For many solopreneurs, there are three problems that they struggle with and these at best simply stop them from growing their business and achieving their desire income, at worst they can cause them to burn out.
It has taken me ten years being self-employed and three businesses to finally crack these problems myself, and create a business that is not constricted by these issues.
So, what are these problems?
Problem No. #1 – Your Business Model Is Not Scaleable
What this means is that there is a fairly low ceiling to the growth of your business, and once you hit that ceiling you cannot grow your business.
When I was working in my first business as a psychotherapist, I worked on a session by session basis with clients. Given the nature of my work, there was a pretty low ceiling to the number of clients I could see each week. This meant my business was not scaleable. If you are a Consultant, Therapist or Coach then you might be struggling with this problem.
Problem No. #2 – Working Too Hard For Too Little
If you are trading time for money (like I was as a psychotherapist) then you will encounter this problem.
How this affected me in my psychotherapy practice was I could not take on any more clients, I quickly hit my income ceiling. Despite having a fully booked practice with two locations and a contract offering onsite counselling to a multinational, I was still only making $40,000 in revenue and taking home personal income of around $25,000 per annum. I had no pension, and couldn’t easily take holidays as this meant I would not bring any income in.
Perhaps you can relate? Maybe you are experiencing these problems right now in your own business and wondering what to do about them?
Well, what I decided to do to try to solve these problems was to launch my second business Talking Therapy.
This business was an online marketing service which helped people looking for a counsellor or psychotherapist in Ireland to choose the right therapist for them. This business made its revenue by charging a referral fee to our therapist members when a new client booked an appointment with them through our website.
I had hoped that this business would provide me with a passive income and finally help me to break through my income ceiling.
What happened in practice was that this business provided a great service to our therapist members, and was much loved by the general public, who used our service…but there was one key problem, which is explained by problem number three!
Read also: Why most therapy practices fail
Problem No. #3 – Your Potential Audience Size Is Too Small
My second business, Talking Therapy, was focused on solely the Irish market – providing Ireland based Counsellors and Psychotherapists with client referrals.
There was no prospect of being able to expand this business internationally as there were established competitors in UK and other countries. This posed a significant problem – this business could not scale – once again there was a ceiling on the revenue the business could generate and income I could make.
From this business, I learnt that to create the highly profitable heart-centered business I craved, I needed my business (and its services) to have an international audience.
Having an international audience would give my business the biggest audience and market size to target, thus the business would be able to grow, scale and expand, AND it would be highly profitable!
So, what is the solution?
If you are struggling with:
- Not being able to scale your business
- Working too hard for too little
- Your audience for your services being too small
Then you need to create a business that:
- Has products and services that can be offered online
- Has a scalable business module which is not based on trading your time for money
- Has an international audience of potential clients
Read also: The reason why you aren’t getting any online clients
What will this look like in practice?
If you are a Coach, then you are already in the right business. What you need to do is to make sure you take your coaching business online so you take advantage of the international audience for your coaching programs.
You also need to offer group programs in addition to your 1:1 programs, so that you are not just trading your time for money and can expand your business.
If you are a Consultant, then your biggest problem is that you are working too hard for too little. What you need to do is transition from offering “done for you” services to having coaching programs, where instead of doing the work for you clients, you empower them to learn the skills to be able do the work you do themselves.
If you wish, you can still offer your “done for you” consultancy services, but just offer them to your elite premium clients who will pay you an appropriate fee for your time.
For me the problems I faced in my first two businesses led me to found, Client Nectar. In just two years I have taken this business from scratch to multiple six figures and this year I am on target to make half a million!
The great thing about Client Nectar is I can grow my revenue year on year (in fact I have doubled my revenue every year since I founded Client Nectar in late 2014) and as I grow my business I can make an even bigger impact on those I am here to help.
The truth is that I am not anything special, this opportunity is open to you too..
I would love to help you realise your dreams for your business..so I’d like to invite you book in a Next Level Business Breakthrough Session with me and my team.
This session is completely free, and I promise will be the turning point for you with achieving your visions, so simply click below and book in your call:
“Together we can make your business dreams a reality!”
Shelley Hutchinson is founder of Client Nectar, she combines mindset coaching, with online marketing and heart-centred selling to provide Coaches and therapists with powerful, easy to follow and life changing business and marketing programmes.
