Hello and welcome to Your Business Online, Your Way. The podcast to help you achieve success with your small business. I’m Holly Christie, your host. I’m a website designer working with small businesses and start-ups. I have 2 website companies: This Demanding Life for small businesses who are looking to level up and Simply Sites, for start-ups who want a stellar website and experience.
This episode is season 2, episode 9 and I’m so excited to bring it to you today. If you’ve followed the podcast from the beginning - first of all, thank you! Your support and seeing the episode downloads each week have really kept me going. You’ll know that in my experience of over a decade of running small businesses, I’ve amassed a load of experience which I bring to my mentoring services, and which I offer to you guys for free, through this podcast.
This week we’re looking at levelling up. What the signs of it are, how to do it and the common pitfalls, and how to avoid them. Ready? Let’s get started.
It could be that you’ve been in business for a little while now and you feel that you’ve got to know the ropes. Maybe you’ve got more work than you know what to do with. Or it could be that you’re bored by the setup you’ve got and you’re starting to feel a little nonchalant about it all. These are all signs that it’s time to level up your business.
When we first go into business it all feels so exciting. We have our new branding, a shiny new website, a LinkedIn feed just waiting to be populated and we can’t wait to be our own boss and share our work-magic with the world.
That may sound a little idealistic but it certainly is the case for a lot of people. Then comes the real world - the competition, the difficult clients and the dropped balls. Not helped by LinkedIn no longer feeling like the land of opportunity but the place where there are hundreds of thousands of people offering the same service as you.
The first year in business is often about finding your feet, discovering your ideal clients, identifying your ‘wouldn’t touch with a barge pole’ clients and streamlining your processes and services so you can get your work done without burning out.
Once you’ve had your first year or two in business doing this it’s time to grow. After all, there’s more money and more opportunities to be had. Growing means levelling up and if you’ve never had to do it before, it can feel quite daunting. But don’t worry, as someone who has levelled up on many an occasion, I’m here to walk you through the process and help to inspire you into the right path for you.
Let’s dive in:
The first thing to look at are where are the areas for growth in your business and what are you wanting to achieve? Want more money - put your prices up. But it’s not quite as simple as that.
Yes, prices should rise, in line with inflation and everything else going up, you’d definitely be missing a trick if you didn’t increase the prices. But I’m guessing you’re listening to this podcast because you want more than an increase in line with inflation and you don’t really want to creep your prices up year on year. Making a big leap in pricing will make a big difference to your business income and how you level up (even more).
So let’s talk pricing…
Do you have a pricing structure that you already use? Are you keeping things in-line with industry standards? Is your pricing model something you’ve come up with which makes you feel safe? Something that’s affordable so you know you’ll get business and you can make money from it, but it also leaves you wanting more?
Have you been afraid to put your pricing up because you’re worried it will put off your customers?
If either of these are you, let me reassure you that whilst increasing your pricing can bring up these fears, they’re almost always unfounded. I would say ‘always’ but I don’t want to be caught out here so I’ll say ‘in my experience, they’re unfounded’.
In fact increasing your prices brings a different level of client to you. One who may be a little further along in their business and they have their experience to bring to the table too. These clients can be great because their experience is usually recognising that you’re an expert in your job and to leave you to get on with it. It’s win-win. These clients who are a little further along their journey are usually put off by entry level pricing as they want to deal with someone who is backing themselves and their skillset and part of that is charging your worth.
When I first started out in Website design I priced most of my websites at £750. Then £1100 and eventually £1,500. Then I got a mentor, levelled up, we started with my pricing and what I found was the people who paid £750 would have paid £1,500 and the people who paid £1,500 would have paid £3,000.
These days my custom build websites start at £3,500 and the majority of my clients pay around the £5k mark for their website.
Backing myself when increasing pricing has always paid off. I’ve had a better calibre of clients and people who are further along the road themselves so aren’t looking for an entry level website, but something that shows their expertise and they want to ensure it’s been built by an expert.
When you’re adjusting your pricing you will be a little out of your comfort zone. This is something you need to get used to in business. Charge your worth, pay yourself properly and not too long after, the confidence will follow.
Next, let’s talk clients.
Entry level clients are fabulous when you’re just starting your business but pretty soon you’ll start to outgrow each other. This is a good thing - it means that all of you are moving in the right direction and growing. Each year take the time to look at who your ideal client is. Who you’d like to be marketing to. Some people like to identify their ideal client in broad strokes with age ranges, gender, industry etc. Others like to get into the micro-details of a client avatar with information such as: where they shop, what car they drive, what their family setup is, etc.
Whichever approach you have, revisit it regularly. Make sure your marketing and your pricing would be appealing to this type of client.
Niching into a model which identifies an ideal client can be frightening. Often people want to cast their net wide so they can capture everyone. But the old adage of ‘market to everybody and you’ll appeal to nobody’ applies here. The more you niche your marketing to appeal to your ideal client, the more enquiries you’ll get from them and you’ll have the added bonus of repelling the clients you don’t want to be making enquiries.
Check on your processes.
Levelling up can be a good time to look at your processes. What you’re doing well, what’s not gone so well or where you feel balls have been dropped. I’m known for my processes, it helps the team run smoothly, it means we meet our targets with websites and clients always know where they are and that they’re being listened to. Having good processes also makes me feel confident when I pitch my websites at the higher, levelled up pricing.
I don’t know many website designers who have a complete, mapped out delivery process the way I do, which allows for client collaboration as well as a fully comprehensive user manual at the end of the website build. I also know it sets me apart from the others and is something which is mentioned time and again in customer testimonials as something they loved about working together. Does it take extra time to do it this way? Yes, but that time’s also paid for in the cost of the website and it’s what gives me the confidence that I’m giving my clients the best experience possible.
When levelling up check your processes and see if there’s anything you can do to make things more client focused.
Finally, business buddies.
Ever heard the expression ‘it takes a village to raise a child’? Well, it takes a community to run a business. When you start out you may feel like the only one there, doing your thing, working away and each day becomes a repeat of the last. Then you find your tribe. Whether it’s an Facebook group, or you join a membership or you Link-in with a person who becomes your business bestie, this is when the magic really happens.
I’ve had this happen several times in my career. Things really started to take off for me when I met Amy. I had commissioned her to create my mini-mes - that’s the cartoon versions of me which you’ll see on Social Media. We clicked straight away and pretty soon after she created my new branding. I loved working with her so much that when clients need branding support I sent them to Amy. This happened over and again until I realised that our businesses were stronger for us working together. We each had a skillset that complimented each others’ and soon after, Amy became a member of the team. I absolutely would not have been able to grow the business without her. It’s not just her skillset, it’s her support, her picking up the balls I’ve dropped and many of the clients are as fond as her as I am. The same happened when Sharon setup her own business, a former client and wonderful supporter of our work, when Amy and I needed admin and organisation help, Sharon was the first person we thought of. It’s been a year now and I couldn’t imagine the company, or the success we’ve had without her.
This doesn’t mean you have to get a business buddy and bring them onto your team. Just having someone there in the trenches with you, who you can run ideas past or go to for advice is brilliant. I met a fellow website designer, Mike Cottam on LinkedIn around 5 years ago and whilst we don’t do website work together, he’s my go-to for running ideas by, talking me down from the ceiling when things get stressful and he’s an amazing buddy to celebrate with when things go well.
Whoever and wherever you find your tribe, make sure you have one, especially when you’re levelling up.
That’s all on this from me, this week. What do you think? Are you in a stage where you’re ready to level up? Or at least think about it? Have you recognised any of the signs that you’re ready to level up? This week I’ve been speaking about it with Mike Cottam, my lovely business buddy. I was talking him through some frustrations I’ve been having with work recently and he hit on the right solution for me. I hadn’t realised that the feelings of stagnation and slight dissatisfaction were my signs that it was time to step things up a gear but Mike did. It means I’ll be busy working on something this summer that I’ll be launching in the autumn. It’s definitely got my spark back and I can’t wait to get working on it.
If you’d like some support in levelling up or you feel your website isn’t reflecting the stage your business is at, feel free to get in touch with me through my website; thisdemandinglife.com or email me directly: holly@thisdemandinglife.com. I’d also love to see you on LinkedIn where you can find me at hollycchristie.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast, if you liked it, please do share it with others and if you haven’t already done so, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating and review. It makes a big difference with providers like Apple when showing it to people who may like it and I’d love to share this free resource with as many people as possible. Thanks so much and see you next week!