Today’s guest blog article is by Claire McTernan (From Employee to Business Owner).
Your Trials & Tribulations
By specialising in Professional Services I totally understand your trials & tribulations, so much so I’m willing to bet that you resonate with at least one or more of these statements…
- My day is full of managing my existing client base so how on earth am I going to be able to squeeze more clients in.
- I seem stuck in the daily grind, it’s zapping my business mojo and I wonder if this is really the way I want to carry on running the business.
- My clients get great results, I know I deliver great value but yet I still undercharge and over-deliver.
- I know I’m good at what I do but I seem to have hit a glass ceiling which is keeping me working really hard but not achieving the progress I’m after.
- I’m falling into the trap of being a busy fool but I’m not sure how to push through to the next level of growth for my business.
- I know I should spend more time working on my business than in it but I just don’t seem able to find the time.
- I’m tired of being tired. What happened to that better work life balance?!
Have I just described you and your business? I know how “up & down” things can be when you have your own business. When you layer on to that the desire you have to do the right thing by your family it can be incredibly frustrating when you are trying so hard to grow your business but it’s simply not happening.
Reality Check
Let’s face it…the reason you are reading this is because you are looking for that magic “thing” to help you transform your business. I looked for that “thing” too.
Maybe it’s human nature to believe that there must be an easy, simple, no cost way that doesn’t take up any time to implement that “thing” that can transform your business.
I have read loads of books, listened to a multitude of webinars, downloaded tons of free reports, and bought a significant number of courses and I can tell you there is not a quick & easy, cheap, no hassle, done in a weekend, way to grow your business.
BUT I can tell you there is a way to grow your Professional Services business that uses your brain & some simple methods which, when mixed with a load of your hustle, WORKS!
So here are my proven strategies to help you transform your business starting TODAY!
Too Busy To Grow
Time is a great leveller. By that I mean we are all equally time rich as we all have 24 hours in our days. The only thing that differs is how we chose to use those hours.
Key to this is the word “chose” as you are in total control of how you spend your time and generally you are choosing to spend very little time on growing your business, and that’s why you haven’t achieved the growth you are after.
BUT the remedy is simple…just make the decision that growing your business is fundamentally important to you and then carve out the time to do it and stick to it.
That may sound a bit flippant but it is really that simple.
Stop the OVERWHELM by charging for the value you deliver
There’s a good chance you tend to take longer on a piece of client work than you actually quoted for, and/or your clients have a tendency to add additional scope into their projects which you agree to do without increasing their price appropriately.
The net result is that you over-deliver and undercharge on a regular basis and this is slowly running you into the ground! Have I just described you?
Again this is actually easy to cure if you take some simple steps to more proactively manage your clients and change your behaviour when it comes to pricing & charging.
Plus all that extra money you will generate as a result of those changes becomes instant profit. Nice! 🙂
Break free of being a well-kept secret
This is the biggest reason why businesses struggle; simply not enough people know they exist which means they don’t generate enough enquiries to provide the required growth.
The best way to generate new business is to be ultra-clear on who your ideal clients are and the value you deliver to them. Then you simply have to go fishing where they hang out. It really can be that simple. It doesn’t have to cost you a penny other than a bit of your time.
I’ve seen it time and time again, when people start to focus a bit more on targeted marketing they get rewarded with more clients. It is totally do-able.
The only thing holding you back is you!
There is an excellent reason why I have put these 3 strategies in that order…the key to bursting through your glass ceiling and achieving sustainable growth starts with you and your time. Once that is “fixed” you need to fix your charging strategy otherwise the overwhelm won’t go away. Then you need to break free of being a well-kept secret and turn that marketing tap on so you can recruit more clients at your new rates and grow.
Each one of the 3 strategies has the ability to radically transform your business. All you have to do is implement!
The 20%
The 80/20 rule suggests that 80% of the people who read this report will do nothing with it but yet 20% will actually implement at least some of the advice.
Which side of that split do you sit?
I want to help the 20%.
Has this report resonated with you? Could you identify with the challenges I’ve highlighted? Are you confident that you will implement the strategies I have shown you or is your head spinning a bit with all the information?
I want to help you if you are ready to take proactive action to build a sustainable business.
It will work for you if…
You have annual revenues in the range of £50,000 to £500,000
You have up to 5 staff
You have an established client base, by this I mean at least a handful of clients that you consistently work with and who love what you do
You are desperate to burst through your glass ceiling
You are ready to take proactive action to change the way you work
So what do you need to do?
It’s easy… let’s have a chat. It’s a zero obligation discussion about your business so I can understand more about it and your challenges. All you need to do is just drop me an email at claire@employeetobusinessowner.co.uk or fill out a few bits of info on this form http://employeetobusinessowner.co.uk/busy-grind-to-business-growth-form and we’ll take it from there.
