Three things you need for a growth-ready business as a solopreneur
Photo by ANGELA BENITO on Unsplash
There’s an irony to growing a business as a company-of-one which is that at some point the things that contributed to your early growth become the same things that hold you back.
Maybe in the beginning, personally answering every inquiry email, being there for clients every step of the way, creating new content and client resources every week are the things that helped you stand out and deliver a high quality service you felt proud of.
It’s what contributed to your success so that now, from the outside, it looks like your business is thriving. Maybe you deliver impactful work, have a waitlist of clients and the income you once dreamed of.
But behind the scenes you’re maxed out.
You want to continue to grow, or maybe just maintain what you’ve already built, but can’t see a way to do so without creating a body double or, more realistically, burning out.
After working with ten’s of solo-founders, in this article I’m going to outline the three things I see as the foundations to sustainable growth as a company-of-one, without the need to work 100 hour weeks or hire a big team.
Three foundations to sustainable growth as a company of one
Before we dive in - as I write, I notice that I hesitate to use words such as ‘growth’ and ‘scaling’ because in the online world these can often be associated with complicated, automated funnels and manipulative sales tactics.
That’s not what we’re doing here.
This is a way for you as a solo-founder to continue to work towards your bigger mission while also taking care of yourself - physically and energetically. By freeing up your time so you can focus on the work that only you can do and the areas of business where your relational input is felt.
It means creating systems and processes for the repetitive, behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t make use of your area of expertise.
It means designing offers where your clients can make progress outside of live calls with you because you’ve built a structure that can support them between sessions.
And it means repurposing your marketing so you’re not starting from scratch each time - and your message compounds over time rather than getting lost in the noise.
So let’s look at each foundation in turn - what it is, why it matters and how to go about creating it.
Foundation 1: Repeatable Systems
This is about removing you as the bottleneck to your business. So that you can take a step back, or go on holiday for a week, without everything grinding to a halt.
It applies to areas such as:
Onboarding new clients
Tracking your finances
Organising your time
In summary, the things that make up the majority of the mental load in your business. You will likely have a reasonably well established way of doing things, but it’s all held in your head, which means that it depends on you. This step involves getting things out of your head and onto paper so that you have a set process to work through each time. And a list of things that can be delegated or automated when the time is right.
A place to begin:
One system that is often a good one to start with how you organise your time. Maybe you only want to work school hours, but somehow work continues to spill over into evenings and weekends and you’re not sure why. Over the course of a week or a month, note down all of the things that you spend your time on. Then group the activities into different categories. For example, client delivery, marketing, finance tracking, emails. Block out what you think is a reasonable amount of time for each of these and then track where you stick to this and where you overspill. This can be a great indicator of the first bits of your business that need some attention and from there help you get into a rhythm where everything that needs to get done has the space it needs.
Foundation 2: Regenerative Offerings
This foundation is about designing your services or offers so that they can hold more people without requiring lots more of your time or sacrificing quality nor depth.
Where you might be starting from is one of these two places:
The majority of your work comes from 1:1 because it feels like every client has slightly different needs. While you value the depth, it means that client work often takes more time, energy or effort than you anticipated. And on top of that, it’s left very little space in your calendar, especially if someone needs to reschedule.
Your services are spread across a mix of different offers, each having a slightly different format and delivery process. It makes it hard to settle into a rhythm, and you frequently find yourself simultaneously delivering one thing while launching the next. Your income also reflects the ebb and flow, which also means that your confidence levels tend to do the same.
Creating a scalable offer doesn’t have to take any one particular format - it’s not necessarily about creating a new group program or opening a membership (both of which have their pros and cons).
Instead, it’s about:
Having a core framework or methodology that supports both you and your clients - like a map for your time together
Creating resources/practices that clients can refer to and use between sessions - often these answer common challenges or questions
Giving structure to the time you are available - creating clear boundaries for both you and your clients
Creating ways for your clients to feel supported even when they’re not live on a call with you
A place to begin:
Even if you have several different offers, or a customised 1:1 offer, pick out the themes that you tend to revisit again and again. See how these might be arranged into a step-by-step methodology, or of that feels too restrictive then what resources you could create to support each one.
Foundation 3: Sustainable Visibility
Growing your visibility is often associated with automated sales funnels and Facebook ads. And it can be. But if that’s not your jam, then there are alternatives that work.
Maybe at the minute, you’re spreading yourself thin across several different platforms, or chopping and changing between different ones.
Having a scalable marketing strategy usually requires committing to less.
Choosing one or two core platforms and sticking to that. This can feel scary at first but the biggest benefit is that it forces refinement. It requires you to find a core message and stick to it. And to build a rhythm that keeps you consistent.
You don’t need to have a sales funnel that gives you the ick, but you do need to have a pathway for people to find you. And that often requires simplifying and removing the noise rather than adding more.
A place to begin:
Map out your sales pathway. Where do new people tend to find you, how do they get to know your work and how do they buy from you if that’s what they choose. Is it clear at each stage how to take the next step? This doesn’t need to be complicated or fancy, it just needs to be clear.
In Conclusion
Having these three foundations: a sustainable way to keep your work visible, a regenerative offering that can grow without requiring more of your time and repeatable systems that allow you time to rest and step away - is about creating flow in your business. It’s easy to think of your business as being made up of lots of individual parts. But, just like an ecosystem in nature, in order for your business to regenerate, all of the parts need to be able to work together.
For example, you might have a great marketing and sales pathway, but if you can’t respond to inquiry emails because you're drowning in client delivery, potential clients move on.
Having flow means all three foundations work together to support sustainable growth - not just for your business, but for you.
You don't need to tackle all three at once. Pick the foundation that would have the most impact for your business and build from there.
Want help building these foundations in your own business?
Book a free Business Spotlight Call - in 45 minutes, we'll look at your business and identify which foundation would make the biggest difference right now, and create a simple plan to build it.