The Self-Employed Nutritionist

While there are many pros and cons about being a self-employed Nutritionist, the main advantage is that you don’t answer to anyone, except yourself. But then you have the tall mountain to climb by making a name for yourself and attracting clients. Although it is hard at times, in the end, self-employment almost always wins. Here are a few more points about working for yourself.

Paths to Self-Employment

There are two types of self-employment for nutritionists.

The first type of self-employment (and most common) is when you build your nutrition business out of your home. This is the best way to get started without much capital. You will need a room set aside to see your clients. You can hire a sales person on a commission basis to bring in clients but most people going this path simply do it themselves. By now, your friends probably know about your interest in the nutrition field so word of mouth is the best and cheapest way to go. Being a nutritionist is all about making connections. Join groups online or in your area, get involved in online forums, be a part of small business group meetings, and just meet as many people in the field as you can. Health food store are a great way to get clients as long as you’re not disrupting business for them. Another good way to pick up clients is to set up free demonstrations at local gyms.

The other type of self-employment is when you rent dedicated office space. You would need a good amount of starting capital to begin  this way but clients may come your way faster as you would appear to be more of a legit business. Here, it pays to go in with a carefully thought out business plan and with everything you need to budget ahead of time. This would include salaries for up to two receptionists if your business becomes successful. It would also help you to have a sales person so that you can build your client base. Have them work for commission so that there is there is no money coming out of anyone’s pocket for this. Telemarketing is helpful here.

Promoting Yourself

It helps to have a business website and a Facebook page, to help attract new clients. To get your business in front of prospective clients, some SEO for your website will be necessary to get your website listed higher in search engines such as Google. Make sure that your website is full of up to date content in nutrition before you do this. All the links must work. Spelling and grammar must be good. Your site must give them some of the answers on what they are looking for.

Most people are interested in how to lose weight safely and keep it off to better their health. This includes lowering stress, eating right, and exercising. Your nutrition business is a huge plus for weight loss and avoiding diseases by eating cleaner foods. Since everything has to be balanced for humans to live, supplementing is important here too. Life is all about balance. You don’t have that with the normal diet of processed foods.

Products

One of the best things you can do is sell products to your customers. Purchasing supplements, oils, and other products for your nutrition business can be done by looking for the best deals (as close to wholesale as possible) online. Find the companies that you trust. You can save yourself a whole lot of money by doing it this way.

You should make available for sale many of the most commonly used supplements people use these days. Things like vitamin A and B, Omega 3 and 6 Oils, Flaxseed Oil and Acidophilus. This is just to name a few.

Finally and most importantly, be patient. It can take a long time to build a business in the nutrition field, because of its competitiveness. When you keep going at it, doors will open for you and your customer base will soon build. Then you will have repeat clients doing the advertising for you through word of mouth.