How To Scale Your Service Offerings &Do it Cost-Effectively
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Let’s be clear, scaling your business will most likely not be cheap. You will get what you pay for in most instances. So the question needs to be asked, how do you scale your business which includes your service offerings cost-effectively?
That is a good question but before we dig into the answer, we first need to define what is meant by scaling your business. According to SCORE.org, “Setting the stage to enable and support growth in your company. It means having the ability to grow without being hampered. It requires planning, some funding, and the right systems, staff, processes, technology, and partners.
There are many ways to scale your service offerings. I want to focus on one area today:
Identifying high-demand services to expand your business
Let’s say you are a coach and you offer one-on-one coaching sessions to all your clients which allow you to give your clients a personalized coaching experience. However, you are starting to feel overwhelmed and a little bit stressed out. After doing some quick market research online to see what other coaches might be offering you discover that offering a VIP coaching experience to some of your clients might be worth trying out. It could yield a higher return for your time.
What will it take to offer your VIP one-on-one coaching service? Things to consider include:
Doing detailed market research to analyze other VIP programs in your industry to ensure yours is competitive. A great place to start the process is using Reference USA/Solutions which can be accessed at your local library.
The initial investment cost of any additional certifications & training needed to offer high-level coaching.
The marketing materials which included website updates and branding efforts to promote your new VIP experience.
Any costs associated with physical or digital infrastructure needed to offer the service such as a learning management system, premium software tools and office space.
What is the financial impact on your business?
In order to ensure this new offering will make sense financially use your P&L to help you to answer a myriad of questions. For example, what is the estimated additional revenue from offering your VIP coaching service? How will the new offering help to diversify your revenue streams?
Moreover, you want to take a pulse check to see where you stand right now financially to see if this is the right time to offer this new service or maybe try something different. You want to see if you are generating enough sales to cover operational expenses.
Next, you want to calculate how much is the total cost of the initial investment for this new service as well as ongoing associated costs. Additionally, creating a break-even analysis can help you to see where your break-even point will be where your revenue from the VIP coaching covers all your initial and ongoing costs.
This is a real practical way to understand how useful your P&L numbers can be helpful to growing your business.
What are some ideas you can implement to make this service more cost effective?
Use automation tools to help manage the client experience, email marketing and invoicing. Some apps to try are Zapier, Calendly & Mailchimp
Outsource non-core activities like administrative work and content creation for your new offering to specialized service providers. Check out VA Networking to hire a professional virtual assistant to help you get organized.
The continued growth of our businesses is paramount to staying in business. It is crucial to start thinking about what “next” uplevel service we can offer customers. Scaling our service offerings and doing it in a cost effective manner is key. Leaning into the numbers on your P&L can help you to navigate these choppy waters into smooth sales sailing.
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