Suzanne Chadwick 0:00
Hey, lovelies, welcome back to the brand builders lab, my podcsat amazing to have you here. This week, we're gonna be talking about money, money, money, money, does the Abba song just pop into your head, it popped into mind, and all of the different ways for you to be thinking about earning money, and how that can help you with how you are building and growing your business. And for those of you who have been in business for a while now, I think that it's really important to decide on how you're going to evolve your business based on where the market is what's happening, what you can potentially do, and what you can potentially earn. And I think that as business owners, this is something that we need to be thinking about a lot. Now, I feel like this is not the first time that I'm going to tell you this, but I am going to attempt to do more than one episode. I feel like a while ago, I tried it. I don't know what happened. Maybe it was just too much. But we want to do one main episode, and then maybe a mini episode as well. And so we'll see how that guy's fingers crossed, we make it happen. But as with everything, and I was sharing this when I was speaking in a master class today, everything is an experiment. So we'll see if this experiment works for the second time. And sometimes you gotta give things, multiple goals before you get there. But anyway, let's dive into this week's episode.

So we're gonna break this week's podcast episode into three key things, the three different stages that I want to talk about when it comes to money and sales, and how you can think about it depending on where you are in your business. So the first stage of business is obviously when you start your business, and you are creating your products and services, you're defining what your brand is, and you're starting to build that brand in the market. Now, I have to be honest, is that some businesses can stay at this stage or come back to this stage on a regular basis. If you've been in business for a while, and it's one of the things that I saw, and have seen and do see with clients that come into brandbuilders Academy is that they've been in business for a while, a fair while they're earning money, but they've not really looked at the strategy around how they're earning money, how their products and services are becoming assets, how they're growing. And so that's kind of that initial stage. So you might be in that stage where you're really in Build Mode, you're in defining and build mode. And when you're in that stage, some of the things that are gonna happen is that sometimes you'll undercharge, because you're just starting out and you're trying to figure out you're under charge, you'll also take on clients that when you get further along in your business you would never take on. And so earning money can feel a bit harder. And it is a bit harder because you're learning. And I think that sometimes we expect it to be easy. And then that makes it even harder. So if you're in the build stage, because obviously I always want to make these episodes practical for you, I would really highly recommend that you get clear on what your brand is, you get clear on who your clients are and who you want to work with and who you don't want to work with. And start to really take a look at how you price in the market. And understand what the commercial value of what it is that you do is in the market so that you're not under charging, and that you're building a business from this point that is commercially viable, has the potential and is more profitable, so that when you are working with clients, you know that you are working with clients in a way that's building and growing your business. Now, when it comes to money at that build stage, you're going to be bootstrapping a lot of the time unless you started with capital, unless you started with some money where you knew you were going to invest it, then money at the start of business can be quite tight.

But one thing I definitely want to recommend and I do hear this from people is working for free. And I'm not going to recommend that because even if you do things at a lesser price to start off with your first couple of clients, and even then I'm saying if you are skilled at what you do, then that shouldn't be something that you should have to do because you can obviously be one working with a client and giving them the result if you're skilled in that area. So back yourself, really work on yourself believe that yes, you can get paid this, yes, people will value it. And yes, you can charge for it. Stage two is consolidation and elevation. So you'll get to a point in your business where you're like, Okay, I've got my products and services, I've generally got my pricing. And now I really want to take a look and do a cleanup. And so I remember going through this, I several years after being in business, because obviously, the build stage, you're doing all the things, you're charging lots of different prices, you're working out who you want to work with and who you don't want to work with. You're trying to sort out your money mindset and making sure that you're charging well for what it is that you're doing. You're learning to manage your money at this stage as well. If you haven't learned all of those things, obviously brandbuilders Academy is a great place for you to start. And to get the knowledge there. When you're in that next stage of consolidation and elevation, then you are reviewing and culling anything that is not working anything that you don't want to have any more. And this is also where you're really taking yourself and your money to the next level. This is where you might be increasing your prices. It's where you're really looking to work with less clients, but at a higher price. So instead of having 1000 clients at $10, you want to have 100 clients at $1,000. And really starting to take a look at how am I elevating my business? How am I starting to really elevate my brand, so that I have a limited number of products and services. And I am charging more for those. And if you can get into that model, that's where scalability is going to come, that's where you're going to be able to earn more in your business. Now, if you do digital programs or products, then obviously your scalability is there. Now, if you sell software, if you sell coaching, if you sell any kind of service based business where somebody can get what they need from you, and then they can go off on their way and do what they need as well, then that is going to be an asset in your business. Now if you can create that as monthly reoccurring revenue, where you are getting a subscription, and one thing I want to say and I said this in an Instagram story the other day, I feel like when we talk about reoccurring revenue, a lot of people think really low price like $5 $10 $15. And this is where you really want to be looking at your brand positioning and where you want to be positioning your brand in the market, what you want to be charging, understanding, you know what level of client that you want to be working with and don't undervalue, undercut yourself, even if you are going into a MRR monthly recurring revenue model.

Charge well for it. And I'll tell you why. And I'll tell you why. As a customer, when I joined something that is $15 I don't really value it that much. I'm like, yeah, like it's okay. Like, if I keep it great. If I don't, it doesn't matter. When I invest, you know, anything that is $97 or above, I am there I am in the community, I am showing up, I'm going through the content I'm contributing. Why because when I pay more, I am more engaged, I am valuing it more as well. And that is has been my behavior as a customer. So I recently joined a was a three month membership was minimum of three months, it was $1,000 for the three months. And I went in and even though I've now discovered it's not quite for me as far as it's not the right community. For me, they're not the right types of businesses that I'm looking to connect with, which is all good. I love the creator of the community. And I listened to him and a lot of what he teaches and talks about, but the community isn't right for me. But I was more than happy to pay to be in that community. And so I showed up, I showed up to calls I've been online in the community, like contributing to other people's posts, etc. So I just really want you to think about when I take a look at my products and services, do I feel like I have elevated from where I was at my beginner stage. And I'm not just talking about a little bit I'm not just talking about yo raise my prices a little bit. I'm actually talking about consolidating, having less products and charging well offer what you have, so that you can have that profitability and pay yourself more or you know that that's what I talk about all the time. And I only think that it is when you think strategically about it, and you start to manage your assets well, and sell them, which is a key part, that you can really start to see the financial difference when it comes to money, revenue and profit. And then the third stage, so the beginning we've got building. Secondly, we've got consolidate and elevate. And at the third stage, we're really at asset optimization. And what that means is now you have your products and services, not only do you have them, but you are, you're making them better you are making the better, you are talking more about them, you are refining your sales strategy around those assets, you are potentially increasing prices, they're totally up to you. But you are now taking what you have, and making it a more valuable asset. And if you can make it a more valuable asset, then you'll be able to sell it more consistently as well. Now, when we talk about money, when we're talking about these three stages of business, I want to remind you that each stage of business should have its own sales strategy, I'm actually going to be building a more comprehensive sales force that I'm so excited to share with you because you know, I could talk about sales all day long. And so when you're in the build stage, your sales strategy might be getting referrals from people that you know, getting comfortable with putting yourself out there getting visible building community, etc. At the consolidate and elevate stage, your sales strategy will be to get rid of any products that aren't working and focus all your sales and marketing efforts on the products that are working now and also learning. How do I talk about it? What helps me sell it? What are the key problems that I'm solving with these consolidated products? Now has the market change? What else do we need to do here? Once you're at the asset optimization stage, your sales strategy, and the way in which you take money into your business is going to look different. And so you might be implementing evergreen strategies like evergreen webinars, workshops, small price pre paid products that then lead into bigger things, you could potentially have a sales consultant on like a booker or a social seller. There's lots of different options there as well.

But you're really looking to hit a particular target of sales on a regular basis. So even within my business, we have just gone through a big tech migration. And the focus now is really on that asset optimization phase. I feel like we went through that a while ago, we are now going back into asset optimization now with a new platform. And so I've got goals for myself around how many BBA clients I want coming in on a weekly basis, how many amplify clients we want to be attracting in what evergreen strategies we've got, what are our social sales strategies and tactics. And so once the assets are in place, and you know, the assets work, you know, that they're high quality, you know, that clients can just come in, then it becomes a very scalable model. And really taking a look at now, what are our definitive sales commitments that we're going to be making on a regular basis, what is the activity that we want to be really focusing on in order to grow what we've got. Now, as you know, as I talk about all the time, as the podcast is named, the brand builders love, it is about building your brand. Once you get to asset optimization stage, it's all about brand building, so that you become the person who is magnetizing your audience so that you can bring them into either your programs, your coaching your products and services, to buy whatever it is that you have, and understanding that those are two core things that you have to be working on. Now, obviously, I believe that you've got to be building your brand at all stages of business because that's how you grow. That's how people decide if you're for them. That's how people learn about you and what it is that you do, and how you can help them. And so really starting to think about how am I going to in my asset optimization stage now start to create more sophisticated sales strategies in the business. And one of the girls that I know that owns as a digital agency, we were having a bit of a discussion on LinkedIn the other day about her taking on the role as sales and marketing manager in their business. And if you're somebody who is a solopreneur, and it's just you, and maybe one or two team members, etc, and they're not sales, then that is your role. And really understanding that in order to generate more revenue in your business, in order to get more cash flow in so that you can increase the profit increase your increase your ability to invest back in the business, then you need to have a really clear sales and marketing strategy. And that is something that we're going to talk about more we are going to dive into, because I actually think this is one area that a lot of small businesses do not spend enough time on, do not take seriously enough. I think a lot of times people are sitting there and waiting for clients to come hoping it's called the fingers crossed method where you're just crossing your fingers and hoping that somebody contacts you. And so whilst your brand can absolutely attract people into your business, you've you've got to have solid sales and marketing strategies when you're at the asset optimization stage.

So those are the three areas. So those are the three stages of business that I wanted to share with you today. So does I think short and sweet gets the message across as well. And then we can dive deeper into different aspects of this in future episodes. But if you've got any questions, let me know. Let me know which stage you're at. Are you at just the build stage? Are you at the consolidate and elevate stage or are you at the asset optimization stage? And if and, and what's next for you? Hope you enjoyed and I will see you next week on the podcast.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai