4 PROVEN STEPS TO BUILD A PROFITABLE SERVICE BUSINESS

By Leonard H. Grape

Embarking on the journey of building an agency, service-based company, or freelance business is grueling.

It can drain your energy to figure out how to stand out in the market, test various marketing initiatives, scramble to find clients, ensure you have a top-notch service delivery system, and do a hundred other things.

Reading tons of books, listening to numerous podcasts, and studying how other successful entrepreneurs do it is also tiring.

The reality is that building a profitable service business is draining because we often lack a clear plan for how to do it.

In my experience building my branding company, I have wasted a lot of time doing things myself. I have some pride, and I believe I am smart enough to figure things out on my own.

I couldn’t be more wrong. I learned that working smart means working efficiently and avoiding making more mistakes. Having a plan can help.

To help you start building your profitable service business, let me share my five proven steps, which have enabled me to 5X the revenues of my agency in just two years.

Step 1: Solve One Problem at a Time

Trying to address multiple or solve all challenges at once is not only a clear route to burnout but also impossible.

Instead, you must discipline yourself to solve one problem at a time.

For example, when I entered the second year of my agency, The Vineyard, I focused on three key goals for that year: signing more clients, increasing our prices, and streamlining our marketing systems.

Those 3 things seem simple, but each has many nuances and entails a ton of work.

So, your first step is to clearly define what problems need solving, assess which ones are the most urgent, and set up a priority plan.

You can roll this out on an annual target, then quarterly goals, and your monthly metrics.

Understanding that you cannot do everything at once helps ease your pressure.

The best and fastest way to grow your service business is to learn how to diagnose, identify, and plan for the most important goals and focus on them.

Step 2: Building your Expert Reputation

I started my agency not as a branding company but as an Integrated Marketing Communications Agency, which is essentially a clever but lazy way to say “we do not have a specialization” or “we don’t know how to position ourselves.”

At that time, we offered everything from branding, public relations, website design and development, influencer marketing, social media marketing, and events.

Fortunately, I immediately realized that I could not grow my agency profitably that way because not having a strong positioning disallows me from building an expert reputation.

And not having an expert reputation makes the competition even more intense.

Plus, all our marketing and sales initiatives would be much more challenging because we do not know who our target market is, what the most attractive message for that market is, what problem we are solving, and what solution we have to offer.

So, the next step in building your service business is positioning your agency or freelance. It is a strategy where you find your strongest competitive advantage by choosing your specialization and your target market.

Step 3: Developing a Marketing System

The feast-and-famine cycle is one of the harshest experiences that you can encounter.

It is when you do not have a healthy prospect pipeline. You always go through phases where you have many clients at one point and then struggle with cash flow because you do not have enough projects.

The solution is to develop a marketing system to bring leads into your business. You can start by choosing just one primary marketing platform and then adding two secondary and complementary marketing touchpoints.

For example, I made the mistake of thinking I needed to be in all marketing areas to generate more business. My team and I were present on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Not to mention that we also had our podcast, website, and newsletter.

It spread us too thin, and because we were doing many things at once, we couldn't build deep knowledge that could bring results from each platform. That is when I pivoted to focus on one primary marketing platform, which became LinkedIn, and a secondary platform, which was my podcast.

In time, this allowed us to generate inbound leads that gave us a healthier prospect pipeline, breathing room to charge higher fees, and not worry much about the feast-and-famine cycle.

Step 4: Improving your Sales Acumen

It is one thing to drive leads for your business. However, it is an entirely different skill set to identify qualified leads and to close them effectively.

Revenue is the lifeline of your business, and your ability to close a sale determines how long of a life span your agency or freelance would have.

A couple of crucial sales principles that helped me grow my agency are:

1. Sales is a series of laddered buying stages.

2. Sales is learning how to inspire and reassure prospects.

If you want to improve sales, you need to ditch the “always closing” mindset.

Instead, uncover your prospects' buying drivers better and demonstrate your expertise to make them understand you are the right person to help.

If you want a proven sales system for your service business, you can watch my free video training here. 

It will teach you the different prospect stages, buying levels, and conversion points that you should address to bring your market to the highest rung of the sales ladder.

Summary:

1. Diagnose your roadblocks and solve one problem at a time

2. Position your business by choosing your specialization and market

3. Generate more leads by having an effective marketing plan

4. Close more sales by improving your sales acumen and having a sales system

Building a service business is exhausting if you do not have a proven plan and framework.

Build a thriving service business with a clear plan. Download your FREE copy of my HOW TO BUILD A THRIVING SERVICE BUSINESS: THE 5-STEP BLUEPRINT.

 PS. Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you: 

1. The Sales Ladder System (Free): Sign your $10k to $25k clients for your service business by learning a proven sales system that helped me 5X my revenues in my branding agency. Watch the free video training and sign higher ticket clients.
   

2. The Service Growth Diagnostic Discovery Call: Uncover your revenue roadblocks and strategize a plan to grow your sales and build a thriving business through my 2-week diagnostic program. Book a free discovery call today.  
   

3. How to Sign your $25k Client Sales Workshop: Close more sales, work with high-paying clients, and ditch the low-paying projects through this sales workshop that will teach you how to attract prospects, uncover your leads’ budget, and charge higher fees. Book a free discovery call today.  
   

4. The Service Growth 1-on-1 Business Coaching: Double your revenues, become the go-to expert in your niche, and create a healthy pipeline of leads through my 5-step growth blueprint when you work with me in my 1:1 coaching program. Book a free discovery call today.