9 Little-Known Strategies to Build a Brilliant and Profitable Business
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So many entrepreneurs have fabulous ideas, bucket-loads of potential and endless drive to pursue their goals. Yet, despite this, they can't seem to get their business off the ground or enjoy the success they know they're capable of.
When running your business, it's so important to focus on the well-known, tried-and-tested strategies to build a successful business, like:
Nailing your brand voice & messaging. (If you need help defining your brand voice download our FREE Brand Voice Framework HERE)
Being authentic. If you're a coach or service provider – YOU are your business, so be you ALWAYS.
Finding your niche. Yes! The riches are in the niches, so make sure you find yours.
Marketing – online and in-person. Leveraging online and in-person marketing and networking opportunities is invaluable for your business growth and visibility.
Creating high-value services and packages. Design different tiers of services to cater to different levels of clients and use pricing strategies that reflect the value you provide.
However, despite embracing these practices, most small businesses fail within the first 1-3 years. Quite often, it's because they stop at number 5 and don't go further.
If you want to take your business from good to brilliant, you need to think big and delve deeply into the mindset, daily practices, and habits you need to build and run a brilliant business – long term!
Introducing… '9 Little-Known Strategies to Build a Brilliant and Profitable Business'
STRATEGY #1 - COLLABORATE
'Collaborate" = Verb – meaning work with
'To work together with another person or organisation for a special purpose.'
We hear the word collaboration a lot, and for good reason. It can be smart for a business to collaborate (work with) another business or service provider that isn't in direct competition with you, but offers other services that may also be of benefit to your clients.
If you’re happy with your service offerings but want to offer your clients something more to help set you apart, consider partnering with another business.
Partnering with other professionals can help you offer a wider range of services and attract new clients. For example, a life coach might team up with a nutritionist to offer a holistic wellness program.
The key is having a tangible benefit for both businesses. If it doesn't benefit you and help grow your business and only benefits the person you're collaborating with, it may not be a good situation.
However, if both will receive new clients, greater visibility, and increased leads, then it's a win-win situation.
One advantage you may not have considered is the potential for friendship, support, and camaraderie. You may find you 'click' with the other person and develop a lovely ongoing, supportive relationship where you can share your experiences through the ups and downs, bounce ideas off eachother, commiserate the losses and celebrate all the wins! How gorgeous would that be!
STRATEGY #2 - KEEP IT SIMPLE (THE K.I.S.S. PRINCIPLE)
Business does not need to be complicated. You can spend countless hours googling, stalking your competition and checking out Instagram for the latest trends in running your business.
The most effective way is to stop the comparisonitis, keep things simple, and do what works for you.
Having clear, well-defined processes to achieve specific goals in your business will take away all your stress, confusion, and anxiety. Most things you do in your business will be on repeat – just with different clients. So, it’s a good idea to take note of everything you do. Analyse your current procesess, refine as much as possible, and set up those processes as a template in Asana, Trello, Click-up or whatever project management system you love, so you don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel. Or forgetting things! You want a seamless, consistent approach throughout your entire business. You can’t do this, if everything is stuck up in your head.
So, get everything out of your head, into Click-up or Asana, and then relax knowing you can literally, ‘trust the process.’
If you’re wanting to scale your business – this is not negotiable. You cannot scale if you don’t systemise. Whenyou set these processes and systems up, then you can hand them over to your VA, EA, outsource to a copywriter, web designer, whoever it is, that can look after that process for you.
If you do this you will experience:
Increased efficiency
Reduced costs
Improved customer experience
Greater accuracy
Faster turnaround times
Ease of scale
Plus, you'll feel like a new woman with all the extra time you have! It’s truly a brilliant thing to do for yourself and your business.
STRATEGY #3 - BEAUTIFUL BOUNDARIES
Boundaries is not a dirty word.
Good boundaries are the cornerstone for building your brilliant and profitable business – plus, they're essential for your physical and mental health.
Boundaries create trust and help build healthy relationships – with yourself and others.
Having loose boundaries or none causes stress. It creates no work-life balance, burnout, and often leads to you undercharging for your services.
By taking some time to sit with your values, purpose, and mission, you can turn your business around by developing healthy boundaries. You'll establish your priorities, set goals, develop systems and processes to support your vision, and ultimately create an environment that not only respects you as a human, but also respects your business as the valuable asset it is to you and your clients.
As a business owner, it's really important to know when to say no to clients or opportunities that don't align with your values or goals.
So set clear boundaries and expectations with your clients. Ensure your clients know what they can expect from your services, including how often you'll communicate, what deliverables they'll receive, and what happens if they need to reschedule or cancel an appointment.
Also, set boundaries with yourself. What are reasonable days of the week and hours to devote to your business? Remember, you have a life, family, friends, and your own mental health and physical well-being to care for. So, it's important to factor those things into your boundary-setting.
By doing this, you will easily manage the expectations of your clients, family and friends and enjoy reduced daily stress and experience increased happiness.
Saying no is good. Saying no is healthy.
Boundaries are key to building the brilliant business and life you love!
STRATEGY #4 - BUILD A BRILLIANT TEAM
We touched on this earlier when I mentioned outcourcing. Despite what you may think, you're not a superwoman, and you can't do everything yourself – nor should you.
Building a team is often what business owners put off the longest. Yet, it's also one of the highest-impact activities you can do to grow your brilliant and profitable business.
Doing this as early as possible in your business is crucial if you want to grow and scale.
It’s scary – it absolutely is! I know for myself this was one of the things I resisted heavily and put off for far too long. If I could go back and re-do my time, I would have hired specific VA’s for different areas in my business when I couldn’t afford it.
That sounds crazy – but doing it early, before you’re ready allows you to spend the time – and it takes a lot of time – to train the VA’s to do things exactly as you want them done. You can learn and grow together, create a really beautiful harmonious relationship, and develop the trust needed for when you’re really busy. That’s super important for your peace of mind. You won’t second guess yourself everytime you ask them to do something for you and wonder if they’ll be able to deliver, because you will have already ironed out the bugs so that your business runs silky smooth.
Start outsourcing as soon as you can. Like I said, it may feel counter-intuitive, but by hiring someone to help you with the low-value but essential activities in your business, you free yourself up to concentrate on doing high-value work, having discovery calls, and increasing your network of potential clients and referrers.
Building a brilliant team is instrumental in scaling your business and increasing your sales.
Some things to try outsourcing and getting started are:
Blog writing, editing, and uploading to your website
Podcast script writing, editing, and scheduling
Social media content creation
Email newsletter writing and scheduling
Graphic design
Website maintenance
Content writing
General editing & proofreading
Once these things are taken care of, you'll not only lighten your physical workload, but also enjoy greater happiness and mental freedom and the ability to do deeper client work.
STRATEGY #5 - AUTOMATION HEAVEN
There is not one business in existence that can't automate something!
Automation is like having a VA in your business – without the hourly rate.
The number of things that can be automated is mind-boggling. I highly recommend that you embrace the technology and systems available to save you time and streamline your business.
Automation also enhances your client's journey with you, makes it consistent for every new project and frees up your mental energy as everything happens on time, in order and like clockwork.
I invest heavily in automation and systems within my own business, and it truly is like having another team member. I'm more productive, can work with more clients, and I don't have to remember a thousand repetitive tasks.
Consider using a calendar booking system, automated email response, and a CRM system that delivers your clients welcome emails, proposals, contracts, and invoices.
Preschedule your blog articles, social media posts and podcast episodes. Set up Zapier to create folders, and spreadsheets and add people to your email software.
The list is almost endless.
By using these tools, you can free up more time to focus on growing your business and serving your clients.
STRATEGY #6 - LOOK AFTER YOUR MONEY HONEY!
A huge mistake common among entrepreneurs is their 'blinker on' approach to finances.
They simply jump on the roller coaster, strap in, and hold on for dear life! That's not good business.
Don't leave everything to your bookkeeper or accountant. Know your money. Understand it.
You're in business to live your dream life – not to live a stress-filled, hand-to-mouth existence.
Learn exactly where your money comes from. I don't just mean your clients.
Work out precisely which of your services or programs are bringing in the cash and which ones aren't.
Which of your services give you a good ROI and which ones don’t?
Do you have any leaks where money is sliding down the drain?
Are you paying yourself first?
If you’re not paying yourself first, I highly recommend reading the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz.
It's a game changer and the opposite of advice you'll receive from most accountants – but it works! (There are some 'Profit First' accountants – so if that's of interest, you can search them out).
I'm not a financial advisor and am not qualified to give financial advice. However, I am a business owner and am very qualified to implore you to care for your money like it's your best friend. Otherwise, you'll become a slave to it and could end up with a very expensive hobby rather than a highly successful and profitable business.
Review your expenses, know where your money comes from and welcome it into your life and business.
You may also have money blocks to start eradicating before you are energetically aligned to receive more wealth and abundance into your life. If this is the case, there are plenty of Money Mindset Coaches to help you clear the blocks and pave the way for financial ease and wealth creation.
Keep track of your finances and expenses from the start. Set up a separate bank accounts and track all your income and expenses, including taxes, to ensure you're running a profitable business. Of course, consider hiring a bookkeeper or accountant to help you stay on top of your finances and to free you up to focus on your core business activities.
Just be sure to take an active part in managing, monitoring, and growing your money. Don’t leave it to others and don’t leave it to chance.
STRATEGY #7 - MINDSET FIRST!
Everything you do in business and life stems from your mindset. How you think about yourself, the world, your abilities, even money and relationships will impact your joy, happiness, and success in business.
It's well-known that 80% of results come from 20% of thoughts. So, it's super important to include positive mindset work and clearing negative blocks as a daily practice in running your business.
Learn to recognise your negative thoughts, limiting beliefs, and the influence others have on how you think and act throughout the day. Let go of fear, doubts, and negativity and replace them with positive thoughts, loving self-talk, and a go-getter attitude.
It's also helpful to explore working with a Mindfulness Coach, EFT practitioner or other modality to support you in retraining your brain to think and focus on possibilities rather than having a limited outlook or mindset.
If you believe it to be true, it most likely is. If you're full of doubts, scared you don't know where the next client is coming from, and are worried whether this business was a good idea at all, you're putting yourself on the path to failure.
Take a breath, do meditation, book a mentor or coach, and decide to walk on the path to your dream business and life. You'll be amazed at the mental, physical, and financial growth you will experience. I can’t recommend this highly enough!
STRATEGY #8 - GET YOURSELF A BUSINESS MENTOR OR COACH
The most successful business people and entrepreneurs around the world all have a few things in common. One of their commonalities is mentors – they all had one at various stages of their careers.
It's quite common for start-ups and entrepreneurs to DIY everything in their business and learn as they go. That's definitely powerful and a way to do things. However, without a mentor, you can only go so far with Google, reading books, taking online courses, and life experience.
Your success in life, and business, is amplified by having the right mentor to help catapult you to the next level of success. The mentor relationship provides the real-life feedback, advice, encouragement, expertise, and intelligence needed for real growth.
Some famous mentor relationships:
Marie Forleo mentored Amy Porterfield
Maya Angelou mentored Oprah Winfrey
Meryl Streep mentored Viola Davis
Steve Jobs mentored Mark Zuckerberg
Sir Freddie Laker mentored Sir Richard Branson
Warren Buffet mentored Bill Gates
'Mentors are important, and I don't think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship.' - Oprah Winfrey
Hiring a mentor or business coach is one of the greatest investments you can make in your business – and yourself. Their support is invaluable and helps you reach your goals faster – with less stress and less mistakes along the way.
STRATEGY #9 - CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Be curious! Keep exploring.
There’s a whole big, wide world of experiences and skills you don’t know about.
If you're stuck or stagnating in your business – learn something new or upgrade your skills!
Learning new skills and increasing your knowledge is crucial to personal and business growth. It doesn't mean you have to sit in a classroom, go to university or spend time in the local library. Learning takes many forms, but whatever way you choose to learn, you'll expand your horizons, open your eyes to new possibilities and learn improved ways of doing things – plus you’ll feel invigorated and your creative juices will be overflowing. The ideas you’ll bring to your business will surprise.
Attend industry conferences, read books and blogs, and take courses to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices. Seek feedback from your clients and peers and use it to improve your services and packages. And always invest in personal and professional development to keep your brilliance shining!
Growing your skillset is extremely rewarding and keeps your mind engaged and active. It's also good for reducing stress and improving your memory.
So, review your business regularly and uncover the areas you're falling down in or could improve upon. Then see if there's a way you can learn or improve upon your skills.
Businesses that focus on development are dynamic, they’re constantly evolving and tend to be the leaders in their niche.
Innovation and learning are drivers to successfully building your brilliant and profitable business. Plus, you'll have fun along the way.
Remember, building a brilliant and profitable business takes time, effort, and persistence.
By incorporating these lesser-known strategies into your business plan, you can sparkle, shimmer, and shine above your competition, and build a thriving coaching or service-based business and the life you love.
Don't be afraid to try keep trying new strategies, experimenting, and learning.
With the right mindset and approach, you will not only help your clients achieve their goals but also have the business and life you love!
Recap: To build your brilliant and profitable business…
Collaborate
Keep it simple
Have beautiful boundaries
Build a brilliant team
Embrace automation
Look after your money, Honey!
Mindset comes first
Get a business mentor or coach
Keep learning and being curious
I hope this article was helpful and you’ve got some new ideas for growing your brilliant and profitable business. If there’s someone you know who could benefit from this article, share it with them - it may be just what they’re looking for.
As always, thanks for reading and remember…