Jade Boyd: Today, we’re going to talk about four different ways that you can scale your service based business and there’s definitely more ways than this, I’ll mention a couple at the end, but these are the four main things that you’re going to want to consider if you are looking to scale your business in 2024 or beyond if you’re listening to this episode in the future. Basically, when we’re talking about scaling, we’re talking about increasing the amount of people that you can serve, and also your revenue by nature, the more people you serve, the more revenue you can make without increasing your inputs in your business.

So that is the time and investment that you need to put into your business to serve those additional people. So when we’re talking about scaling and these four different paths, Each of these four paths will allow you to increase the amount of people you serve and the money you make without having you work more time, without having you put more hours into your week, without having you be chained to your laptop more often, and this is what I focus on in The Business Edit, my group coaching program, and helping service providers do, because every service provider is going to reach that point in their business where they can’t take on any more clients. And this is mostly true for one on one service providers, but no matter what type of service you have by yourself without scaling, there’s going to come a time where you are at your max capacity, you have no time to take on more clients, but at the same time, you might want to make more money or you might not be paying yourself enough, and that’s the stage at which people come into my coaching program. They’ve hit that point in their business where they’re already good at what they do, they have experience in their craft, they’re becoming the go to expert, and now they need to hit that next stage of business where they have to do something different if they’re going to make more money, but they don’t have any more time to put into their business. And that is a hard place to be in, but that’s where scaling comes into play because each of these four strategies allow you to get to that next level and come up with a new strategy and a new way to package your expertise and your offers in a way that can serve more people and make you more money without making you hustle harder for that money.

And when it comes to these four different types of ways that you can scale your service based business, I always suggest starting with one. Starting with one that you’re going to go all in on and focusing on that one strategy until it’s working, until it’s paying off, until you add another one. You can definitely do a mix of these different strategies to create different revenue streams in your business that are all scalable.

But when you’re starting out, and especially if you’re at that point where you’re really busy and you don’t have a lot of extra time to give to your business, you’re going to see the quickest results by focusing on one area and doing it to the best of your ability until it’s running smoothly, until it’s paying off, until it’s kind of rolling downhill on its own, until you add another one.

But eventually know that you can try multiple of these paths or if you try one path and it doesn’t work out for you, it’s okay to switch and try an alternate path. So today we’re going to talk about the four paths and then I’m also going to give you some tips on how to know if this path or each of these paths that I’m going to talk about is the right path for you based on what you’re good at and based on how your business is set up, because any of these strategies can work on paper or in general, right? But that doesn’t mean that each of these strategies is going to work for you. So when I’m coaching, I always like to think about what that unique person is gifted in, what they actually like doing, what’s going to come most easily and naturally to them and what’s going to fit into their business model and what they’ve already built up until this point so that they’re not starting from scratch, trying to build an entirely separate brand new business, because that takes more time and doesn’t pay off as quickly. Right? So when we’re talking about scaling, I always suggest focusing on the area that’s going to get you the quickest results, and it’s going to be the easiest to implement so that you’re able to have that extra cashflow in your business that you can then invest in hiring help for the next revenue stream or the next path to scale, and again, things just get easier and easier as you go, but when you’re starting out. Try and keep it simple and as manageable as possible by starting with that one area that’s aligned to your business and aligned to your personal strengths and what you’re actually excited to show up and do each day in your business.

Okay. The first path to scaling your business is to move from one on one services to group services. So a few different examples of this could be moving from VIP days or done for you services where you’re working with one person at one time. So every new client you’re taking on. Requires eight more hours of your time if it’s a VIP day or more than that, if it’s a done for you service every single month and moving to a model where you can take on more clients while adding less time or no time at all to your plate when it comes to group offers.

So some different formats, there’s high ticket and low ticket group offers. So there’s different types of this type of offer that you could add to your business, depending on where your offer suite is at. But some common examples would be some sort of group program. So for example, I used to do one on one coaching and now I have a group coaching program. So I moved the model so that I’m able to serve more of my clients and actually give them a better experience while taking up less of my time. ’cause I’m not meeting with every single client individually, face-to-face. I’m able to do that virtually now. And also all of my trainings and recordings in my entire framework for building and scaling your business without working harder is packaged so that they get better access to those resources.

I’m not just answering questions as they come up, but they have full access to the full step by step plan that they can follow at their own pace. And then I coach them week by week when they need it. So moving from one on one services to a group offer can increase the amount of people that you’re able to serve, can increase your ability to serve them well, and actually get them better results while also taking less of your time and energy.

A couple of other common examples in this category are masterminds, which can be similar to group coaching, but are usually groups of people who are at the same level in business or life, whatever focus the mastermind is at, or memberships, which are more of those low ticket offers, which can be face to face memberships where you are showing up and are live on calls with people or some sort of membership where you’re answering questions in some sort of group forum.

Like for example, if you are a photographer and you’re teaching people how to be better iPhone photographers, you could have a membership where you’re releasing one tutorial every single month, or you’re showing up on a call and teaching them one new thing every single month, then they have access to some sort of group forum where they can ask questions and submit homework from that month’s challenge in between, but also with a membership, it could be fully passive where they’re just getting a prerecorded training every month and you’re not showing up in between to answer all those questions unless they’re participating in one of your other offers. So you might only have a template, for example. So if you’re a productivity coach and you’re doing a monthly challenge, they would get access to some sort of private podcast. For example, if you’re doing this through Patreon, which is a really common platform for delivering membership content, and then everybody gets that. It only takes you the work to create that one hour of content, but you can sell that an unlimited number of times in the membership. So again, increasing your capacity to help more people and make more money without taking you a ton of extra time. The last one in this category that I like to touch on is public speaking, which is a less common one, but you are serving many people if you’re showing up and speaking to a crowd of 500 people instead of just directly to one person, you’re speaking and delivering value to more people during that same hour.

And you’re paid a lot more for that time typically with speaking than you would be if you’re only talking to one person, right? Just the nature of how people pay for conferences and events and the value of speaking. And that’s a different way to scale your business when it comes to this path number one of one to many services.

I forgot to mention that I’m also going to list these paths in order of easiest and fastest to execute to the last ones being the ones that are a little bit harder to execute and might take a little bit more time to execute. So as we’re going in order, just know that we’re starting with the easiest option and moving on to harder and harder options.

But this first option is a good fit for you if you really do enjoy your services and you enjoy the day to day work. You enjoy having that client interaction. This is a way to scale without removing yourself from that face to face contact with your clients if that’s something that you really don’t want to let go of and something that you want to go bigger on, it’s a good fit for you if you are serving clients who do need that ongoing support for you or ongoing coaching. Group memberships really lend themselves to retainer models or to subscription models where they’re subscribing and having monthly payments or quarterly payments over a long period of time, and so if you’re serving clients who do need that type of ongoing support and help and could gain value from working with you over a long period of time, that’s another way to see if your business model is aligned to this type of scaling.

And then the third check is to see if this fits into your offer suite in terms of high or low ticket items. So if you’re looking to replace your high end one on one services with a group program, I wouldn’t recommend starting with a membership or a low ticket group offer because it’s going to be a lot harder for you to build up that revenue and see the traction and the profitability happen when it comes to replacing your one on one services. So if you’re looking to completely replace your high end offer, I would go with more of a higher end group coaching offer or group membership offer or a mastermind rather than trying to start with a low ticket offer, which is just going to take you a little bit more time.

But on the other end, if you really love your one on one services and want to keep them the way that they’re at and you’re finding a different way to scale is through a lower ticket offer than something like a membership might be a better fit for you.

Okay, option two is productize education. So if you’re a service provider, chances are you’re the expert in a particular type of field that other people struggle with, whether you’re doing coaching or done for you services or one on one services that are done with you, you have an expertise that you bring to the table, and chances are that other people outside of people who are working one on one with you are going to benefit from getting the knowledge and information that you have to share with them. If they’re interested in doing DIY for themselves, just getting the information and then doing everything themselves.

And productized education is a really good way to help those people to be able to help more people without putting more time into your business. So what I mean by productized education is just packaging your workflow, your knowledge, your resources, all the information that you have in your own business to help your clients and making that accessible to other people who want to get results for themselves.

So this could look like packaging a digital course or a digital workbook or just digital templates that you’re using in your business that might be helpful for other service providers in your industry. That’s a different audience that you could think about. Packaging different digital assets or digital templates or even templates within software.

So I sell a course called Organize Your Business and within that course is a template in ClickUp, which is the platform that I use to organize my entire business and really my life in one place. But that’s a digital template that I can sell over and over again and help an unlimited number of people without putting more of my time and energy into my business.

Another sort of out of the box example in this category would be writing a book, definitely writing an e book, but also publishing a physical book as well would be great. productize education that you can sell over and over again, but you only write the book once, right?

That one might take a little bit more time and energy. So it is an outlier when it comes to category number two, which is only the second most difficult path in this path of four different things that we’re going to be talking about, but it’s still a way to productize education in a way that allows it to be more accessible for more people without you having to work harder.

And productized education is not right for everybody, but here are some ways to know if this might be the right path for you. First, are there very specific niche problems that you can solve in your business? I gave the example of my ClickUp template. That is a very Niche course. And if you’re doing digital products, chances are you’re going to be competing with a lot of other people who are selling products, who are claiming to do the same thing.

And so the more that you can stand out with the thing that you’re packaging, make it as specific and clear as possible and really differentiate the product that you’re offering from other courses, other books, other templates that are on the market, the more successful you’re going to be. So when you’re thinking about developing a course or teaching about a specific topic, how specific can you make it? And if you can get really clear and specific or solve a very niche problem, it’s going to be all the more successful when it comes to productizing your education.

The second question to ask yourself if you’re considering doing some sort of productized educational resource in your business is how are you going to deliver results? Is it possible for you to deliver results to people without working one on one with them? Making sure that you’re actually packaging education that’s helpful for people.

It’s not just head knowledge, but it’s able to be put into practice and that you are really focusing on the value, not just how you can make more money and sell people, of course, but what are the results people are going to get? And are you able to effectively help them get those results if they don’t have access to you?

Making sure right off the bat that the answer to that is yes, people can get results for themselves and I know how to help them do that. Making sure that’s true of you and your business before you move down this route, because if your productized education doesn’t help people get results. It’s not going to sell very quickly because you’re not going to get good customer testimonials.

You’re not going to get referrals. You have to make sure the product is good.

And the third one, which is maybe the biggest barrier for people going down this path of scaling is that you do kind of have to be willing to build an audience. And again, there’s high ticket and low ticket productized education. Books are typically less than 20 bucks. There’s some courses that are $5,000. And so what you’re pricing this offer at is really dependent on what the value is that you’re delivering to people. Generally productized education is mainly a lower ticket item, which does require volume in order to make money off of it. Right? And also requires you to market to an audience and a wider number of people to get that wider number of buyers to actually buy the product.

So making sure that if you are doing some sort of digital course or passive income or digital template, that you’re actually willing to do the work to market, because it’s not a strategy that as soon as you create the thing and put it on your website, people are going to buy it like crazy. There’s still work that goes into it in terms of marketing and selling it consistently.

And so making sure that that’s something that you are willing to do if you go down this path to scale.

Okay, options number three and number four are less offer types and more business models that you could pivot to in order to scale your service based business. So option number three, when it comes to scaling is building out your team, either building your team through contractors or building into an agency model.

So there’s two different ways to think about this. The first could be to build your team by subcontracting or hiring employees to do all of the things that are outside of your zone of genius. So if we think of an example here of a service provider, a photographer, their main zone of genius and how they’re making money is through photography, right?

It could be photography, education. It could be one on one services. It could be mini sessions, whatever that is, them showing up to shoot is what makes money. And so if they’re focused on that for more of their time, they’re able to make more money. So if they were to build a team to outsource all of the marketing, all of the emails, the analytics, the system set up, the editing, the bookkeeping, the taxes, literally everything that is outside of their zoning genus. And the one thing that they want to focus on, they’re able to scale their business because they’re able to serve more people without putting in more time. Right? So that’s one way to build a team.

The other way is to go the agency model route where you are stepping out of the day to day client facing interactions a little bit, and hiring people in your business who can replace you, who can run the business almost on their own with you stepping into that CEO role.

So back to that photography example, that would be an example of a photographer who’s hiring associate photographers. So they’re serving more and more clients through their business, but they’re sending out their associate photographers and potentially even outsourcing editing too, but they’re able to deliver that consistent client experience and consistent editing style because their systems and processes and everything is the same on the client end. They’re just not necessarily the person who’s physically going out to shoot the session. So there’s two different types of ways to build a team, and this one again is not the right fit for everyone. A lot of people, when they apply for my coaching program say like, I want to scale my business, but I don’t want a huge business. I want to keep it simple. I don’t want a ton of employees. I don’t want this to be complicated, and I totally get it.

It is okay to stay small and you can stay small and scale. That just might not mean that you’re hiring employees. I think there’s a lot of freedom and flexibility to scale through using contractors. If you can hire the right people who will work with you over the long haul, or even in building your team, it’s okay to have multiple people on your team who are working as contractors.

And there’s a lot of flexibility and scaling there, but this type of business model might not be a good fit for you, but, here are some ways to know if it might be a good fit and you might want to consider this.

So the first way to know if this might be a good fit is to ask yourself if you’re really ready to step into that leadership and mentorship role. Because if you’re building a team, whether you’re hiring contractors or employees or associates in whatever field that you’re in, it is going to require you to mentor them, to teach them, to lead them, to guide them.

And that is a skillset and an area of expertise that not everybody is good at and not everybody likes doing. Not everybody wants to do that and that’s okay, but if you are feeling like you have a little bit of that mentor persona in you and you love building into other people, why not build into other people within your own business?

The second question to ask yourself in knowing if this is a good fit for you or not is, are you willing to step out of the day to day in your business and into a different role? And these two questions go a little bit hand in hand. Again, if you’re going the first route, where you’re just hiring contractors to take away things that are not in your zone of genius, you very much do still stay in the day to day in your business.

But if you’re going the agency route and handing off some of that client facing work to other people on your team, It does require you to step out of the day to day and you’re going to get a little bit less at that client interaction overall. If you’re not putting in extra hours, right? If you’re just balancing taking on new clients through other people, instead of taking on new clients yourself, it does require a little bit of shift in what your day to day to do list is going to look like, and it’s important to ask yourself ahead of time, is that something that you want to do?

And the third thing that you absolutely need to think about before you decide to go this route is are your systems set up to scale? Are your systems clarified enough and streamlined enough, and able to easily be replicated by other people? Are you capable of doing that? Could you hire somebody who could help you do that?

Because if you’re hiring other people in your business, especially if they’re interacting with your clients, their ability to deliver that consistent experience for every single client and get every single client, the same results is super important. It’s going to make or break your ability to be successful in scaling your business with this type of business model.

So it’s really important to ask yourself, Am I willing to do the work to systemize my business so that other people can come in and get results? Or am I able to hire somebody who can help me create the system so that this will actually work out? Because if you hire a bunch of team members who don’t have clear direction and they’re kind of winging it, it’s going to damage your brand reputation, it’s going to hurt your ability to take on new clients, because if you can’t trust your team to deliver results, you’re going to be forced into that micromanager role that nobody likes being in and nobody likes working for a micromanager either. So are you able to empower your team through systems? And are you able to actually create a team model that’s going to make your life easier and not harder?

Okay, option number four, the last option and the one that would probably take the most amount of time to build up and takes the most effort and consistency is changing to more of a media company model. And what does this mean? This means instead of doing services or working with people one on one, you’re building revenue through media.

So this could look like monetizing your podcast or monetizing your YouTube channel, doing a Patreon, like we talked about monetizing that content, making money through affiliates or through brand deals and sponsorships, all the ways that media companies make money. And this still allows you to help people because you can deliver phenomenal educational content through YouTube or through your podcast or through your Instagram, whatever media outlets you’re using to monetize in your business, but also you’re making money on the backend through those different revenue streams that aren’t necessarily coming directly from the people who are benefiting from the education itself.

So again, this is less of an offer and more of a different business model to consider. And it’s not that you would switch everything to this type of model. It’s just another type of thing to consider in your business. You can still do one on one services and have a monetized podcast, right? But it does take a little bit more time to build it up.

So if you are focused on building out your business into more of the media company model, know that it might take a little bit more time and you might want to get specific on which channel you want to focus on monetizing and how that’s going to be simplified for you so that you’re not trying to show up in a million different places and monetize all of those things at the same time, if you’re still trying to show up and do one on one services. Because again, with scaling, we’re focused on making more money without putting in more effort. Right? And this again is not the right fit for everybody, but here are a few ways to know if this might be a good fit for you.

First, do you actually enjoy creating content? Do you enjoy showing up on Instagram or do you really enjoy showing up on your podcast or on YouTube or whatever those channels are that are really successful for you at this point? If you don’t enjoy that, it’s going to be hard for you to show up consistently over a long period of time, which is what it takes for this model to pay off and make it worth it in the long run, right?

So if you don’t enjoy creating content, this is probably not a good fit for you, but if you love it and would create content, no matter if you never make a dime for the rest of your life, that might be a good sign that this might be a good fit for you. Also, if you already have a large audience, if you’ve just naturally built up that audience over time and you’re capped at how many one on one people you can take on in your business, this might be a really excellent second way to make money in your business because if you already have the audience, this is just going to be that much easier to do. I listed it at number four because, it does take time to build up your audience, but if that’s the stage you’re already at, this might be a really, really good fit for you, especially if you’re already podcasting and creating content that can be monetized.

And one last thing to think about when it comes to this model is that it does require you to be visible online, and not all business owners are comfortable with doing that. Some business owners are comfortable doing that for the short run, but long term don’t see themselves showing up consistently online in whatever media channel that might be.

And so if your vision long term is to be visible online and to take people along with the journey that you’re going on and to continue educating people, helping them level up as you level up, then that might be another good sign that a media company model, it’s going to be a good fit for you.

So just to sum up these four different paths to scale that are the most common ways to scale a service based business in the four paths that I teach in my coaching program are first doing a group offer, second, productizing your education, third, building a team or fourth, shifting to a media company model.

I hope this episode has opened up some ideas for how you can work smarter, not harder in the new year and serve more people, get more people value through your business and make more money. Without having to hustle without taking on more clients who are going to take up more time on your calendar and actually doing things that are really profitable because they’re repeatable over and over and over again without you having to show up physically and help people one on one.

And I just want to leave you with this. This is a crucial decision in your business and something that should be prioritized sooner rather than later. When my clients join The Business Edit, I challenge them to make this decision within the first two weeks of the program, because the sooner you can work on building out this new offer or model and launching it, it’s going to take time for this to gain traction and to gain clients, gain subscribers, gain sponsorships, whatever that looks like, depending on the path that you’re taking to scale, but deciding as soon as possible, what is the next step? What is the one thing that you want to focus on for the next year in terms of scaling your business?

Knowing that you can always pivot, or you can always add a different path to scale once the first one starts rolling downhill, but this is going to make or break your ability for your business to be sustainable because trading time for money is only going to be sustainable for so long in your business or so long in your seasons of life as things change.

And if your business revenue is tied to you being physically present, it does just naturally limit the amount of money in your capacity to grow in your business. So eventually you are going to have to choose a different path. And the sooner you can be thinking about that and developing that out, the more successful you’re going to be over the long run, but also over the short run, the quicker you’re going to see results and have your business feel a little bit easier and pay yourself more without having to hustle 24/7.

If scaling your business is something you’re fully committed to and ready to do in the next 12 months, I would highly encourage you to apply for The Business Edit. This is what my 12 month group coaching program is all about, helping you figure out your path to scale and actually execute it and make that happen within the next 12 months so that you’re able to fully unlock the potential in your business and make your dream income while also cutting back on your hours and not having to put more time into your business in order to make more money. So if you want to achieve that in the next 12 months and you’re committed to it, definitely apply for The Business Edit. The link is always in the show notes and I love discovery calls.

One of my past clients actually has recently been sending me a lot of referrals and reach out to me and said like, I don’t know if they’re all a good fit. So I’m sorry if I’m like bombarding you and I told her not to worry about it because I love discovery calls, whether or not it’s a good fit. That’s something we discuss on the call, assessing where your business is at and what your goals are and what your vision is, and if the program is a good fit for helping you get there. But I love meeting new women in business and asking them questions. And I think of these really as free 30 minute coaching calls. So even if this helps you get unstuck and get a little boost of clarity for the new year. I would love to meet with you.

So if you’re on the fence about applying, please just submit the application and I would love to chat with you and see where you’re at in business and help you get unstuck or to that next step, whatever that looks like.

Also feel free to DM me on Instagram. I answer all of my personal messages. So if you ask me a question about this episode, or if you’re struggling to know which path you want to take to scale and want to chat that through a little bit, happy to chat with you there as well.

So I hope again, that this episode opened some ideas and some inspiration and some clarity for you on how you can grow your business without the overwhelm over the next year. And until next time, business minimalists take what you learned today and get 1 percent better this week.