3 Growth problems in your business
Business growth is something we all want for our businesses. But often, there are three key problems you’ll face, when it comes to trying to grow - pricing, scaleable offers, and outsourcing. These tend to be the big issues in your business and will often hold you back and help you play small in your business.
So if you’re currently frustrated with your lack of growth, are struggling with pricing and stressing over outsourcing, you’re not alone! Here’s what you need to know to solve those problems and get your business back on track for the growth you want to achieve.
Use the right pricing model to avoid growth problems in your business
Getting your pricing right can be the quickest way to make more money in your business. It's such an easy way to make more money too. But it’s an easy way in practice and not always quite so easy to implement! But pricing is a good way to make more money and grow your business.
One of the quickest pricing fixes is to look at your packaging options. Because packages get you a fixed price for your service, regardless of whether you outsource or how quickly you complete it. Stop pricing by the day or time spent, and avoid trading your time for money.
It’s also a good idea to put your prices up. If you're fully booked, put your prices up. If you're working more than you want, put your prices up. And, if you've got a waiting list, put your prices up. It's good to have a waiting list, but there’s always a point at which you are doing the work - and that is not a growth strategy. Because in the end, there’s a limit to how many hours you can work in a day, week, month or year. So think about how you want to grow your business and pick a model that supports that.
Many resources can help you with pricing packages, including this podcast episode on pricing strategies and my blog post on pricing confidence.
The versatility of scalable offers
Scalable offers are one-to-many models, but there are different ways to work them into your business. One of the first things you might do is cut down on offering one-to-one coaching and instead opt for a hybrid option where you offer some one-to-one elements but deliver the rest via videos, a course or a workbook. This is a perfect way of moving people to something you can do more efficiently and something that is semi-scalable too.
Another option is to offer group coaching. That's much more scalable for you, and you could offer some one-to-one within that and other resources.
It’s essentially trying to move what you offer into a one-to-many model without diluting what you offer. You can then take yourself out of the equation and deliver something that delivers a result and is probably cheaper for the client because one-to-one should always be your most expensive offering.
Scalable offers aren’t dependent on you delivering them live
Make sure you think about what you can offer in your business, that isn’t about you turning up and delivering live. Because once you get into one-to-many offers, you can quickly scale them up.
And opting for one-to-many models doesn't mean starting a membership. It’s a good option, but it isn’t the only one. It’s more about moving away from one-to-one and done-for-you models and towards done-with-you and do-it-yourself solutions. You can implement it in incremental stages and can do with anything you offer. For example, could you set up assessments before people come to you or automate more of your processes?
Outsourcing isn’t something to be terrified of!
Outsourcing is often tricky, as so many are terrified of it. But you need to outsource to grow. You may find it easier to start by outsourcing client work. You can outsource to a freelancer when you've got the work and stop as soon as the work dries up or the client changes.
But before you start outsourcing in this way, you need to know how much you will make from a job. So let's say you're charging £1,000 for a job, and you'll pay an outsourcer £500 - you get £500 for yourself. Is that enough for you?
Also, consider that you could be doing something else with the time you’re saving. Using the above example, if you make £500, you haven’t spent any or minimal time working on that job, but what could you do instead? Could you do another job for £1,000? So understand how it all fits together in your business and make sure that if you're outsourcing, you're using that time.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant and having support in your business
And when it comes to hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) and having your own support, it isn’t client-dependent, but you still want to look at the return. Often, a VA can do the job quicker than you, saving you time and money - but what can you be in that time to bring more money in and get other things done?
You can take a VA on for a few hours a month to start with. Many are also very flexible about how many hours you need and will tailor to fit your needs. So think about the things you don't like or aren’t very good at, as well as those that take up your time and outsource as many of those as you can. This includes bookkeeping, social media posting, graphics, social media management, email management, admin etc.
The VAT threshold is one of the biggest growth problems in your business
And finally, let’s look at coming to the VAT threshold. This can be a huge growth problem in any business. And the reason why is partly about pricing and partly about mindset. But it needn’t be a big problem! You need just to push on and go through the VAT threshold and see it as a good sign, a sign of growth. Because if you don’t, it will continue to hold you back from the growth you want and keep you playing small.
If you haven't listened to it already, go back and listen to my taxes and pricing episode and the episode on Sailing over the VAT threshold, where we talk about going up to the VAT threshold.
And if you’d like more help around growing and increasing your pricing, particularly around the VAT threshold, then join me at my ‘Sailing Over The VAT Threshold’ masterclass on Tuesday, 20th September. This one-hour class will cover the key things you need to know before getting VAT registered and is perfect if you’re reaching the VAT threshold or have recently gone over it. You can find more details at: https://thepricingqueen.com/vat.
