When you’re working online, it’s really easy to be lulled into the idea that to be successful you need to be offering a course, program or some type of passive income.
It’s not true. Not for a split second.
In fact, I would say most of the business owners I interact with online aren’t relying on passive income to pay the bills. They offer services. They work with clients.
For some reason things have become skewed, and we think that if we work online, we aren’t really offering services. Or we don’t identify ourselves in that way as it’s way more interesting to say you have an online business and all the fancy trappings of whatever that means.
Or we hide out because we feel bad about “trading time for dollars.”
So I’m going to ask you a question….what type of business are you really running?
I’m willing to bet it’s a services-based business, even if you don’t identify yourself that way. (And if you’re hustling to make ends meet as you grind out a couple hundred a week with an e-course, how’s that working for you? Maybe it’s time to consider working with clients!)
Here’s why running a services-based business can help you meet your goals faster.
Building a Business Starts with a Handful of Clients
We’ve all seen the depressing posts in Facebook groups about how someone’s business just isn’t working. Often times, this issue is the result of wanting to skip over what it takes to actually build the body of work, experience and visibility it needs to attract enough people to an e-course or product.
The truth is, it’s much easier to attract three clients at $1000 per month, than continually find 30 people every month to buy your product. Services are the fastest path to generating consistent cash in your business.
Services Let You Gain Experience
Fact: people do business with professionals. Professionals are experts in their field and they have experience.
If you eventually want to teach an e-course or create a passive income stream, you need to gain experience so you’re legit. The entire “you just need to be a few steps ahead” idea is only valid to a point as in those situations, you can’t rely on someone having a holistic view of all the factors at play.
I don’t know about you, but I want to learn from someone who’s done something 100 times and knows every single possible variation versus someone who did it last month for the first time and was moderately successful. (Or worse yet, someone who got lucky and really has no idea why they got the results they did. Yikes.)
Services Help You Make an Impact
There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with running a services-based business, especially as working with clients (either one-on-one or in small groups) lets you make a tremendous impact in their lives or business.
Being of service is where the magic happens, because if it was all about the money, I’d go get a high flying 9-to-5 as the VP of something in corporate with a sweet pay check to go with it.
Plus, you’re forming lasting relationships with your clients. Which is worth it’s weight in gold working online can be lonely as somedays t the only conversations you have in your home office are with your dog.
Services Make the World Go Round
The world is run through services. Without services, we don’t have doctors, lawyers and countless other professionals that you rely on for your health, finance, and so much more.
Being a services-based professional doesn’t mean you’re doing a menial job. Unfortunately in the online world, we often associate “services” as being low paid or that we’re not in control.
That’s simply just not the case. And I’m pretty sure your dentist or massage therapist would agree. And guess what, these highly-trained, incredibly talented individuals get paid by trading their time for dollars.
There’s not a shred of shame in doing something you’re amazing at and being well-compensated for it. Because at the end of the day, “work” as we know it is about trading on our talents for dollars.
You can work online AND run a services-based business. It’s time for us to think a bit differently about our online businesses and be proud to serve.
Stop apologizing for offering services and borrowing other people’s dreams. Decide that you’re going to commit to your services-based business in a big way and get ready to succeed.
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