Going from 6-Figures to 7-Figures

A business owner I know called me to complain about his situation. John was a well-respected service professional who was in high demand. "I'm booked up for 3 months straight. No one could get an appointment even if they wanted to," John said. A lot of business owners would die for that situation. But not John. He summed it up nicely. "If my butt's not in the seat, I'm not making any money." True. While John was making good money, there weren't a lot of ways he could make a lot more. In other words, although John was making 6-figures, he didn't see how he could make 7. Sure, he could raise his rates. Even double them. But if you're making $200k, doubling your rates might get you $400k, if you're lucky enough not to lose any clients. But it doesn't get you $1 million. To earn 7-figures, John was going to have to do something drastic. The reason I like to challenge entrepreneurs to grow their 6-figure practices to 7-figure businesses is that it forces you to think differently about what you do. You can't just tweak your model to get 7-figures. You have to fundamentally transform your business model into something scalable. In my new book, Scale: How to Grow Your Business by Working Less, I talk about the 4 Keys to Scale that every scalable business must have. I also talk about the 2 natural laws that keep you stuck where you are today. I told John that the path to 7-figures has been cleared. There is a road map of how to transform a busy service professional with a 6-figure practice into a 7-figure entrepreneur who makes the majority of their income passively. First, John needed to create a platform. Since his practice involved just local sales, if he wanted to grow beyond his four walls, he was going to have to establish authority in a broader market. We discussed the creation of a book that would teach his expertise to more people. That book would then allow him to land speaking engagements or even get publicity through TV and podcast interviews. Next, John needed to create an audience. Since all his sales came through word-of-mouth or referrals, John didn't have any marketing automation in place to capture new leads, build a relationship with them, and eventually close the sale. John needed a way to capture the attention his new book platform was creating. Then, John needed to monetize the audience. Since John was so used to doing one-on-one work, he really needed to think about how to create group offerings - things such as group training or events. Once he asked his new audience what they wanted, he was able to create a product that met their needs. He was even able to cherry-pick the "perfect" one-on-one clients for his practice that were willing to pay more and were more in align with the type of work he wanted to do. That allowed him to get rid of "bum clients" that were causing him heartburn without losing revenue. Finally, once John's audience was big enough, he ventured into product. He designed an online platform for his groups that met his audience's very specific needs. And since John had built a large enough audience, he was able to roll out a minimum viable product without wasted effort and cash. That product generates passive income with a near-zero marginal cost - the hallmark of scalable 7-figure business. It turns out this path, platform to audience to groups to product, isn't a new one. It's the same path well-know 7-figure entrepreneurs have followed time and time again to achieve success. The stories of Michael Port, Russell Brunson, Brian Clarke, and John Lee Dumas follow the same path. Their platforms and products may be different, but the path was identical. My clients walk that path every day. Making sure and steady progress towards transforming their practice that drains their time and energy into a thriving enterprise that supports the freedom they want in their life and their business. What's your first step? Do you need to find a platform for your expertise? Or maybe you need help with audience building. Perhaps you have an audience but need to find a way to monetize it. Or possibly you're ready to roll out some intellectual property. Whatever your first step is, follow the path that other 7-figure entrepreneurs have followed. Get on the path and move away from time-draining services into a scalable model that builds a business and doesn't just give you a "job."