The Best Way To Grow Your Online Business

If you are anything like other small business owners, you (sort of) hustled to grow your business to this point and reach your maximum capacity with private customers, but if you want to continue growing the business's success and market share of your business, you need to do things a bit differently - which might look like you creating a new scalable offer using intuitive business growth strategies.

What Do I Mean By A Scalable Offer?

Right now you're offering private services, otherwise known as 1:1 services or done-for-you services. You are essentially working with one customer at a time. (This is a fantastic way that many new businesses start out.)

When you create a scalable offer, you are able to work with more customers at a time. Maybe in a small group format or maybe in a large group format.

There is likely one pre-recorded training or multiple pre-recorded trainings for your customers to learn on their own, and there may be group calls to answer their questions and help them really learn all the tasks and core competencies of what you teach inside the pre-recorded trainings.

Scaled offers can look so many different ways, but most small businesses that I've seen with these types of offers have the combination of pre-recorded trainings and live calls that they deliver to a large group of customers.

What Do I Mean By Intuitive Growth Strategies?

Intuitive growth strategies (to me) are a combination of your own intuition for how you want your business to grow and what you know your customers want AND a solid small business growth strategy which may include pieces of things you learned in your successful business building journey so far.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say...

You have probably already completed several online courses or training programs that teach you how to grow your business. Maybe you've learned someone else's way of doing lead generation or how to create landing pages that convert. You might have even received a large step-by-step to do list from those programs that you can implement in your company.

Someone else's way could work for you, especially if it's proven to work in other businesses or other industries or with one of your direct competitors.

But there's a reason you didn't follow through and apply what you learned to your business.

I would be willing to bet it's because something another person taught you felt "off" to you. It felt misaligned with how you want to grow your business or increase sales.

That's why I recommend you use intuitive growth strategies when you are ready to grow your business quickly.

Now that we got definitions out of the way...

Before you decide to create a new scalable offer in a way that makes sense for you and your customers, you will want to weigh all of your options first, because creating a scalable offer can be a lot of work filled with calculated risks.

Your Options For Growing Your Online Business

There are five main options you'll likely consider when you reach your maximum capacity with private customers. Let's talk about each one.

1. Do Nothing: You could keep everything the same in your business, and just be content with where things are. It's completely up to you whether you want to grow revenue or keep things how they are now. There's no shame in deciding to intentionally not grow your business right now, and instead focus on revenue maintenance. But if you do want to consider your growth opportunities...

2. Increase Prices: You could keep everything in your business the same as it is right now, and simply increase your prices. This will grow your revenue. But at some point, you might increase your prices so high that you price yourself out of the market and customer retention may be affected. So, this is a good strategy to do at first, but if your sales volume starts to decrease, you will want to evaluate your pricing strategy.

3. Increase Number of Customers: You could increase the number of private customers you work with. This will involve you taking a look at your schedule and adjusting some things. But at some point, you'll reach your maximum capacity again. So, this is a good strategy to do at first (similar to increasing your prices), but if you start to feel overwhelmed with client work and you still want your business grow, you will want to evaluate your growth plan.

4. Hire Help: You could hire a Virtual Assistant, Online Business Manager, or an equally qualified colleague (for example, if you're a coach, you could hire another coach to deliver coaching services to your clients) to help you in your business. The problem is...most online business owners don't want to manage other people. So, creating strategic partnerships is a good strategy, but you will want to improve your leadership skills and prepare your business to hire help before you actually hire them. If you are interested in hiring a Virtual Assistant specifically, read this article to learn how to prepare your business.

5. Create A New Scalable Offer: You could create a new scalable offer to work with more customers at one time. Most people create a group program. This is a fantastic option, but many online business owners are hesitant to do this, because they don’t know how to create a new scalable offer, they feel unsure if they'll be able to sell this offer, they don't have the cash flow they might need, and they are afraid of using technology on global platforms. New things always make us feel hesitant and unsure.

If you're weighing your options right now, you might be wondering when it's best to create your new scalable offer, because you see that as the long term option that'll grow business.

When To Create A New Scalable Offer

Many online small business leaders, mentors, or gurus, and even some business news articles, will tell you to increase your prices as high as your market will allow, reach your true maximum capacity, and hire help BEOFRE you create a new scalable offer.

While that advice makes strategic sense, the truth is...you can create a new scalable offer anytime you want to, because your business is YOUR business. You are the business owner. You are the CEO of your own company and your company's success.

You don't have to change your customer base or your entire business model either. You can continue working with your existing customers privately and market your new scalable offer to new customers.

Decide To Create Your New Scalable Offer

When you are in the early stages of thinking about growth and offering additional services to your clientele as business grows, and you are considering new product offerings as your solution, you'll need to first decide to move forward or not.

Easier said than done though, right?

In order to make the best decision for your business, you'll want to ask yourself a few questions...

• What do you want?

• What do your future clients want?

• What do both you and your future clients want? (The place where those things intersect, is what you should do next.)

If you want to offer a group program and if your future clients want a group option, your decision is essentially made.

So, how do you actually create your new group program? Let's talk about it.

Create The Vision For Your Group Program And Your Overall Business

When you decide to create a group program in your business, you don't need a formal business plan, but I do recommend you start by creating your vision for your group program and your overall business.

Here's a few questions to ask yourself...

• What does your group program look like in the future?

• What are you going to help people with?

• What are you going to teach?

• What are you going to offer inside your program?

• What is going to set your program apart from other programs similar to yours?

• What do you want to spend your time doing in your business in the future?

• How will your group program fit into your business as a whole?

Answer those questions and you'll have a vision for what you're going to create.

The next step may surprise you...

The Next Step Is To Achieve Work-Life Balance

I know this sounds weird, but after you've made the decision to create your group program and you've developed your vision for what it'll look like in the future, your next step is to achieve work-life balance. Let me explain...

When you've reached your maximum capacity for private customers, you're likely feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. You don't want to create your group program while you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. So, achieving work-life balance must be a priority. It won't happen overnight, but you can likely achieve it in 30 days.

My programs will help you make that happen, so you can move onto the next step...

Get Clear On Who Your Ideal Client Is For Your Group Program

After you've made the decision to create your group program...

And you've developed your vision for what it'll look like in the future...

And you've achieved work-life balance...

The next step is to get clear on who your ideal client is for your group program.

(Hint: It doesn't have to be the same as your existing customers, but it can be.)

When I work with my customers in my programs, I have a series of questions I ask them to help them get clear on who their ideal client is. It's pretty robust.

I'm not going to share all of them here, because this post would be super long, but here's a few to get you started:

• Is it the same ideal client that you're currently working with privately or is it a different ideal client?

• What is your ideal client thinking when they sign up for your program?

• What is your ideal client feeling when they sign up for your program?

• What is your ideal client struggling with when they sign up for your program?

Answer those questions and you'll understand who your new customers are a little bit deeper than you do right now.

If you want to understand your ideal client even deeper, you can work with me in my programs or look for other resources (like a Google search) with more questions to answer about your ideal client.

What Result Are You Going To Help Your Clients Get In Your Group Program?

You know who your target market is. Now it's time to evaluate their pain points and get clear on what result you'll help them get in your group program.

Start by looking at the positive reviews or testimonials you've already received from your private customers, if you plan to teach similar topics.

Many businesses create scalable programs that offer similar results to their private services, because the process to get those results is proven.

Decide what result you'll help your clients get inside your program and continue moving forward.

Determine Your Process For Helping Your Clients Get Those Results

Then next step is to figure out what you'll teach your customers in your program.

Start by thinking through where your ideal clients are when they sign up for your program within your company...mentally, emotionally, and the struggles they're facing.

Then think about where you want to help your ideal clients get to after they complete your program within your company...mentally, emotionally, and the struggles you'll help them fix.

If you plan to help your future customers get a specific result in your group program, my guess is...you're already doing it right now with your current private customers. So, take a look at how you're getting your current customers that specific result.

There is a process or framework or system built into your current teachings. I promise you!

The trick is to look at how you're teaching it to your current customers who are also your ideal clients for your group program.

Make sense?

Find your process and move forward.

Design And Create Your Group Program

Now that you've completed all the prep work, it's time to design and create your group program for potential customers to join.

You'll decide on what's included in your program and you'll actually build it all out.

For example, if you plan to create any pre-recorded trainings or online courses, this is when you'd plan that out and maybe even create them. (You can create them live inside your program or before you offer your program. It's up to you.)

My programs will help you do just that.

Launch Your Group Program Using Intuitive Growth Strategies

When you're ready to launch your group program, you'll likely think about all the different marketing and sales trainings, online courses, or programs you've been through that were taught by another entrepreneur.

Marketing and sales trainings, online courses, or programs that taught you that entrepreneurs exact way of doing things.

But when you tried to implement what you learned in the past, you weren't successful, and you don't understand why.

I'll tell you why right now...

Whatever marketing and sales tactics you learned from other entrepreneurs with large companies probably works. But there's something about their approach you didn't like. Something that didn't feel aligned with how you want to run your company or launch your products or services.

That's why you need to use intuitive business growth strategies.

That's a fun little term I created (at least I think I did!) that has you combining your intuition, your instincts, with solid business growth strategies. It helps you to do strategic planning in a way that aligns your business's growth with your business values and your values as a person.

There are not a lot of people teaching intuitive business growth strategies, but I do!

I can help you create your own custom launch plan, that includes marketing strategies that feel good to you, and help you get financially prepared to launch your group program if we work together in my programs.

Master Your Marketing And Sales Funnel For Your Group Program

After your group program launches and new customers are joining, you'll want to focus nearly half of your marketing efforts and invest more money into mastering customer acquisition.

You'll want to take a look at your digital marketing and sales funnel and use the data it generates to test, adjust, and tweak things until customer acquisition is consistent.

Your marketing and sales funnel will be truly unique to you, if you use intuitive growth strategies to create your plan.

Think about the customer experience when you create your marketing and sales funnel.

You may continue attending networking events, if that was a part of your private services marketing plan, or start attending networking events for the first time.

You may run paid ads.

You may post on social media platforms.

You may host webinars or workshops to show potential customers your teaching style.

You may create a great customer service and loyalty program.

Or maybe you won't do any of those things! 

Whatever you decide, will be your unique way to master and grow your business.

Most businesses don't spend enough time using intuitive business growth strategies. Instead, they focus a lot of time and effort on studying what other business owners are doing.

You may experience rapid growth in your business after you've mastered your marketing and sales funnel, which is a good time to start focusing on customer retention and dialing in your already amazing customer experience.

Customer retention and an amazing customer experience work hand-in hand for businesses.

The Ultimate Goal: Transform Your Life and Business

If you take action on everything this blog post talks about, you will have essentially transformed your life and business, which is the ultimate goal as a new business, a seasoned business, and as a business owner.

Right?

I'd love to work with you to transform your life and business.

I invite you to learn more.