You make a great point. And that is that, basically, when you’re just starting out, you should take stock of where you are and draft a plan to help you get to where you want to be as quickly as possible (this actually applies to all of us, no matter where we are in our careers, but it’s especially critical when you’re getting started).

While I’m not a big fan of BNI, sounds like you found a way to make it work and leverage your successes there to breed more success. You went about it in a methodical fashion, and I’m sure you adjusted your strategy based on what was working and what wasn’t working.

Which brings up another point: The specific plan you put together will vary depending on your specific goals and how fast you need to get to where you want to go. For instance, I’m not a fan of cold calling or lead clubs like BNI. But you better believe that if I found myself in Michael’s situation (and had a family to feed), I’d be cold calling all day long with a smile on my face. And I’d be at every BNI meeting in town, working those leads like a champ!

Thanks for your great comment, Michael. Always inspiring to hear a great success story!

For me the first step was having a little bit of a portfolio to show some clients that might hire me. I made the portfolio items myself for me just so I would have something to show. Next I joined a business networking group called BNI and started networking in other places. This took a bit of time, but eventually I had a few paying clients and leveraged them in a big way by asking for testimonial letters, referrals, and of course they paid cash. I used their projects in my portfolio to have more work to show. I kept going this way for a while piece by piece. The projects and clients I work with kept getting bigger and more lucrative as well as coming more frequently.

Once the finances improved I added some very nice marketing pieces, began a branding campaign, added some direct mail and web marketing and grew even more. My practice over time has kept improving and as more money comes in I invest in another marketing project. I continually take personal development and training and use that to grow even more.

I am very happy with where my business is at today and can say I started simply putting one foot in front of the other and built on every little success I had in the early days. However personal development is a big key to all of it. I would highly recommend everyone plan on life-long learning as a business growth strategy. It works.