Professional Pixie Unit 2: Growing a Profitable Client List
Downloads:
Download the unit:
| professional_pixie_unit_2.pdf |
Checklist:
| professional_pixie_unit_2_-_checklist.pdf |
Lesson 1: Getting Your First Clients
Before you start trying to get any clients, you need to showcase your knowledge. Have you ever looked someone up online? Come on, no lying! We’re all guilty of it, but it’s not really a bad thing (well, in moderation anyway, some people do get stalky *cough*scorpio*cough*). But when it comes to someone you’re going to work with, work for, or hire, doing a little research is not only something you should do, you’d be a total idiot if you didn’t! So if you want to be an online astrologer, you should fully expect people will check out your astrology bona fides.
When someone is interested in consulting with an astrologer, they have a lot of options out there. Since there are no requirements to become an astrologer, anyone can set up shop online claiming to be a pro. That’s where the worries of getting scammed come in, and it’s understandable!
This is where people need to see that you know what you’re doing, that you’re legit, to soothe their fears and make them confident that a, you’re not a scammer, b, you know what you’re talking about, and c, you’ll be able to help them. Trying to convince each person who may be interested one-at-a-time isn’t realistic, so you need things that will cover you so that anyone who is looking for themselves can make a determination and get through the first hurdle. Then you’re one step closer to getting hired!
You can make good use of your website/blog or website alternative and social media by providing lessons, a short course, infographics, or informational blog articles. This showcases you know what you’re talking about and helps a potential client feel more comfortable with the idea of hiring you. Feel free to showcase your personality too, since this can endear you to them.
When someone is interested in consulting with an astrologer, they have a lot of options out there. Since there are no requirements to become an astrologer, anyone can set up shop online claiming to be a pro. That’s where the worries of getting scammed come in, and it’s understandable!
This is where people need to see that you know what you’re doing, that you’re legit, to soothe their fears and make them confident that a, you’re not a scammer, b, you know what you’re talking about, and c, you’ll be able to help them. Trying to convince each person who may be interested one-at-a-time isn’t realistic, so you need things that will cover you so that anyone who is looking for themselves can make a determination and get through the first hurdle. Then you’re one step closer to getting hired!
You can make good use of your website/blog or website alternative and social media by providing lessons, a short course, infographics, or informational blog articles. This showcases you know what you’re talking about and helps a potential client feel more comfortable with the idea of hiring you. Feel free to showcase your personality too, since this can endear you to them.
Lesson 2: Meeting New Clients in Person or on Social Media
The first people you can hit up are your personal friends and family (of course!). But that list can get exhausted quickly, so how do you move on from them? For starters, you can participate in local astrology groups and go to astrology events to meet people interested in astrology (or whatever your modality is). Using Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/), you can join a meetup event already scheduled, or create your own (this also makes you look like an authority running your own meetup).
I actually don't recommend joining astrological groups (or professional groups in your modality) like the AFA (American Federation of Astrologers), ISAR (International Society for Astrological Research), or NCGR (National Council for Geocosmic Research) to meet clients - people who join these groups are usually going to be fellow astrologers/professionals, so they won't need ya! (but you can join them to connect with other astrologers/professionals - these are your peers, not your clients)
If you’re going to focus on meeting people in person or doing readings in person, you should get business cards to hand out to people when you interact with someone who may be interested in a reading. This directs them to your website/blog or website alternative so they can check you out, and gives them how to contact you (email address and/or phone number).
If you’re going to do readings in person, know that you should make a recording of the reading (audio or video) that you can send to the client after the reading is done so they have it for reference (you can just use your phone to record if you don’t want to get anything fancy). This also allows you to get their email address for when you start your email list!
You’ll also want to be open to doing group readings if you’re going to do readings in person. Group readings are usually done at events and parties. You need to be prepared to read a few dozen people in a short period of time to do this. You may want to give a focus to the readings to make it easier on you and get everyone on the same page.
Events like this can be a great way of meeting new clients as you’ll have a lot of people to interact with and will showcase your talent. Make sure people know how they can contact you if they want a full reading (the cards!), and get their email addresses so you can contact them yourself. You may get some who want to schedule a reading right there! (pat yourself on the back when that happens!)
You can reach out to people you know to see if they’ll be hosting any events you can participate in as their on-site astrologer/professional. If you don’t know anyone personally who does, you can research events that will be coming up in your area and reach out to the organizers of those events to see if they’d be interested in having an astrologer for their attendees. Make sure you’re as professional as possible when you do reach out, and keep your pitch clean and short. Focus on what you can offer them/their attendees (not what they can offer you), and make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. If they agree, make sure you’re on time (or early), that you interact professionally with attendees, and you adhere to whatever rules/guidelines the organizers have in place. If there is alcohol at the event, refrain! (you’re not there to party, you’re there to work - party on your own time, not someone else’s; that’s a sure way to never get hired again!)
Social media is the easiest option for showcasing your knowledge as there is no hurdle for you, anyone can sign up for social media accounts and get started right away, and you don’t need any technical skills at all (and if you opt for Facebook or Instagram as your website alternative, you’re already on track). But if you’re going to use social media, you have to be discriminating with what you post. This isn’t your personal account, this is your business account, so you shouldn’t post the same kind of content. When you want to showcase your knowledge, then you need to showcase your knowledge! Post mini lessons, articles, or videos, tidbits and tips, or answer questions anyone asks you or that you see people ask elsewhere (like on pages/profiles covering astrology/your modality). You can do analysis of celeb charts, talk about astrology of current events, or whatever else you’d like. Just stay on message!
The nature of social media is to interact, so whenever someone likes, favorites, shares/retweets/repins, or in some way interacts with your content on your social media account, make sure you interact with them. Reply to people’s messages and questions, respond to comments, and visit their pages/profiles and interact with their own content too. If they’re astrology-related or in your niche, follow them.
On social media, you can privately contact people who interact with your content, and this can be a great way to start getting some new clients quickly. You don’t need a lot of followers for this (seriously I just saw someone work some magic with only 100 followers). You can privately contact each person who interacts with your posts and offer them an inexpensive mini reading or short consultation (say 15-20 minutes). Like, hey, I saw you liked/commented/replied/retweeted etc. and I've got this offer just for my followers that maybe can help you with x (check out their profile and see if they've talked about anything you could cover in the mini consult). Then segway them to book a full reading at the end of the mini reading/consultation (we can go a lot deeper with a full reading/consultation and I can tackle everything I didn't get to in this reading/consult). Make sure to contact them within 1 day of them interacting with your social profile, otherwise they may forget you, and you can follow up with them in a week if they don’t book right away but reply back or seem interested.
Make sure to follow astrology-related (or your modality) pages/profiles (just make sure they’re legit and not scammy). In the related accounts that you follow, you can interact with people on those accounts. You can find other accounts that have a big following and a lot of interactions, and reply to posts and answer questions in the comments. If it’s an individual’s account, don’t step all over them though (be respectful!).
I actually don't recommend joining astrological groups (or professional groups in your modality) like the AFA (American Federation of Astrologers), ISAR (International Society for Astrological Research), or NCGR (National Council for Geocosmic Research) to meet clients - people who join these groups are usually going to be fellow astrologers/professionals, so they won't need ya! (but you can join them to connect with other astrologers/professionals - these are your peers, not your clients)
If you’re going to focus on meeting people in person or doing readings in person, you should get business cards to hand out to people when you interact with someone who may be interested in a reading. This directs them to your website/blog or website alternative so they can check you out, and gives them how to contact you (email address and/or phone number).
If you’re going to do readings in person, know that you should make a recording of the reading (audio or video) that you can send to the client after the reading is done so they have it for reference (you can just use your phone to record if you don’t want to get anything fancy). This also allows you to get their email address for when you start your email list!
You’ll also want to be open to doing group readings if you’re going to do readings in person. Group readings are usually done at events and parties. You need to be prepared to read a few dozen people in a short period of time to do this. You may want to give a focus to the readings to make it easier on you and get everyone on the same page.
Events like this can be a great way of meeting new clients as you’ll have a lot of people to interact with and will showcase your talent. Make sure people know how they can contact you if they want a full reading (the cards!), and get their email addresses so you can contact them yourself. You may get some who want to schedule a reading right there! (pat yourself on the back when that happens!)
You can reach out to people you know to see if they’ll be hosting any events you can participate in as their on-site astrologer/professional. If you don’t know anyone personally who does, you can research events that will be coming up in your area and reach out to the organizers of those events to see if they’d be interested in having an astrologer for their attendees. Make sure you’re as professional as possible when you do reach out, and keep your pitch clean and short. Focus on what you can offer them/their attendees (not what they can offer you), and make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. If they agree, make sure you’re on time (or early), that you interact professionally with attendees, and you adhere to whatever rules/guidelines the organizers have in place. If there is alcohol at the event, refrain! (you’re not there to party, you’re there to work - party on your own time, not someone else’s; that’s a sure way to never get hired again!)
Social media is the easiest option for showcasing your knowledge as there is no hurdle for you, anyone can sign up for social media accounts and get started right away, and you don’t need any technical skills at all (and if you opt for Facebook or Instagram as your website alternative, you’re already on track). But if you’re going to use social media, you have to be discriminating with what you post. This isn’t your personal account, this is your business account, so you shouldn’t post the same kind of content. When you want to showcase your knowledge, then you need to showcase your knowledge! Post mini lessons, articles, or videos, tidbits and tips, or answer questions anyone asks you or that you see people ask elsewhere (like on pages/profiles covering astrology/your modality). You can do analysis of celeb charts, talk about astrology of current events, or whatever else you’d like. Just stay on message!
The nature of social media is to interact, so whenever someone likes, favorites, shares/retweets/repins, or in some way interacts with your content on your social media account, make sure you interact with them. Reply to people’s messages and questions, respond to comments, and visit their pages/profiles and interact with their own content too. If they’re astrology-related or in your niche, follow them.
On social media, you can privately contact people who interact with your content, and this can be a great way to start getting some new clients quickly. You don’t need a lot of followers for this (seriously I just saw someone work some magic with only 100 followers). You can privately contact each person who interacts with your posts and offer them an inexpensive mini reading or short consultation (say 15-20 minutes). Like, hey, I saw you liked/commented/replied/retweeted etc. and I've got this offer just for my followers that maybe can help you with x (check out their profile and see if they've talked about anything you could cover in the mini consult). Then segway them to book a full reading at the end of the mini reading/consultation (we can go a lot deeper with a full reading/consultation and I can tackle everything I didn't get to in this reading/consult). Make sure to contact them within 1 day of them interacting with your social profile, otherwise they may forget you, and you can follow up with them in a week if they don’t book right away but reply back or seem interested.
Make sure to follow astrology-related (or your modality) pages/profiles (just make sure they’re legit and not scammy). In the related accounts that you follow, you can interact with people on those accounts. You can find other accounts that have a big following and a lot of interactions, and reply to posts and answer questions in the comments. If it’s an individual’s account, don’t step all over them though (be respectful!).
Lesson 3: Finding New Clients Using Other Sources
If you can connect with a reputable source, whether it’s another astrologer/reader, a magazine/ezine, website/blog, or podcast, this can also be a great way of not only showing that you know your stuff, but that you’re basically also approved by someone else that has an audience, a track record, and has built credibility, so you basically get to borrow their credibility for yourself! People see that person as an authority, and so they’ll view you as one by extension. This option can be difficult if you don’t do it right (more in the next lesson!).
You have less control over how you can be engaging when you contribute to other sources, but there is usually going to be a comment section where you can interact with people. Make sure you respond to anyone who comments and answer questions, add extra tidbits of info, or just say thanks, and include how to contact you in your responses, even if that’s already in your guest spot (everyone needs reminders!).
You can still use other websites/blogs, even if you don’t provide content with them, through commenting on their content. You can usually post a comment to an article, and you can post relevant information or reply to people who ask questions in the comments. Over time, this can get you recognized by the owner of the website/blog as well, and help form a relationship with them.
Forums, message boards, and online groups focused on astrology are filled with people who want to share astrology knowledge and love astrology, so there are tons of opportunities for you to showcase your knowledge. They’ve been dwarfed by social media, but there are still some really big forums you can participate in and make connections. Contribute helpful information, answer people’s questions, and build your profile. You can fairly quickly build yourself up if you contribute enough (even on groups with big followings), and be seen as someone knowledgeable and trustworthy. Facebook groups have taken over forums and message boards in recent times, however many FB groups are private, so anyone outside of the group may not be able to see what you post, so you may want to stick to a public group (or do both). The biggest astrology forums/message boards now would probably be on Astrology Weekly, astro.com, Lindaland, or Elsa Elsa.
You have less control over how you can be engaging when you contribute to other sources, but there is usually going to be a comment section where you can interact with people. Make sure you respond to anyone who comments and answer questions, add extra tidbits of info, or just say thanks, and include how to contact you in your responses, even if that’s already in your guest spot (everyone needs reminders!).
You can still use other websites/blogs, even if you don’t provide content with them, through commenting on their content. You can usually post a comment to an article, and you can post relevant information or reply to people who ask questions in the comments. Over time, this can get you recognized by the owner of the website/blog as well, and help form a relationship with them.
Forums, message boards, and online groups focused on astrology are filled with people who want to share astrology knowledge and love astrology, so there are tons of opportunities for you to showcase your knowledge. They’ve been dwarfed by social media, but there are still some really big forums you can participate in and make connections. Contribute helpful information, answer people’s questions, and build your profile. You can fairly quickly build yourself up if you contribute enough (even on groups with big followings), and be seen as someone knowledgeable and trustworthy. Facebook groups have taken over forums and message boards in recent times, however many FB groups are private, so anyone outside of the group may not be able to see what you post, so you may want to stick to a public group (or do both). The biggest astrology forums/message boards now would probably be on Astrology Weekly, astro.com, Lindaland, or Elsa Elsa.
Lesson 4: Being a Guest (and getting out there!)
Connecting with other people who already have an audience is a great way to start getting attention for yourself. You’re borrowing their audience! Many creators actually welcome guest posts because we have so much content to create, it makes it easier to come up with it all if we don’t have to do it all ourselves. BUT don’t do any of this until you’ve created your website and have a cleaned up your social media. Whoever you contact is going to look you up. If your website isn’t finished or looks insane, if your social media is filled with offensive memes, you might have a problem!
Go through websites and blogs in this niche that you’d be interested in contributing to and make a list of about 5-10. Some will have submission guidelines right on their website; make sure you follow that to a T! The most common reason why you’ll be rejected is if you don’t follow the guidelines. They’re usually not difficult, so no excuses! It just shows whoever you’re contacting that you’re lazy and not taking this seriously, and for them, this is their business. They can’t take a chance on someone who won’t treat it that way too.
When you approach them, make sure to act professionally. Use correct grammar, spelling (use spell check!), and punctuation. Omit emojis and don’t use expletives. Don’t write like a 14-year-old on Twitter! (really, I can’t tell you how many people have wanted to write for the blog or newsletter and wrote out the most ridiculous messages to me, I thought they must be missing half their brain)
If they agree to let you write a guest article, make sure you provide it in a timely manner. If you wait until they day it’s due, you burn that bridge. It shows you’re waiting too long and not taking it seriously. Which is sure to insult whoever you’re doing this for!
Any article you write, you’ll likely need to also provide a bio (usually 50-200 words), a picture of yourself, and/or your logo, so have that handy and ready to go.
I wrote a few articles for Om Times Magazine, and they have open submissions; you can check out how to submit here: https://omtimes.com/guidelines-policies/submission-guidelines/
I’ve done some articles for Astrology Answers this year; they actually reached out to me, but they also have open submissions (but you can only apply if you have at least 1 year experience). Guidelines: https://astrologyanswers.com/pages/write-for-us/
Thanks to social media, you’re not just limited to websites though. You can reach out to people who run Facebook pages, have Twitter accounts, or are Instagram influencers in this niche and see if you can do some sort of guest spot for them. They have to create lots of content too! But make sure you’re following them for at least a month or two before reaching out. I can always tell when someone contacts me who literally just found me. What do I do? Delete! Improve your odds and follow them for a little while so you can show you know them and what they produce.
If you don’t want to do writing, you do have other options now thanks to podcasting and Youtube. Focus on podcasts or Youtube channels that are in this niche, and see if you can provide content for them. Same rules apply - follow them for at least a month or two first, approach them as a professional and not a drunkard, and follow whatever guidelines they have or tell you.
Go through websites and blogs in this niche that you’d be interested in contributing to and make a list of about 5-10. Some will have submission guidelines right on their website; make sure you follow that to a T! The most common reason why you’ll be rejected is if you don’t follow the guidelines. They’re usually not difficult, so no excuses! It just shows whoever you’re contacting that you’re lazy and not taking this seriously, and for them, this is their business. They can’t take a chance on someone who won’t treat it that way too.
When you approach them, make sure to act professionally. Use correct grammar, spelling (use spell check!), and punctuation. Omit emojis and don’t use expletives. Don’t write like a 14-year-old on Twitter! (really, I can’t tell you how many people have wanted to write for the blog or newsletter and wrote out the most ridiculous messages to me, I thought they must be missing half their brain)
If they agree to let you write a guest article, make sure you provide it in a timely manner. If you wait until they day it’s due, you burn that bridge. It shows you’re waiting too long and not taking it seriously. Which is sure to insult whoever you’re doing this for!
Any article you write, you’ll likely need to also provide a bio (usually 50-200 words), a picture of yourself, and/or your logo, so have that handy and ready to go.
I wrote a few articles for Om Times Magazine, and they have open submissions; you can check out how to submit here: https://omtimes.com/guidelines-policies/submission-guidelines/
I’ve done some articles for Astrology Answers this year; they actually reached out to me, but they also have open submissions (but you can only apply if you have at least 1 year experience). Guidelines: https://astrologyanswers.com/pages/write-for-us/
Thanks to social media, you’re not just limited to websites though. You can reach out to people who run Facebook pages, have Twitter accounts, or are Instagram influencers in this niche and see if you can do some sort of guest spot for them. They have to create lots of content too! But make sure you’re following them for at least a month or two before reaching out. I can always tell when someone contacts me who literally just found me. What do I do? Delete! Improve your odds and follow them for a little while so you can show you know them and what they produce.
If you don’t want to do writing, you do have other options now thanks to podcasting and Youtube. Focus on podcasts or Youtube channels that are in this niche, and see if you can provide content for them. Same rules apply - follow them for at least a month or two first, approach them as a professional and not a drunkard, and follow whatever guidelines they have or tell you.
Lesson 5: Making Your Client List Profitable With Increases and Referrals
Once you have clients, you build a client list, and you want to make that client list as profitable as possible. You want to start off on the right foot with setting your pricing right - not too low, as we astrologers and spiritual entrepreneurs like to do! Now, once you have your pricing, that’s not going to be permanent. Not at all! So the first tip is to increase your rates regularly. I recommend once a year or once every 2 years. You can warn people before rates do increase so they can get a reading at the lower rate beforehand, but then raise ‘em.
I also recommend you DON’T lock in people at the lower rates. That was definitely a mistake I made, and it meant that I had some clients who were literally paying the same amount for a reading for 10 years. That’s just insane! Cost of living always goes up (and goes *way* up over the course of a decade, ha), so you’ve got to adjust your rates for everyone. Again, you can warn people when your rates will be going up and by how much beforehand. If they complain - move on!
And how much should you raise your rates? It’s really your call. It should be at least 5-10%. I wouldn’t recommend more than 50%.
Another thing that can help you with getting more clients without any extra work for you is a referral policy. If someone refers someone to you who gets a reading, the referrer can get a percentage off of a reading, or if they refer a certain amount of people to you to get readings, they’ll get a reading for free. If you opt for the latter, you won’t want to have the number be too low, otherwise you may end up doing a lot of readings for free, and that’s not the goal! But if you put it too high, people may not think they can do it. Make it at least 2, but probably under 10 (maybe cap at 5).
If you opt for a percentage, you can give 10-50% off for the referrer on their next reading, but make sure you cap it to they can’t use more than one referral discount per reading (otherwise they can stack and end up getting for free, in which case you should just do the free reading for x amount of referrals).
You can specify a specific reading that they’ll get for free or use a discount on, or you can allow them to apply to any reading they want (though that may not be the best idea because you may end up having to do some giant readings for free or for cheap). You also may want to put a time limit as to when they can redeem their discount or free reading so they don’t come back years later when you barely remember! 1 year is a good expiration date.
I’ve actually never used a referral system myself, but I know others who have and it helped get them a lot of new clients, so if it’s something you’re comfortable with, you can consider trying it. You can include your referral policy on your services page, and include how they can qualify (what will they or the person they refer need to do so you know it’s a referral).
I also recommend you DON’T lock in people at the lower rates. That was definitely a mistake I made, and it meant that I had some clients who were literally paying the same amount for a reading for 10 years. That’s just insane! Cost of living always goes up (and goes *way* up over the course of a decade, ha), so you’ve got to adjust your rates for everyone. Again, you can warn people when your rates will be going up and by how much beforehand. If they complain - move on!
And how much should you raise your rates? It’s really your call. It should be at least 5-10%. I wouldn’t recommend more than 50%.
Another thing that can help you with getting more clients without any extra work for you is a referral policy. If someone refers someone to you who gets a reading, the referrer can get a percentage off of a reading, or if they refer a certain amount of people to you to get readings, they’ll get a reading for free. If you opt for the latter, you won’t want to have the number be too low, otherwise you may end up doing a lot of readings for free, and that’s not the goal! But if you put it too high, people may not think they can do it. Make it at least 2, but probably under 10 (maybe cap at 5).
If you opt for a percentage, you can give 10-50% off for the referrer on their next reading, but make sure you cap it to they can’t use more than one referral discount per reading (otherwise they can stack and end up getting for free, in which case you should just do the free reading for x amount of referrals).
You can specify a specific reading that they’ll get for free or use a discount on, or you can allow them to apply to any reading they want (though that may not be the best idea because you may end up having to do some giant readings for free or for cheap). You also may want to put a time limit as to when they can redeem their discount or free reading so they don’t come back years later when you barely remember! 1 year is a good expiration date.
I’ve actually never used a referral system myself, but I know others who have and it helped get them a lot of new clients, so if it’s something you’re comfortable with, you can consider trying it. You can include your referral policy on your services page, and include how they can qualify (what will they or the person they refer need to do so you know it’s a referral).
Lesson 6: Making Your Client List Profitable With Repeat Clients
For many years, I maintained a pretty small client list that was around 50 people. That’s it! 50 people (and sometimes it was less, closer to 30). That doesn’t seem so daunting, does it? But that client list of 50 people were repeat clients who kept me busy throughout the year, getting readings over and over again. They were a very solid group! Because of this, I was able to make $10-20,000 every year just from that small group of people. And that was making a lot of other mistakes - I could’ve made a lot more if I knew then what I know now!
You don’t need a giant client list of hundreds or thousands of people to keep you busy and fill up your schedule. A few dozen repeat clients are worth their weight in gold. It takes a lot of work to get that client in the door to begin with; it’s actually a lot less work to keep them coming back! Especially if you know what you’re doing and set yourself up to maximize profitability.
You may have heard of something called the Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule, where 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. The exact number may not be 80-20, but it is true that a good chunk of your business is going to come from repeat clients (plus, it’s cheaper and less time-consuming to retain an existing client than it is to acquire brand new clients). So you want to make as many of the people who get a consultation from you repeat clients as possible. Generally, the more consultations someone has with you, the less work it’s going to take for you to get them to come back as you become their go-to astrologer.
Right off of the bat, you’ll want to limit the scope of the readings you provide. This is not just for profitability, this is also for saving your sanity! We astrologers and spiritual entrepreneurs tend to want to throw everything and the kitchen sink in a reading, but it becomes waaaay too much work for us (which breaks us down) and waaaay too overwhelming for the client (which may keep them from coming back).
When it comes to predictive readings, the absolute maximum you’ll want to do for a general predictive reading is 1 year. DO NOT GO BEYOND ONE YEAR!!! (heed the all caps!) I found 6 month general predictive readings were about the sweet spot. It’s long enough to give the client something meaty without killing yourself or overwhelming them. And it allows for the client to come back every 6 months for a new reading, which is a very, very simple way to get repeat clients. This way, if you sell a 6 month reading for $150, and you get someone who comes back every 6 months, you make $300/year from that one person.
For a specific predictive reading, one that has a specific focus or is on a specific question, you can go beyond a year, because it has a specific focus and isn’t covering everything. But you may still want to cap it at say, 3-5 years (again to keep you from doing too much - overwhelm for you as an astrologer isn’t good for your readings!).
For natal readings, you’ll want to limit the scope in terms of what you’re focusing on with the natal. No natal reading can cover absolutely everything in a natal chart from every angle, so you’ll want to outline exactly what you’ll focus on with a general natal reading, and/or have specific focus readings (like vocation or relationship).
Now, once someone has had a consultation with you, that’s not the end of it. If you just walk away, you’re hurting yourself professionally! For many years, I kept what you can almost consider a “little black book” of my clients. When a new client would get a reading with me, I’d put them in the book. I would include basics like their name, email address, and birth data, but I’d also include any extra tidbits about their life, their concerns, anything important that came up in a reading, and I’d make a note of a time to contact them again in the future based on their birthday, something that they said would be coming up (like a job interview or trip), something astrological that came up in the reading (like a difficult upcoming transit), or if we did a 3 or 6 month reading, when it’d be close to the end of the period covered (in case they’d want to get another and pick up where the reading left off). I have an absolutely *terrible* memory, so if I didn’t write this stuff down, there’s no way I would’ve remembered on my own! (LOL!)
This never took very long to do for each person, just a quick 10 minutes to jot it all down and make a note in my schedule for when to contact them, and when I’d reconnect, I’d shoot off a quick email, but it was always personal because I had these notes. It’s a very simple thing to do, but this probably had the biggest impact on me having such a small yet profitable client list.
You don’t have to do exactly as I did, and your own little black book can be digital now (mine was really a little notebook, but not black, it was gold - which is good business mojo, actually!), but you should get the idea of what I mean. Reconnect with someone after they have a consultation with you, even if it’s just a simple check in. People may forget about coming back to you for another consultation until you circle back around - life gets busy, it’s easy to forget. Then you become fresh in their mind again, and it can trigger them wanting to book another session with you. About 25% (1 out of every 4) came back to me for another reading when I first started this (for a data point for reference; your percentage may be higher or lower).
Nurturing your clients and creating a relationship with them helps them to keep coming back. Each time you reach out doesn’t have to be for the purpose of booking a reading with that email, but instead keeps you in their head, and allows you to form a relationship. BUT you do want to make sure you set some boundaries, otherwise some may take advantage! (next lesson)
You don’t need a giant client list of hundreds or thousands of people to keep you busy and fill up your schedule. A few dozen repeat clients are worth their weight in gold. It takes a lot of work to get that client in the door to begin with; it’s actually a lot less work to keep them coming back! Especially if you know what you’re doing and set yourself up to maximize profitability.
You may have heard of something called the Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule, where 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. The exact number may not be 80-20, but it is true that a good chunk of your business is going to come from repeat clients (plus, it’s cheaper and less time-consuming to retain an existing client than it is to acquire brand new clients). So you want to make as many of the people who get a consultation from you repeat clients as possible. Generally, the more consultations someone has with you, the less work it’s going to take for you to get them to come back as you become their go-to astrologer.
Right off of the bat, you’ll want to limit the scope of the readings you provide. This is not just for profitability, this is also for saving your sanity! We astrologers and spiritual entrepreneurs tend to want to throw everything and the kitchen sink in a reading, but it becomes waaaay too much work for us (which breaks us down) and waaaay too overwhelming for the client (which may keep them from coming back).
When it comes to predictive readings, the absolute maximum you’ll want to do for a general predictive reading is 1 year. DO NOT GO BEYOND ONE YEAR!!! (heed the all caps!) I found 6 month general predictive readings were about the sweet spot. It’s long enough to give the client something meaty without killing yourself or overwhelming them. And it allows for the client to come back every 6 months for a new reading, which is a very, very simple way to get repeat clients. This way, if you sell a 6 month reading for $150, and you get someone who comes back every 6 months, you make $300/year from that one person.
For a specific predictive reading, one that has a specific focus or is on a specific question, you can go beyond a year, because it has a specific focus and isn’t covering everything. But you may still want to cap it at say, 3-5 years (again to keep you from doing too much - overwhelm for you as an astrologer isn’t good for your readings!).
For natal readings, you’ll want to limit the scope in terms of what you’re focusing on with the natal. No natal reading can cover absolutely everything in a natal chart from every angle, so you’ll want to outline exactly what you’ll focus on with a general natal reading, and/or have specific focus readings (like vocation or relationship).
Now, once someone has had a consultation with you, that’s not the end of it. If you just walk away, you’re hurting yourself professionally! For many years, I kept what you can almost consider a “little black book” of my clients. When a new client would get a reading with me, I’d put them in the book. I would include basics like their name, email address, and birth data, but I’d also include any extra tidbits about their life, their concerns, anything important that came up in a reading, and I’d make a note of a time to contact them again in the future based on their birthday, something that they said would be coming up (like a job interview or trip), something astrological that came up in the reading (like a difficult upcoming transit), or if we did a 3 or 6 month reading, when it’d be close to the end of the period covered (in case they’d want to get another and pick up where the reading left off). I have an absolutely *terrible* memory, so if I didn’t write this stuff down, there’s no way I would’ve remembered on my own! (LOL!)
This never took very long to do for each person, just a quick 10 minutes to jot it all down and make a note in my schedule for when to contact them, and when I’d reconnect, I’d shoot off a quick email, but it was always personal because I had these notes. It’s a very simple thing to do, but this probably had the biggest impact on me having such a small yet profitable client list.
You don’t have to do exactly as I did, and your own little black book can be digital now (mine was really a little notebook, but not black, it was gold - which is good business mojo, actually!), but you should get the idea of what I mean. Reconnect with someone after they have a consultation with you, even if it’s just a simple check in. People may forget about coming back to you for another consultation until you circle back around - life gets busy, it’s easy to forget. Then you become fresh in their mind again, and it can trigger them wanting to book another session with you. About 25% (1 out of every 4) came back to me for another reading when I first started this (for a data point for reference; your percentage may be higher or lower).
Nurturing your clients and creating a relationship with them helps them to keep coming back. Each time you reach out doesn’t have to be for the purpose of booking a reading with that email, but instead keeps you in their head, and allows you to form a relationship. BUT you do want to make sure you set some boundaries, otherwise some may take advantage! (next lesson)
Lesson 7: Setting Boundaries
Boundaries is something most of us struggle with, so don’t beat yourself up if you do too! (Pisces Moon here, I can’t say anything) But without some boundaries, it becomes way too easy to get taken advantage of, so you want to establish them as quickly as you can.
Your policies can help you a lot with this since they’re set up your follow up questions policy (so people can’t ask you a zillion questions afterward that end up taking longer than the reading), your refund policy (so people can’t demand a refund after you’ve already done all of the work), and your cancellation policy (like the refund policy).
It’s good to have these on your services page where they can book a reading, but I will say, a lot of people don’t actually read them! So it’s a good idea to include the policies in the first email you send with someone confirming their reading (hey in case you missed the policies, they’re outlined here). In the confirmation email, make sure to confirm their birth data (if needed) as well (and make sure you have in the policies what happens if they provide the wrong birth data).
Then it’s a matter of sticking to your rules! Easier said than done, I know, but it can save you a lot of headaches. Some may try to contact you a zillion times, which can be overwhelming; usually just not engaging with everything they send you stops it, but with some, you’ll have to tell them to stop. Try to be firm but not mean.
And then there are some who will really go off of the rails - I have had people contact me drunk/high at 2AM (how is THAT appropriate? LOL I’m not your booty call!). Some may threaten you; you may realize that some have problems you shouldn’t deal with (addiction, mental health). This is where the, I reserve the right to refuse to do a reading at any time for any reason, policy comes in handy! When you do have to use it, issue a refund, then block the person! I create filters in email that send their emails to a separate folder (so I don’t have to see it but I still have it in case I need to go to authorities), I’ll see if they’re following me on social media and block them, and in my newsletter account, I have a group specifically for the people who piss me off that I don’t want to deal with to make sure they don’t get any emails (there are actually a lot of people in there LOL! I am far less tolerant now of the B.S. than I used to be).
Your policies can help you a lot with this since they’re set up your follow up questions policy (so people can’t ask you a zillion questions afterward that end up taking longer than the reading), your refund policy (so people can’t demand a refund after you’ve already done all of the work), and your cancellation policy (like the refund policy).
It’s good to have these on your services page where they can book a reading, but I will say, a lot of people don’t actually read them! So it’s a good idea to include the policies in the first email you send with someone confirming their reading (hey in case you missed the policies, they’re outlined here). In the confirmation email, make sure to confirm their birth data (if needed) as well (and make sure you have in the policies what happens if they provide the wrong birth data).
Then it’s a matter of sticking to your rules! Easier said than done, I know, but it can save you a lot of headaches. Some may try to contact you a zillion times, which can be overwhelming; usually just not engaging with everything they send you stops it, but with some, you’ll have to tell them to stop. Try to be firm but not mean.
And then there are some who will really go off of the rails - I have had people contact me drunk/high at 2AM (how is THAT appropriate? LOL I’m not your booty call!). Some may threaten you; you may realize that some have problems you shouldn’t deal with (addiction, mental health). This is where the, I reserve the right to refuse to do a reading at any time for any reason, policy comes in handy! When you do have to use it, issue a refund, then block the person! I create filters in email that send their emails to a separate folder (so I don’t have to see it but I still have it in case I need to go to authorities), I’ll see if they’re following me on social media and block them, and in my newsletter account, I have a group specifically for the people who piss me off that I don’t want to deal with to make sure they don’t get any emails (there are actually a lot of people in there LOL! I am far less tolerant now of the B.S. than I used to be).
Lesson 8: A Quick Note on Discounts
While I think discounts can be a great way to make sales of products, I am not the biggest fan of them for your readings. You can’t replicate a reading, every reading you do is different for each person, and a lot of time and energy is spent on one individual reading. Because you can’t replicate a reading, you can only do so many of them. Your consulting time is limited, so you shouldn’t drag down the price too much.
I think the most I’ve ever discounted was 20%. I wouldn’t recommend more than 25%. I also would say, don’t discount too often or for too long, and don’t be predictable with your discounts. You don’t want to discount too often because then people will wait to book a reading until you have a discount because they know you offer discounts all of the time. It’s similar with not being predictable - if you always offer a discount at a certain time, people will know to look for it and only book a reading then. You don’t want to let a discount run for too long because then there will be no urgency for someone to book a reading, and they may let the time lapse. Not discounting too often, too steeply, too long, or predictably are also good ideas when you’re selling products too. You just have more leeway with products than with services since you can create a product once and sell it again and again.
Keeping that in mind for referrals, if you offer a discount for referrals, you may want to keep it to around 20-25%.
I think the most I’ve ever discounted was 20%. I wouldn’t recommend more than 25%. I also would say, don’t discount too often or for too long, and don’t be predictable with your discounts. You don’t want to discount too often because then people will wait to book a reading until you have a discount because they know you offer discounts all of the time. It’s similar with not being predictable - if you always offer a discount at a certain time, people will know to look for it and only book a reading then. You don’t want to let a discount run for too long because then there will be no urgency for someone to book a reading, and they may let the time lapse. Not discounting too often, too steeply, too long, or predictably are also good ideas when you’re selling products too. You just have more leeway with products than with services since you can create a product once and sell it again and again.
Keeping that in mind for referrals, if you offer a discount for referrals, you may want to keep it to around 20-25%.
Navigate:
Go to Unit 1: Creating Your Online Home >>>
Go to bonus class, Using Pinterest >>>
Go to Unit 2: Growing a Profitable Client List >>>
Go to Unit 3: Going Beyond Readings >>>
Go to bonus class, Email List Building >>>
Go to bonus class, Using the Spiritual Woo-Woo in Your Business >>>
Go to bonus class, Using Pinterest >>>
Go to Unit 2: Growing a Profitable Client List >>>
Go to Unit 3: Going Beyond Readings >>>
Go to bonus class, Email List Building >>>
Go to bonus class, Using the Spiritual Woo-Woo in Your Business >>>