Scaling your business is easier if you start with a good foundation. So, even if you're just getting started, these 10 tips to help you scale your service business will help you create a strong foundation as you grow!
10 Tips to help you scale your service business
1.Sell an outcome
The best way to sell a service is to focus on the outcome. Many service businesses focus on themselves when they should really be focusing on the client.
This can help you increase the value of your business, make your clients more loyal and enthusiastic about you, allow you to reduce your sales cycle.
What does your client get from working with you?
What's in it for them?
What will their life be like after working with you?
2. Create an ideal client profile
Identify what traits your ideal client has to have in order for them to be successful working with you (and you enjoy working with).
For example, our ideal client;
Wants to get their business online & learn how to update and market it themselves, so they have more control over their business
Has a positive attitude & appreciates our help
Shows up on time, ready to get started
Is driven and wants to take action to make it happen
Can follow our process to solve their problem
3. Serve clients that fit your profile
This may seem obvious, but you will find there are times in your business where someone comes to you or refers a potential client to you, and you know they're not a good fit, but you take them anyway.
These clients that aren't a great fit might help you make money in the short-term, but they will impact you in the long term because they lead you away from your ideal client profile and overall vision.
There's a reason why they didn't fit your ideal profile, and they will take up more time and resources.
4. Create a vision for your business
Many business owners are so excited to work for themselves that they forget to enjoy the benefits of being self-employed. Take a minute to ask yourself these questions to re-center. Your answers might have shifted since you first started your business.
What's the why behind your business? (It should be more than "to make money." This is a result of doing business, not why you do business. You could work for someone else and make money, so why are you doing this business?)
What kind of life are you wanting to build for you/your family?
What's important to you?
These are big questions to think about, but they are crucial to ensuring that your business follows your vision.
If spending time with your family and making sure you don't miss out on your daughter's soccer game is important to you, consider how you could structure your business to better support that goal.
Can you shift your schedule so you work a 4 day work week?
Is there a way you can shift when you start and end work?
Can you offer a booking option on your website, so you don't have to be on call?
5. Optimize & streamline your process
Automation can save you so much time and can actually provide a better experience to your clients because it allows you to respond instantly. It can be scary for some business owners because in the beginning it can be a little bumpy. But, that's normal!
You're going to have kinks to work out as you setup your automations, and that's okay. You'll be much happier in the future that you took the time to reduce the amount of manual steps you/your team were doing, and will find you have more time to focus on tasks that will grow your business.
6. Making progress > chasing perfection
A common pitfall many entrepreneurs fall into is chasing perfection. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but it's never going to be "perfect." What will actually happen though, is that you'll get so fixated on "getting it just right," or making "just a few more changes" that it's never really done.
Done is better than perfect because you're always going to be tweaking, optimizing and reworking. So, the sooner you can reshape your mindset and focus on making progress instead of chasing perfection, the better off you and your business will be.
7. Raise your prices
This is the quickest way you can increase the profit margin for your business. Start by making sure that the price for your services is correct. You should include prep time, and materials for your service + the service itself in your price. Also, don't forget to include a profit margin!
30% is the average profit margin for a service business, but if you are assuming higher risk, or providing a specific solution without much competition, you can (and should) consider increasing that profit margin.
If you are constantly booked and don't feel like there's enough time in the day, you can probably raise your prices.
How to tell if you're ready to raise your prices:
You have a high close rate of 75-80%
It's been a long time since you've raised your prices
Consider how much value your service adds to a person's life (solving big, specific problems means you can charge more for your solution)
You're constantly booked out and don't have the capacity to take on new business
8. Add a passive, recurring revenue stream
If you have already raised your prices, and are consistently booked, the next step is to add a passive, recurring revenue stream.
This means something that once you've invested time into setting it up and automating your marketing, you do not have to take time to manage or fulfill it.
Some examples are a course, e-book, commission from partner programs, or leveraging your community to get sponsored posts and monetize your content. These all will take time initially, but once you're done, they can help add an additional revenue stream to your business.
9. Get yourself out of fulfillment
This is an area some business owners struggle with because they believe that no one else can do it as well as them. It's tough to hand over something you've worked so hard on to someone with the fear that they might fail. But you won't know unless you give them a chance!
Instead of stressing, focus on what steps you can document, and checklists you can include to ensure that they succeed.
This will then allow you to work on your business rather than in it, which will help you scale!
10. Have optics on your business
Just like how you need to know how much gas you have in your car and where you're driving to, you need to have optics on key data in your business.
If you don't, you'll end up relying on "gut feelings," which can lead you down a different path.
Optics help you make data-driven decisions that give you a better, more informed direction for your business.
