There are more ways than ever to get in touch with customers and sell your services. But how do you know which methods are right for you and your business? And how do you ensure that you’re implementing them to the best of your abilities? One method that has gained a tremendous amount of traction over the past decade, is social selling. Not only do the stakes of a DM feel lower than getting on a high-pressure sales call, but it’s also more accessible to people with unusual schedules or chronic illnesses. But what are some of the drawbacks of social selling, and are they worth the payoff?

We see so many business owners who think that the answer to scaling is more about cash than relationships. Yes, cash is a component but it is not the primary problem! First of all, we want to talk about growth versus scaling. They are used interchangeably in this industry but they simply are not the same. Growth is primarily centered around financial and revenue changes in your business and scaling is more about the actual behind-the-scenes operations of how your business is pieced together.

Does your input feel aligned with your output? If you are billing hourly, chances are things are beginning to feel unbalanced. In this episode, we fill you in on how we can help you make the transition from hourly billing to value-based pricing, creating a more predictable business and recurring income. Today, we want to introduce you to new pricing models and provide insight into how to prepare your clients for the changes.

Today we’re talking about pricing! We have been discussing pricing for creative small business owners since the beginning. This is our happy place! We have a new version of this conversation today and are excited to share it with you. Let’s face it, the market is just totally weird right now. Business owners approach us often, asking for advice about whether to pivot or start over. And 90% of the time, we’re Team Pivot, as long as you ensure that your pivot aligns with what the market sees as essential. You’ve got to meet your clients or prospective clients where they’re at. So what does it take to close different kinds of clients at different price points?

As you probably know by now, we’re obsessed with talking about pricing, so this episode is one of our new favorites! This conversation is more important than ever right now because of the current economic climate. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits all pricing model so today, we’re going to walk you through a couple of different scenarios that we have seen are working well for people.

Maybe you’re a one-woman show. Maybe you’ve hired a part-time employee or a contractor or two. You have probably seen significantly high profits in your first few years. Now, you’re entering years three, four, five, and beyond, and you want to pay yourself more, hire more, or have other expenses you want to reallocate funds to. You’re so married to your high profits, that you will create goals for yourself to do anything you can to maintain those profits while being able to spend more money. We really want you to give yourself a bit of a break here! And that’s exactly what we hope to empower you to do through this episode.

If you follow us on social media, you might have seen that we have been on quite the podcast roadshow! One theme that kept coming out of our conversations is the things that service providers need to think about before scaling. We realized we need to take a step back and talk about it: what is scaling actually?

A lot of business owners misconstrue scaling and growth. Today, we want to talk about the actual definitions of these two processes, and how you can apply them in your business. You can have one without the other. You can have both. You can have neither. What does that really look like, intentionally, in your business? Tune in to find out!

We’ve been building websites for over a decade and have really honed in on what’s working (and what isn’t) in the service world. Your website might look impressive, but if it’s not representative of who you are today, it’s not serving you. In this episode, we outline five signs it’s time to consider a new website design. And we’re not merely talking about branding! In many cases, major reconfigurations are in order, taking into account everything from your site architecture and user interface to your messaging; what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, and who you’re connecting it to. Tune in to find out which pitfalls to avoid and how best to make your website work for you.

We’re sure everyone is familiar with the popular Netflix reality TV show, Love is Blind, but did you know that you can actually learn some tools for having successful conversations at your next networking event from the show? No, these conversations won’t end in a terrifying wedding whereby all your guests anxiously await the words ‘I do’ or ‘I don’t.’ But, you could stand to create incredibly meaningful professional relationships and even friendships. You will also develop your social skills and self-esteem which will have a positive impact on your business!

Let’s talk about your website! The one place you can present the version of yourself and your business that is accurate, helpful, and actually effective for you and your business. Have you looked at it lately? We’re guessing that many of you have put your website on the backburner for the past few years; especially if you’ve been in business for a while. We’re also guessing that the reason you’ve done this is because you’ve been treating social media as your main marketing platform.

An important factor to consider is that when social media platforms change their algorithms (and your business doesn’t get as much traction as a result), people will go back and look at your website. If you haven’t been paying attention to your website, it’s not going to go down too well! We’re also guilty of not always paying attention to everything on our website, but there are certain things that we have never (and will never) stop doing. So, regardless of the last time you touched your website, we’re going to talk about how to get it back to the point where it best serves you.

We’re in the final quarter of the year and it’s the perfect time to hunker down, focus, and refine. This is the season to investigate what’s working in your business and what’s not so you can make strategic and educated improvements going into the next year. In preparation, you’re going to need to start collecting data in order to identify your greatest areas of opportunity and gauge where to place your focus.

This past week, we walked through a quarterly optimization training with our clients, and today, we want to share some of the conversations we had there so you can learn from them and apply the takeaways to your own business. In this episode, you’ll find out how one of our clients increased her close rate by 40% and where she discovered she needed to place her focus once her sales process was in order.

Tune in to find out which metrics are worth analyzing, how to pitch up to a planning session, and much more, including some tangible tips for improving your sales strategy!

Today, we want to share with you some behind-the-scenes live action of the “tweaking and repeating” that we do whenever we implement something new in our business. If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you’ve probably heard us talk about this concept before. As a refresher, “tweaking and repeating” means to take a particular action in your business for a set amount of time (at least 30 days) and then go back and reflect. Think about how it went, how it made you feel, and if there are any opportunities for you to pivot and improve what you’ve tried.

Listen in as we discuss a rundown of our “tweak and repeat” process on something that we started exactly 30 days ago. We’re going to go through the results, the things we want to keep doing, and the things we want to change. We’re showing you an example, so that you can go through the same assessment process in your own business.

A pitch deck and a proposal serve the same purpose, but they’re certainly not interchangeable. Simply put, a proposal takes everything mentioned in a long form pitch deck and distills it into a streamlined piece of communication to back up everything you have already mentioned and sold to your client. The response you’re seeking when you send this along is “Oh yes, this is what we discussed.” That’s why, when we hear that you’re sending off proposals without any previous communication, we get worried! People are skipping the communication altogether and putting together proposals without any setup.

Could you still convert people by simply sending them an email? Yes, totally. Especially if you’ve done a lot of education on your website. But if there’s any confusion at all about what you do, without a presentation, you’re going to lose someone. This is a part of your process we really want you to start caring about. It’s an opportunity to stand out by going above and beyond what other service providers are doing.

The number one thing we are encouraging business owners to do right now is to be flexible. If you can adapt to the needs of the people you’re talking to, then you’re putting yourself in a great position to make sales and optimally serve your clients so that you can both succeed! But how do you reach those clients? And how do you demonstrate that you are the right person for the job?

In today’s episode, we break down how to put together a fantastic pitch deck that will showcase your skills and leave your future clients feeling both inspired and excited. Putting together all the information you need for a pitch deck may seem overwhelming, but once you automate things it will make the process so much easier. We’re here to demonstrate how you can take a structured, predictable, templated approach, while also providing the space to customize your pitch for every client. So if you've been feeling like your process could use a little sprucing up, today’s episode is for you!

Let’s dive into our fourth and final part of the epic series that is absolutely going to transform your life and your business! Today, we fill you in on a few critical insights into building the perfect team to help you scale. We’ve saved this one for last because, without creating structure, you can’t start building a team. But once you’re ready, you’ll find it to be an incredibly powerful tool to take you to the next level (if you get it right!) If you’ve skipped a few steps and already have a team of employees, never fear, it’s never too late to improve upon your current systems. Not every piece has to be perfect but when it comes to hiring; the more you know, the more equipped you’ll be to face whatever comes your way. And that’s what we’re here for! In this episode, you'll learn all about hiring for attitude, designing a well-integrated employee system, defining your priorities and hiring accordingly, refining your team, productizing your offer, and so much more! You won’t want to miss this one.