How To Scale Your Fractional Or Consulting Business Without Adding Staff

One of my valued colleagues has done a brilliant job growing his copy writing business. He has grown it to several million dollars in under 5 years.

He has shared about the challenges and the triumphs.

Now, as he is trying to scale up to hit the $10M in revenue mark, he revealed that in growing this business, he had to hire 15 employees and will probably need more.

If he has 15 employees, his several million dollar business doesn't look as fruitful as it does on the surface, does it? The expenses in salaries, benefits, insurance, etc. whittles profitability down considerably. Further, when you have a business built on the hiring of staff, you have the added pressure of making payroll.

This is all great as long as the business continues to gather clients and revenue.

In contrast, another copywriter has built his business to over a million dollars in 2 years without any staff at all.

His revenue after a few monthly tech subscriptions is all gravy AND he doesn't have the headaches of running a company with employees.

His profit is actually greater than the my colleague with 15 employees!

I talk to many marketing agency owners that tell me they are ready to throw in the towel and do something completely different because running this model is so stressful. They might as well get a job.

As your consultancy or fractional business continues to grow, what model is right for you?

The point here is that while common belief has generally been that scaling a service business requires staff, in today's gig and tech-AI-automation robust world...

you have choices in how you scale your business.

If you decide to scale your business without or as little staff as possible you will need to do the following:

1. Move from a broad range of services offered to a very select few. Focus and specialize.
2. Systematize. You will need to process-ize and systematize all of your services so that your operations are totally efficient and you are not running yourself ragged trying to personally service all your clients in every way.
3. You will need to package and productize your services. Put them into repeatable, scaleable offers, with defined scope and timing.
4. Your offers will need to include recurring revenue products and services (such as subscription-based offers) so that the income in your business has a high degree of predictability and is future-proofed against economic ups and downs.
5. Go from a hunter to a farmer of annuals. Hunting means you are always in a feast/famine mode. Putting seeds in the ground for annual plants protects your business and it's growth.

After being a "boss" for many years, I knew that running a company with employees was not my preferred path.

My team is comprised completely of virtual gig talent. They are not fly by night by any means.

My #1 executive assistant has been on my team for 12 years.

You can create the exact kind of service business you want.

There is no one right way or wrong way.

What's terrific about the business era we are in is having so many choices in building a business we love, one where we thrive and don't have to be chained to "this is the way it must be done."

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Nancy Fox is the CEO of Product WYZE™️, guiding consulting & fractional exec firms to grow and scale by developing recurring revenue & subscription productized services - signature systems, playbooks, courses, books, webinars , and customized networking plans. You're invited! Come learn how to create, launch, and grow a successful subscription-based offer to add to your growing ready-to-scale fractional or advisory business. The Product WYZE Subscription Success Bootcamp is FREE and starting soon.