Jade Boyd: I think you should always push yourself a little further than you think that you can go, but make sure that it’s motivational to you, that it’s not so big that it feels crippling or overwhelming. It should feel really good and exciting.

When I was in college getting my BBA in entrepreneurial management, I remember being so frustrated by all of the homework assignments that we were given because they all had the same requirement, no matter if it was entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurial marketing, whatever class I took, if we were making a business plan, every assignment had the requirement that the business idea had to scale to a million dollars in three years. And I was so frustrated at the time because I just wanted to make a business plan for this cute little coffee shop, you know, something that I could potentially use in real life someday. And I didn’t want to make a business plan for a software idea or a robot or any of the other crazy ideas that my classmates came up with because none of them sounded interesting, fun, or realistic to me, but looking back now, I can understand why they had that requirement in place and my 20 year old self may not have thought that a coffee shop could scale to a million dollars in three years, but my 30 something self now knows that you can make a plan to scale virtually any business to a million dollars in three years.

It just takes thinking outside of the box, and for that coffee shop, they could have roasted beans and distributed them nationally. They could have franchised. They could have created a consulting program for other new coffee shop owners. There’s so many different ways that they could have scaled in three years. So when you think outside the box in your business, you might be surprised by what’s possible.

And I think this is oftentimes the rut that service providers find themselves in. Just trading time for money does not scale. But if it’s all you’ve ever known and if client work is taking up all of your time and headspace, it can be really difficult to think outside the box and think about ways that you could create a scalable, more profitable business.

And before I get into the episode, I want to differentiate between growing and scaling. And I’m going to drop a really helpful visual chart in the show notes that shows this concept really, really clearly. But basically if you’re growing, you have to put incremental more time and money into your business in order to earn incremental more revenue.

So for example, a graphic designer. They book a new client, they spend time designing a brand, and then they get paid for that project. But if you’re scaling, then you’re putting in either the same amount of time, or putting in less time, or financial investment, and then exponentially increasing your revenue.

So, that same graphic designer could create pre made branding kits, and then they could sell them to an unlimited number of people. It takes the same amount of time to create that branding design, but the earning potential is exponentially increased. And there’s many paths to scale. This is just one example.

Digital products are definitely not the only route.

But today, we’re talking about scaling your business. And I like to say that business minimalists don’t grow, they scale. Because becoming a business minimalist is about working less and making more. And in my mind, the very best way to do that is to scale.

And again, it can be dramatic scaling, like creating a software app, but it doesn’t have to be that dramatic. And there is a path for every service provider. And towards the end of the year, this topic is really on every business owner’s mind. Like, where is my business heading next? here. What am I going to do? What do I want to accomplish? And if you’re an experienced entrepreneur or if you’re just starting out, these four essential pillars are the foundation for a scalable business. Scaling can be super exciting and obviously very profitable, but it also comes with a lot of unique challenges. So in today’s episode, I’m going to walk you step by step through the four business essentials that you need before you scale so that you can go into the new year with clarity and confidence in your plan for earning more while working less.

So diving right in the first essential that you need before you scale is a clear vision for your business scaling is not for everyone. It can be super profitable. Yes, it is a great way to grow your business, but scaling your business oftentimes means removing yourself from the day to day operations and stepping into your CEO role, becoming more of a manager and a strategist.

And. less of a creative or a one on one service provider. So if the reason you started your business is because you really, really love working with people and you do not want to do anything that removes you from the day to day in your business. Like if you truly enjoy that and you’re happy with your income, where it’s at.

Then this might not be for you and that’s okay. I don’t always think that bigger is better in business and there’s definitely different degrees of scaling. So for that person who’s like, you know what, I don’t want to do anything crazy or revolutionary with this. I just want to do what I love and make a decent income, increasing your prices and productizing your services is also a first step to, like, kind of scaling. I wouldn’t really call it scaling, but it’s kind of like phase one of scaling. Because when you productize your services and you systemize them and you automate them, you do get to work less. And also, if you can deliver a better experience through that, you can potentially earn more.

So, making more money, putting in less time, that’s technically scaling, although it doesn’t stretch very far. If you’re just one person, you still have a limited amount of time and a limited capacity for serving clients, even if you’re saving a bunch of time and increasing your prices. So, it is kind of like a… version of scaling, like a phase one of scaling, but it’s only going to get you so far. So the first step really is having a clear vision for your business and what you want it to look like. Like, what do you want to spend your time doing every day? What kind of earning potential do you want your business to have?

Do you see this being the type of business that makes headlines? Or do you see yourself being featured in Forbes or entrepreneur or, large national magazines? Are you trying to do something really newsworthy, or are you just trying to have this, like, side hustle that makes you feel fulfilled, gives you an outlet for exploring your purpose, allows you to be creative, allows you to help people, and brings in a little bit of money?

Neither one of those is wrong, but it’s really important to get clear on what you actually want and be honest with yourself, because I think that as women, we oftentimes have doubts or like, who am I to say that I want to be featured in Forbes or whatever your dream might be for me. It’s like someday I would love to have a planner line in Target. That seems like a really big, audacious goal and scary goal for me, but there’s nothing wrong with having big goals and it’s okay to admit yourself if you want something that seems a little bit impossible.

So step one before you scale, make sure that you have a clear vision and understanding of what you actually want and that you’re not just pursuing this vision of scaling or this new product or service just because you think that you should be doing this because everyone else is doing it.

Okay, step number two is a marketing strategy that will scale.

And I’m obviously a business minimalist, so I believe in creating minimalist marketing strategies that allow you to get better reach and better return on the activities that you’re actually doing. And when you’re starting out and thinking about scaling, it’s a lot more productive in terms of marketing to focus your efforts in a certain area.

So I call this my core five strategy. Five things to be super clear on are your client, who is that core client that you’re reaching, what is the core problem that you’re trying to solve, one client, one problem, and one signature offer. What is your signature solution for this problem that they’re having?

Your core message, clearly communicating who you work for, what you do, and why people should work with you. And then core content, so understanding which marketing channels you’re using and how you’re showing up every single month to move people through your funnel and to make sales. And the more clear you are on what your marketing strategy is, and what you’re actually trying to accomplish with your marketing.

The much less work is going to be on the back end, actually putting in the effort to either create content or to pitch yourself or whatever that might be as part of your strategy to actually get results through what you’re marketing. It becomes a lot more memorable and a lot more clear. You become a lot more referable because if you’re the person who’s like, you know what, whatever you want related to branding, I can do it.

It’s a lot less clear when people are having problems with specific things in branding for somebody to refer them to you. But if you’re very, very clear in what you do and your clients know you. for that specific offer in that specific problem. They’ll talk about that and other people will notice too.

And I think there’s a certain point in your path to scaling where you get enough traction that you can branch out and do multiple things well. But if you’re starting out as a solopreneur, even if you have like a very small team, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to. adequately and like with quality create marketing strategies to sell five different things to five different people.

So I always recommend keeping it simple, making your life easier and also getting better bang for your buck in terms of the time and the money that you’re putting into your marketing plan.

The second part of having a marketing strategy that will scale is having that template plan and knowing the activities that drive results and get you clients, get you sales in your business because eventually you’re not going to be able to be wearing all the hats in the marketing department. You’re going to have to ask for help or outsource or delegate some of those things to people.

And so you need a plan to give them, you need a structure for them to follow. You need a system for them to take hold of so that they can actually do what you’re doing. If your marketing plan is like, I’m just going to show up every day and talk about what I want to, that doesn’t scale. So have a clear strategy in place, have it documented and have that repeatable plan and processes for your marketing so that that will actually scale along with your business as your team grows.

Okay, the third essential is an offer that will scale. So going back to the last step, we talked about having that signature offer. Ideally, your signature offer scales. And when you’re thinking about your signature offer, I like to think about this in terms of the 80 20 rule, 80 percent of your revenue is going to come from 20 percent of your revenue streams, products, services. And so why not spend the majority of your time marketing that one offer that’s going to make up 80 percent of your revenue? Like, what could you do if you capitalize on something that’s already working instead of trying to put a lot of effort into these other things that aren’t generating real revenue for your business?

So, That signature offer, if it scales and you can market it really, really well, has easy earning potential for helping your business grow exponentially without putting in a ton of extra time or money into your marketing.

So doing a little offer audit, do you know right now? What offer are you known for? Like, what offer are you making most of your income off of? What offer do most people come to you and ask about? And how many people can you actually serve with that offer? If you were to forecast, like, the next 12 months, the max number of people that you could serve with that offer, knowing how much time it takes you to serve each individual person. How many people could you serve? And then what is your revenue cap? Because for one on one services, you will have a cap because your time is not unlimited unless you adopt a different business model that allows you to build a team or an agency model and scale that. But knowing what your capacity is for that offer is so important.

And if it does not scale to the income that you want to make next year, the best thing that you can do is to package your expertise into an offer that will scale. If you don’t have an offer right off the bat that’s going to allow you to reach your income, then you’ve failed before you’ve even started the year.

And I’m definitely not telling you that you have to scale to a hundred thousand or scale to a million. I’m not putting any numbers on this, but knowing your revenue goal, how much money do you want to make? And will your offer get you there? Is there even… potential for that offer to get you there? And is it realistic?

So if you’re saying that you’re working on client work 40 hours a week, that’s probably not realistic because there’s a lot of other things in your business that need to be taken care of. And so be realistic about how much time each week you actually have to give to client work. And how many hours per year you have to give to client work, knowing that you’re going to take sick days, you’re going to take time off for holidays.

Like build this around your life first goals and the type of schedule that you want to have. And then figure out what type of offer you’re going to be able to sell with the time that you have that’s going to get you to your revenue goal.

So with every coaching client that I work with, I give them a spreadsheet that helps them to calculate exactly what they need to make to pay themselves the income that they need to be earning or to pay themselves their dream income, whatever year it is and wherever they’re at in their business. I want you to set financial goals that are based on your needs, not based on what somebody else is saying that they’re making or what somebody else said that you quote unquote, like need to make to be successful.

And so the spreadsheet walks my clients through exactly what you need to pay yourself, but then also projects based on a 12 month forecast. And this sounds fancy. It’s really not that fancy. We just take each offer that you have and what it’s priced at, and then project what your capacity is for the year to estimate, like, how are we actually going to reach this goal? If we focus on launching A B or C in quarter one, Then what’s the revenue potential? And then what if we focused on this in quarter two growing the email list, whatever that looks like. And so I think start there and knowing what your offers are, what their priced at and what that signature offer is going to be that you’re going to market 80 percent of the time to hit your revenue goal and then making sure that you can scale up to your income goals and it’s okay to have stepping stone income goals too. You’re not going to go from like zero to a hundred in no time flat and it kind of bothers me when business owners say that, it’s okay to increase your revenue incrementally every single year as long as it’s a meaningful goal.

Like, I do not care if you have big goals, but I care if they’re meaningful to you and if they’re motivational to you. And so don’t set small goals just because they’re easy. I’m not for that either. I think you should always push yourself a little further than you think that you can go, but make sure that it’s motivational to you, that it’s not so big that it feels crippling or overwhelming.

It should feel really good and exciting.

Okay, and then number four, the last one, is systems that will scale. So this kind of goes hand in hand with the marketing system. If you’re just showing up every day and your to do list is in your head, and you’re just kind of getting things done and nobody else knows what’s going on, but you seem to remember everything that does not scale because eventually you’re going to need to ask for help if you’re going to scale your business.

And so I think of this in a few different systems. First, a client management system. So that again, starting at square one, you can optimize and automate your client workflow and create that world class experience that allows you to raise your prices. That is truly essential in the very first place that I would start is systemizing your client workflow.

And again, that gets so much easier if you do have one signature offer that you’re selling most of the time, start there. If you’re trying to sell 30 different offers, it’s going to be really, really difficult for you to systemize them. The second one is a task management system or SOPs. So, if you’ve been around a while, you know that I love ClickUp, and you can steal my exact task management system in my Organize Your Business course.

I’ll make sure that’s linked in the show notes. But there’s lots of different task management tools that you can use to kind of document what needs to be done in your business in order for the doors to stay open, in order for the lights to stay on, in order for things to run smoothly. Not only is this going to be so helpful for yourself before you’re ready to hire a team.

For me, I found it super helpful after hiring contractors now who are in my business weekly, they have access to the ClickUp spaces that they need, and I assign tasks to them, the recurring tasks. They have all of the checklists in their documented, they can ask questions in ClickUp and everything is super organized and it has been a game changer.

I cannot imagine having hired, like, especially a virtual assistant and just being like, okay, this week, here’s what I want you to work on. That would take so much time. And also it would allow so much space for things to slip through the cracks if nothing was documented. And I would have to answer a lot more questions, but instead in each of the channels, like in the podcast channel, I went through and created a quick video of me scheduling a podcast, and then there’s a workflow and that’s it. I just click the button to assign it to her and that’s all I had to do. So create a task management system. That’s going to scale with your business. You will not regret it in the long run.

And then I could mention a few other systems here, but the one other thing that I will mention is having a CEO day and a weekly review checklist, having those regular checkpoints in your business where you are stepping out of the day to day and into your CEO role, because again, if you go to scale, you are going to be pulled out of the day to day and you’re going to wear more of your CEO hat.

Regularly. And so if you know that that’s your plan, get into the habit of stepping into that role regularly. And I have two different episodes, one for the weekly review checklist and one for what I do on CEO days. And so you can go back and listen to those episodes. And see what my workflow is for that, but basically having a checkpoint where you’re stepping in and saying, okay, how did things go this week?

How did things go this month? What’s going well, and what’s not going well, and what needs to change and stepping outside of the day to day and seeing things from a high level view and seeing if your strategy is working, making adjustments as you need to, and really being that visionary leader of your business.

And yes, when you have a team, you lead other people, but you’re also responsible for leading yourself as a business owner. No one else is going to step in and lead you, people can coach you, people can mentor you, but they can’t lead you. You have to be the leader of your business. And so get in the habit of leading yourself now so that it’s easier to stay in that habit and you feel more confident stepping into that role when it is time to scale up to the next level.

So, to give a quick recap, the four essentials that you need before scaling your business are first, a clear vision for your business, second, a marketing strategy that will scale, third, an offer that will scale, and then fourth, systems that will scale. So I hope this episode has given you some ideas for things that you want to work on as we enter the end of 2023 and we’re starting to think about New Year’s goals and what’s next for your business.

I hope that it’s giving you some direction and some to do’s to think about as you’re making your plan for how you’re going to grow your business or scale your business in 2024.

And if you know that you’re in the position that you want to do something differently, you know that what you’re doing is not sustainable. You know that trading time for money in the way that you’re doing it right now is not going to get you to your revenue goals, is not going to allow you to pay yourself what you need to be paying yourself consistently month by month.

Then check out the Business Edit Group Coaching Program. It is my signature program for walking you step by step through this five step process that I’ve created to build a business that is sustainable, that is scalable, that does allow you to work less while earning more. And I will link all the details to that in the show notes.

So if you’re ready to scale your business and take the next step to creating that life first business that creates freedom, a consistent paycheck and consistent time off. Then check out the group coaching program in the link in the show notes.

Thanks so much for listening today until next time, business minimalist, take what you learned today and get 1 percent better this week.