Have you ever wished you could find just ONE source to give you exactly the advice you need to skyrocket your business growth? Congratulations! You just found it. This is the complete framework for business growth.
The information I’m about to share is time-tested and proven effective. I’ve used this framework not just in my own 6-figure business, but helped hundreds of women access the same success with the same formula. It’s not fancy, it’s not revolutionary, and if you’re looking for a get-rich-quick opportunity, this is not that. But if you’re ready to put in the work, and your goal is a 6-figure income with part-time hours, this is that.
Let’s get right into it!
Step #1: Know where you’re going
In order to build a structure that supports a 6-figure business on part time hours, you need to know where you are going. You need a vision. Your framework for business growth needs a north star.
This is the step where I lose people. Because it doesn’t feel like writing down your hopes and dreams is going to magically make them money. If that’s you, don’t sign off just yet. Consider this:
Your vision is a filter. If you don’t know where you are going – in life AND in your business, it will be difficult to make future decisions. It will become muddled when you’re evaluating your product suite. You’ll get hung up on small details that don’t matter.
Without the “vision filter” your business is built on sand.
There are three components to your vision that you need to think about.
Big Vision
First, your big vision. This is a broad picture of what you want your life to look like and will encompass everything you want in a nutshell.
Example: A loving spouse that is my best friend, 4 children, finances that allow us to
travel often, the ability to support my parents, give to others when I feel the nudge, and support a luxury lifestyle. I want to be able to impact and change lives by doing work that I love, but I don’t want that work to require me to work more than 15-20 hours a week.
Business Vision
Second, your business vision: This is a broad picture of what you want your business to look like. It should line up with your big vision and your why.
Example: My business serves women through high-level business coaching and mentorship. We provide courses, programs and high-touch one to one coaching that provides the tools, resources and a supportive community so women everywhere can build scalable and profitable businesses.
This is your filter. This is what is going to help you create a business that aligns with what you want. It’s time to create a business that supports your big vision and your business vision.
Your Goals
Third, we need to talk about your goals! These goals are filtered through your big vision and your business vision. We need to set goals that support those two north stars.
These often look like yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly goals.
These can be broken down further by category. Examples include: behind-the-scenes goals, client goals and revenue goals. Remember that the BEST kind of goals are always effort-based. Setting a goal to earn 25k next quarter is not nearly as effective as setting a goal to send 200 warm emails to prospective clients.
One final thought on knowing where you’re going: Don’t wait to be there before you act.
Start showing up NOW as a six-figure business owner. Bring that CEO energy into your business before it feels like it’s necessary. This requires an investment in your mindset work, and a shift in what might feel comfortable for you.
Step #2: Set yourself up for scalability
If you’re interested in that whole “6 figure business on part-time hours” thing, you can’t skip this step. It’s 100% necessary to refine every single element of your foundation so that you are set up to scale your business.
One of the biggest reasons I am able to consistently hit well above 6 figures every year is because I have a simple business structure and I have a structure that has no limits on the amount of money that I can make. That’s only possible because I keep my business purposefully simple and streamlined.
There are three things that you need to get very clear on in order to have a foundation that is set up to scale.
First: A crystal clear vision of your ICA
You need to know who you are talking to. If your ideal client is “women business owners”, or “creative entrepreneurs”, that is NOT specific enough. The reason we narrow in on a specific ICA is so that we can create messaging that speaks directly to them. A broad ICA waters down your message, and when your message is watered down, you attract no one in an effort to not exclude anyone.
Keeping a narrow market will also keep your offers and your systems simple and streamlined. Because if you are working with many different types of businesses, chances are really good that they are all going to need something a little different. THAT is poison to scaling. It’s hard to create SOPs, processes, systems and even hire team members when your focus is split.
Second: Offers that can be scaled
The next part of our foundation we need to hone in on is our offers. We need to have scalable offers in our product suite. That means you have at least one offer where you can take on a large number of clients at once. This is an element that is very nuanced and influenced by what you offer and who you serve.
Even if all the pieces for scaling are not in place yet, you should have an offer that has the capacity to be scaled in the future.
Third: Clear Messaging
Clear messaging means that you are able to clearly articulate what you do, who you serve and the transformation that you provide. In order to stand out in a saturated online space, you need to own your own brand of genius and speak directly to the heart of your ideal client.
Clarity in your messaging often goes back to my first point – a crystal clear vision of your ideal client. Without that, you can’t effectively reach your target audience and build that essential authority in your market.
Step #3: Money Making Systems
Making money requires you to have money making systems in place – in every facet of your business. There are three main areas where you can implement and improve your systems to streamline and ultimately positively impact your bottom line.
Internal systems
YOUR business needs to be top priority. If your business isn’t in order and isn’t turning a profit, you won’t be able to effectively offer services that help other people’s businesses. There is definitely crossover between sales and client systems, but let’s take a quick look at what areas you need to button up in the internal systems department. This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it will get your wheels turning about where you can make changes to increase both ease and efficiency in the back end of your business.
- Your business finances
- Incoming and outgoing money (and how you send and receive)
- Taxes and future planning
- Organizational systems (Google Drive, Excel, ClickUp, Trello, etc.)
- Communications (both with clients and vendors)
- Contracts, Questionnaires, Forms, etc.
- Software you use in your business for Marketing (scheduling tools, apps, etc.)
- Analytics
- Website, and all social media platforms you use (are they optimized and high-level?)
- Schedule – when are you working, how many hours and on what things?
Client Systems
When I talk about client systems, I’m talking about the process of bringing on a new client, your entire working relationship, and your offboarding processes.
This will of course look different based on what you offer and the types of clients you serve. Onboarding can be very complex or extremely simple based on these factors.
But the overarching goal is to have client systems that are clear, concise and simple. This isn’t just a good practice for YOU, but will improve your customer retention and overall client satisfaction.
Without specific systems in place that spell out how you are working with your clients, you will bleed time, energy and resources.
In addition to solid onboarding systems (we talked about that in internal systems), you need to take a close look at each one of your offers and ask yourself some essential questions:
- What do I need from the client to perform this service?
- What does the client need from me?
- If we need to collaborate, how is that done? Email, project software, drive, etc?
- How are we communicating on this service/project?
- Are there deadlines within the service/project that your client needs to meet?
- Are there deadlines within the service/project that you will need to meet?
- What are the policies for missed deadlines?
- Will they need updates? When do you want to deliver those?
- Are there additional boundaries you want in place for this service?
There’s a good chance that this list revealed some holes in your client systems. That’s a good thing! You can’t fix what you don’t realize is broken.
Sales Systems
The last piece of money making systems is a killer sales system. A sales system is the entire process where a potential client goes on a journey with you from discovery, to curiosity, to hot lead and eventually to the final sales call (or sales page) where you close the deal.
Building this system requires you to map out each step in this process and decide what you want your future client to do at each step. Is it to book a call, fill out an application, get on a waitlist? Depending on what you choose, these will create different processes.
When your lead is ready for that penultimate step, it’s important to pre-qualify that lead, especially if your process involves a sales call. You don’t want to constantly be on calls with people that are not ideal clients for your offer, that’s not good for anyone.
Tip: A great way to pre-qualify them is through an application or a form attached to a booking link.
In this pre-qualification form, you want to ask them pointed questions that will not just give you great talking points on your discovery call, but more importantly, scare them off if this is not the right fit for them. I always recommend that my clients disclose their prices on their pre-qualifying form and have their lead acknowledge that they understand the investment.
Your systems are admittedly not a super sexy part of your business, BUT they can make or break your ability to grow and scale. No matter where you are on your business journey, this is time well spent and will serve you for years to come.
Step #4: Elevating Your Brand & Authority
You might have the BEST service in your chosen industry. But ultimately, that’s not enough. If your goal is to make MORE and work LESS, then that means you’re offering premium services. And if you’re still rocking a DIY dollar store brand on your online storefront – unfortunately, that premium service will never be viewed that way.
We have to elevate our online storefront across the board and make sure that it represents who we are, what we do, how we help our clients and the transformation we provide. How you are perceived by prospective clients is critical and you’re missing a big piece of the puzzle if you haven’t audited your online storefront in a while.
Here are your non-negotiables when it comes to your online storefront:
A social media platform where you show up consistently. Choose the one that you feel aligned with but also where your ideal client is most likely hanging out. Where are you connecting with ideal clients on a personal level?
A website that represents you as the authority that you are. I’m talking about clear and attractive messaging that snags your ideal client from the moment they arrive at your site.
Give your website and social channels the “birdseye view” test: Is it clear who I serve, is it clear what I offer, is it clear what the transformation is? Is it clear how someone can work with me?
If you can pass that test – here’s another one for you: Why YOU? Why should this ideal client hire YOU and not the next service provider? What unique position are you standing in that helps you stand out from the sea of competitors?
Step #5: Your Marketing Framework
These next three steps are where we will take a deep dive into your marketing, selling and visibility strategy, and it all starts with one timeless principle: You have to have a method for consistently bringing new ideal clients into your world. This will not ever change as long as you have your business. Even when you are fully booked out and reaching your income goals, this underlying principle must be upheld.
This principle becomes your marketing framework. In the simplest terms possible, we do this by attracting people to our social media accounts, email list, our FB groups, our podcast, etc. Constantly adding new leads and interested clients to your audience is like water to a plant. Without them, your business will die.
Here’s an example of what I’ve seen happen: A talented business owner (we’ll call her Sally), does everything right. She lays a solid foundation, gets her systems in order, and starts marketing the right way. Soon she’s taking sales calls and booking clients and her business is exploding. So much, in fact – that she’s fully booked. She’s taken on as many clients as she can, and she’s still short on time. So all those marketing strategies start to fall by the wayside to accommodate the client work. Sally’s not worried because she’s reached her income goals and she’s comfortable with the workload she has. But then suddenly, through no fault of her own, she loses an anchor client and 50% of her business income. She needs to replace that client, and QUICK. But she can’t. Her email list, and her carefully built up social media audience are all completely dormant. She has no hot leads to tap into. She has to basically start over in the marketing process.
Do you see why this principle of maintaining leads at various stages in the journey (aka lead generation) is essential to continued growth?
This is a massive topic, but now that we’ve talked about the WHY, let’s briefly cover the HOW.
#1: Lead Generation
Lead generation doesn’t happen overnight and certainly not by just letting people “find you”, so we need to find a way to intentionally get in front of your ideal clients. You can do this through social media or through direct outreach. The goal is to get in front of 50 to 100 new leads each month. Don’t worry, we’ll talk about how to do this in step #7!
#2: Content Marketing
One of the primary ways that we can do this through content marketing. This is all about putting yourself in a position of authority all while serving your audience. Content marketing includes written copy, video, and audio. We do this through educational content, story telling, personal content and regularly sharing social proof.
Connecting on a personal level is the key. We are creating trust through personal branding and finding connection points with our ideal clients. More on this in step #6!
#3: Sell to them
You can’t be afraid to talk about your offers and services. Part of keeping hot leads in the pipeline is making sure your audience knows and understands what you offer. You can talk about your offers in a variety of ways, but you do need to KEEP TALKING about them.
This three-step framework ensures that your business will continue to grow. Find them, nurture and connect, and sell to them. It’s simple, but it’s not easy, because it requires you to prioritize your own business over your client’s.
Step #6: Content That Sells
First things first. Your content needs to support your goals. 99% of the time the overall goal for any business owner is to sell your products or services. Content that sells is simply content that supports your offers. This topic is absolutely enormous, and so I want to boil it down as concisely as I can so that you can start creating content that supports your offers and magnetizes your audience.
It also needs to support you as the leader and authority in your industry.
Each piece of content you create needs to serve a purpose.
Ask yourself these questions when you create content:
Does this content get me closer to my goal?
Will this content lead my ideal client closer to a sale?
Does it build trust with my ideal client?
This is the type of content that nurtures, connects and warms up your ideal client.
Now getting down to the nitty gritty of creating content using this framework. It starts with establishing robust content pillars so that you can easily create content from this bank of predetermined topics.
Examples: If you’re a Marketing Manager, and you offer social media marketing, email marketing, and launch support, you could make those services your 3 content pillars, and then establish multiple subcategories under each of these pillars to stretch your content. Or if you have a 5 step method for your service, each step of your method could represent a pillar with subcategories.
Types of Content
The majority of the content that you will produce will be either written, video, or a combination of both.
But let’s spend some time on video because if you want to build trust fast and convert quickly, it is absolutely essential to get your face on camera. Regardless of what service you provide, if your ICA feels like they know you, and feel a connection to you, they are far more likely to buy from you.
I personally feel that Instagram is the ideal social media platform for showing up on video. Between reels, lives, and story options, there are endless ways to show up for your audience.
The last thing we’ll talk about here is the types of content that I recommend creating and cycling through.
- Educational content
- Social proof (testimonials,
- Personal/inspirational/motivational
- Personal
- Selling
When deciding how to balance the types of content, remember this: You can’t just create educational content and expect your ideal client to blow up your DMs. You need to talk about your offers often. Depending on what you are offering, I recommend having promotional periods or launches. During this period, you would post “selling” content to promote your offer or service every single day for about 2 weeks.
Step #7: Lead Generation & Visibility
Remember the three steps we covered in step #5, your marketing framework? We’re circling back to one of the most critical pieces of that puzzle – lead generation.
How exactly do we get in front of those 50 to 100 new leads every month?
If you are only utilizing social media to find leads, you’re only searching a small corner. You need to broaden your net and get creative.
First, you need to know who you’re looking for and most importantly, what they are calling themselves.
Make a short list of titles or identifying key words, and then search for them everywhere online.
Here’s a short list of ideas, but there could definitely be additional places based on your unique market:
- FB groups
- Tiktok
- Threads
- Apple podcasts
Once you find what seems like a viable lead, then you need to see if they are hanging out on your main social media platform so you can begin engaging with them.
My biggest piece of advice when looking for leads: Go down the rabbit hole.
Track those leads!
Start a spreadsheet and track the leads that you’ve identified. Engage with them authentically, follow them, and remember that lead generation is a long game. If you implement this system, you will soon have leads in your spreadsheet in all stages of your sales funnel.
If you have correctly identified an ideal client and if you are creating content that speaks directly to their desires and pain points, there’s an excellent chance that they will follow you and stick around to find out more about who you are and what you offer.
But what if you can’t find them on social media? You have two options, you can either move on with the knowledge that there are more fish in the sea OR you can take a direct outreach approach.
This method works particularly well if you are a DFY service provider.
Using a warm email approach to reach out to potential leads is very effective if you do it the right way. The wrong way is a copy and paste system of mass messaging. The right way is an intentional, thoughtful email with a personalized introduction and invitation to connect.
Expanding Your Reach
If you are looking to expand your reach beyond the direct outreach methods outlined above, here are some of the ways you can do that.
Peer networking. Don’t underestimate the well-placed introduction and nurturing peer relationships online.
Collaborations. These can be especially beneficial if you can collaborate with a service provider that has a service that compliments yours but does not directly compete with what you offer.
Podcasts and guest pitching. Reach out and pitch ideas to podcasts and FB groups that fall inside your expertise. Don’t forget to take the time to research thoroughly beforehand to have the best chance of success.
Referral systems. As your network grows, this can be extremely effective and a great way to expand your reach.
Bundles and Summits. This is a form of collaboration, but it is worth mentioning again because these can really expose your business to a large, new audience in a short period of time.
Lead generation can be daunting if you’re not accustomed to doing it, but if you prioritize it every day in your business, I promise you will see the results!
Putting It All Together
I have just laid out an enormous amount of information for you.
Here’s the truth: It’s going to be tempting to identify the singular tip or idea that resonated the most with you and run with it. You could do that, and would likely see some results from it. BUT, if you’re looking for simple sustainability and you want a business that brings in six figures or more a year, then you need to focus on all of these pieces. They work together as a complete system.
If you are HUNGRY for more, and you’re ready for that six figure shift, I want to invite you to tune in to my private podcast series where I devote an episode to each of these seven key steps. This podcast is only available with a private link and I’ll send it to you directly when you click the link below and enter your email. You can then listen anywhere you like to listen to podcasts!
Send me the private podcast link!
If you have questions after listening to the podcast episodes, I’d love to hear from you. I can be reached via email, or you can DM me on my favorite platform – Instagram!
