You’re the kind of business owner who gives your best to your clients. You offer high-quality services that your clients love, and they happily refer you to others. But even though you’re happy with the work you’re doing, you’re not so happy with your income.
You dream of doubling or tripling your revenue, and growing your business to the next level.
There’s just one problem: As a service provider, you have limited bandwidth. You’re hesitant to take on more clients. You’re drained at the end of the day, and you’re afraid that raising your rates will scare your clients away.
Which makes you wonder, is it possible to make $10k every month without working yourself into the ground?
The answer: YES! It absolutely is.
How do I know? One year after I launched jennyshih.com, I had my first $10k month. It became my new baseline income. Since then, I’ve taught tens of thousands of entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses without mega-sized lists, risky product launches, or running themselves into the ground.
My method is simple. In this guide, you will:
- Learn my proven formula for making $10k every month without sacrificing the things that matter most in your life.
- Discover how to up-level your packages, copywriting skills, marketing strategies, and long-term planning so you can run your business like a boss.
- Apply these actionable steps to your own business with done-for-you scripts and systems that set you up for sustainable success.
It’s not your fault that you’re feeling stuck. It’s simply that you haven’t yet learned the next steps for growth, and that’s what I want to teach you.
Once you learn what steps to take, your business will easily begin to grow. You’ll feel confident to raise your rates, pitch for interview opportunities, and lay the groundwork for new offers.
The best part? You can do it all while maintaining a high level of service for your clients AND making time for the things that matter most in your life.
1. Six Figure Strategy
To get the right strategy for making 10k/month, you need to understand how to think about your business from a higher level. That could mean re-tooling packages and offerings, increasing prices (like doubling your rates), fine-tuning marketing messages, and more.
The list of areas that require adjustments is long, and the specifics depend on each unique business, but there’s one common denominator among them all: You can’t make this strategic shift alone. (Even I can’t do it alone for my business.) You need insights and perspective from someone who has been there before.
With their higher-level perspective, they’ll be able to see what you can’t see and show you what needs to shift and how. It’s important to know that not being able to see your strategic next steps isn’t due to a shortcoming on your part! It’s normal, and you simply can’t know what you don’t know, because you haven’t been there yet.
On a personal note, I hired a coach to help me with this exact thing in my own business. I reached my current level of success based on what I know. To get to that next level, I knew I I needed a coach who was operating at a higher level than me, someone who could help me see the shifts I need to make.
This is why, to get to the next level, we have to keep reaching for the hand of someone who is at that next level so they can help guide us upward and give us that much-needed strategy.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
The real story behind my first 10k month
Learn how a success circle can help you
Discover the pros and cons of product launches
Discover the pros and cons of group programs
2. Six-Figure Offers and Pricing
Most of the business owners I work with tell me that they don’t want to raise their rates because they’re afraid to have the “how much do you cost?” conversation with prospective clients. But conversations like this don’t have to be uncomfortable or awkward (if you know how to do them the right way).
Raising your prices is the key to making more money without working more hours, and it’s a must-do as you up-level your business. But it’s important to raise your rates in a strategic way.
Here are a few important considerations when it comes to raising your rates:
First, avoid comparing your business to others. While some knowledge of your market can be really helpful, too much comparison — especially when it comes to pricing — can be a dangerous thing. What you should focus on instead is VALUE. After all, the value of what you’re offering your clients is what your business is all about.
Second, get your nose out of other people’s money! It’s not your job to protect your prospects from spending too much of their own money. (If you’re worried about raising your rates on current clients, this goes for you, too.)
Re-frame your pricing mindset to focus on the value of what you offer and forget about protecting potential customers from spending too much. This will free you up to tackle other, bigger decisions with spectacular confidence.
Feel like you’re ready to learn more about creating, pricing, marketing, and selling amazing offers to grow your dream business? Keep reading below.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Discover how to structure your solutions-based offer
Learn how to double your rates with integrity
Tell your clients you’re raising your rates (with my step-by-step guide)
3. Six-Figure Copywriting
The #1 skill entrepreneurs need to know, inside and out, is how to talk and sell to their potential customers.
Profitable businesses don’t just create a product or service then wait around for the customers to find them. They also don’t slap together any old description of what they do and hope it resonates with their target market.
Successful entrepreneurs devote a heck of a lot of time and energy to crafting their brand identity, web presence, marketing strategy, sales pitches, and even their elevator speeches—all of which require copywriting.
If you’re struggling to do this, then your problem isn’t an absence of writing skills; it’s a lack of understanding about your business and your prospective clients … and how to turn that into copy that perfectly translates what you do and how you help people. Generating sales and driving growth is all about communicating effectively with your target market.
Here’s an example of a client’s copy before working with me, and after.
Before: I work with women who are frustrated with sugar and their digestion and looking to resolve the cycle of cravings and bloat for good. By bringing clarity to what the cravings and symptoms mean, I get to the root of the problem, find simple changes and get my clients to finally feel good again.
After: I work with women who’ve lost their energy and don’t feel like themselves anymore. They want a holistic approach and a practitioner who will really listen, do the digging and find solutions specific to their needs. Together we get to the root of the problem, find answers and help them feeling normal again.
Do you see the difference? The first one is full of “coach speak” and doesn’t use the words her clients would actually say. The second one reflects her clients’ challenges in their own words, and that’s the one that will inspire people to hire her.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Understand the “jargon trap” and how to avoid it
Ask your clients these 14 questions
Add this copy to your Work with Me page
4. Six-Figure Sales
In Step 1, I covered how the strategy that got you to where you are now won’t get you to the next level. Similarly, the skills that got you here also won’t get you to the next level.
For example:
- Copywriting for a $199 product isn’t the same as copywriting for a $1999 product.
- The sales process for a $1500 package isn’t the same as the sales process for a $3000 package.
- The structure and delivery of an offer priced at $2500 needs to be very different from the structure and delivery of an offer priced at $5000.
To use a different example, the customer experience at Target is different than the customer experience at Nordstrom. As your prices go up, the customer experience must, too. (No, this doesn’t mean that your clients get more access to you. It often means just the opposite: better boundaries!)
To create a better customer experience, you’ve got to close your skill gaps when it comes to sales, copywriting, structure, and delivery.
However, it can be precarious to close this gap. Before you sign up for another random, one-off course, make sure that it will give you the information you need to operate at that next level. To continue with the example from above, you wouldn’t want a course on the Target customer experience when you’re creating the next Nordstrom. You need to make sure you’re up-leveling to the right place, the right way.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Avoid these client-repelling traps (Pay close attention to #3!)
Learn why your social media strategy might be falling short
Review my online business success formula
5. Six-Figure Waiting List
If you’re offering one-on-one services, the best way to reach the next level is to fill your client roster AND your waiting list.
To do this requires all of the steps above: a clear strategy, the right offers, exceptional copywriting skills, and confidence with selling your services.
Once those things are in place, you’re ready to go out there and actually start getting clients. That means you have to take action and put yourself out there – no hiding or playing small!
Most business owners think that they’re doing sooo much to promote their businesses. However, if they were to closely examine what they’re spending time on, they realize that they are simply dipping their toe into self-promotion when they need to be plunging into the deep end.
If your goal is to make 10k/month, this isn’t a time to rest on your laurels and hope that people find you. You must put yourself out there and get in front of your ideal clients every single day.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Discover your marketing personality
Steal my client-getting email scripts
Learn the truth about sales funnels
6. Six-Figure Planning
You’re in a place where you want to confidently reach and exceed your income goals month after month, year after year.
And if you’re like the business owners I work with, you’re a little uncertain about your plan. You think you know what you want to do, but the ideas also come with a mega dose of uncertainty and a long list of questions. I hear you!
When you’re ready to take a big leap in your business, planning can be challenging. This is exactly why I’m sharing the top three ways to set (and keep) your income and business goals.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Avoid the wrong way to set goals
Steal my 12-month business plan
7. Six-Figure Scheduling
This might be hard to hear, but the schedule that worked for you as a new business owner isn’t the same schedule that will work for you as you build your business further. As you grow, you need to shift where and how you spend your time.
First, you must become more focused and less distracted. Second, you must spend more time strategically planning your next actions, as opposed to just trying everything. Third, you need larger chunks of time to work ON your business, not just work IN it.
Remember, to create the right schedule, you first need to know the strategy that will get you to the next level, because without the big-picture view of what needs to shift and how in your business, you can’t properly plan for growth. And if you don’t have a plan, then you don’t know how to schedule your time.
But with the right strategy, you’ll know how to spend your time and what schedule will help you make it all happen.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Steal my script for setting (and keeping) client boundaries
8. Six-Figure Systems
Not only do systems get more complex as your business grows, you also can’t get by without them!
Disorganization, chaos, inconsistency, and regularly reinventing the wheel will completely inhibit your business growth. It’s essential to streamline everything from your social media to your client intake to your backend procedures if you want to grow your business to the next level.
On top of that, the systems that run a five-figure business aren’t the same as the systems that run a six-figure business or seven-figure business. (Are you noticing a theme here?)
The first thing you need to do is look at everything you do repeatedly in your business and notice what isn’t systematized. Then, you need to put a system in place for everything on that list.
Consider systematizing things like how you collect testimonials, how you schedule new clients, how you use social media, how you delegate to your assistant… pretty much anything and everything you do more than once.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Steal my system for booking new clients
Steal my system for getting stellar testimonials
9. Six-Figure Mindset
It’s easy to get down on yourself in business. From your competitors’ wins to giving something your “all” and not seeing it pan out, or simply waking up on the wrong side of the bed on a random Tuesday, life constantly throws us curve balls, ready to take us down in an instant… if we let them.
If you want to go from just getting by to making a great living, you must adjust your mindset accordingly.
For example…
- The thoughts that six-figure business owners have about themselves and about business aren’t the same beliefs that newer business owners have.
- The risks successful business owners take are bigger, more calculated, and more public.
- The thoughts and feelings you have about having money, managing it, and charging higher prices have to change if you want to make more money.
- Next-level business owners have a stronger belief in the value they provide to customers and communicate that value with greater conviction and clarity.
I find that the best way to change my mindset is to first notice what I’m feeling that I don’t like feeling.
When you feel something you don’t like feeling, it means you’re thinking something that’s not supporting you. Yes, that means if you’re feeling embarrassed, overwhelmed, frustrated, frozen, scattered, afraid, or anything else, you need to adjust your thinking and create a more supportive mindset.
The good news is that when you learn to shift your thinking, you shift your feelings. When you shift your feelings, you shift your actions. And when you shift your actions, you show up in the world differently and create from a higher level… and get better results.
When you have the right mindset, executing your next-level strategy becomes nearly 100% doable and achievable.
Here are some articles that dive more into these ideas:
Discover a new way to view failure
Decide what you might have to give up if you want to succeed
Learn how to make peace with anxiety and discomfort
How would your life change if you averaged $10k / month… or more?
Hitting the $10k/month mark is a turning point in every business. With a steady flow of clients and revenue, you can buy organic food, donate to your favorite cause, indulge in a nice pair of jeans, and take a vacation. If the water heater breaks, you don’t have to panic that there isn’t money to buy a new one; if the car needed servicing, you can swing that, too. Everything just feels easier.
And getting there doesn’t require a huge email list, a complex sales funnel, or a massive team (when I hit 10k/month, it was just me and my VA!). You simply need the right strategy so you know what skills to develop, what schedule to create, what systems to implement, and who to hire.
And this is what keeps some of the smartest women from ever making the leap to six figures or beyond; they just don’t have the right strategy.
The bigger problem, however, is that this problem isn’t solved by taking one-off classes or hiring a coach to give you a cookie-cutter blueprint. When you’re looking to take your business to the next level, you need a holistic and customized, big-picture strategy for your unique business.
You need to understand, address, improve, and adjust all aspects of your entire business ecosystem — at once. Every single part of your business directly connects with every other part of your business. Adjusting one impacts the others.
You simply can not take one piece out and work on it independently any more. You’ve got to look at and work on all of it at the same time. And truthfully, you can’t do it alone. As I mentioned at the beginning, you can’t see what you can’t see, and you can’t know what you don’t know.
And when you find someone who can see what your next best step is, you begin to create the biggest shift of all.
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