Extend or expand work with your existing clients to bolster your revenue
In a post I wrote a few weeks ago, we talked about the duration/delegation scale, about how some businesses are designed for longevity with a core offer, while others are shorter-term investments.
Here are some factors that might impact the overall lifecycle of your business model:
The need your business solves
If you’re solving a concrete, short-term need with services (designing a room, writing a website, leading a hiring campaign, installing a system, helping someone find a new job), by its nature, that business model is a short-lived model. The room is designed, they found a job or finished their resume, they’ve hired for the role.
Some business models are serving a recurring need, like bookkeeping and podcast production services - and by that nature, the lifecycle is longer.
The stage you’re solving in their journey
If your business solves a need at a fixed stage of their journey, usually the beginning stages, eventually your clients will “graduate” from your work.
How to launch a business, how to start writing online, how to get your first client, building a budget for you, increasing your productivity with the basics of time-blocking and task management, learning the skills of networking or how to run a sales process.
Eventually, while these skills are fundamental and can be improved over time, the clients will move on to potentially more advanced, niched, or systems-level support in their business.
I loved learning from some of my coaches and programs when I started growing my business. However, I’ve shifted more of my investments as of late from generalized support to very specific needs that match my growth areas (e.g., a YouTube accelerator, book editing, and SEO strategy).
The form of your delivery
By the nature of digital download products, one-time purchases of courses/templates/products are short-lived models even if you grant access for a particular period of time or stretch the payment over a long period of time.
Whereas retainers, memberships, subscription models are longer-term models that can span for years as long as you keep meeting their needs and matching their evolving business needs with events and/or content.
Tiago Forte, owner of Building a Second Brain, talked about this in his conversation with Nathan Barry about the challenges of growing his business beyond $2M per year. His BASB Foundations course runs for $499 as a one-time payment, where his (newly introduced) Membership model is $175/quarter ongoing.
The intensity of your delivery model
Some business models are incredibly intense: a “boot camp” model, or a “sprint” where you learn a lot in a concentrated time and then need time to go actually do the thing and see the results.
While others are longer, slower, and allow for more integration time when life inevitably happens (membership models fit this model).
My 1:1 work often fits the intense model - clients work with me intensely over 2-3 months to define their strategy and implement key assets (brand assets, offers, systems, hiring, financial forecasting) that are missing in a focused build phase, but then need time to let those seeds bear fruit over time before the next intense build phase.
Even Deeper Foundations is a commitment: weekly calls for 6 months. Sometimes, you just want your calendar back or need to shift your investments (but still would love to check-in with your mentor every so often!)
Continuing to serve existing clients
There’s a lot of advice to have one “Million-Dollar Offer” that scales. (By the way… those gurus championing that are frequently coming out with new offers that are often transparently a cash grab).
While it IS great to have a single core offer when you’re focusing on your marketing and sales process for new clients… it leaves a lot to be desired when you actually run the math for your entire business.
New Client Acquisition requires substantially more effort
Especially if you’re running a shorter-duration business model, client acquisition is hard. You’re either networking your tail off, investing in lots of marketing and hoping the algo’s work in your favor, investing in paid advertising and affiliates, or all three of the above.
So why aren’t we advocating for repeat clients?
You can’t leverage the trust and foundation you’ve already built
If there’s nowhere else for your clients to go in your business… that means that neither you nor they can use the trust that you’ve already built up. It takes a lot of energy to transfer knowledge about your life and business to a new service provider, or to trust a new teacher. And on the business side, it takes a heavy lift on onboarding and laying the philosophical and language vernacular groundwork for someone new.
Having an ongoing relationship really shortcuts the ramp up time, particularly if you’ve stayed connected since your project or core investment period ended.
I worked with a productivity coach starting in 2017 - and the amount of language they used about their core concepts (lifemap, leveraged priority, ”landmines” and “champagne moments”) takes time and effort to teach someone new and for their clients learn. It made sense for them to have a number of products to meet the beginner, intermediate, and advanced needs of their students without having to re-learn and re-embed language for another program.
There’s usually some ongoing support required
Got a new job? Well now you’re networking for the next one or want to grow you influence in the role.
Got a new website? Now there’s inevitably maintenance and upgrades.
Quiet Quit your Instagram? Even with a static grid, I frantically emailed my amazing Leanne and asked for a tweak to one of my slides about Deeper Foundations this week.
Enter: The Expansion Offer
Instead of relying on a single core offer, especially if you run a short-duration business model, it might be time for the portfolio approach. Building some ongoing income with people you’ve already built a relationship with, in a supportive fashion, that relieves some of the pressure of new sales. So if you know why it’s great to have additional ways for clients to work with you and stay in relationship, what rationale - and therefore what models - might be best for you?
More access
Maybe after the initial cohort or membership level you have an offer with more access - going from membership to a bootcamp with personalized feedback and attention, or from a one-time course purchase to a mastermind level.
Ali Abdaal did this with moving from his PartTime YouTube Academy (cohort-based course with limited access beyond the cohort timeframe) to the Part Time YouTube Accelerator (more access to more experts for a year).
My productivity coach has a robust membership level but offers a “boot camp” 2x a year for more accelerated learning and feedback on the same concepts.
Less access!
I have an ongoing advisory plan with my clients; after we’ve done deep strategy work, they don’t need to meet with me as frequently. Instead, we meet monthly and just pick up where we left off each time with interaction in between.
With my Deeper Foundations/Summer of Sustainability program alumni, I’m thinking about how we stay connected with less of a commitment on your calendar. (You’ll hear from me soon).
Extension Offers
So you’re a graphic designer who builds the initial collateral for a client… inevitably they’re going to want more collateral made for their new offer, or new program, or want a refresh. How can you offer a way for clients to re-engage with you quickly - and make it really public and really easy on how to engage with your service like that?
I just hired one of the copywriters I work with to draft me a quick sales page - and because I already trust her and she knows my voice and work, it’s an easy win for both of us.
Maintenance Offers
This is an easy inclusion for web designers, systems specialists, organizers, and interior designers and even coaches/consultants. You might offer a recurring maintenance plan to fix bugs, update copy, look for SEO errors, or do seasonal/quarterly maintenance of the design and organization that you installed to keep it in “day of delivery” shape.
With my first coach, after our intense year of coaching together, we instead shifted to 2x a year deep dive retreats. I didn’t need a 2x a month coaching session, but I did want to keep growing and evolving with someone I trusted with a different form.
Next Level of Learning
If your business model is designed for a certain stage of the client transformation, what’s next in the skills/support they need?
Sometimes this isn’t an immediate transition because it often takes time to grow and integrate and be ready for the next level of learning.
But for example, “How to write online” might turn into “how to write your book” after they’ve built their foundation and time has passed.
“How to grow your business” might then lead to “how to hire and manage your growing team”.
“How to get a new job” might then lead to “How do I become a stronger leader?”
My business is structured this way, especially as I look towards the future and building classes and workshops for strengthening businesses related to hiring and team management, sales systems, financial management, and small team operating systems.
Make the model match your desires
The seemingly gold standard of ongoing revenue seems to be recurring subscriptions and community models. And if you have the constitution for that, it’s a great way to build ongoing stability into your offer portfolio.
But not all of you want to hold space for a membership/community model!
And I know there’s a number of you out there who don’t want anything recurring - or at least that recurs on a consistent basis.
So lean into that!
How can you make the expansion model match your desires and meet your client needs?
Maybe it’s pop-up workshops all on next-level topics, only during the months you want to work.
Maybe it’s live cohort-based accelerators every once in a while with formerly self-guided courses.
Maybe it’s a short-term writing project, or a retreat, or something else that fills your cup and the cup of your clients.
Or maybe you have a very clear offer built for returning clients that is easy to book without you having to always reach out to ask.
Be always listening to the needs of your community
What support are they telling you they need? And how can you build in that additional support, skills, or access - but importantly, without gutting the impact of the product or level they initially purchased.
But please don’t do this tactic.
I see this too often - there’s a need missing in the core delivery model, and instead of building that into the existing product, the business simply adds it as a new - and more expensive - tier. This is a no no in my book. If your client can’t reasonably get the results you promised in the core offer, change the offer or change the promise.