The title of Getting Clients and Keeping Clients for Your Service Business: A 30-Day Step-by-Step Plan for Building Your Business by M.D. Weems is a bit misleading, since there is no 30-day step-by-step plan for building a business. I kept waiting to see a plan that gave detailed instructions on how to build a business in 30 days, but there was only one small section that touched briefly on setting marketing goals for each week and month and sticking with them for one month to see what’s working and what’s not. Hardly what I call a 30-day step-by-step plan for building a business.

Furthermore, that one section about setting marketing goals to build your business was taken entirely from Get Clients NOW! By C.J. Hayden. The strategies discussed were the same, and so were the descriptions of each strategy. They were reworded a bit to seem original, but it was without a doubt the same idea – without giving credit to the original source, outside of the Bibliography. It’s one thing to expand on a cited idea and make it your own, but this was simply regurgitating existing material, in my opinion.

There was also a section in the front of the book that took ideas straight from Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid. At least the source was cited here, but again it seemed to just repeat the information from Port’s book with little to none of the author’s own insights. I haven’t read the other three books that are cited in the Bibliography, but just from the two instances mentioned above I find myself wondering if any of the information in this book is original input or just a regurgitation from other sources. I suppose that’s fine for people who want to get the general idea of some top marketing and business-building books wrapped into one title, but I personally would rather hear (or, in this case, read) advice straight from the expert’s mouth.

There were other points in the book where I felt like information was left out. For instance, there is a section on organizational tools and helpful software, but the author doesn’t give any specific examples of products that have worked for herself or her business associates, which would have been nice to see. I felt like the section was left hanging, like I just got a taste of good information without being fed the whole meal.

With that being said, there are a few interesting ideas in this book, like one that tells readers how to create a “personal brochure” to better connect with potential clients. There is also a section on keeping your business new and interesting to keep clients coming back, and it does give a few specific suggestions to help you implement this idea in your business. Finally, the book talks about building a personal brand, setting yourself apart from the competition, and keeping your business visible to your potential clients.

In a nutshell, while there is quite a bit of valuable information in this book, I was left with a bad taste because of all the blatant copying from other sources.

This book was published in 2008, contains 286 pages, and can be purchased at Amazon.com for $18.96. The Kindle edition is $9.99.

Click here to buy the book!

Do you have any thoughts, queries, or feedback on Getting Clients and Keeping Clients? Share your comments or questions by replying directly to this thread!

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Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
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Tammi, thanks so much for your honest review of this title.
I was really excited about this book initially, because 'programs' or 'plans' in an easy-to-follow format are always a big hit with members of VAF - the idea that this book contained a '30 day step-by-step plan' was one of the reasons I selected it for review - but I was left wondering if I'd missed something!

I didn't realize some of the content was basically lifted from Get Clients Now - very interesting observation, thanks for pointing that out.

It's too bad, I would have like to have recommended this title.

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