How to really grow your private investigator business.

If you own your own private detective agency and you need to make more money, you are not alone, and today I’m going to talk about something that can be a real game changer for you. It was for me.

In the private investigator industry, a lot of people honestly can teach you some of the nitty-gritty secrets about skip tracing, surveillance and the rest of the “real” work. But I want you to consider for a moment a big thing you might be missing when learning from them… have they ever done the really hard work of actually getting clients?

As I’ve said so many times, the hardest part of this business (and I’m convinced the hardest part of any business) is getting clients!

Initially I was a little bit naive about these things and I was going for “home runs”, trying to get big paydays with one big move. Maybe a big client or a big case. Maybe a certain contract that would pay me big-time and then I’d be set. However, in my experience, that’s just not the way it works.

This is how it really works…

The real game changer for me came with moving from trying to hit one-time home runs, and just working on getting “singles”. Just get on base.

When I started to concentrate on the small things that will be small wins over and over again (each day), that made the difference for me.

What trying for a Home Run looks like…

There are times when you might want to try for a marketing home run. But do it with a measured approach. Think it through and have a plan for it.

Maybe you say to yourself, you want to go put up a booth at a convention with attorneys. It’s going to cost $2,300 bucks for the weekend to get the booth. You’ve also got to pay for the display, drive there and print promotional materials. I don’t know where you are in life, but for me and for people in our industry, $2,300 is a lot of money! And really, you’re just rolling the dice, right?

You say, “Oh man, if I could just pick up one client” or “I hope I make a contact” and yes that can pay off. That could be a home run for you, but it’s kind of unlikely.

However, everyday you can step up to the plate and work on just getting a ball in play, get the first base, getting a single.

What a “single” looks like…

So what do those types of things look like? Maybe today the step is so small as to make a list of law firms in your area that you want to work for.

Maybe the small step, that single for you tomorrow is to write a letter to those law firms. What do I want to say to them?

Maybe the next day that single is just mailing those letters.

I’m not saying you have to take a small thing like that and drag it out for days, but what I am saying is every day be doing something!

Every day get up to the plate. Every day, swing the bat. Once I started going for the singles, once I started doing the small things every day, that’s where things changed for me financially, for business, for everything!

Concrete Actions…

I’m a snail-mail guy. For me, I had to mail a letter every day.

That was my philosophy. Mail (at least) one letter every day.

That’s not going to be a home run. That’s not going to make a world of difference. But at the end of the month, I’ve reached out to 30 potential new clients. At the end of the year, I’ve reached out to 365 possible clients.

Let’s talk about the odds of success. What are the chances that you get hired if you contact 100 potential clients (admittedly, repeatedly contacting them – maybe a letter each month)?

If I’m only hired by 1 out of 100 law firms I contact, that means at the end of the year, I’ve picked up three or four clients.

I should be able to make repeat business from those clients over and over again.

Again, small steps. You do it every day. You do it year after year and before you know it, you’ve got a handful or more of clients that you work for regularly and you got some nice steady revenue coming in!

That’s if you only mail one letter a day. But…

Here in the 21st century, maybe it’s not mailing a snail-mail letter, but are you putting up a blog post each week? Are you engaging in social media the way that you should for your company? Are you following up with clients that you’ve already hired you but you haven’t heard from in awhile? Maybe those are people that do need to get a snail-mail letter!

Look, step up to the plate every day. Go for plenty of singles and over time that will pay off and it’ll make a huge difference.

If you like that helpful info, then don’t miss out on my free special report If You Want To be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…

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Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye, P.I.

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