Is your Business Design Scalable?
I'm seeing some frequent content in my social media feed these days.
Reels with lots of B-roll of biz gurus on the beach, on a farm or homestead, or otherwise relaxing, with text that says, “you can scale tooooooo, let me show you how.”
(Maybe that’s not your experience? Must just be my feed…. runs off to block some people).
This whole scene exhausts me and frankly pisses me off. Because I believe they aren’t selling you a solution; they are selling you a dream.
And I'm going to say the truth that doesn't fit into a sexy 10-second looping reel or short LinkedIn post - some business models are really damn hard to get to “go high-ticket” or "making $20-30K months with ease” - and some truly won’t get there. The math has to math.
Look, y’all know me. I want you to have wealth in a system that’s not actually designed for us to all be millionaires.
But it’s time we also break down some of these promises of “scale” and look at some of the underlying factors that determine whether that’s a mirage or a potential for the kind of business you run.
What business are you running?
Last year, I wrote a number of pieces clarifying our business models.
There are two primary business models for knowledge-based businesses: specifically the delivery model and the creator model. (There’s a few others once you’ve dialed in the basic framework, but we’ll start here).
Delivery-model businesses focus on delivering a service, either through yourself or through a team. Delivery model businesses have fewer customers with deeper and potentially longer-term relationships than creator or brand models.
Creator-model businesses focus on creating and distributing content around a point of view.
This is the business model you’ll primarily see with online influencers, speakers, and content marketers. This is also the business model for teachers, large group programs, gatherers of communities, and digital product sales.
Creator-model businesses are inherently easier to scale because you aren’t delivering a service and so your value is decoupled in many cases from your time.
Now, this model depends on getting traffic and eyeballs - and that can be EXPENSIVE. A $2M productivity company Lifehack Method - selling $697 yearly memberships and $6,000 productivity bootcamps (totally recommend btw, I’ve been a member since 2018), spends 50% of its revenue on ads. But, it’s scalable with effort and spend.
But, a lot of the “scaling is simple” messages we see are related to delivery-based businesses. So if you’re a graphic designer, a copywriter, an interior designer, an online business manager/systems expert, web designer…. how exactly are you getting to those promised $20K months??
Two key factors in scaling a delivery business: duration and delegation
Duration is the length of time a client stays with you - and I’ll argue this is one of the ways to grow a business fast, even if it doesn't scale.
Because some models can build sustainable revenue around 10-15 or less new clients per year and others need way more new clients.
Low-duration models are built around short, project-based outcomes. Home organizing that takes a day or two, a podcast launch or ads setup. The whole VIP day model to accomplish a concrete project from start to finish qualifies. These are often not repeatable tasks, so you’re always having to bring new clients in.
If you charge $5,000 for a VIP day or a one-time project, you’d need to always be bringing in 3-4 new clients per month to hit that $200K per year mark (which is still short of $20K months).
Medium-duration models are built around more complex but still objective-bound outcomes. Strategy and initial implementation often fit this bill. Scoping and designing a website, delivering a new brand, implementing business systems, interior design, career coaching, registering a trademark as a lawyer. These are models where you don’t necessarily keep working with the client on the same project long-term - like once they get a new job if you’re a career coach, they don’t need to keep working with you every month! These are longer engagements, with less turnover, but this model still results in clients rolling off and needing a steady inflow of new clients.
If you charge $10,000 for a coaching package, and some do renew or extend, you’d need 10-15 new clients a year to hit those $20K months.
The holy grail for scale? High-duration models. Embedded, repeatable, potentially never-ending models. These are models built around the never-ending, recurring tasks in your business. And even better? Finding models where your work is required - not optional.
Podcast or YouTube editing has to be done each week to keep the show going.
Social media - once you’ve felt the relief of having that done for you, it’s hard to bring it back in house.
Same for having an Online Business Manager or VA.
Accounting and tax prep? Gotta be done each month/quarter/year. Without exception - I hope!
With these models, the engagements never end and so your clients stay.
Some models are shorter - people end a podcast, people quiet quit social media and maybe back off on their investments.
Some are sticky as hell - unless your accountant does a really bad job, you’re probably never leaving them as long as you’re in business.
In these models, you’re charging often a monthly fee for the duration of that client’s business. And once you ramp up to a full roster, you’re simply replacing clients that leave. Versus having net new clients come on.
So let’s say your accounting firm charges $750 per month for accounting and tax, $4,500 per year. You’d need 45 clients to hit the same $200K mark, just like the VIP day model above. But the kicker? Once you’ve gotten those ~45 clients, which might take a few years, you’d likely only need to replace 4-5 a year to retain that revenue level. Because your base never went away.
My business model is weighted towards medium- and high-duration services. I do strategy intensives which usually lead to ongoing advisory. I do advisory projects and coaching that last for 6+ months. And I have some clients I’ve been in their business playing a variety of roles for almost 3 years. I still regularly have to bring on clients, but I also built a steady base of clients I continue to work with because of the type of work I do.
Pro Tip: Embed your business model with expansion offers. Maintenance plans on your website or home organization, recurring VIP days, expansion of scope of work, refreshers on design. One-time course purchases or cohorts often risk the same problem here - what’s the long-term client roadmap (which is why you often see the back end monetized through membership or community)?
The other key factor? Delegation. As in, how repeatable and straightforward is your service so you can delegate it?
Low-delegation services often include creative pursuits or strategy. If your business model is based on your creative eye, your strategic insights, and your previous skills - and you have to bring that skillset to each client?
Hard to delegate. You should charge more for this compared to the more repeatable work, but it’s often hard to delegate the strategy portion of the work.
You can grow here by raising your prices, building your skills and authority, and working with higher-value projects and clients to some extent. A Series-A funded consumer brand startup will pay more for a brand identity than a starting solopreneur, but you have to have the chops to deliver the result that justifies that rate. I don’t believe that this is scale because there’s no leverage, just higher revenue.
Some business models by default are often low-delegation because you’re a Craftsman actually doing the work that has to be done. If you are a Virtual Assistant or graphic designer, there’s no one to delegate to unless you build an agency of other Virtual Assistants or graphic designers.
High-delegation services usually include tasks that can be done repeatedly or with clear, concrete steps that don’t need much strategic oversight. You often can’t charge as much for this - but paired with a service that’s repeatable, you can make up for the low rate with a longer lifetime value.
So let’s go back to our business examples above.
Launching a podcast requires so much strategy to establish product-market fit and is hard to delegate. But ongoing production is more straightforward.
Building an interior design aesthetic requires your insights and creative direction, but project management is more systematic and can be delegated.
Tax Planning and Financial Analysis requires financial acumen to set the plan. But monthly bookkeeping? With clear structures in place, that can be delegated.
We end up with another 2 x 2 Framework (because you know I love a framework).
High-Duration, High-Delegation models? Easiest to scale with systems, tools, and team.
Low-Duration, High-Delegation models? Scalable with volume and a team - but often commoditized and you might compete on price unless you've got a great value proposition.
High-Duration, Low-Delegation models? Hard to scale - but you get a base of committed clients and can build sustainable revenue.
Low-Duration, Low-Delegation models? You better be a whiz at marketing, because you can’t delegate your services and you need a lot of new clients regularly. Let’s stay out of this zone by adding services that increase your customer lifetime value or figure out how to standardize parts of the service (so either you can do more of them, delegate parts, or at least make it easier and free up your time for marketing).
So when someone says, “I have the secrets to scale and will show you how”….
Are they clear with you on how they built their own scale and why their timeline might be shorter or longer?
Are they distinguishing whether your service is equipped for scale? (In order to delegate to a team, you have to have a service that CAN be delegated).
Are they acknowledging the business model shift required to scale? (You have to want to build and manage a team or shift to groups/courses/creator models).
Asking these questions lets you look behind the seductive messaging and ask, “Is this really my direction?”
