Hello folks! In the world of blogging and marketing, they say that you should know who your audience is. I’ll have to admit that I don’t know exactly who is reading this follow up to my previous blog post 'Why I joined the IABC/BC Mentorship Program' so I hope it is helpful to whoever is reading. Feel free to share a comment so I know who is reading.

I’ve had two meetings with my mentor Chris Freimond so far. In a very short but concentrated amount of time, we've already covered more areas of consulting and business development that can fit into a single blog post. I've tried to write about just the things that other people may find useful.

We started our mentorship session with a loose conversation about our past, present and future goals. We followed conversational tangents about where we’ve lived, where were educated and what our interests are.

Personal Branding Tip:

To be clear, our initial conversation had an underlying purpose beyond just chatting. We were trying to learn one another’s personal brand. Everybody (including you) has a personal brand and some are more acutely aware of it than others. The message here is that you should strive to be aware of your own positive aspects so that you know which qualities to accentuate to make you stand out from other people. Sometimes it takes another person to make you realize what these personal characteristics are.

In the context of building a career as a consultant or business owner, Chris stressed that you should always aim to create both a personal brand and a business brand that makes it easy for people to refer you. It is important to articulate the benefits that you provide (not just the product or services that you provide), carefully choosing words that the layman would understand. No jargon allowed. No marketing terms allowed – only language that a potential customer would understand.

There’s a very good reason for this. Even if you are speaking to people who don’t need your services today, they probably know somebody who does. So you need to be able to explain what you do without making their eyes glaze over. The important thing is that they truly know what you do so that they can confidently recommend your services!

Customer Service Advice:

Chris covered some basics rules for working with clients, which seemed like common sense at first glance. The truth is, however, that many consultants and self employed contractors have broken these rules, to the detriment of their client relationships (myself included, and I don't feel good about it)!

Never surprise a client with unexpected billings.

When writing proposals for services to be provided, be sure to include at least a 15% margin for error. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will over charge by 15%. It means that you are preparing the client to budget for the very likely possibility that there will be unexpected challenges that require more time to solve. If the project is completed without requiring extra time, then do the right thing and let your client know that you were able to complete the work under budget. They'll appreciate your honesty in the long run.

Setting expectations ahead of time is imperative if you want to be perceived as a reliable service provider. If you underestimate the scope (and cost) of the project, you as the service provider will still be expected to deliver the promised services, even if it means that you’re giving away some of your time for free.

Appreciate clients who give you referrals.

You can send a gift or a thank you card or you can acknowledge them publicly via a blog post or a tweet. The best compliment is a referral so let them know that you appreciate when they send new business your way. Again, this is a way to build a brand that people will want to refer business to.

Stay top of mind.

Once you’ve done business with a client, it is much easier to do repeat business with them. From time to time, it is good practice to email past clients if you spot information that is particularly relevant to their business or organization. We're not suggesting that you SPAM inboxes just for the sake of being in your client's face. The information better be of true value and benefit to your client.

So how would you go about finding this information? Answer: Set up an RSS feed that searches for new in their industry and make it part of your morning routine to scan the information. Send your emails early in the morning so that it will be the first thing they see in their inbox.

If you provide marketing and communications services, contact your past clients if you see something that needs work on their website, especially if it is something that you can improve for them.

Update on Goals:

To conclude this post, here is the update on my progress towards the goals I set in the previous blog post. I hope to have these all completed by the end of January and before my next update. If you've read this far, you are an honorary accountability partner. You have full permission to check up on me, send me your motivating thoughts and help me towards my goals!

1) Seek 2 informational interviews with a potential corporate clients before the end of 2011. Update: I've made 2 connections that have agreed to meet. So although I am a bit behind schedule, I am confident that this goal will be knocked down in the coming weeks.

2) Review and adjust business plan. Update: Over the holidays, I chose to spend time with family over reviewing and adjusting my business plan. To be fair, I have to complete the next goal in order to properly review and adjust my business plan.

3) Update my bookkeeping and compare my numbers to this time last year. Update: I've gathered all of my receipts, printed out all of my bank statements and entered some of my information into Quickbooks. I'll be meeting with my private Quickbooks tutor next week to check my work.

New Goal for the month of January:

4) Complete Hubspot's Inbound Marketing Training Program online.