I’ll always remember my first client. I’ll also remember their tiny budget, and how they were so adamant not to let go and take a “risk” on advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Of course, most successful business owners understand the difference between living in an abundance mindset and a scarcity mindset. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't realise how many small business owners have a scarcity mindset and that a few thousand dollars to them is sacred, which is why they’ll always be a small businesses. This client was so worried, as if a few thousand dollars were their firstborn. They keep contacting me, worried, checking in on the campaign.
Of course, it was only a matter of weeks before the results started coming in, and their fears were put to rest, but then greed set in! They kept contacting me, trying to squeeze as much as possible out of me and their limited budget.
I dropped them as a client soon afterwards.
Obviously I work with clients with much larger budgets now, but it was a great lesson to learn early on in my career as an agency owner - never work with someone that has a scarcity mindset. That’s why I’ll ask questions to detect this in the first meeting, then I decide if I can work with them or not.
This saves me so much time and so many headaches, and if you’re an agency owner, i recommend you follow the same process.
Find out more in our case study.