Are you building a business around your expertise? This guide reveals the 5 stages of growth for content creators and entrepreneurs (and what to focus on in each stage), featuring insights from successful entrepreneurs and Thinking clients that have reached 6 and 7 figures in annual revenue.
The opportunity that you have for building a business around your expertise is unprecedented. At no point in history have individuals had access to the tools and technology to build a business and reach a global audience as quickly and inexpensively as they do today.
If you’re someone that has truly honed your craft and wants to share your expertise with others (and get paid for it!), this is the golden age.
But just because there has never been a better time to build a business around your expertise doesn’t mean that doing so is easy. Building a successful business takes dedication, hard work, sacrifice, and resilience that most people aren’t willing to stomach. "It’s not crowded at the top for a reason."
Without knowing what stage of building your business you’re in, I’m going to make a few assumptions about you:
✓ You’ve probably spent years (and lots of trial and error!) honing your craft. You’re an expert at what you do, with a track record of results to prove it.
✓ You’re determined to utilize your expertise to help others and to be paid well for doing so.
✓ You’re working hard and you’re often feeling overwhelmed.
And if you’re in the early stages of building your business, there’s a good chance that you’re also:
✓ Tired of working long hours with little progress to show for it.
✓ Tired of working with clients that aren’t a good fit because you need the money.
✓ Tired of watching your competitors win the attention of your target market and then fail to actually help them (leaving a bad taste in their mouth that makes it even harder to earn their trust).
✓ Tired of sacrificing things that are important to you (like traveling or spending time with friends and family) while you hustle to create momentum in your business.
✓ Tired of trying to keep up with all of the latest marking strategies and tactics that other people are telling you to focus on. You have a bad case of information overload.
The bottom line? Building a business can be extremely stressful and tiring.
But here’s the thing…
If you’re feeling overwhelmed as you’re building your business, that feeling of overwhelm isn’t the real problem. Overwhelm is a symptom of a problem.
The real problem is having unclear priorities. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re likely giving your time and attention to things that do not deserve your time and attention (at least not right now). You’re keeping busy, but you’re not as productive as you should be. You’re working hard, but you’re not working on the things that you should be working on.
When it comes to building a business, there are specific stages that require different priorities. Focusing on the wrong priorities for your specific stage of business is what causes overwhelm and stalls your growth.
1. Build a sales funnel.
The first way to quickly grow your business is by building a sales funnel. If you don't have a sales funnel, you're making a monumental mistake. Sales funnels can help to automate your business. It helps you to scale and grow quickly and easily. Sure, there's some front-end work involved. Obviously. But, once those processes are in place, it's smooth sailing from there.
Every sales funnel needs to be carefully conceptualized before it's created. Consider the different funnels first and foremost. Whether it's a free-plus-shipping offer or a high-ticket coaching funnel, it's important to build your automated selling machine to quickly scale and grow your business.
2. Utilize a customer management system.
Manually tracking transactions is hard. No one wants to do that. It gets too cumbersome as the business grows. If you want to scale quickly, use a customer management system. There are plenty to choose from. But, it really depends on your line of work. Of course, Quickbooks can help you with the accounting. Infusionsoft can also assist with sales and marketing. There are plenty of CMS systems, most of which integrate with other cloud-based services. Find what works for you and utilize it.
3. Research the competition.
When going to market, and you're really looking to get your offer to the masses, you need to research the competition. There are a number of platforms that can do this, two platforms that come to mind are: The first is Silimar Web. The other, Adbeat. Both provide competitive intelligence. It's your chance for x-ray lenses into all landing pages, ad copy, and other stages of the funnel.
This allows you to uncover any advertiser's online strategy. Find the ads that have been running for the longest and emulate those. That's the quickest way you scale any business. If it's proven and it's working for your competitors, it's likely it'll work for you.
4. Create a customer loyalty program.
Loyalty programs are great ways to increase sales. It costs up to three times more money to acquire new customers than it does to sell something to an existing customer. Other resources pin this number anywhere from four to 10 times more. However, any way that you slice it, acquiring new customers is expensive.
Building a customer loyalty program will help you retain customers. It might also help you attract new ones as well. If there's a clear incentive to spend more money with you, it'll pay off in the long run. Build an attractive loyalty program and make it accessible to your existing customers and watch sales skyrocket over time.
5. Identify new opportunities.
Analyze new opportunities in your business by understanding your demographic better. Understand everything from distribution channels to your direct competitors, and even an analysis of foreign markets and other potential industries. There are likely dozens of new opportunities you could pursue immediately with the proper amount of analysis.
6. Build an email list.
One of the most best and most effective ways to grow a business quickly is to build an email list. Clearly, that means you need to have a lead magnet. Why else would people subscribe to your list? And, with a lead magnet, comes the necessity for a sales funnel. Look into companies like Aweber, ConstantContact, ConvertKit, Drip, GetResponse and others for building and managing your list.
7. Form strategic partnerships.
Strategic partnerships with the right companies can truly make a world of difference. It could allow you to reach a wide swath of customers quickly. Identifying those partnerships might be easier said than done. But, look out for companies that are complementary to your own. Contact them and propose opportunities for working together.
8. Leverage global platforms.
In the eCommerce business selling products? Why not use Amazon's FBA service? In the business of selling services? Why not use Upwork? In the business of renting vacation homes? Why not leverage AirBnB, InvitedHome, HomeAway or other global platforms? Find a platform that's reached saturation and use it to grow your business quickly.
9. Licensing deals
Doing licensing deals is a great way to grow your business without too much added effort. If you have a product that you can license to others and share a revenue of, that's an ideal way to grow quickly. Taking a popular or successful product and bringing it to a company with a large footprint can help you achieve market saturation quicker.
10. Consider a franchise model.
If you have a successful business, and you're really looking to grow quickly, consider franchising it. Although franchise costs are high and moving to a franchise model is complex and takes a lot of marketing know-how, it could make all the difference if you're truly looking for quick growth.
11. Diversify your offer lineup.
Look into diversifying your offers. What complementary products or services or information can you offer in your business? In order to grow, you need to think about expansion. Identify new opportunities within your niche. Uncover the pain points. What else can you sell to your clients. Where else can you add value in the exchange?
12. Build passive income streams.
Growing a business takes significant effort. If you're dealing with razor-thin margins, consider building passive income streams. This way, you don't have to worry so much about keeping the lights on, so to speak. Passive income will afford you the opportunity to make mistakes and not have to lose your shirt. It'll keep you in business and provide a basis to grow and market and scale quickly by giving you ample resources.
13. Acquire other businesses.
Sometimes, acquiring other businesses is a very quick way to grow your own business. If you can find competitors or businesses in other industries that would complement your own, you could use them as platforms to scale fast. Take a look within your industry and even outside of it to find potential for potential opportunities.
14. International expansion.
Can you expand internationally? Can you take your existing offers and scale them internationally? What would it take to do business in Canada or Mexico or Europe? If you have a converting offer, international expansion could be a quick way to grow. You'll incur some costs. Sure. But, the potential for profits could be massive.
15. Create a webinar.
Webinars are a great way to promote any product or service. It can also help you grow any business relatively fast. Webinars provide an automated selling tool for literally taking any product or service to market and reaching a wide audience quickly. The webinar medium is great for captivating audiences to clinch sale after sale, automatically.
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