“Mmm… I don’t think I want to make more money. Thanks, though,” said no one ever. If you have a business — whether you’re a freelancer, solopreneur, entrepreneur, agency owner, whatever — scaling your business so that you can earn more is probably on your list of things to do. And if that’s the case, I’m going to offer you four tips to scale up and make more money with your business.
I’m giving you these based on some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in trying to scale my income. If I hadn’t gotten it through my thick skull how important these things are, I never would’ve built my business to five figures a month.
How to Make More Money in Business (And Sooner, Rather Than Later)
1. Outsource the Tasks That You Don’t ~Have~ to Do
One of the best lessons I’ve learned thus far is the difference between working in my business versus working on my business.
Working in your business refers to day-to-day tasks that keep it running — things you do for “maintenance.” Think of stuff like posting on social media or writing new blog posts.
Working on your business refers to tasks more directly related to the growth of your business. When I’m sourcing and qualifying leads, for instance, I’m working on my business. I’m doing something to make it grow.
Now, this isn’t to say that social media and blogging won’t make you grow. But we’re talking about something that will have a relatively immediate impact on your business’s revenue.
So, why should you care? You should care because if you want to make more money, you should outsource those “maintenance” tasks so that you can focus your attention elsewhere. This is how you find time to scale your business.
Search for and interview remote workers using a website like Outsourcely. Because building a virtual team can feel really overwhelming (with quite a learning curve), start small and work your way up. Maybe pick one task at a time that you know you can outsource — like social media posting — and start with that.
In order to make more money, you need to free up some of your time. This is an excellent way to do that.
2. Invest in the Right Tools to Save You Time
When you’re first building your business, you’re probably attempting to do everything on a very limited budget. And personally, I think this is the right way to go at that point. Knowing how to start a business with little to no cash is an invaluable skill to have. Frugal entrepreneurs are excellent entrepreneurs.
However, there will inevitably be a shift, and a few things will happen. You’re going to start having more work than you can manage. Doing things manually is going to be a huge time-suck and no longer feasible. Your income/revenue will plateau, and growing further won’t really be an option.
It’s time to start relying on third-party tools to help you. Here are a few examples of what I mean.
Were you previously using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your cold emailing? Switch to Hubspot. The free version is enough.
Instead of organizing your daily responsibilities on a notepad or a Word doc, use a project management tool like Trello. Again, the free version will be plenty for now.
As opposed to running your email marketing manually, pay a small monthly fee for something like ConvertKit .
Stop posting on social media manually and schedule content out ahead of time with a social media management tool like Buffer or e-clincher.
You might be thinking, “I don’t need these things,” especially when it comes to spending a little money. But look at it this way: What’s your time worth?
If you spend four hours posting on social media each way, and a social media management tool cuts this down to one hour a week, isn’t is worth the investment?
Yes! You’ll take those three extra hours and do something that will make you money. In other words, the tool will have paid for itself.
3. Eliminate Things That Don’t Contribute to Your Overall Goal
Saying no is often difficult, but let me tell you why you might want to try it.
When you first started your business, you probably took whatever work you could get, right? Of course you did! My first client paid me — wait for it — $200 a month to manage his brand’s social media platforms.
$200 a month.
Back then, I was like, “Ohmagerrrrddddd my first client!” These days, that will never happen. And it’s for a couple of reasons.
First of all, I’m worth more than that.
Second of all, I understand that with the time, energy, and resources I’m going to put into managing a brand’s social media presence, $200 a month just isn’t going to cut it.
You have to get out of that mindset that has you taking every client you can get. “Money is money,” you might be saying. No! Stop! Think about the time and energy you’ll invest.
You also need to think about if the work you’re doing is truly contributing to your overall goals. Here’s an example.
Back in the day, if I randomly landed a client that was way out of my niche, I wouldn’t bat an eye, because money was money.
But these days, I’m laser-focused on the long-term success and growth of my business. If a certain type of client or a certain type of work doesn’t fit into my overall picture, I say no. I’m then able to invest that time into things that make more sense.
Say yes to things that contribute to your big-picture goal. Say no to the rest. This will help you make more money.
4. Stop Trading Your Time for Money
This is a big one. If you’re trading your time for money, stop, because if you haven’t run out of time already, you will.
And guess what happens then? You’re no longer able to make more money.
This is one of the reasons I typically tell creatives not to charge hourly in the first place. And certainly, if you’re a writer, do not charge per word.
Charge per project or per month — something that better allows you to factor in the value and expertise you bring to the table. What you do cannot be reduced to hours or word count.
One more thing you need to be thinking of? Start building a stream (or streams) of passive income. Passive income comes from work you don’t have to actively do.
Here’s why you should care.
If you only get paid when you work, as soon as you stop working, you stop getting paid. How can you ever make more money with this kind of business model?
But when you have sources of passive income, money continues to come in even when you take a break. Examples of passive income include:
- eBooks
- Online courses
- Digital downloads (guides, checklists, templates, how-tos, demos/tutorials)
If you build things that will sell even when you’re sleeping, on vacation, or taking a sick day, you’ll position yourself to make more money. This has become one of the biggest priorities in my business and is the motivation behind digital products like my newest product, 5 Proven Cold Emails That Will Land You Clients .
One of the biggest challenges I see creatives face is that point when their businesses completely stall. And it’s not because they’re not good at what they do. It’s because they simply don’t know how to scale their business. Use these four tips to increase your revenue potential and make more money.
Another part of scaling your business is mastering the skill of client acquisition. Be sure to get my free guide on how to use LinkedIn to land high-paying clients. Just fill out the form below.