Do you ever wish you could earn more, but you don’t want to give up more of your time? If you’ve maxed out your time, or don’t want to take on more clients, but want to increase your revenue, listen in for 2 specific strategies that may help you do so.
In this episode, I want to chat with you about an issue that many of the clients and students I’ve worked with have and one that I have faced in the past too.
At the beginning of my business, I was a VA offering all kinds of services. I had website design, Pinterest services, tech services, social media support, graphics, and more.
It was A LOT. I had hired a couple of subcontractors to help me because I couldn’t keep up with it all myself. But even with the subcontractors in place, I still was working nights and weekends many times.
I was at a point where I wanted to grow my income, but I really had no more time to give. I couldn’t take on more clients unless I added to my team, and I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do that.
I had to figure out a way to do so without adding to my workload.
In this episode, I’ll share the 2 strategies that I implemented and some tips for doing so yourself! These are not things I came up with myself, but many times when I talk to my clients about these ideas, they find them incredibly helpful!
Strategy #1: Raise your rates.
I realize that this is a tough one especially if you have clients that you’ve been working with since you started. If you offer an ongoing service, and the client stays with you for a year or more, it’s tough to figure out how to raise your rates.
So here’s what I did and would recommend for you:
Start by raising your rates for new clients coming in. That way, when one client leaves, you replace that client with a new client who is paying the new rate. This allows you to increase your revenue without doing more.
But what about the people who are your long-term clients? Well, the truth is, rates for services go up all the time. Your car mechanic raises their rates. Your grocery store charges more for food. Gas prices go up. There’s no law that says you have to keep your prices the same for your clients forever and always! So keep in mind that a rate increase is NORMAL.
So, to raise rates for current clients, I recommend notifying them ahead of time of the coming change. At a minimum, you want to give a 30-day notice, but ideally, a 2-3 months time frame is good. If you have a contract, then you need to honor the rate you have in the contract until that is done. But once that contract is done, you can certainly adjust the rate you are charging.
Another thing you can do is do a gradual or grandfathered rate increase. You can decide, for example, not to increase the loyal clients to the full amount you are charging new clients. Perhaps you’ll increase to a certain point for the next contract, and then the contract after that, increase again.
Of course, you need to be providing quality services and ensure that you are meeting or exceeding the contract expectations.
In most cases, when you give your clients a heads up, you thank them for their loyalty, and you are providing a quality service, they are likely to continue working with you.
*Note that much of what I’m talking about here is related to service providers. But it could apply to coaching as well. When it comes to courses or launching, it’s normal to increase your price after you have validated the offer and gotten results a few times.
Strategy #2: Offer additional or add-on services to your clients.
This strategy can be done if you have increased training you’ve done or if you’ve expanded your team, or even if there are services or offers your current clients are not taking advantage of.
In this case, you might look at what you are offering your current clients and determine if there are things that you might be able to do that will help them achieve their goals faster or easier.
If so, you can reach out to them to set up a call to discuss this. You could prepare a presentation or just go over what you are doing with them right now, and then share how you might be able to support them even further.
Maybe you’ve gotten a certification or you’ve completed a training recently. Your client may not realize this and it’s your job to make them aware of your ability to support them even more!
I’ve done this sort of add-on scaling in my upLIFT Mentormind in the form of a retreat that I hosted this past February.
Conclusion:
When I implemented both of these strategies, I was able to decrease the # of clients I was working with because I both increased my rates and then later, increased the level of support I was providing. Throughout that process, I was able to see an increase in my revenue and my profit without taking on more clients.
Now here’s what you need to know: implementing these strategies does take some finesse and some planning. It’s not guaranteed that your clients will continue working with you when you raise your rates. It’s possible that some of them will not want to take you up on your offer for an increased level of service or value.
This is where trusting God with your business is of utmost importance. You must trust that God is going to provide what you need. I had times when a client did not want to continue and we had to part ways. But God would always bring something different to provide what I needed.
Here’s one more thing you need to know: it can be incredibly helpful to go through this process with the support of a mentor and coach. This is something I offer inside of my upLIFT Mentormind. I am currently working with one of my clients on this very process, which is what sparked this episode.
If you would like guidance and support on increasing your revenue without increasing your client load, up-leveling your marketing, or streamlining your backend systems, all within the context of an intimate, faith-based community, then upLIFT may be for you!
Head over to upliftmentormind.com to learn more or sign up for my free info session. This is a chance to learn all about the program and determine if it’s a fit for you. If you think it is, you can apply, and then we’ll hop on a call to chat!
Quotes to Note:
“Many times the women I work with are undercharging for their services and undervaluing what they bring to their clients.” – Esther Littlefield [4:15]
“You want to consider what problems your clients are having right now that you haven’t solved for them yet.” – Esther Littlefield [14:30]
“It can be easier to work with fewer clients with an ongoing service at a higher level of support than working with multiple clients and trying to keep track of all the things going on with their businesses.”- Esther Littlefield [19:00]
“Trusting God with your business is of utmost importance.”
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