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Learn More About Building Your Lifestyle Business
To build your lifestyle business successfully, you need to set your vision clearly. Every lifestyle business wants to achieve two simple things:
- To earn enough money.
- To have a high quality of life.
Absolutely everything else is ancilliary to these two goals.
You need to be asking yourself:
“Does this action both make me more money, and also keep my work-life balance under control?”
If the answer is no, then you need to go back to the drawing board and solve the underlying issues.
At Biz Bloke Business Coaching, I believe that we can answer this simple question by summarizing most issues into four simple categories:
- Alignment – How well your business plan matches your personal vision.
- Acquisition – How well your business manages the supply/demand equation, by creating more leads than availability.
- Automation – How well your business can service your product without you constantly at the wheel.
- Authority – How you escape the vicious cycle of advertising-reliance, by becoming the trusted figure in your niche.
Let’s dive into each of these categories in more detail below.
Alignment – How well your business plan matches your personal work-life balance and profit vision.
One of the most overlooked parts of the business is whether the original business plan actually matches the needs of the stressed business owner.
When we all started our small businesses, very few of us were thinking clearly. We were worried primarily about the service and the dollar signs, and secretly hoping that the work-life balance would improve over time. We certainly weren’t all jumping into getting a good business coach.
Unfortunately, letting our work-life balance go for even a second is quite simply: letting go of our vision.
It’s too easy to think that a short burst of high-intensity work is in service of our business. But this creates a habit of putting money before quality of life. And this is all it takes to start the slippery slide down into ‘being run by our business’, when we’re meant to be the ones doing the running!
So What can we do about our Alignment?
The most direct method is to go back and completely re-do our business plans, as we’re now armed with the knowledge that is actually required to do it right!
- We need to set operational limits, and new goal posts to meet our true personal needs.
- We need to ask ourselves: what is the absolute minimum salary I would be happy with, if I only had to work 4 days a week, and could take holidays any time I wanted?
- We need to ask ourselves: how many holidays do I actually want to take per year, and at what level of luxury?
- And we need to enshrine all of this into our business plan at all levels:
- What products and pricing we choose.
- Which clients we service.
- What type of premises and staffing model we approach.
- What types of opportunities are actually not suitable for our vision. And of course, which are.
When we go back to the basics, I have no doubt at all that you will discover: You’ve over-extended yourself. You’re trying to achieve too much. And you need to re-build some of the basics in order to make your lifestyle vision achievable.
You may need to cut an entire product line, or refocus it to be easier to service. Or perhaps you need to shift your product into a higher-tier pricing scheme. We don’t know the answers yet… you have to go back, before you can truly launch forwards.
Acquisition – How well your business attracts leads, resulting in predictable income.
Once we’ve reset the goal posts and set reasonable boundaries for our business, we’re finally ready to rebuild our business: stronger than ever.
Supply and Demand is incredibly basic, and yet every day, we forget that it exists. Is it a function of society? I don’t know. What I do know is that at the heart of capitalism is supply and demand.
If you can get more leads than you can handle, then you can charge more money.
But if you can service all of your leads, then you’ll feel pressure to lower your price to increase the amount of sales.
It’s simple math. But how do we actually generate leads?
Acquisition starts with your pitch.
Your pitch is the heart of your business from a client’s perspective.
- When they see your social media, they see your pitch.
- When they go to your website, they see your pitch.
- If they meet you in person, they hear your pitch.
- If they’re referred on by word of mouth, they hear your pitch… from someone else entirely!
Your pitch is your succinct, eloquent, and effective statement about what your business is, why it’s better than everything else, and why your client absolutely needs this in their life.
A weak pitch goes undetected for years. Clients will politely nod and smile. They will be indifferent to your business.
A strong pitch is met with emotion. Many clients will love it. Some clients will hate it.
But this second, stronger style of pitch generates real results. Every positive emotion is a sale ready to drop into your lap. And every negative reaction is a chance to get genuine, totally free feedback about what you could improve.
A business coach can be a great asset in learning to master your pitch, and that’s part of what I do with my clients in Balwyn, Melbourne.
There are two pitches that every business owner must master.
First you must be able to pitch to anyone in 30 seconds. This is the pitch that lives in your social media, on your website, and on the lips of potential referrers.
You need to achieve 4 things in these 30 seconds:
- State clearly who you are.
- Show a clear problem in your client’s life or business.
- State exactly what outcome your client is getting.
- And lastly, back it up with evidence and authority.
If you cant master these 4 elements in under 30 seconds, you will notice that people start to react more strongly to your pitch: both positively and negatively. That’s a sign that the pitch is working.
Your 20 minute pitch is your second type of pitch.
This pitch is your ‘manifesto’: your beliefs, evidence, and authority, all wrapped up into a miniature novel.
You create this pitch for presentations. But more than that, you create this pitch to train yourself, and to train your staff. This pitch solidifies your vision into a real, tangible set of values that can be enforced as your business grows.
Of Course, a Pitch is Just the Start.
Acquisition is one of the largest parts of your business. You’ll need to create regular social media posts, blog content, podcasts, and videos to get your pitch out there to the world.
Because remember: all clients want to buy your product. They just don’t want to buy your product right now.
So you need to get in front of them and stay in front of them for as long as it takes for them to be ready… all while maintaining your work-life balance!
Automation – How well your product stands if you’re not at the wheel.
If you can master your Vision Alignment, and Your Lead Acquisition, then you’ve almost won the race. You’ll have more demand for your services than you can supply. And that means that you can charge what you want.
But in order to stay a lifestyle business, with a high quality of life, you’ll need to master the art of servicing your product when you’re not there.
You can automate your products and services using software, staff, or outsourcing. The only important thing is that it doesn’t always require ‘you’.
If every single sale requires you to be present, how will you ever take that ski trip to the Austrian Alps?
Do you really intend to do a zoom call while you’re underwater, snorkelling in the Maldives?
Do you really want to be stuck in Melbourne or Sydney all the time?
You deserve annual leave, and Step 3 is making sure your business stands without you.
How do we go about automating our product servicing? There are a few key areas that we must focus on.
- Client onboarding. Regardless of your service, starting with a happy client makes life easier.
- Primary Service. How we’re going to get the service done.
- After-sale addition of value. Important for building testimonials and better reviews.
- Invoicing and Book-keeping.
- Sending a tax invoice to the client.
- Getting our invoices into Xero/MYOB
- Reconciling our bank transactions
- Generating easy-to-read sales reports
- Fulfilling our BAS requirements
- Doing annual tax requirements
- Maintenance of the system, such as:
- Paying bills.
- Training staff.
- Replacing staff.
- Fixing broken technology.
As you can see, this is where most business owners are dying from stress. This is meant to be the smallest part of the business, and yet the list is incredibly long!
To master automation, first our Vision must align with our business plan, because we need to simplify our products to reduce this list to its absolute minimum. Then we can search for improvements:
- Automating staff acquisition and training.
- Automating the entire book-keeping and reporting process.
- Automating bill payments AND recording.
- Automating client onboarding.
- Automating client nurture.
Authority – The Final Pillar
Very few business owners will every get past step 2 without a dedicated Lifestyle Business Coach, and I find when I coach people in Melbourne, most of my time is stuck in steps 1 and 2. There is simply too much to see when you’re doing the day-to-day operations. Only an outside professional can see the holes in your business.
But if you manage to solve the first three pillars: Alignment, Acquisition, and Automation, then it’s time to become wealthy.
And to become wealthy, you need to push the supply/demand curve to its absolute limits by getting far more clients than you would ever need – but also a higher quality of client.
To achieve this, you must be the authority in your niche field.
Who would the wealthiest clients go to when they have problems… is it you?
The highest authority gets the most opportunities.
We all know deep down that if we had more authority and fame, we would be more successful in business, but most of us pretend that it’s not a viable option due to our own personal circumstances.
That’s simply not true. Small, incremental changes can significantly boost your authority in your industry, and you can move the needle.
Here are some options available to the every-day business owner:
- Get featured as a guest on podcasts.
- Publish a novel or guide.
- Pay to get your article in a major magazine.
- Speak at local events.
- Network with people who are more advanced than you.
If you’ve mastered your pitch, then you will be received extremely well in these circles. That’s what the 20 minute pitch is all about.
Wealthy and high-authority figures have all mastered their pitch, and when you meet their level, they will acknowledge your success.
And with this, you will have access to new opportunities.
Building authority is step 4, because it’s going to take time. And ultimately, you can’t be a true authority until after you’ve mastered your basics.
Can You Go Alone?
The most direct and true answer is: no.
Every influential and successful lifestyle business owner has a dedicated mentor that keeps them on the tracks, even when they feel like veering off.
The great thing about getting a Lifestyle Business Coach in your corner is that they usually generate more value than they cost. It’s nearly always a win-win.
Which business coach is right for you?
There are many choices out there, and if you’re in Australia and want to work with a real authority on business, then let’s talk.
But the most important decision you need to make is: is my coach a lifestyle business coach, a scale-up business coach, or something else? Because not every business coach will be aligned with your personal vision and lifestyle goals.
Biz Bloke is your Lifestyle Business Architect in Balwyn, Melbourne 3004.
If your business is anywhere within Australia, and you’re in a professional services field, or a tradies field, then we’re able to help you out, as coaching is mostly done via Zoom Calls.