to put on for you. It will be EXCELLENT. Bring pen and paper. Click here for more details and to reserve your seat (opens in a new window).

2. Check out the High-End Blueprint which made me $4.500 in three days back when I had no list, no friends, and very little clue about using the internet as a source of new business. Click here to get immediate access (opens in a new window)

3. Share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. I firmly believe that Clay’s work can make a difference to anybody that is looking to either get started with marketing their business online – no matter what their business is – or else is already advanced and needs more expert guidance. You can use the buttons below.

See you on Thursday!

Clay Collins is a C***** F***** is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

The Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training website is now live.

I think I’ve told this story before:

A few years ago I read a book.

I’ve read a few books in my life – more Shakespeare and more self-help than I care to remember. This one was different.

I was impressed enough by the book that I signed up to the author’s mailing list – something I rarely did back then.

Then, for the next two or three years, I studiously ignored everything he sent me.

I was too busy being busy. 

I was busy doing important stuff – namely, chasing money rather ineffectively at no little cost to my health and sanity.

Then, one day, after a particularly arduous week in the world of cold-nosed commercialism, I poured myself a beer and sat down to do an inbox clear-out.

I opened an email from Michael Port.

SUBJECT: “Want to Become a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach?“

… and it turned out that I did. But I didn’t know I did until I took the time to read the email.

I don’t remember the exact wording of the email – and I can’t find it now – but it was straightforward, hype-free, and explained how he was offering training and licensing to use the intellectual property he’d spent ten years creating, to coach my own clients on getting more clients of their own.

This was interesting.

Learn a proven system, teach it to your own clients.

I was looking to do something different. I was looking to spend more time with my newly-enlarged family. (My wife and I had had a kid, not grown fat. Well, not my wife, anyway.)

Offering consulting services to business owners was very attractive. But without a proprietary system, a structure or framework, I knew I could only get so far on “winging it”.

Winging it is never a long-term strategy.

Michael made the compelling argument that by using his materials, my offer would be more attractive. What’s more, by using his materials I’d get to ride on the coat-tails of his credibility.

Book Yourself Solid is one of the most popular and frequently-sold books on small business marketing ever written, after all.

I started an email backwards and forwards with Michael.

“I want to do it,” I said, “but I’m busy being busy. How can we make it happen?”

(At that time, the only way to become a Book Yourself Solid Coach was in-person training at Michael’s house.)

And, as is his wont, he found a way that suited everybody.

The investment was a serious one, and it paid for itself when I signed my very first client.

Since then, work has been strictly on my own terms.

It has been hard at times, and at other times I’ve taken entire months off.

Becoming a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach was the single best professional decision I have ever made.

ANYWAY …

Fast forward a few years and the coach training program has grown into the Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training.

This post isn’t an advert for the newly launched Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training, it’s just an announcement that it exists.

I’m so incredibly proud to be involved. The Faculty are the sharpest, most impressive individuals I could imagine working with. The programs are exciting – with onsites in Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia – and the network of students and alumni is growing monthly and internationally.

We’ll be offering exciting things in the coming months, including free weekly training for coaches all over the world.

You can find out more and download a prospectus by clicking here.

I feel pretty strongly about this, as you can tell, and wear my title of Head of School with pride. If you have any questions about life as a Book Yourself Solid coach, then get in touch. I’ll give you all the time you need.

The Book Yourself Solid School of Coach Training – a story is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

You can easily create horizontal email optin-forms for Infusionsoft, Aweber and pretty much anything else using the tools below.

Horizontal opt-in forms for capturing leads on your website used to be a massive headache.

It’s been on my list of “things to find a solution to” for ages. They look so much better.

You used to need to get a developer to strip down the code generated for you by your mailing provider, add some fancy CSS and graphics, and then implement.

But – hallelujah! I’ve recently found three easy solutions that don’t need any programming experience.

OptinSkin – works anywhere

OptinSkin is a WordPress plugin that makes creating custom forms really simple.

You can add images, customize colors and size and text and borders (try the basic demo here).

You’re not limited to optin forms, either. You can add custom call to actions and the most popular social sharing buttons come inbuilt.

It works with pretty much every bulk mail provider you could wish for, including Feedburner, Aweber, and my personal favorite, Infusionsoft. It also integrates with others. See the full list here.

You can put the forms anywhere on your site, including inside WordPress posts, pages and sidebar widgets. It’s the most customizable, easy to implement solution out there. Oh, and it also does split-testing.

Check it out.

Theme-based options

I recently switched the design here at MatthewKimberley.com to skin called Marketers Delight by Alex at Kolakube. I’m thrilled with the results. It sits on top of Thesis, the framework for WordPress, and you’ll need Thesis before you can implement Alex’s skins.

One of the reasons I went for it, apart from the beautiful clean design, was the short-codes. You can insert horizontal optin forms (or regular optin forms) using a little bit of code. This is tiny bit trickier than the OptinSkin option, and you’ll have to be happy tinkering with code to get it to work for you. But I’m VERY happy with it.

The other option is Optimize Press – this is a WordPress theme that is a lot more than a theme, and you don’t have much – if any – control over the positioning of your form. But if you’re big on internet marketing and want to quickly design landing pages and squeeze pages, an investment in the (steep but quick) learning curve of Optimize Press will be well worth your time. Here’s a site I designed with OP. Here’s another. And another.

Verdict

I use them all. Love them all for different reasons. But if you want the most flexibility for your forms, the OptinSkin is the way to go. That’s my affiliate link. I’ll get halfway around the world, First Class, if you click on it.

And here's OptinSkin in action ...

Give me your name and email address and I'll give you TWO really cool secret resources for building your business.

How To Create Horizontal Email Opt-In Forms is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

Yep, all of these smart folk will share with you how they got their first client

Tripp Lanier, Michael Port, Johnny B Truant, Michelle Pfennighaus, Ashley Ambirge, Laura Belgray, Marc Quinn, Ryan Healy and Tim Brownson share their client-getting secrets.

Get 2.5 hours of interviews for immediate download:

About a year ago I interviewed 9 smart-as-hell entrepeneurs about how they got their very first client. Not the second, or the third, but that elusive first person who was willing to spend money with them. Back then I didn’t get the word out nearly enough – I was too busy gallivanting around the west coast of the USA on a sponsored road-trip.

But these are VERY good and VERY important (and VERY free)

All in all, there is 2.5 hours of interviews, the longest being 20 minutes, with immediately actionable tips on getting clients into your business as quickly as possible.

Up until now you had to listen to these online, but now you can download them to your computer, or iPod, or boombox, or whatever, and listen to them at your leisure.

Enter your email into the box below and download these 9 interviews immediately. They are good.

If you want to “try before you buy” (not that there’s anything for sale here), then go right ahead and listen to them all online. Links are below. If, however, you’re smart and prefer to listen and learn while you’re walking the dog, hitting the treadmill or performing your morning ablutions, then it will cost you an email. These are inflationary times.

• Ashley Ambirge Interview - The ballsy founder of The Middle Finger Project gives it to you straight.
• Marc Quinn Interview – Website designer to the rich and famous talks incisively about client-getting tactics.
• Michelle Pfennighaus Interview – Health coach and movie star shows you how it’s done.
• Tim Brownson Interview – Life coach and international man of mystery tells you his inspiring story.
• Johnny B Truant Interview – Author, philanthropist and all-round tall-guy gives it all up for your satisfaction.
• Ryan Healy Interview – The Most Referred Direct Response Copywriter On The Internet^TM on the fundamentals of client-getting.
• Laura Belgray Interview – Television tag-line scribe, humorist and copywriter on nepotism and making things happen.
• Michael Port Interview – New York Times bestselling author and devotee of the business-building lifestyle on humble beginnings.
• Tripp Lanier Interview – Man’s coach and host of the New Man Podcast talks about his own illuminating story.

So have a sniff around. You’re going to find LOADS of inspiration. Listen to a couple of interviews, then, download all nine of them onto your computer and carry them with you forever.

I aim to keep bringing you the very best free resources I can get my hands on or create. Take advantage of me:

In case you’re wondering, you’ll get put on email list if you download these. You can unsubscribe with one click at any time. Your email will never be traded, sold or abused. I appreciate your trust.

How To Get Your Very First Client – 9 Inspirational Interviews For You To Download is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

Selling coaching and training services to big corporate clients is difficult, right?

Selling coaching to individuals is an easier job: there’s only one decision-maker, there are no committees, no purchasing procedures, no punitive payment terms.

That’s why you don’t work with corporate clients, right?

STOP!

I’ll show you how to make it REALLY EASY. Enter your details below

I did a killer 45-minute webinar with the smart and sexy folk on my list last week.

“Selling Coaching And Training Services To Big Companies”

Feedback was off the charts.

I show you:

• How to overcome “status disconnect” so you don’t feel like you’re David to their Goliath
• How to get access to big companies even if all your friends are stay-at-home moms or skater-boys
• The SIX reasons you should be selling to big companies (five are obvious – can you name them?)
• The most unusual place you can find big-dollar-value clients
• The FIVE most important selling-points you HAVE to address when dealing with big firms
• How to identify decision makers who have the authority to sign off your offers immediately
• How to NEVER be left waiting for days and weeks while they “get back to you”
• and much, much more.

Because it made waves, and was useful, and SHORT, and because you can fast-forward through the dull bits (HA! just kidding! There aren’t any dull bits at all), I’m giving you access:

You ALSO get to download the show-notes, so if you’re more of a reader than a watcher, then the cliff-notes are READY prepared for you.

Enter your name and email in the box below. You’ll get IMMEDIATE ACCESS:

How To Get Corporate Coaching Clients is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

“Overwhelm” is a word that keeps cropping up.

• “I’m overwhelmed by everything I need to do get in place to launch my business.”
• “I’m overwhelmed by the technology I need to understand in order to host a webinar.”
• “I’m overwhelmed by the amount of learning I have to do in order to be any good at marketing.”

So let me help:

Overwhelm is a result NOT of having too much to do, but of not knowing what NEEDS to be done.

(“Needs” is the important word there.)

Therefore:

• Identify required end-result.
• Identify necessary steps to get there.
• Do them.

Incidentally, in most cases, providing that you’re reasonably proficient service provider and you know what you’re doing, you need precisely the following to start working with paying clients:

• A telephone
• A bank account
• Pen and paper

All the rest is extra.

If you’re really stuck on getting things done, then this infographic will certainly help.

Overwhelm? Pfff. is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

You can spend 3 grand a month on convincing me that you’ve got the best sandwich in the Northern Hemisphere.

You can buy a ton of Facebook ads, employ an SEO consultant to get you ranking for “sensational sandwich”, plaster the motorways with 12-foot-high billboards of your delicious toasted delicacy and employ the world’s greatest copywriter to drive hundreds of hungry punters to the door of your sandwich shop.

But when they get there, and they realize your counters are dirty, your employees are miserable and your sandwich is shit, all your marketing has been for nothing.

I hear this frequently:

“I’m doing tons of marketing but I’m not getting any clients.”

No shit, Sherlock.

Marketing doesn’t get you clients.

Marketing builds awareness of your products and services.

Your prospects get hit between the eyes with your wicked-effective social media campaign and come sniff you out. If you appeal to them, they stick around.

If what you’ve got on offer solves their problems, turns them on or makes them happy, then they may choose do business with you.

That choice will be based on whether they find you credible and trustworthy.

If you are trustworthy and credible, then you will sell a sandwich.

If your sandwich is brilliant, you will sell more than one.

Repeat ad infinitum.

[TRUST] + [CREDIBILITY] + [GREAT SANDWICH] + [marketing] = [CLIENTS]

How’s your sandwich? 

Your Marketing Is Fine But Your Sandwich Is Shit is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.

Get Rich! No Money Down! Zero Cost! Blah blah blah …

You’ve got to spend money if you’re a small business owner. Here are the non-negotiables:

1. Household Help

If you’re self-employed, you’re not billing your clients if you’re doing the dishes, ironing your pants or taking out the trash. Unless that is your job, of course. Additionally, you’re not going to be at the top of your game if you come home to heap of domestic chores that need doing every single night.

Find a cleaner that charges less than you do. You’re giving something back to the community, spreading the wealth and giving yourself crucial cocktail time. High five on your first outsourcing gig.

2. Number crunchers

Unless this is what you’re particularly good at, filling in tax forms and working out your liabilities is best left to the professionals. I’ll put it in the same bracket as good design: see below. Although you may be able to hack out a reasonable job on your own, the chances are that you’ll do more harm than good, and your hours will be better spent elsewhere.

3. Education

Whether it’s selecting a mentor or enrolling in an Arabic course, you should pay for your education. There are tons and tons of free resources out there. My current free favorites are iTunes U, Longform (for diverse erudition) and the Khan Academy for catching up on what I should have been paying attention to at school.

Blog posts are published daily with spurious titles like “Seven Things Small Business Owners Should Spend Money On” and you’ll learn a fair amount about a fair amount by digesting information on a daily basis.

But if you want to commit to learning, the bigger your commitment, the bigger your learning – largely. You can pay three bucks for a day-long seminar and you’ll take something out of it. If you pay $300, you’ll be sure to take a lot more out of it.

This doesn’t mean that more expensive is better. It often isn’t. A well-chosen second-hand paperback may teach you a lot more than a crappy retreat. But if you’re looking for teachers, there’s often a very good reason why the better folk charge more – because they’re better. Period.

By spending money on anything, you enter a different level of contractual obligation. If I ask you to fix the plumbing in my house for free, then I’m not going to have much leeway when it comes to my demands. I’m also not going to have many options for recourse if you do a crappy job. So it is with learning. Select your mentors carefully, be exigent about what you expect and pay for the privilege.

4. Looking good

This one’s applicable to everybody – not just small business owners – although small business owners likely have some kind of image that needs to be maintained if gravity is going to be used as a marketing angle. Clothes, by and large, are too cheap.

Here in Malta, which is like a Coney Island of the Med, you can spot the British tourists from 200 paces by the quality of their threads. A horrible, snobbish thing to say, I know, but compared to the immaculately tailored and coiffed Italians and Maltese, they stick out like a polyester birthmark.

That’s because clothes are too cheap. They’re stitched together by the bleeding fingers of Bangladeshi pre-schoolers and sold for a couple of quid back in the UK – or US – at a mark-up of 300%.

So you’ve got an ethical and an aesthetic consideration when buying your clothes. A couple of well-made suits and some fitted shirts will do you many, many more professional favors than a wardrobe full of tat. Buy wisely.

5. Your Customers

You should be spending money on acquiring your customers. There is no such thing as a freebie. At some point down the line, you have invested heavily of your time laying the groundwork for getting your new customer on board.

I find it surprising that new business owners will often drop a couple of grand to hang out at conferences with their peers and competition, but will be entirely unwilling to pay for advertising or PR to directly address their potential consumer base.

Take two otherwise equal new business owners.

One spends eight hours on Twitter.

The other spends eight hours spent picking up the phone and sending beautiful information packs to laser-targeted potential clients, then follows up by jumping in the car and going out to meet them.

Who’s signing more clients more quickly? Yep – the one who has spent money on printing, postage and petrol. Every time.

You might also like to consider spending money to welcome your customers and to keep them. A gift in the mail will cost 20 bucks. But they’ll remember you. Alternatively you can aim for zero expenses. That is foolish.

6. Knowing Your Customers

Spend a little on knowing who your customers are. As a small business owner, you have two crucially important assets. There’s your product or service and the rights associated with it, and there’s your database of leads, prospects and clients.

Imagine you had to give one up. You have to make a choice right now to let one go. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, it’s likely that you’ll drop all rights to your product and keep your hungry buyers, then find something else to sell them. You’d be mad not to.

But a frightening number of small business owners have no structure in place for knowing who their clients really are, or what makes them tick. A simple customer (or contact) relationship management tool will fix that for the cost of a meal or two a month.

Highrise (aff) will do that for you. They have a free version if you have a small number of contacts you’re tracking. If you meet people in real life, or email them, then this is for you. You’d be loopy not to try it out and see what a difference it makes to your crucial keep-in-touch efforts.

Aweber (aff) is about as straightforward as email marketing gets. Capture leads, build trust and credibility, make sales offers. Know who opened your emails and when, and get a very, very clear idea of how engaged your audience is.

Infusionsoft (aff) ties all of these together with added magic beans. Sales automation, smart link tracking, if-then follow-up, shopping cart and affiliate management all in one. It’s not cheap, but it will save you two hours a day, minimum, if you’re dealing with a larger number of people and you’re reasonably active at staying in touch.

7. Design

All the marketing you do will be for nothing if I come and check out your home-base, or your website, and I don’t like the look of what I see because it appears you hacked it together yourself using free tools and badly-chosen typefaces. If your business card has perforated edges and bleeding ink, and your photos are blurry and badly-cropped, I’m going to make a snap-judgement call on the amount of time and effort you’re willing to invest in your business.

The amount I think you’re prepared to invest in yourself correlated directly to the amount of money that I’ll be prepared to invest in you.

Pay a designer to get your stuff done. It will be some of the best money you spend on your business. You might think your design looks great. Your audience will be the judge of that.

And here endeth the lesson. 

There are a handful of free things you can do every morning to boost your business as well. Click here to find out more.

7 Things Small Business Owners Should Spend Money On is a post from Matthew Kimberley's getting more clients blog. Matthew is a small business marketing consultant. Perhaps you want to hire him? Anyway, if you enjoyed it, be sure to get your free copy of his More Clients Please ebook.