5 Ways to Scale Your Sleep Consultancy Business
One of the main benefits of starting a sleep consultancy business is that you have complete control over your client base and hours. Many people become sleep consultants because they are looking for part-time work with flexible schedules. However, as you become more confident in your skills, you may be ready to take on more work. That means it’s time to scale your business.
Here are a few ways to expand your efforts and gain new clients. These steps are designed to help you scale responsibly so you don’t get overwhelmed by too much work at once.
1. Develop a Diverse Marketing Plan
Your first step is to market your business to attract more clients, and that means making a common-sense investment. Developing and launching a marketing plan can be time-consuming in the short run, but will be worth the effort once you start bringing in new business. Depending on whether your sleep consultancy is mainly online or in person, here are a few marketing strategies to try:
Join online groups and social media pages that are relevant to your business.
Attend local networking events with doulas, working moms, and other people you want to connect with.
Develop a website and create expert blog content, positioning yourself as a leader in your field while boosting your SEO.
Work with local media outlets or online websites to promote your brand through organic public relations or paid advertorials.
Your marketing plan will likely use more than one of these steps. For example, you might write a weekly column for a parenting blog while attending local events in your area. A cohesive marketing plan can bring in customers from multiple channels.
2. Identify Areas to Outsource
Keeping up with administrative tasks is one of the biggest challenges of being an entrepreneur. You might be surprised at how much time accounting, marketing, and other basic work takes up. Track the hours spent on these tasks and evaluate whether outsourcing them would be financially beneficial.
For example, if you hate sending invoices and handling bookkeeping, it might be easier to hire an accountant. A $250 accounting retainer would be worth it if you could use that time to earn $500 for your sleep consultancy business.
3. Expand Your Business with Part-Time Help
If you have reached a point where you can no longer take on additional clients (or outsource tasks to free up time), consider stepping into a management role. You can hire someone to support your business and work alongside your sleep consultant efforts.
This person could be a partner who has also completed their sleep consultant certification or an administrative assistant who can help you complete day-to-day tasks and streamline client support. Check your legal requirements if you bring on an employee or contractor. You will need to provide them with tax documents each year and follow state and federal guidelines that protect them.
4. Consider Raising Your Prices or Adjusting Your Business Model
Scaling your business doesn’t always mean taking on more clients. At some point, you will reach capacity for what you can handle. Another way to grow your income is to raise your prices. That can help you cut back on any other work and replace it with valuable clients, or make it easier to hire additional consultants to manage the workload.
Test different price points and see how they affect demand for your business. For example, if your price increase is too high, you might notice that you have fewer leads than you want. If your price increase is too low, it might not position you to make decisions that will help you grow and scale.
Along with directly changing prices, you can adjust your business plans and packages so they are more profitable. This is often a softer way to scale your income without immediately implementing price jumps.
5. Create a Plan for the Future
Scaling your business is an exciting process. It highlights the success you have built for yourself in your career. However, it’s important to take a big-picture approach to your growth plans. Set a cap for how many clients you can take on and how many hours each week you want to work. You should also start thinking about where you want your business to be in the next two, three, and even five years.
For some people, a bright future means running a full-time business that is packed with clients. For others, it means working part-time while traveling across the country in an RV with kids and pets. Feel free to dream. You have the future in your hands.
Speak to a Sweet Sleep Academy Expert
Even if you have a successful sleep consultancy, there is always room for growth. At Sweet Sleep Academy, we offer coaching and mentorship to take your business to the next level. Let our team help you scale your business successfully, as well as provide you with valuable information on developing every part of your consultancy. We can help you create a plan for the next few months that can lay the foundation for bright years ahead.
Get started with Sweet Sleep Academy today, and find out how powerful a little business insight can be.
