Don’t be Afraid to Evolve Your Business

Evolve!

“After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over.”

—Alfred Edward Perlman

Evolving a business is all about adaptation and change. And, let’s face it, change is hard for all of us.

We can thank genetics and evolution for that. We are all wired to survive. We prefer the known to the unknown because at least we know how to deal with the known. The unknown is, well, unknown, and therefore is inherently dangerous in its unpredictability. 

That’s why we avoid change. It’s potentially dangerous. 

But, if you want to grow your business…

Change is Necessary

As time passes, you are going to have enriching experiences as a business owner. Some will be good. Some will be bad. And as a result, you will grow as a professional. Your understanding of what you do will deepen. You will learn a whole slew of new things to supplement what you do. And you will learn more and more about your ideal clients’ needs with each interaction. 

As you grow as an entrepreneur, you will find your “old” way of doing things insufficient. You will realize you need to make room for your business to evolve if you want to implement all you’ve learned.

The best way to do this is to shift as you go. This way, the changes you make will be minor, but over time they will build up. This is why it’s a good idea to step back periodically and assess where you are and where you want to be. 

Here are some possible changes you may need to make as you make room for your business to grow with you. 

Shift in Focus

Let me get this one on the table right up front. After you have been in business for a while, you will get a better idea of what gives you energy and what drains it. This deeper awareness of yourself can open the door for you to focus on the work that energizes you. 

Let’s say you’re a copywriter. That’s a really big field. It could include writing ads, emails, sales pages, or even websites, among other options. As you experience all those different options, you may find that you are energized by writing websites, but the rest is exhausting. 

Maybe that means a shift in focus is in order. Perhaps it’s time to specialize in writing copy for websites. And as you continue to grow, you may shift your focus even more. Maybe you will write websites exclusively for not-for-profit organizations. 

The side benefit of this is in the word “specialize”. The more specialized you are, the more you will be doing the things you enjoy most. And, a side benefit of specialization is that you get to charge more for your services. That leads to less work for more money. How appealing is that?

New Ideas for Products and Services

The more clients you work with, the better you will get at assessing what your ideal clients really need. Once you uncover those needs, you are in a position to create products and services to meet them. 

For example, let’s say you are a health coach. Your focus is on age-appropriate exercise. However, through interacting with your clients you’ve noticed a common trend: Your clients tend to have terrible diets. 

This is the perfect opportunity to write an ebook to sell on your website. It can go along with all the other products you have uncovered the need for in the same way. Maybe you have an ebook about sleep habits, mindset, meditation, etc. You may even expand your services to meet these needs better.

New Ways of Packaging Services

I love bundles. When you have several related items, you can start to add them together and charge more for them. And the more content people consume from you, the more likely they are to buy your larger offers. 

Notice how this area for growth builds on the previous one. The more products you have, the more bundles of value you can create. 

Also, as you create products and bundles, you are now moving your business into the realm of passive income. When people go to your site to buy ebooks and other products, they are giving you money, but not taking up time. The more income you can get this way, the better!

New Platforms

Online coaching has become a huge market. More than likely, if you do one-on-one coaching in person, you can do it online the same way. And, if you want to maximize your time, you can look into online group coaching. It costs your clients less to have access to you, but you can make more for your time overall. It’s a total win-win!

New Ways to Engage Your Audience

Thinking about starting a blog? Want to create videos? How about a podcast? 

Each one of these options opens a door to new possibilities. And who knows how that new connection can start to change everything. 

As Your Business Evolves, Your Marketing Needs to Evolve

With the exception of “Shift in Focus”, each of the above changes is actually a relatively minor thing. You don’t have to dismantle what you’re already doing. Instead, you are simply adding something new to the mix. 

Yet, while each change is minor, they all have the potential to skyrocket your business, and maybe even take it in a slightly different direction. After all, if you are absolutely crushing it with online group classes and making serious bank off them, do you really want to spend your time with one-on-one coaching sessions?

Whatever changes you make will need to have the right marketing support. That means a change here as well. 

As you create products such as ebooks and video courses, imagine ways you can leverage them. Maybe you can turn them into upsells and downsells. Maybe, you can grab a bunch of related content and turn it into its own funnel. Thanks to the abundance of products you have created to meet your ideal clients’ needs, you now have new marketing options ahead of you. 

What about social media? You can open the door to another watering hole for your ideal clients by tapping into new platforms. If you are already using Facebook, it’s not hard to start using Instagram. If your offers are highly visual, maybe Pinterest would be a good option. 

And what if you were to use links to tie all your venues into your website? Have a YouTube Channel? Make sure to link back to relevant material on your website. Send traffic to your site through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other platform you use. Think of all those platforms as potential entry points into your marketing funnels. 

As Your Business Evolves, You Need to Have a Website to Reflect and Sell the New Focus

A website is the most powerful way you can present yourself online to your ideal clients. It is your online persona that functions as a 24/7 salesperson. 

When a visitor lands on your website, they are going to use how it looks, feels, and communicates to make a judgment on how professional you are as a business owner. The more professional you appear, the more trustworthy you become, and the more likely they are to become clients. 

Let’s get you the kind of website that helps you to stand out in the crowd of competition, turns visitors into leads, and leads into clients. 

Sign up now for a free 15-minute Clarity Call. On that call, we’ll talk about how we can help you to evolve your business and get you to the next level. Just click the link below to get on the calendar. 

https://wiseowlmarketing.com/clarity/