When you run masterminds and do coaching like I do, you learn quickly that women are in many different points in their businesses. No matter where your business is in terms of growth, there are specific steps you need to take to scale that business. Let’s jump into what those steps are.
IE 100: The Steps You Need to Take to Scale Your Business as a Blogger or Influencer
You guys! I can‘t believe we are at episode 100! I just want to take a minute to thank each of you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join me here each week, whether you join in live on Facebook every Tuesday morning at 11:00 or you listen in to the podcast when it drops.
I am so grateful for your support and your kindness in sharing this podcast with your friends and fellow bloggers and for the awesome reviews and ratings you take the time to leave for me on Itunes. It all means so much to me. Without you all, there would not be a 100th episode so thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Now, let’s get on with the training!
#1 – You Need a System to Scale Your Business
I almost hate to say this one because it took me forever to be able to accept the fact that I needed a system. My brain just doesn’t work that way so it was difficult for me to try to understand how a system would actually help me.
What I have discovered is that there has to be a system for everything I do in my business. Whether that’s posting to Facebook or Instagram, writing a blog post, scheduling pins to Pinterest, or doing live trainings, if there isn’t a system, I am going to miss important steps.
The thing is, we already have systems. Sometimes we just don’t realize it. A system is simply all the pieces that make up whatever it is you are doing. For this reason, I’m not going to tell you to get a system; I want you to discover the systems you are already using.
One of my favorite ways to figure out what my systems are is through a Chrome extension for my desktop called Loom. Loom is a video extension that captures your screen as you work online. This allows you to have a video recording of yourself working through projects and you can then share these videos with a VA or you can use them to tighten up your processes.
#2 – What Can You Hire Out to Scale Your Business?
As your business grows, you will begin to experience something that all business owners with growing businesses experience: overwhelm. This is why you have to make a decision to hire out the things that someone else can do.
Do you ever feel like you’re spinning a bunch of plates in the air and that sooner or later, one of them is going to fall? I know I do! There are just so many things that we have to do in order to run a business and a blog. Before you start dropping plates and watching parts of your business come crashing down, develop systems for these things and decide which ones you can hire out.
Before you panic and tell me that you wouldn’t know where to even begin to look to hire someone, let me suggest that you start where you are. Do you have a sister, sister-in-law, mom, best friend, or another school mom who you know is great at Pinterest or editing? If so, ask her if she’d be willing to work for you for just a few hours a week. This is the best way to find somebody you can trust. And you can use the videos you created in Loom to teach them how to do what you need done.
One of the things I hear all the time from my clients who are afraid to make their first hire is that they’re afraid the person they hire won’t do things the way they do or that the person might make a mistake.
Listen to me, you can bet 100% that anybody you hire is going to make mistakes and is going to do some things differently than you do.
And that’s okay! In the online space, there are a thousand different ways to do things. One person says to pin only 10 pins per day and another person says you will fail on Pinterest unless you pin 100 pins per day. Guess what? They are both right!
You have to find what works for you and be gracious enough to give your VA the freedom to discover ways that work for her. If you are lucky enough to find a VA who can take the ball and run with it rather than ask you every tiny question about everything, let her run.
And when those mistakes happen and those failures come, be willing to sit down with her and say, “Okay, here’s what isn’t working. Let’s figure out what we need to change to make it work.” And take her advice and thoughts into consideration. If on the other hand, you say something like, “Why would you do it that way? What were you even thinking?”, your VA is going to be that much more hesitant to start making decisions on her own.
#3 – Check Your Mindset to Scale Your Business
Listen, I understand that scaling your business can be scary. It is perfectly normal to feel nervous about growing. We can begin to feel very comfortable where we are and not want to make the changes necessary to scale our business.
This is why your mindset is so important. You absolutely have to go into scaling with an abundance mindset. You have to know that if you put yourself out there, you will see the return on your effort. If you struggle with a scarcity mindset, I want you to go listen to episode 74 and work on your mindset.
You may be dealing with deep-seated beliefs about yourself that aren’t true. Perhaps you think that you could never be successful or that nobody would ever listen to you. That is something you are going to have to do the work to push past.
You can do this. I know you can. You just have to begin to believe in yourself and that what you have to share is valuable.
#4 – Diversify Your Income with Digital Products to Scale Your Business
If you aren’t ready to create products, think of a service you could provide. The point is to come up with digital products or services to increase your income and create multiple streams of it.
As a blogger and influencer, you may have yourself boxed into a couple of ways of earning money. If you want to multiply your streams of income, you have to come up with your own products. I know this is scary, again. But let’s face it – there are a lot of things that are scary about building and growing a successful business.
An easy way to figure out what type of product to create is to ask yourself what question your readers ask you over and over. What do they come to you for help with? What do you talk to them about? What do people DM you on Instagram about?
And again, we come back to mindset. If there is already a product out there similar to what you want to create, so what? And if there is nothing out there similar to what you want to create?
So what??
Shove your fear to the side and create it. Then put it out there and test it. What’s the worst that can happen? Nobody buys it. And again, so what? You go back to the drawing board and you try again. But you will never know if you don’t try. And how do you know but that people might be literally waiting on someone to create what it is you have in mind.
Let me tell you a little story. When I created the Jenny Melrose site, I did so from scratch, no list. I had been blogging at the Melrose Family for years but I never was one of those big bloggers. My audience is small but they are engaged.
I kept getting questions on how I had replaced my teacher’s salary with sponsored posts and how I was developing long-term relationships with the brands. The questions kept coming. So I started the Jenny Melrose side of things with a product. I put it out there to 12 people, hoping that 10 would join the beta launch.
Only 8 of them did but guess what? That was $1600 that I didn’t have before and they validated my idea for the product. That product was Pitch Perfect Pro which I have now released multiple times and have received tons of income from. But if I had never released it, I would never have had that success or the income.
If you just have no idea what you could possibly create, listen to episode 96 which is all about diversifying your income with digital products. In this episode, I give tons of specific examples of products based on your niche. This should at least get your wheels spinning to figure out what you could start working on.
#5 – Find Accountability to Scale Your Business
I don’t care how supportive your family and friends are, you can’t do this alone. You just can’t.
They don’t understand the importance of your online presence or why you have to take 125 pictures of your dinner. They can’t grasp the strategies you need to put into place like making connections and forming relationships with other bloggers that you don’t even know. They are stumped as to why you carry plates of food out on the porch to get the right light or why you need to check your Instagram DM’s multiple times a day.
You need somebody who gets it. This can come in several different ways such as just getting together with another blogger who will hold you accountable.
My suggestion, if you truly want to scale your business, is to join a mastermind or hire a coach. This person can look at your business from an objective point of view and can make suggestions that you may never have thought of. They can tell you things to try and things to forget about.
They will also push you to do things that might make you a little, or a lot, uncomfortable. I have clients that say, “Whoa, Jenny kicked my butt today.” And that’s a good thing!
You need people who are willing to kick your butt into gear and force you to do things that will push your business to the next level. Without this kind of accountability, you will tend to hang back and not make the progress you would make if you had somebody challenging you.
Masterminds are my favorite things to facilitate. I love being able to put women together from different niches and watch them push each other and help each other grow.
I am currently accepting applications for two types of masterminds for 2019: a builder group and a scaler group. In one of the masterminds I am currently running, the women came into the group with only one of them having a product. Now, at the end of their 6 months in the group, 5 more of them have products.
The beauty of a mastermind is that the other 5 women saw that the one lady had a membership site and it got them to thinking about what they could do to create some type of product. They were all encouraged and challenged because of another member of their group.
It is incredible to see the growth that can happen when you surround yourself with other people who are likeminded and determined to scale their businesses. If you know that you’ve hit a plateau and you need to do something to take your business to the next level, I strongly encourage you to apply for one of my masterminds today.
Action Steps:
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