A lot of people think building for scale is something reserved for tech-entrepreneurs that want to drive their business into hyper-growth.

That's because we usually hear about "scale" when we’re talking about aggressive growth. Growth in revenue. Growth in team size. Growth in product offerings.

So, a lot of client-based solopreneurs ignore the concept of scale. They conduct random acts of marketing and deliver customized work for every single engagement. 

And that inevitably leads to:

• Plateaus in the amount of work they can offer.

• Burnout from trying to overcome plateaus with sheer effort.

• Dissatisfaction, resentment, and frustration with a business they built.

 

I’ve built 2 client-based sources of revenue to $40k+/mo. And one lesson I’ve learned from experiencing plateaus, burnout, and frustration is:

 

Building for scale has immense value, even if you want to remain a company of one.

 

When you work with clients, building for scale means being able to help more people get the same results with less investment of your time. In other words, you can increase the number of clients you have by 100% while increasing the amount of time you invest only 25% - without sacrificing results.

 

If you want to 10x your business in 12 months, building for scale makes things easier. Even if that isn't your goal, though, building for scale can still be a game changer. 

 

It enables you to do more work in less time, but you don't have to use the time you get back to do more work.

 

You can just keep that time for yourself. Hang with your family. Pick up a hobby. Work on a passion project. Or just not be busy for a change.

 

The efficiency from “scale” creates optionality for you.

 

If you want to create that kind of optionality, here are 3 places to start looking for opportunities to scale:  

 

1: Marketing

 

It's pretty simple to see why marketing is the best place to start building for scale: There's no need to worry about scaling anything else in the business if no one wants to buy your stuff.

 

Marketing that's built for scale means it's always working, even if you aren't. Ideally, you want assets you create once to be out there continuously working on your behalf. Some examples of marketing you can scale include:

 

• Free communities or groups

• On-demand trainings, webinars, or tutorials

• Consistent content on social media and elsewhere

• Value packed books, like Marcus Chan's 6-Figure Sales Secrets

• Email newsletters you can repurpose, like Justin Welsh's The Saturday Solopreneur

 

There are literally thousands of ways to create scalable marketing systems. Just about all of them will highly leverage your time, meaning "one-to-many" messages that can be delivered asynchronously.

 

(Here's a marketing funnel to help you get started.)

 

2: Sales

 

If you're selling high ticket consulting, coaching, or fractional services, there's a good chance you're having one-on-one conversations. And those conversations are hard to script verbatim because you solve complicated problems. 

 

That's why building “sales that scales” is different than marketing. With sales, you don’t make it "one-to-many" or asynchronous. You do make it consistent and measurable.

 

A consultative sales process becomes scalable when you can:

 

1. Teach someone to execute it.

2. Accurately measure performance.

3. Identify areas to improve, when necessary. 

 

That's why the foundation of a scalable sales process is having a playbook that describes how you approach sales conversations, what you say, and how you move prospects through your process.

 

(Want my high ticket sales playbook to help you get started? You can grab it for free here.)

 

3: Delivery

 

Last and certainly not least is how you deliver your services. When it comes to delivery, you build for scale by productizing your services, or systematizing how you get results.

 

I've productized a couple of my services and helped 30+ solopreneurs productize theirs over the past 6 months. So, I know it can be done, and I've seen the results of a productized model compared to a non-productized one.

 

Yet, countless people insist their expertise and services can't be productized.

 

Here's the thing: When you productize your services, you don't have to create a paint-by-numbers template for the work you do. You just need to create a framework and process that allows you to do better work, faster, and with more consistency.

 

Plus, by productizing your services, they become easier to explain, market, and sell.

 

(I wrote a two-part guide on how to productize your services. You can get part one here, andpart two here.)

Long hours and low pay aren’t a requirement of the solopreneur job.

When the essential functions of your business aren't built for scale, you are the one that suffers. Longer hours than is necessary. Lower pay than what you could otherwise earn. And very little satisfaction in the business or stream of income you created for yourself.

 

When you build for scale, you give yourself options. And optionality is freedom.

 

Pro Tip: Don't get stuck trying scale all your tech before you have product-market-fit. Too much will change as you grow. Scaling demand generation, making your sales process consistent, and delivering great work consistently comes first.