The Client Who Rang Before He'd Even Met Me

I was on my way to a physiotherapy appointment when my phone rang. It was a man I'd never spoken to, never met, and who hadn't been referred by anyone I knew. He'd found me, and within about thirty seconds of the call starting, he said, “Oh, I think I need you.”

I hear some version of that a lot. “I need a Louise in my life.” “How did I manage before I had Louise?” A friend said it to me years ago, that everyone needs a Louise, and it's stuck with me because it's true more often than it isn't. Most small business owners aren't missing ambition or ideas. They're missing the person who quietly holds the operational side together while they get on with the part of the business only they can do.

This particular client runs a sign writing company. He wants me doing tenders, chasing new work, and having a proper look at his website, which needed it. He wasn't doing anything with Google Analytics. Nothing on Google Search Console either. On paper, it might look like a small piece of work. In reality, it's turned into more than that already, because that's how it tends to go once you're properly inside a business rather than skimming the surface of it.

Every client I work with is different, and that's deliberate. For one client I'm essentially an operations manager, in the detail on accounts and HR. For another it's marketing and websites and nothing else. I always say I'm a master of nothing but genuinely good at lots of things, and I think that's exactly what most small businesses actually need. Not one narrow specialist, but someone who can wear whatever hat the week requires and still keep the overall structure of the business making sense.

Taking on things I haven't done before for a client doesn't worry me. I signed this one up knowing there'd be a few new things to figure out along the way, and that's fine. “We'll make it work” has got me through most of the things I've taken on since I started this business, and it's got every client I've worked with through the early, slightly wobbly weeks too.

What I won't do is chase. I'm not a salesperson and I've never pretended to be one. I send a proposal, and if it's right for someone, they come back to me. If they don't, that's fine, I've got enough work without needing to hassle anyone into it. I'd rather grow slowly with the right clients than fast with people who had to be talked into it.

So that's the latest client win, and honestly, the story behind it is the same story behind most of them. Someone reaches a point where they need a Louise, and I happen to be there when they do.

If that's where your business is right now, needing someone who can hold the operational side together without you having to manage them too, that's exactly the conversation worth having. No pressure, no chasing from my end either way, just an honest look at what would actually help.