How to Figure Out if Your Next Step Should Be to Hire or Land More Clients

We can’t tell you how many times 6-figure service based business owners come to us stuck. Stuck in, what we call, the Cycle of Doom™. They come to us feeling super frustrated that, even though they’ve gotten their business to this amazing milestone, it all still feels so damn overwhelming. They know something needs to change, but what exactly is it? They’re faced with limited options - and maybe you are too. Today, we’re going to dive into the options that are available to you if you’re looking to scale past your first 6-figures and finally end the Cycle of Doom™ forever.

How to End the Cycle of Doom

Ultimately, there are three options to end the Cycle of Doom™ (COD). Because at its core, the COD exists because you’re out of time and money. So the only levers you have to pull come down to getting more of your time back or making more money (sometimes both).

We’re going to address your first two options together. One option is to raise the price of your service. If you’re unable to do this because of your market, offer or specific client then the other option is for you to cut down on how long it takes for you to fulfill your service (this will allow the delivery to cost you less to deliver).

Pssst…if your gut reaction is that you cannot raise your prices, we really want that to be based on the fact that you’re already charging a premium, not that you’re scared to do so.

So let’s talk about raising your prices first. We find that a lot of business owners feel doubtful when it comes to raising their prices. You might be telling yourself stories about how your current clients won’t stay with you if you increase your prices or that landing a new client at that rate is going to be impossible.

Ultimately, these stories are based on fear and feelings and very rarely based on facts. As an example, we have an Incubator client who from the outside had it all together but from the inside, she felt overwhelmed in her business. When she started working with us she said her business was “in a crisis”. She hit her client capacity and therefore thought hitting her financial goals was never going to happen. She couldn't hire anybody else because she didn’t have the cash flow but she couldn’t take on more clients because she was completely booked up. She was definitely stuck in the Cycle of Doom™. So she joined the Incubator and we coached her through how to raise her prices.

Since raising her prices, she’s gone on to hit her goal of $30k+ months. She has less clients but is making substantially more money. Not to mention she freed up so much more of her time that she even went on a two week vacation without opening her laptop. P.S. With our framework she ended up generating $60k in contracts in 6 weeks just from her current client roster alone.

We promise you that raising your prices doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, we’ve designed an entire calculator for you to play with inside The Incubator that takes into account your capacity, and your financial goals to let you know what your base price should be in order to actually make your goals happen in the time that you have.

Option 2: Lessen The Amount of Time it Takes You to do Your Work

After we’ve raised your price it’s time to narrow down on scope. We can absolutely guarantee you that you’re over delivering. And not in the this-is-just-a-great-client-experience way, but rather a you’re-working-for-free way.

You might be wondering how you can actually lessen the amount of time it takes you to do things? Well, you can start with simply eliminating some of what’s in your current offer. Really. When was the last time you went back and did an offer audit to truly see if what’s included is actually helping your client achieve their result?

Next, you can take a look at the systems and automations that you can put in place that will actually free up your time. For example, sales processes, onboarding processes, client welcome processes, etc are all processes (how many times can we say “processes”) that you can create automations for.

With those automated systems in place, you’ll find yourself with more time and headspace to put back into client work.

You Financially Have Wiggle Room and You’re Ready to Hire

Now, if you’ve done allllll those things above and you’re like, “No, really, I think I’m ready to hire!” Let’s work out some details first.

It’s important to identify what role is going to actually make a difference for you to avoid the Cycle of Doom™. For example, you may be thinking you need to hire an assistant to offload some of the backend stuff. Although that sounds great in theory, that’s not actually solving your client capacity problem (remember, the only way to get out of this cycle is to get more of your time back or make more money).

You need to hire someone that is going to take on some of the client work, so that you can take on more clients, to bring in more money. For instance, if you’re a marketing agency, then you might think to hire a copywriter, designer or social media coordinator to add to your team. That way your new hire will be working on actual deliverables, taking that workload off of you and giving you the capacity to bring on more clients.

Does the Cycle of Doom Sound All Too Familiar to You?

We talk to business owners on a daily basis and the Cycle of Doom™ is a constant theme. It’s easy to get there yet somehow really hard to get yourself out of it. In the Incubator, we hit on the points mentioned in this blog.

You’ll gain the tools necessary to raise your prices (you’ll be doing *less*, but making *more*).
You’ll create an automated experience for your prospect generation, client onboarding, communication, scheduling and more.
You’ll understand who your next hire should really be.

If any of these resonate with you, we really want to know more about you and your business. Send us a DM on Instagram or if you’re ready for the next step, apply to The Incubator.