What I wish more service providers would ask themselves before trying to scale

As a business growth strategist and mentor I absolutely love helping service providers to scale their business. Over the years I’ve helped service providers scale their business in all sorts of ways, but the ones who scale faster, easier and truly on their terms do so because they take the time to think before they start scaling their business. They don’t just hear someone online saying ‘You need to scale’ and then blindly follow their recommendations. They take the time to think about what scaling means to them, why they want to do it and what their future business and life could be like. Keep on reading to find out what I wish more service providers would ask themselves before trying to scale.

 

 

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WHAT I WISH MORE SERVICE PROVIDERS WOULD ASK THEMSELVES BEFORE TRYING TO SCALE

 

1. Why do you want to scale? What does scaling success look like for you?

 

There are so many reasons for scaling your business. It might be that you want to remove the cap on your income and have an uncapped earning potential. You might want to be able to work with more people. Maybe you want to work with thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions. Maybe you want more flexibility and freedom in when, where and how you work. Scaling can help you with all of the above, but you getting clear on what is important and what scaling success looks like for you is vital.

 

There is a big difference between scaling your business because you want to be able to help one million people through your business and scaling your business so can work a 3-day week whilst generating multi-six figures.

 

Getting crystal clear on your why for scaling is vital for when you make choices around your offer suite, pricing, marketing, sales and operations. So do not skip these questions. Write your reason for scaling down and keep that top of mind when thinking about everything else related to scaling.

2. Will your offer suite enable you to reach your ultimate financial goals?

 

Scaling your service-based business will mean moving from one-to-one services to one-to-many offers. There are a number of different one-to-many offers you could include in your offer suite so you can scale your business. Some popular options include: membership, mastermind, group programme, course, digital product, events and software. You can find out more about the different scalable offers and how to choose the right scalable offer for your business here.

 

When first expanding your offer suite to include scalable offers, it is easy to design it for your next financial goal, but smart service providers look beyond that. For example, if you are current generating 100K per year and you want to generate 200K it’s easy to design a scalable offer that will fill the 100K revenue gap. But if ultimately you want a business that generates 500K per year, design your offer suite for that. It might be that you don’t start running with that whole offer suite straight away, but knowing what you are ultimately working towards makes a huge difference. You don’t want to spend the time creating a new offer suite and then in less than a year be at the point where you’ve already outgrown it.

 

3. What do you want your ideal working week, month and year to be like?

 

Intentionally scaling your business can give you much more flexibility and freedom in relation to how, where and when you work. But you’ve got to be intentional. And in order to do that, you need to be brutally honest about what you want your working week, month and year to be like.

 

The reason I’m telling you to consider all three (week, month and year) is it forces you to make decisions which will impact your offers, marketing, sales and operations. For example, lots of people will think about their ideal working week. They’ll say I want to work a 20-day week or a 4-day week or a 3-day week. But do you want to do that 52 weeks of the year? I think not. Which is why zooming out and thinking monthly and annually is important.

 

For example, it is becoming increasingly popular with service providers who scale with monthly offers (membership, mastermind etc) to not offer a weekly call, but 3 calls or 2 calls per month. This means the business owner only a monthly basis has got the space for a week or two off. Looking at your diary and knowing you have one week per month that you can have off as you choose might be enough for you, but it might be you have specific times of the year where you want to be off and this is where thinking annual is important.

 

You might want to have specific times of the year off (for example school holidays), you might want to take an extended period of time off or there might just be certain dates throughout the year you want to ensure you aren’t working. When you think annually this not only helps you to think about blocking out to work and not work, but also thinking beyone delivery. For example, when thinking annual you can start to think about marketing launches, seasonal marketing camapigns and more.

 

CREATE A STRATEGIC ANNUAL PLAN IN JUST ONE DAY I’m the Annual Planning Queen and I specialise in helping solo and micro service-based business owners plan for the year ahead. Once you’ve got an idea of your ideal work year you’ll need a plan for how to make that a reality, whilst still achieving your goals. By booking a Strategy Day with me I’ll ensure you have a powerful and productive annual planning day where we consider all the major elements to ensure you can achieve your goals for the year ahead. All you have to do is secure your date, block it out in your diary and get ready to be guided through my signature annual planning framework that guarantees by the end of the end of our time together you’ll have a clear roadmap to achieve your goals and be excited for the year ahead. For all the information and to book a Strategy Day click here.

 

4. Is there a particular type of income you want to achieve via scaling? 

 

When scaling your business it’s easy to just focus on the overall financial goal you want to achieve, but not all money is created equal and you need to think about whether there is a particular type of income you want. Having worked with hundreds of service providers, there are two main income courses people want when scaling: monthly recurring revenue and passive income.

 

Monthly recurring revenue is a popular choice because it gives a business predictability about future income. This helps with cash flow forecasting and reduces the pressure around selling. Passive income is a popular choice because it means a business owner can make money without having to work. This can be a great way to general more income without increasing workload, but also can act as a level of security because when you have to always actively work to make money you are vulnerable (everyone gets ill at some point).

 

You might want passive income. You might want a monthly recurring revenue stream. You might want both. Be honest about what the types of income that are important to you.

 

5. Do I have the resources (team, tech, systems) to support more clients and still deliver to the same standard?

 

When scaling your business, one of the biggest threats is the quality of experience decreasing. That’s why it is important to think ahead about how as numbers increase will you ensure you are able to still deliver the same standard.

 

Investing in the right technology can make a huge difference. One-stop software solutions like Kartra can make it easy for you to be able to manage hundreds or thousands of people buying your course or joining your membership. In addition to technology you’ll need to think about team. Working with larger numbers of people may mean having to invest in growing your team too. You could need customer support or even more people actively helping you with delivery. And don’t forget the systems and processes. This is what ensures the same experience time after time after time.

 

6. Do I have the support around me to be the CEO I need to be successfully scale?

 

Successfully scaling your business means not only your business grows, but you grow too. It will push you to think different and you’ll have to step up as a business owner. Whether you are a solopreneur doing it all by yourself or a micro business owner with a small team around you, you’ll also need other support. This can be in the form of a business coach / mentor, business besties, accountability partner, mastermind and so much more.

 

Only you can answer what support you need, but you need some support that involves human interaction. You need to be able to share your problems, ask questions, be challenged, be cheerleaded, get advice and so much more. Usually the power combination is having a business coach/mentor and having a strong peer network.

 

 

ONE-TO-ONE MENTORING TO HELP YOU SUCCESSFULLY SCALE YOUR BUSINESS I know how important one-to-one mentoring is to successfully scaling your business and each year I work with a small number of scaling servicer providers. Together I’ll ensure you make the best decisions around your offer suite, pricing, marketing, sales and operations to successfully scale. But I’ll also be there to challenge you, to hold you accountable and to become the next level of CEO you need to be to having a thriving scaling business. For all the information and to apply click here.

 

 

7. How will I ensure that my business is being marketed every week (even if I’m not working)?

 

To successfully scale your business you are going to need to work with more people than you have previously as a one-to-one service provider. As a one-to-one service provider you might have got away with relying on referrals or being inconsistent with your marketing. But if you want to scale big then ensuring there is consistency and that your business is marketed every week is key.

 

Luckily there are a number of ways that you can ensure your business is marketed all year round even if you are not working. You could commit to online content marketing (email, social, long-form content) and ensure that even when you take time off you have content that is scheduled. You could decide to hire a marketing assistant who is responsible for marketing and so they ensure marketing happens all year round. You can focus on evergreen forms of marketing that will have a long life span (such as search engine optimised long-form content).

 

You’ve got options, but deciding your approach is key. You want to ensure that your business and offers are marketed all year round so you have a consistent stream of new leads and sales.

 

That’s it. You now know what I wish more service providers would ask themselves before trying to scale.

 

As I mentioned, right at the beginning, I love helping service providers scale and I’ve shared these questions because I know that asking the questions before you try to scale will help you scale more strategically and get better results.

 

I hope your’ve found this blog post useful. If you have do let me know over on Instagram or LinkedIn.

 

Hopefully these questions have opened your eyes to what you need to consider to successfully scale. If you are serious about scaling your business, then I would love to help you.

 

My 1:1 business growth and marketing mentoring is perfect for scaling service providers. For all the information and to apply click here.