As you know, I am participating in the Web-Based reality show, Prosperity’s Kitchen.  This is a collaboratively-based effort, with teams of 3 people.  Each week we are given an assignment, we pick one of our team members to be the focus of the assignment, and we collaborate to make her presentation the best it can be. (If you want to know how all this came to be, check out this explanation by founder, Tea Silvestre, on Firepole Marketing.)

I am on team 4 with Colleen Conger and Kristin Elliott.  Colleen is our point person for this week’s mission:  the Ideal Client.

Because I know many of you are in business for yourself (part-time, full-time or want-to-be-time), I’m going to share our meetings as we go along, and some of the great resources 3 awesome women working together can compile. (Do check back – links will change/be added as we work on this during the week).

You can start here, with the video of the three of us working out how the week is going to unfold.  We set this meeting up after the meeting of the full group on Monday.  This week’s special guest mentor is Mike Michalowicz, who’s book, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, has a great section on how you decide on just who your ideal client is.  I understand his other book, the Pumpkin Plan:  How to grow a remarkable business in any field, is equally good (but I haven’t read it yet).  You can see his suggestions here, on the video of that meeting.

The finished product this week is a Pinterest Board that gives a 3-dimensional idea of our ideal client.  Of course I am doing work for Colleen’s client, as she is the focus, but we get extra points for doing our own board too.  And, really, do I have to tell you how hard it is going to be for me to have to comb Pinterest and the web to create my own ideal client board?  Break my heart why don’t you!

Okay – that last, if you can’t tell, was totally sarcastic.  I have been handed a reason to hang out – a lot – this week on Pinterest making my ideal client come to life.

Want to see what that looks like?  Here’s Tea Silvestre’s board (which she is working along with the rest of us) on her ideal client (which is so close to mine that her quirky art piece is one I just posted to my own felting board not 3 days ago).  The beginning of my collection is here.  The notes are to remind me where I got the picture and how it fits.  The final board will have a cohesive story line but most of this week I’ll just be collecting.

Here are some more resources:

The Customer Discovery Report (free) by Meagan Visser of  PurposeandProsper.com.  Beautifully graphic PDF that steps you through thinking about your ideal client.

Gina Bell‘s “Work with Me” page contains an Ideal Client profile right there so you know you’re in the right (or wrong) place.  I’m so stealing this!  Gina will be a guest mentor on the April 15 episode on joint ventures.

5 Questions You Need to Ask Your Ideal Client on The Story of Telling: Make Your Ideas Matter.

The Persona:  How to Keep Your Dinner Guest in Mind on TheWordChef.com

How to Attract Your Ideal Customers (The Perfect Recipe) on theWordChef.com

7 Way to Use Facebook to Research and Find Your Target Market  on TheWordChef.com

How to Reach Your Target Market in a Down Economy on TheWordChef.com

So do you know who your ideal client is?  I’ll tell you this much:  when I started working through some of my profiles I discovered some holes in my process.  So this exercise has already helped me get better!

Oh, by the way, I need a name for my client.  I think I will let her be Morgaine (an alternate name for Morgan le Fey).  Wikipedia has this to say about Morgaine:

Starting in the later 20th century, some feminists adopted Morgan as a representation of female power or of a fading form of feminine spirituality supposedly practised by the Celts or earlier peoples. These interpretations draw upon the French romances which portray Morgan as a “benevolent figure” with extraordinary healing powers. This has led to Morgan’s expanded role in feminist Arthurian literature such as Marian Zimmer Bradley’s  The Mists of Avalon, which goes so far as to give her credit for the major events of the traditional story.

I like the hint of magic and the aura of power.  Because that IS  my ideal client:  maybe not quite there yet (or even maybe just starting), but definitely on her way to a Hell Yes!! life!

What will you name your ideal client when you create her Pinterest board?  Oh the fun!