First things first, I have to tell you guys that there’s a huge misconception in the business world about how to scale up your business. A lot of gurus talk about “growth” and “scaling” as if they are the same exact thing. But actually, there is a huge difference between them!
Growing could really refer to anything you are doing to make more income in your business. Even if it’s wrong for your business, or worse, creating a burden that is eventually going to cause your business to implode on itself. Eek!
Growth is great, but it’s also important to grow the right way.
To “scale up” your business, is a term for a very specific kind of growth. It’s a type of growth that means you take the systems and offerings you currently have going on in your business…and you multiply them.
Teachable explains it really well in this article: “For example, if you’re making $1,000 a month and devoting 20 hours to your business, your scaling goal could be to make $2,000 a month while devoting 25 hours to your business. Your doubling income without doubling the cost.”
This is a great way to grow your business because to scale up means that you’re basically creating a ton more revenue without generating a whole bunch of extra work or expenses (when done right).
Can I get a hell yes?!
But remember, the important thing is that you can’t just try to grow or scale up willy-nilly. You have to have a plan. So let’s get started! Here are 3 ways to think about using to scale up your business.
3 Big Ways to Scale Up Your Business Growth
#1: Raise Your Prices
When you’re trying to earn more income, the easiest thing to do as a sales provider is raise your prices. If you charge more per hour of work, you’ll instantly make more money without putting in more effort.
This is an effective strategy to boost income, while also weeding out people not truly invested in your product. With a higher barrier to entry, you’re generally going to attract higher quality clients overall. Even if you lose a few clients when you raise your rates, you will still be making more money in the end with clients who really want to work with you. Problem solved, right?
Well, not exactly. Raising your prices is great when appropriate (read my controversial thoughts on pricing strategy), but it can’t take you all the way to a 6-figure income right away. If you start out making $15 per hour, you’re making $2600 a month before taxes and expenses. Curious about my math? That’s $15 multiplied by the average number of working hours in a month, 173.33.
Even if you double your prices to $30 per hour, you’re only making $5200 before taxes and expenses. That’s a great income! However, it isn’t in the 6-figure range. To get to that figure, you’re going to have to work a CRAZY amount of hours.
Raising your prices over time, as you become more skilled in your field and can offer your clients a better product, is an important factor in increasing your income. As a solopreneur, you should definitely have a plan for
- How to provide your clients with more value
- How much you will raise your rates over time
- When and how you will introduce the new rate to existing clients
- How to market yourself to new clients at this price
Whew! Raising prices takes some forethought! And, as important as it is to increase your hourly or per project income, It’s not the only factor. As a solopreneur, it can be really difficult to make it to the 6-figure income without working a crazy amount of hours to maximize billable time. You’ll have to include some other tactics to scale up to that mark.
#2: Sell More Passive Income Products
I wish this step was easier. I really, really do. A lot of solopreneur service providers think, “I’m great at what I do, I’ll share my knowledge in an online course, and make tons of passive income!” This is one of those things that’s fantastic in theory but really hard to execute.
It takes a LOT of work to create, market, and sell infoproducts. My first attempt was a total flop that sold one class….for over 60 hours of work!
Over the years, I’ve gotten better at infoproducts, including building sales funnels and marketing them. I’ve even helped many clients with theirs. So I do make a reliable income from passive income products (check out my latest income report!), BUT it is not the majority of my business. And it took me years of hard work to get to this point. I had to focus in a different area of my business to scale up to the 6-figure mark.
#3: Build a Team
We’ve talked about two traditional ways solopreneurs scale their business. Raising your prices and passive income products are great ways to boost income. But the step that took my business to making 5 figures monthly was building a team.
Having a team has allowed me the freedom to choose the projects I want to work on, while growing my business and taking on more clients! With a team of professionals I can trust, I can scale my business to do far more than I ever could on my own.
There’s only so many hours in a day. As a solopreneur, it’s easy to try to work 20 hours a day to make more money. There’s only so far that business model can take you. To dramatically change your income – and your experience at work! – you need to consider a new model that can scale your business up. Building a team has given me the ability to take on more clients and more work while focusing on the projects that need my attention.
There are challenges in hiring, training, and managing a team. It’s important to keep quality and branding consistent, especially with a team. With the right team and effective management, it’s TOTALLY worth it. Ultimately, more client work + freedom to delegate = more money + better work for you as the owner. That’s a pretty amazing outcome!
These are 3 big ways to scale your business. I use them all to some extent, but having a team is what has really made the difference between forcing myself to be happy with plateauing my business at the side hustle stage and actually being able to have a real, 6-figure-earning business that has helped change the lives of myself, my clients, and my students.
