Scaling your business. It’s scary, but not as hard as you think. Read on to see how setting yourself goals WITH action steps can help you grow your small business. We’re talking problems, solutions, goals and actions AND how to tie them all together to work for you.

You want to grow or scale your business. Or at least you want to stay where you are but free up more of your time. So growing means more time needed to reel in more people.

Not quite.

The answer does not lie in working harder. 

Getting past the beginning stages of your business and becoming an industry leader doesn’t mean more work. The solution lies in working smarter. And the two areas that can cause bumps in the road are: being restricted by (1) time or (2) money.

We need to set goals for your business.

At the moment, your website might be displaying your services and telling the world your backstory, but it feels as though there’s a direct correlation between the amount of time/energy you're putting into your business and the number of bookings, sales or enquiries you’re getting.

The likelihood is that you’re currently setting superficial goals like ‘grow my email list’, ‘be able to outsource more of the boring jobs’ or ‘get more traffic to my blog’.

These types of goals feel strategic, however it is the WHYs that we need to focus on. WHY do you want to grow your email list? What’s the point of outsourcing if it means spending more money that you’re not currently bringing in?

Setting strategic business goals means any one of the following (or even a combination):

• It is easier for people to move through your website;

• See a better return on the amount of work you’re putting into your business;

• Grow and/or scale your business because you’re getting more traction with your online presence; and/or

• Reach a higher conversion rate (i.e. there’s a higher percentage of people on your website that are turning into leads, prospects, customers or followers).

So how do we create the right type of goal(s)?

Think about the last few months in your business. Have you hit any roadblocks from lack of time or income? Is your business life taking over your home/social/family life? Whatever is restricting you from taking the next step is a barrier we need to remove. That’s the goal that will best serve you and your business (at least for now). 

and how does this translate into action steps?

Below are a few suggestions of different prompts and techniques (that I have used in my own business) that allowed me to get past those roadblocks. When I implemented the things necessary to make it actually happen, I was able to align them with what I needed my business to do for me. 

How to grow/scale your small business: techniques I’ve tried and tested.

Problem #1.

Since lockdown, your industry is getting busy.

You feel like your voice is getting lost in the crowd, with ballsier people (who you swear have only just come out of college) making wild claims.

You’ve been doing this for a good long while but something feels a bit off. Like maybe your online presence still looks and sounds a bit DIY-ed in comparison to the new kids on the block, who always seem to be crazy good at tech. You’re scared you’re going to get left behind.

Solution.

You need to stand out. To rise head and shoulders above the competition, you need to make your deliverables clear.

Show your customers/clients/followers the benefit your products or services can bring them.

It’s paramount to effectively and succinctly communicate what you do and why you’re better than the competition, so set yourself apart from the noise of the online world. 

Your goal.

Take a look at your brand – both your visual branding and your messaging. That includes your mission statement, understanding your ideal client and what turns them on/off.

Young brands often are loud and try to grab your attention with bold statements and sensationalism.

But they often lack the foundational work that sets in place their branding (whether visual or messaging, or both).

Action steps.

It’s often a great idea to get a subjective perspective to refine what you’ve already got or shake it up entirely (even if you’re a marketer yourself!).

Find someone with experience in your industry or who appeals to a similar demographic who can offer a fresh perspective – this will help you stay relevant and ensure your message is still engaging – allowing you to pique people’s interest and reel them in (instead of them being drawn to one of your louder competitors). 

Problem #2. 

You want to free up more of your time to be outdoors/with the family/for some R+R/doing some learning yourself, to improve your skill-set.

So it’s crossed your mind you could just hire someone else to do the ‘boring’ jobs for you. But you’ve hit an income ceiling and can’t outsource without the income to pay for it.

It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario and you can’t seem to find the solution of where to start.

Solution.

You’re limited by the 1-to-1 work you can do. There are only so many hours in the day.

So your next best option is to increase the number of people you’re working with at one time, or impacting a greater number of people with a more passive offering, that you can duplicate, without needing to work individually with every person engaging.

Try creating a one-to-many offering, like a course of downloadable PDFs, so you’re not capped at your income that was restricted by your 1-to-1 work.

Your goal.

Marketing to the masses can be tiring, when you don’t know who is actually listening and you’re restricted to only reaching even a percentage of your followers.

Grow your email list, to build a captive audience of people you can sell a group/passive/downloadable offer to.

It is far more effective speaking to a more concentrated group of people who you already know are interested in what you have to offer (i.e. the people who have signed up to your newsletter), instead of shouting into the abyss (like on social media).

Action steps.

Position email sign-ups across your website.

Create incentives for people to sign up: demonstrate the free (and positive) value that they will benefit from by getting your weekly/monthly newsletter.

Show them the value you offer with personable and relatable newsletters – you understand how they feel AND you’ve got the expertise/knowledge to help them overcome that.

During this time you can develop more of a rapport and deeper level of trust with your audience.

As you’re priming them, they’ll be more excited when you announce the launch of your one-to-many offering, and are more likely to convert into a paying customer.

Problem #3.

There’s a direct correlation between the amount of time you’re putting into your social media and the number of bookings, enquiries, sales or DMs you’re getting.

So it kinda feels like these conversions could drop dramatically, if you take your foot off the gas. It feels a bit like a hamster wheel of constant content creation with no end in sight, so your energy and passion are dwindling.

You’re working harder but you’re still not getting amazing results.

You can get people from your social media platforms to your website, but you’re not seeing much activity once they get there.

Solution.

Get your website working harder – by working smarter.

Focus on creating a website for your prospective customers that ticks all the boxes: you can build trust, prove credibility, show you’re relatable AND convert.

This means you don’t have to rely entirely on social media which, let’s face it, doesn’t have a long lifespan. 

Your goal.

Create structure within your website to funnel people towards an end goal.

Your roadmap should lead potential customers through the website pages in as short a route as possible, which will encourage enquiries (with as few distractions as possible).

And just like your newsletters the audience will be totally focused on you and your brand, which means you can sit back and let your website do the work for you – let it shine!

Action steps.

Focus on two aspects within your webpage content:

#1 Strategically position your consultation call links throughout your website; and

#2 Highlight those links by putting it on the page that loads when a customer clicks on ‘link in my bio’.

Remember if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind – keep your audience focused on you.

These actions will reinforce and lead customers towards your end goal: enquiries and conversions. 

It might seem a little overwhelming to begin with: how do you move from determining your problem to implementing those action steps?

Get your business working for you...You’re not being efficient (or effective enough) with the time you’re putting into your marketing. These pieces might all be working separately, rather than as one well-oiled machine. 

It’s time to change that.

Block out a couple of hours in your calendar next week, on a day where you don’t have a ton of deadlines, to start looking at the bigger picture. Take some time to answer these questions:

• Where are your roadblocks in your business at the moment?

• What do you need from your business to allow you to get to the next step?

• What are the goals you are setting for (at least this stage) your website to achieve for you?

• How can you implement the action steps to get you to this goal?

But to see the results you’re anticipating, you need one central platform to let all this shine.

If you have plateaued in your business and need a bit of a shake up, check out my work with the ski touring company, Japan Powder Connection, who experienced some of these exact problems... 

JPC’s problem? They were in a busy industry, sales were slowing and they were spending too much time doing beginner lessons when really they wanted to be in the backcountry with more experienced skiers.

The solution? We focussed on their messaging, refined who target market were, and this affected the copy and design of the website.

The outcome? We increased revenue per coach, plus we attracted less beginner lessons and more adventurous expert skiers who wanted the adventure of exploring the backcountry.