51. Why getting more clients is the worst way to grow your business as an online service provider

In this solo episode, I challenge a common piece of advice you often hear: "Just get more clients!" 

For many online service providers, growing your business isn’t about adding more clients, but about rethinking how you structure your offers and services. 

I dive into why taking on more clients can actually lead to burnout and overwhelm, and how to shift your mindset toward creating scalable, aligned offers that support your dream lifestyle. 

If you’re ready to grow intentionally without losing balance, this episode is for you!

Key Points Covered:
✨ The Client Trap: Why focusing on getting more clients isn’t sustainable for growth.
✨ Restructuring Your Business: How to create offers that combine your passion and expertise while respecting your time and lifestyle.
✨ Mindset Shifts: The importance of aligning your vision for your business with your dream life.
✨ Real-Life Examples: Hear stories of how other entrepreneurs restructured their businesses to grow without needing more clients.
✨ Actionable Tips: Three essential questions to help you rethink your offer suite and grow your business sustainably.

If this episode resonates with you and you’re ready to scale your business with ease, be sure to grab my free resource, The Aligned Offer Suite Roadmap (formerly known as the Soulful Scaling Roadmap at the time of recording this episode).

This roadmap will help you create offers that are aligned with your passion and lifestyle.

💌 Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram at @soulfulbizcoachandrea and feel free to send me a message if you have any questions!

Thank you for being a part of the Soulpreneur Scaling Stories community!

FREE RESOURCES
🔗 Free Business Growth Resources
(⬆️ Burnout to Balance Free Masterclass & The Aligned Offer Suite Roadmap)

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WAYS I CAN SERVE YOU
✨ 1:1 Intentional Business Coaching
🪄 Ascension Group Coaching
⭐️ Offer Suite Alignment Intensive
🔥 Burnout Reset Strategy Call

🎧 Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists 🩵

Transcript

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for Soulful Service Providers and Coaches. Welcome to another episode of Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. Have you ever wanted to look behind the curtain of your fellow entrepreneur's business to see what actually went into scaling it?

[00:00:22] Well, you are in for a treat because that's exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth behind the lessons and the stories behind what it truly takes for sole preneurs to scale their businesses intentionally. I'm hoping that their stories will help you to unlock the true potential of your business so you can create your own soulful, abundant and aligned laptop lifestyle through intentional scaling.

[00:00:46] So whether you're just starting out on your scaling journey or you're a seasoned entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode has something incredible in store for you. Are you ready to rise, grow and create? Create a business that fully supports your dream life. Well, let's [00:01:00] dive in before we begin.

[00:01:02] Make sure to hit that subscribe buttons. You never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

[00:01:11] Welcome my friends to a, another episode of soul preneur scaling stories. So today I want to tackle why. Getting more clients is the absolute wrong advice for online service providers to grow their business. Okay. I know that might seem weird. So let me back up, I'm going to tell you why. Let me tell you a little story time. 

[00:01:35] So when I started out as a virtual assistant in 2019, I was like, Ooh, I replaced my nine to five income in five months. I had all of these clients great. Except that I reached this cap. And I grew really quickly. People were coming to me. I didn't want to turn anybody away. But I couldn't actually do any more. 

[00:01:55] And at that time I was a newer business owner and I was like, well, [00:02:00] okay. The only thing I knew, right? The only way that I knew to grow was to hire subcontractors. I Googled it, I looked it up online, said, how do I grow my business? And it was literally, that was the only piece of advice. And I even did this recently. A few months ago where I Googled, how do you scale as a virtual assistant? 

[00:02:19] And that was literally the only piece of advice. So.

[00:02:22] I did. And I did this because my business was leading me at the time. My business was growing my business. I was getting more clients. And I was like, okay, I'll do what you say without really thinking about it. Well, if you've been around here long enough, you know, that. A few months later. I realized this was not for me. 

[00:02:42] I went on to do other things, online, business management and coaching. So. Why is this the wrong piece of advice? Because it is not about doing more. Right. Your business growing your business does not mean doing more, does not mean just [00:03:00] amplifying what you are already doing. Because here's the problem. The problem is that. If you are a done for you service provider, you only have so many hours in the day, right? 

[00:03:10] There's only so much that you can do if you are doing just kind of direct retainer work, or if you're doing projects or, you know, anything that you're doing, there's only so much time you have. So it's actually a bit more delicate in order to figure out how to grow your business. Don't worry. I'm going to give you the secret. 

[00:03:27] I'm going to give you the advice. On what to do instead. So drop the, oh, I want to grow. I want to make more money. That means I have to get more clients, not at all the cases. So I want to switch your mindset on this. Right. And so instead, what if we switch the focus. To oh, maybe. I can change up my offers. Maybe I can. Rearrange my business and bet I can do a little bit of restructuring in order to. [00:04:00] Create a business where I get to do really cool things that I love doing, where I get to serve my clients at this really high level and where I get compensated appropriately for this. Maybe I can structure something where I really enjoy. The work that I'm doing. Where I'm not listening to, or being interrupted by slack messages that come in all hours of the day and night. Where I can take more control over my business. Right. 

[00:04:29] So this is the key to growing your business peacefully. So around here we are all about. Growing and we're all about doing it intentionally, meaning that you are doing. Things that you've loved doing. You're doing it in a way that makes sense in a way that's led by your intuition, by your heart. By that you feel that, Ooh, that feels good. 

[00:04:53] That's what I want to do. We're about taking a step back and really, really structuring your business. So in a [00:05:00] way that supports you and your dream life. And this is how you grow. This is how you grow your business, that you love. That's going to be sustainable because let me tell you something. Let me tell you something about a business. Where you're just getting more and more and more clients. It's not sustainable. Unless you have it set up. In a way. You know, unless you do a purposefully, unless you're like, Ooh, I want to serve the masses. And you set up something that actually helps you to do that, right? 

[00:05:30] So it's not just about doing more of what you're already doing. It's about really. Diving in and diving deep and figuring out a way to kind of halter things, change things around a bit. In order to do it in a way that makes sense to support you. So. Let me give you a little bit more details about this. 

[00:05:48] So I have three questions for you to ask yourself if you're like, oh, I have no idea. Like, what does that mean? Like what, what can I do? What's even possible for me? [00:06:00] So question one is what do you absolutely love doing and what do you Excel at? So, and this doesn't just have to be in your own business. 

[00:06:10] This can be in your regular life, in your nine to fives, like whatever you've done, whatever people have told you like, oh, Like you're my God. You're amazing. I thought so. For instance, I had a client who a.

[00:06:22] We were working together in my group program and she was doing general VA work. And she was wanting to do something and didn't like, Wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do. So we were talking about it's. 

[00:06:35] Okay. You. Tell me about things that you've done, that you love doing. And she was diving into this whole story and she was so excited. Um, about how she would make travel itineraries for when her friends came to visit her, when they went places, they didn't even ask her to do it. And this was something she was so passionate about. And so then we went into the little, you know, There are lots of people who've run retreats who do events, things like that. [00:07:00] And this really got a lot of ideas brewing and eventually we settled on doing content creation and doing that for these types of people. 

[00:07:10] So. That from being a general VA to being somebody who's really specialized doing something that she absolutely loved, that she was really great at. And a couple of things happen as a result when you find that thing, one is that you will naturally attract clients because you're so excited about it because you're like, oh, this is what I'm meant to do. 

[00:07:31] And you can't even hide your excitement if you wanted to. Right. So like when you find your thing, when you find this thing that you like love doing, and you can really make your business centered around that, that's going to attract clients too, is you can create. You can package it in a way that it is more specialized, that it is something that you can charge a premium for, and people will be happy to pay you for that. Right. 

[00:07:53] And this goes beyond just hourly payments, because again, there's limited amount of time. And this is the first [00:08:00] question, the first thing to do in order to grow your business in a way that makes you just really excited, where you can grow, you can make more money and do it in less time. So number one, what do you absolutely love doing? 

[00:08:11] What do you Excel at?

[00:08:13] The second question. In order to grow your business in a way that doesn't require you to get more clients is. What is your vision for your business and how does it support your dream life? So here's why the agency was, did not work for me. It wasn't challenging for me. I didn't want to oversee general VA work. 

[00:08:37] It wasn't something that really lit me up. It wasn't something that I was super excited about. I really wanted to go deeper. Right? Like I wanted to do the strategy. I wanted to do the inner work stuff. I want to do the mindset, all of that. Like, those were the things that really got me excited. So me having this agency, although it was financially successful. It required a lot of my time, it required a lot of answering of questions from, from my team. 

[00:08:59] It required a [00:09:00] lot of client care and required. It was a lot of clients and not so deep. Whereas for me, my vision was to go deeper with fewer people and really, really serve them. And that's what resonated with me. So, and then in addition, when there's so many clients, when there's so many things going on, It didn't support my dream life. Right. 

[00:09:20] So he didn't support me wanting time. Freedom, me wanting space spaciousness because lots of clients needing lots of general VA work means you're doing, they need it. You know, there's like that. A lot of things are going on. And sometimes a lot of last minute things, things are on fire, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 

[00:09:39] So it wasn't it right like that wasn't for me. So what do you do in this case? So one is. Do you know what your dream life vision is? Do you know what you want your day-to-day to look like? Do you know what. You want your. Week to look like, do you know, you know, are you somebody who loves working directly with [00:10:00] people? 

[00:10:00] Do you want to work on your own time? Do you love getting up early? Do you want a slow morning? Do you like being in calls? Do you want to work independently? How much money do you want to make? What is it that you want to do with this money? What is this money going to get you? You know, was it a tool for, so all of these things, like what is your actual dream life that your business is now going to support? 

[00:10:20] Because we're not here. You didn't leave your nine to five in order to have another. 24 7, basically. Right? You didn't do that. You're here. You created your business. You took that amazing step. And you were brave and you created this thing and it's going well, and now you're going to make it even better. 

[00:10:37] So let's do the thing, right. So what is your dream life? I and so figured that piece out. And then in addition, what is the vision for your business? So what are your goals? What is it that you really want to do? Why are you doing this? What's the why behind what you're doing. So for me, I have a background in clinical psychology. And I've always been here to help people. 

[00:10:58] And I [00:11:00] am here to really do my part and do the things that I do really well in order to empower other people in order to make this world a better place. People who I believe are doing really amazing things. And when I was a justice service provider, I was working in health and wellness and soulful businesses. 

[00:11:17] Heart-centered people doing really cool things that I believed in. And then as a coach, I'm empowering women who are helping these types of people and they're getting so. So much confidence they're getting they're being so, oh, they feel so good. They're so empowered. They have, they're developing their intuition and these things that are affecting every single. The level of their life, like every area. And that to me is so meaningful. You know, and that's why I get up in the morning. 

[00:11:41] And that's what makes me happy. So for me so much happier than when I was. Uh, VA when I was editing emails, which there's nothing wrong with that. Right. Nothing wrong with a writing up a newsletter and doing things like that. But that wasn't my vision, right. It wasn't my end goal. So what's your vision. 

[00:11:59] How [00:12:00] does it support your dream life? This question number two. Remember question number one is what do you absolutely love doing with your unique magic? What do you Excel at? Number two, your vision for your business and how does it support your dream of life? And then question number three in order to grow your business. Without having to get more clients. Is what offer can you create that combines your passion and vision? And can you deliver it? 

[00:12:27] How can you deliver in a way that honors your time, lifestyle and values? This is a multi-part question. So we'll go back. So. From digging in from figuring out what you're amazing at what you love to do. Then from figuring out, okay, what do I want my life to look like? Then it is. How can I, what can I do? 

[00:12:49] What can I create eight out of this? Right. Like what offers can I create that is going to combine these two pieces. So, where can I combine my passions along with my vision? [00:13:00] And create an offer that is going to be really cool that I'm going to be really excited about that I can deliver. In a way that feels really good for me and is high value for my clients. 

[00:13:13] So you really want this offer to really, really support your life. So for instance, I'll give you another example for myself. So if we go in the coaching realm for myself, So I have done programs that are shorter and I have done group programs that are longer. So previously I had a four week program that met twice a week when I gave them lots of information. And that time period. 

[00:13:39] And then that was it, right? That was the end of the program. It was amazing information. But it wasn't quite, it didn't quite fit my values and it didn't quite fit.

[00:13:49] What I really wanted to do, because again, I like to go deeper. So I took a lot of that and I repackaged it into a six month program. And [00:14:00] this is my. S Ascension program, which is my six month business accelerator for sole full service providers. 

[00:14:06] That will be linked in the show notes. If you want to check it out. Uh, I open that up twice a year and I love it so much because we spend six months together, meaning that with my clients. Now I get to be with them for six months instead of four weeks. So more gets done. There's more time for integration. 

[00:14:25] We get to go deeper, even though a lot of the information is the same. Because it is longer. We get to dive deeper into that and that fits. Is really aligned with my own personal values and how I want to run my business. So if you think about yourself, right, what is it that you love doing? What are your values? And how can you create, how can you take what you're doing now? 

[00:14:47] And. But up a notch, right? Like get it to the next level. So you're creating something really cool and something that you love and something that is of high value to your clients and do it in a way. That [00:15:00] feels good for you. So I'll give you another example. Um, so I had. And other previous client who was in this group who was doing. Lots of general VA work. 

[00:15:12] I don't only work with the years. I work also with. OBMs and I had copywriters who switched into coaching, like all sorts of online service providers, but this is a really good example. So she was doing sales calls. She was doing all sorts of things. She had her person, right. She loved working with health and wellness people, and she was doing lots of different things for them. 

[00:15:31] And the things that she loves doing. Seem opposite. So she loves doing tech type stuff and she loves doing the creative stuff. Like creating the graphics and these things, but despise the social media. So she was at a loss of like, how can I combine these things? And through us working together, talking about it, she realized that, oh, 

[00:15:55] I can offer lunches. 

[00:15:57] And so she loves this idea of [00:16:00] helping somebody and really setting up them to have amazing, amazing launches that combines everything. All right. Cause she gets to do her, the pieces that she's good at. And it's something that feels really good for her. So in her business, she has some monthly retainer clients. And where she does more tech services. 

[00:16:19] We've. Encapsulated a bit what she's offering. So it's not just a everything under the sun. And then she has lots of space. For project based for these launches that last. Uh, combining the two to three months or what her packages are. So in addition to like VIP, like other types of things that you can like that she can throw in there, but these are her main, main, main things. And this supports her lifestyle. 

[00:16:43] So, so much. She's so excited about that. And I'll give you one other counter example, because I think these examples are really helpful. Another client to where. She is an online business manager and OBM so working with these six and seven figure businesses. And. Working, you know, [00:17:00] monthly retainer and she wanted to have project-based work. 

[00:17:02] Like she wanted to offer something. So that way it was not just monthly retainers. And so in our discussions, we Lendon on, you know, she was weighing eventually on two things. So it was going to meet team. And being somebody who would like recruit and hire and really optimize your team versus launching and. How, the reason that she met with the teams is because. The launching was actually. Attractive to her. Because it seems something that was kind of easy to sell. 

[00:17:34] Quote unquote, it was something, oh, people need this, people want all the time, but she realized that her dream life, vision, it didn't actually support that. So she wanted something where she could step away where she could create a lot of SLPs where she could hire her own team to do. Big pieces of the work. Are you aware she was going to be the one to oversee, do this strategy and other people would do the other parts of it. 

[00:17:58] And. [00:18:00] She wanted to be able to take a month off if she wanted to or things like that. When you do launching, you have to be there, right? You have to be there for your clients. So she went the team route and was super happy with that, but that decision. So all of this, all of these examples, all of this, to say that. Getting more clients doing more. Is not necessarily the path to growth. 

[00:18:22] What you. 

[00:18:24] The key. To having a business that is sustainably successful, that you can grow that doesn't take up all of your time. Where you don't have to because you're growing doesn't necessarily mean that you have to take it dedicate more time, more time, more time, more time. The key to that is to have an offer suite that is created. 

[00:18:45] That's in alignment with you that supports your dream life, or you're doing something that you love and you're doing it in a way. And creating these offers in a way that is scalable. Right. That's in a way that you can grow. That feels good for you. [00:19:00] So that is the key. So if you want. Business growth and you want it to feel so good and you want it to not be overwhelmed, but you want to be somebody who's here making more money who is serving your kinds really deeply, but doing it in a way that almost seems too easy. It's your offer suite. That is the key. So. I hope that this helps. 

[00:19:25] And I invite you to also check out the notes because I have some amazing freebies for you there. And one of them is the soulful scaling roadmap. Which is@dancingleafsolutions.com slash roadmap. And this is for somebody who is like, oh, I really want to create something new, but I don't quite know what this will ha help guide you to that. 

[00:19:49] It has a lot of suggestions in there as well as some of these questions and others in order for you to ask. To really guide you to figure out what you want to do. And also if you [00:20:00] have some questions, If you're like, Ooh, I'm digging into this. I'm not quite sure. Connect with me on social media. I am at soulful biz, coach Andrea on Instagram and all the places, threads and tech talk and wherever, like all of that. 

[00:20:13] So. Let me know what has come up for you. You can also message, I believe. Uh, you can send me a message, um, through. Where you're listening to this as well. Anyhow. Reach out to me, we can chat about it. I am happy to help and grab the freebie. And stay tuned for the next episode. 

[00:20:32] Thank you so much for joining us today. I really hope you found inspiration and insights from today's episode. You know, scaling your business intentionally and from the inside out is a transformational process, but I'm here to support you every step of the way. Head on over to dancingleafsolutions. com slash resources for free tools to help you do just that.

[00:20:58] And thank you again for being a part [00:21:00] of the Soulpreneur Scaling Stories community, your presence and dedication to growth, inspiring me every day.