Ep. 068: How to Choose Your Next Big Thing
Too often people feel the only way they can grow a service-based business is by creating a course or a monthly membership. But there are so many other ways! What's important as you create your next offer is looking at 3 things: your schedule, your strengths, and your scope. The place where they intersect is your "sweet spot" for creating an offer you'll be excited to launch, and your clients will be excited to buy. Plus it will prevent you from wasting time, money, and energy on creating the wrong offer.
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY:
https://erikatebbens.podia.com/your-next-best-thing-workshop
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Erika Tebbens: I know you want to grow your business because let's be real, who doesn't? But the reality is, is that if you don't know your business persona and you don't fully know the stage of business growth that you're in, you might accidentally waste a lot of time, money and energy focusing on the wrong things in order to get your business from where it is to where you want to be.
And if you know anything about me, you know, I am obsessed with the show, Parks and Rec, which is why I created a really fun and free quiz to help you figure out your Parks and Rec biz persona, which will help show you exactly what you should focus on for your next steps of business growth. So to take the quiz, you can head right on over to bit.ly/ bizgrowthquiz to find out your Parks and Rec biz persona, and then get custom advice from me based on that with what you should focus on next for your success.
And it was so incredibly fun that I have decided you make a slightly shorter version of my framework here for you on the podcast. And then, if you want the, uh, tire workshop, you can actually purchase the replay, and the workbook, and all of that on my podia store. Uh, simply reach out to me and, uh, say hi over on Instagram, @erikatebebbensconsulting or shoot me an email, just go to erikatebbens.com and contact me through my contact form.
And I can send you the link to that directly, but I'm also going to put it in the show notes. So don't fret. So this, uh, this training was all about my framework that I recently created. Uh, I realized after doing this with a lot of clients, with helping them with smart offer creation. And by smart, I mean, uh, helping them create offers that feel like a "hell yes" for them and their clients.
So this is not a cookie cutter way of just saying like, "Hey, you need a core. So you need a membership in order to scale your business." This is around what is the easiest, best, next thing for them to create, to get the results they want to hit the goals that they want. And to, uh, most importantly, not burn out along the way.
And not waste a lot of time, money and energy in the, uh, creation launch and delivery of the wrong kind of offer and unsmart offer if you will. Uh, but I, as I had been helping clients with this process for months and months and months, I didn't actually realize that there was a framework that my brain was using my brain.
The strategic part of my brain was just doing this very organically. And then finally, like one day it was just, you know, one of those like shower epiphanies and I was like, "Oh my God, this is the thing that I do. Right?" So much like my three pillars of sustainably scaling your business, which I have a separate episode on.
Um, this also has three parts to it. Uh, and I had a similar epiphany about, um, my scaling framework as well. It's funny, I'm a big believer in just kind of doing stuff and not getting too hung up on, like I have to have this perfect framework and I have to have everything I have to like know every single little detail and thing ahead of time.
I think, um, as the saying goes, clarity comes through action. Once you do something a bunch of times and a bunch of different ways, all of a sudden you're like, "Oh my God, there it is. It's this thing that I do. And I do it this way every time." And now I can effectively and easily turn this into a framework that I can teach to other people.
So in the workshop, it was a little over an hour worth of training. So it's a lot of training. I'm not going to do the full thing here, but I'm just going to lightly touch on it. And then if this, again, sparks your curiosity and you want to know more and uh, you want to get the full training, just be sure to reach out and I can, I can get that to you and you can, um, watch it on demand and, and learn all the good stuff.
And then if you need help with the finer details, that is the work that I do with my private clients. So the three parts of my framework to help you create your next big thing. So to help you create an offer that you are so excited to sell and your target clients are so excited to buy are the intersection of, uh, your schedule, your strengths and your scope. So those are the three main parts of the framework and where they intersect is where your next "hell yes" offer is going to be. And this is something that you can repeat over and over, and it might change depending on what season of life you're in and what you have going on.
But this is a way really, to be sure that you are spending your time wisely. Because one thing that I have a real issue with is what I like to call the course industrial complex, which says like, you know, "Everyone needs a course and a course is like the best way to grow your business and you can make money in your sleep."
And I just fundamentally, don't think that everyone needs a course. And I think a lot of times, uh, there are better ways and I've done this with many clients where they actually came to me thinking they needed a course. And then we were able to find easy money, uh, from people already in their audience who just needed the right offer. Right? So we did something that didn't even require a big launch. We just whipped up a really simple offer that was an easy yes for people that they could already reach out to, to pitch it to, and they didn't need to do the whole, you know, like email sequence and webinars or challenge.
Like they didn't have to do any of that. And that was because we focused on these three things. So first up, your schedule. This is the most important thing. You need to first look at your available hours that you have to work with week after week. Uh, or, you know, if it changes kind of, you know, look at over the course of a month, right?
But typically you have an approximate amount of hours that you can devote every week to your business. And then you have to look at work that you have already been paid to do. Because if you don't do this, you're going to get a really bad reputation. And your business growth is going to suffer, right? So you have to do the stuff that you have already committed to.
So you want to figure out how much work that really is every week, and then see what you have left. Now, obviously in some of whatever is left, you need to be marketing. You need to be probably doing sales calls, um, writing emails, all sorts of other things. If you have a team, you're communicating with your team.
And so you want to figure that out first and then you want to see how much time you have left. Then you are going to see if you can buy back any of your time. So in my three scaling pillars, the first one is stabilized. So that is, I want to help my clients stabilize their pay that in any of their revenue that's already coming in.
So they don't have to push pause on the money that they're making in order to grow their business to the next level. So what you need to do here is figure out of the work that you do, of the stuff that you're committed to week after week. What of that can be outsourced? And chances are, there is more that can be outsourced than you think. But I want you to look very objectively at the things that you do and figure out, and this might even require talking to um, a professional, like, uh, an ops manager or an OBM, something like that in order to really see, you know, "Hey, where, where else can I be, uh, buying back my own time?" And this is one thing I help my clients with. Cause it's easy for me since I'm not emotionally attached to the work, I can see, "Hey, you know, you could actually outsource like graphic creation on this or, um, client research or just these various components. And then we also look at what are the marketing tasks that are actually bringing in the like you're busy, like new clients into your business. So what are the things that are really working and what are the things that maybe you're doing out of obligation that aren't actually converting? Because we can either eliminate or delegate those. Chances are, if they're not working at all, we can just eliminate them.
Usually people only have two to three marketing tasks that are really gonna bring in the bulk of their clients, um, at least like for their one-to-one work. So we want to focus on that and we want to see where you can, um, get some hours back. You're going to buy back your own time. And you're also going to get some extra money to help offset the cost of this delegation.
So chances are, if you offer a service, maybe you've raised your rates over time and you have people at older rates. So it could be time to look into raising those rates. And especially if they're a client that maybe you're like, you know, "They're not a perfect fit anymore, but I just, you know, it's money coming in. I feel bad. I don't want to let them go." Um, but you can tell them, "Hey, uh, You know, 30 days from now or two weeks from now, whatever it is, I'm going to raise your rate." And if they say, "No, thank you." Then if they leave, you now have space for another client at your new full-priced rate. Right? So you have some more money coming in there.
You can also look at, uh, you know, are there any outstanding invoices? Are there any other ways that you can do some quick projects for people to get a cash injection? Just anywhere that you can get quick, quick cash injection into your business to help offset the cost of that, uh, that buyback of your own time.
Right? So that is your schedule. Now, you know, okay. I have 10 hours every week that I can build, launch and then deliver on this new offer. Maybe it's not 10, maybe it's five, right? Maybe it's two. Either way, though it's really important to know because you don't want to accidentally create something or give yourself too short of a runway to create something and then end up having to work more hours on top of an already busy schedule.
This is a great way to get to resentment and burnout in your business. So next up once, you know, your schedule, you're super clear on that. Then what I want you to do is think about your strengths, right? So how do you like to show it for people? Do you like to be the leader? Do you like to be the teacher?
Do you like to be more behind the scenes? Uh, so an example would be like I'm a total like leader and teacher. It's what I love to do. But my VA, she might not want to lead and teach. She might not want to teach others people how to become VAs or anything. Right? So I know that she actually has some assistance in her own business that help her, that she delegates some work too.
And I think that that is, is really amazing. Uh, and there might be other ways that she could grow her business or, you know, a fully booked VA could grow their business beyond just coaching other VAs. Right? So there's sorts of different ways, but it's good to know first, you know, do you want to be behind the scenes or do you want to be out in front, are you an introvert or an extrovert? Is community really important for you? Is getting to know, um, the people that you're serving really important? Like, do you want deeper relationships? Or is more surface level okay? And there's no right or wrong for any of this. Right? And then also, are there things that you've created already that can be repurposed into a different, a different format or a different setting?
So you're gonna really think about your strengths and think about how you shine. And this is really important because if you are somebody who's just like, "I don't know. I need to make a course." And you really, really love like deep relationships with, um, with the people that you work with, you love that close connection, you love community, you love all of that. You probably wouldn't want to just have a course or a digital download where you aren't getting any personal connections with the purchasers of that offer at all. Right? It probably wouldn't feel fun to sell because even though you could be making money, you would miss out on that personal connection, right?
So you might want to, even if you decide that a course is the right thing for you, it might be more important to you to rather than have a lower cost course that would bring in lots of people. You might want to have a higher priced course that brings in fewer people and then has a community setting to it.
Right? So you're going to go through and really think about like how you want to work with people, how you like to work with people, how you don't like to work with people. Those are your strengths. And then you want to look at your scope. So scope is, is thinking about who you want to target with this offer and where they are in your customer journey and what price, I wont say point, um, it's more like a price region, that this would fall into, right? So if you are already have people in your orbit who are like a mid level. Let's say you have a $500 course, right? So you have a $500 course, and, um, people are sort of like entry point or midpoint in their journey and you have that and it's great and you love it and it's making money.
And you've got the community group and you, you know, you're doing some life coaching and it's just fantastic. And then you're like, "Well, who do I want to serve?" And you know, "What do I have time for? And what do I feel like I want to do?" And maybe you're like, "Okay. I have, you know, five hours a week. It looks like, and I really want to teach and I really want to lead. And I really want tight community. Uh, and I really want to go deeper on some things." So maybe you're like, "I'm actually going to take the people who've gone through my course who are ready for next level stuff. And I'm gonna create a small group program." Right?
"We're gonna do, you know, maybe an hour of coaching a week and I'm going to do some other, you know, trainings in there every month. And that will easily fill, you know, that five hours, maybe even fewer than five hours, but I'm going to be giving a ton of value." So it's probably going to be that since they're at a higher level at a, you know, a future point on the customer journey, that is going to be a higher ticket offering.
Conversely, maybe you already have something like that. And you're like, "I want to help more entry level people, but I don't want to spend a ton of time with them." Maybe they just get a lower cost course that gets them primed and ready for your more one-to-one work. Right? So there's no, um, there's a lot of talk of sometimes it's like, you know, well, you should sell 10 higher price things than a hundred lower price things.
I don't believe that there's like a, should there either way. I think it depends on who you're targeting. Right? I think anything is going to work at any price point if it's targeted to the right person. And a good thing to keep in mind though, is that for a lower price point, usually the person buying it is going to have to put in more of their own time.
Right? So the, the trade off of paying less of investing less is they're going to have to invest more time and the higher up the price ladder you go, chances are they are going to get a quicker transformation from you. They're going to get more of your time instead. So lower costs, less of your time, more cost more of your time, but also a bigger transformation.
So just really thinking of the scope of your offerings, of the scope of the type of offer you want to create, who you want to serve, where do they land in that customer journey. And then that is an easier way to sort of price accordingly and also look at all the assets and everything that you're going to include.
So then you should be able to, once you have mapped out those, then you can really look at all the different offer types and think, "What feels best for this right now?" So do you want, to have that, you know, group program, let's say. Does it come with some base level, like understanding that you need to include?
Do you need to record a few like base modules or can you just dive right in? Conversely, if you're doing a longer course, do you need to have the whole course done before you launch it? Or could you just have like the first couple modules that you're ready to drip out and then record and publish as you go?
It's also a good idea to try to prelaunch some stuff, because what if you're like, I think this course is going to be epic and it's totally going to serve the people already in my audience. And you prelaunch it and then it's crickets, right? Like you don't want to spend a ton of time creating something and then launch it and find out like the people in your audience are actually, they that's, you know, you kind of missed the mark, right?
So it's always a good idea. Not that you have to pull your audience and only create offers based on what they say. I don't agree with that either. But, um, even though I know pre-launching can sound scary, I like to think what is the minimum viable product that I need in order to launch this? What is something that needs to be there right off the clip, uh, when they say yes, and when they pay, um, and it could be that you say, "Hey this, this is a presale, and you're going to get the thing, you know, two weeks from now."
Right? I've had clients that, that do that. And there's literally nothing there other than a thank you page, but it's important to know these things and have all of this ready and also not work yourself to death, creating this massive behemoth of an offer, if it's actually not the right offer, right? If it, if it's doesn't land. So those are the three things I want you to think about if you're like, "Okay, think I know what I want to do where I'm debating between two offers and I'm not really sure which one to go with." Or, "Hey, I have questions." Or anything.
Find me over on Instagram. It's where I hang out the most. I'm @erikatebbensconsulting. If you're listening to this and even if you don't have questions, give me a shout out over there. I love to say hi, see who's who's listening in my audience cause I really appreciate every single one of my listeners.
But yeah, come by say hi. Um, let me know, know what your next big thing is going to be. And then if you have questions about launching it and getting out into the world, I would absolutely love to help. So as always go forth, make some "hell yes" offers and happy selling.
Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the "Sell It, Sister Podcast. If you loved it and you want more, be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And then head on over to sellitsisterhood.com to join my free Facebook community group. And as your mama said, "Sharing is caring." So if you got a lot of value out of this episode, be sure to share it with your biz besties too.
Okay. Now get out there and Sell it, Sister!
