Written by: Michael Kittinger, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Creating a successful online business (or any business for that matter) is not easy. It takes hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Luckily, the difference between success and failure is often a few small tweaks away. Below are 3 small changes Parentpreneurs can take to grow their business and shortcut the path to success quickly.
As entrepreneurs with kids (whom I affectionately call "Parentpreneurs"), we need to work smarter, not harder. We don't have the option of working 50, 60, or even 70 hours or more (not that anyone should want to do that). We have families to take care of... which means we need a strategy that gives us a bigger return for less work and effort.
Keep reading to discover 3 small tweaks that can make a huge difference for your business (and life)!
Tweak 1: To Quickly Grow Your Online Business: Identify a Starving Crowd
Not all people (especially when it comes to potential buyers) are created equal. Let me explain.
You've probably heard that you need to identify a specific audience for your product or service and this is so true. It's important to focus on helping one specific type of person (oftentimes called "your ideal avatar") solve one specific problem. This is especially true when you're starting your business or while you're still under at least 7 to 8 figures.
One mistake I see a lot of entrepreneurs make is trying to be everything to everybody, thinking that's the path to success. And I get it ‒ in my first business, I tried to serve everyone. You think the broader you are, the more people you can serve and the more money you'll make.
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
As the saying goes, if you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to nobody. When you choose a specific person and solve a very specific problem, you're able to better understand and connect with them in your marketing and messaging; you're able to better solve their one specific problem, and you're able to become the go-to hero for them.
Even after we've identified our ideal avatar and the problem we're going to solve... there's still one small tweak we can make that will help us quickly grow our business.
In our specific audience, how do we find the "starving crowd"?
The starving crowd are the ones who aren't just looking for a solution, they're desperately looking for the solution.
Let me give you a quick example. Two people are experiencing severe back pain. One has been dealing with back pain for 2 hours and the other has been dealing with it for 2 years. Which one is much more likely to seek out a solution? Which one is more likely to pay significantly more to find a solution? Which one would fall under our "starving crowd" definition?
If you want quickly grow your business and make more money in the process, focus on serving the people who have a bigger pain and have been experiencing it for a longer period of time... these are our "starving crowds."
Tweak 2: To Quickly Grow Your Online Business: Turn Your Offer Into A Million Dollar Offer
If you want to sell something, anything, you have to have an Offer. Everything from the Snickers bar at the checkout counter to a $100k coaching program has an offer.
Before we dive into tweaking your offer into a million-dollar offer, we must first understand what exactly is an Offer. An Offer is the combination of your core product or service plus any added value (bonuses, guarantees, etc.) Every Offer has a price (set by you the seller) and a perceived value (determined by the buyer). When the Value is Greater than the price, you have a chance of creating a buyer. If the Value is less than the Price, you have no chance of creating a buyer. And remember, the Value of something is in the eyes of the buyer ‒ it has nothing to do with the cost of raw materials and labor or what you think it's worth.
Now that we know what an Offer is let me briefly touch on an Irresistible Offer ‒ as I'm sure you've heard that phrase said many times. An irresistible offer is one that is so good that it's simply irresistible... meaning that the value so exceeds the price that it becomes a no-brainer (assuming it's what the buyer is actually looking for).
While I agree your offer should solve your ideal client's pain and help them achieve their desired goal, and it should certainly be irresistible with the value being substantially higher than the price you're asking, the fallacy comes when you look at your Offer in terms of scalability.
A lot of the Offers I see are irresistible, but they're structured in such a way that they are simply not scalable. This could be due to too many done-for-you components or too much of a time commitment to deliver or the profitably is just not there.
So what makes a Million Dollar Offer?
A Million Dollar Offer is an offer that is both salable AND scalable to 7-figures (and beyond) without making any changes. Not only does our offer need to be irresistible, but we can't just throw in the farm to make it a no-brainer. We have to strategically increase the value without increasing the work or effort required.
Now, you may be wondering, "how the heck do we increase the value without increasing the effort to fulfill?!?"
I'm glad you asked and I'll answer that question in just a second.
But first, I need to tell you the four types of products that exist.
There are physical products, digital products, software and services.
Physical products are the things that you can touch and feel. Physical products typically have the highest perceived value (a physical book versus a book on the Kindle), but they also have raw materials and labor associated with them (buying the physical book and someone mailing it to your client).
Digital products are things such as ebooks, courses, online communities like Facebook groups, etc. These are great because you create or set it up once and you can deliver it as many times as you would like.
Software is... software. Unless you're white-labeling it, building software from scratch has some startup costs. The wonderful thing about software is that it can be a great source of recurring revenue and a sticking point for clients to stay with you longer.
Services are when you're actually doing the work with or for someone. Services involve time and costs and, depending on the type and structure of the service, can be a major limiting factor in scaling your business.
Now that we understand the 4 types of products let's get back to increasing the value of our Million Dollar Offer.
The easiest way to increase the value without increasing the time, energy, or cost is to include digital products and software access as bonuses.
These two types of products are high value and only have to be created once. And on the software side, you can probably white-label someone else's software, so you don't even have to build it!
Let me give you a quick example:
Let's say you're a chiropractor. Instead of just offering adjustments like all the other chiropractors... what if instead, you also included a membership portal with an easy-to-understand explanation of what causes lower back pain as well as specific exercises to fix recurring back pain. And what if you also had a white-labeled app that helps track what the person does to then flare up the lower back pain? How much more valuable is that Offer than just a back adjustment? And the great thing is you only had to create the digital product and software once.
When you can drastically increase the value of your offer without increasing the time or cost to fulfill, you're on the path to creating a Million Dollar Offer and quickly growing your business.
Tweak 3: To Quickly Grow Your Online Business: Instead of Building Your Own Audience, Focus on Leveraging Other People's Audiences
This might be the biggest lever of them all...
Instead of focusing on building your own audience, focus on connecting with the people who have already gathered your ideal clients together.
Audience Leveraging is the number one way to quickly grow your business and create multiple 5 to 6-figure paydays each and every month.
You see, someone else has already spent the time, energy and money attracting your ideal clients together. Imagine how powerful it would be if that person not only introduced you to their audience but gave you time to provide massive value to them.
Here's why that's so powerful...
First, when they introduce you, you gain immediate credibility and status with their audience. You go from being "just another one" to "the one they need to speak to."
Second, now it's no longer a cold lead that you have to work really hard for. You can provide your Partner's audience with massive value and then make your pitch at the end.
This is the strategy that so many have used and yet so few are teaching.
Being a guest on someone’s Podcast or YouTube Channel, doing a Lead Magnet Swap, or offering free training to someone else’s Facebook group are all ways to leverage other people’s audiences.
The goal is to move the audience that you're borrowing into an audience that you own – while providing value and making sales in the process.
Instead of trying to build your audience and make sales one at a time by creating content, sending endless messages, or running expensive ads, I recommend you start by first identifying and leveraging other people's audiences. It can be the fastest and most efficient way to grow your business.
To recap, the 3 small tweaks you can make to grow your business quickly are:
Don't just identify any audience. Find the starving audience within your niche.
Transform your offer into a Million Dollar Offer that is both salable and scalable to 7-figures and beyond without making any changes. You can increase the value of your Million Dollar Offer by adding digital products and software as bonuses.
Instead of building your audience from scratch, identify and leverage other people's audiences. Someone else has already spent the time, energy and money to gather your ideal potential clients together - all you have to do is get in front of them.
If you're a Parentpreneur looking for an effective and efficient way to grow your business, schedule a call at scalewithmichael.com and let's dive into your business and develop a roadmap to get you to your goals. If you want additional free resources and join a community of other Parentpreneurs, visit parentpreneur.com
Michael Kittinger, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Michael Kittinger is an award-winning marketer, coach and Parentpreneur who is passionate about helping other parent entrepreneurs build highly profitable businesses and live the "semi-retired" life. After struggling to grow his first few businesses (despite working 24/7), he knew there had to be a better way... one that wouldn't require him to work all the time and sacrifice his family. He has since found a way to have it all and now he helps other Parentpreneurs do the same. Michael is the owner of Parentpreneur.com and the Parentpreneur Accelerator Community, Podcast, and Coaching Programs. His mission: To help Parentpreneurs create Income, Impact, and Independence.
