✏️ If I was your marketing strategist
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When I first started my business back in 2019 I fell victim to a belief that woos a lot of us at one point or another (maybe you're familiar with it)...
That the more products and services I offered, the more opportunities I was giving people to do business with me.
I started my business offering brand design, web design, and marketing strategy + execution. (Even typing that now makes me smh.)
I'd be a one-stop-shop for solopreneurs, I told myself. And for 5 years, I was. Fairly successfully, too.
But over the past 2ish years, cracks started to show.
I took on more clients. I onboarded some team members. And I started thinking bigger.
And it was in doing all that that I started to realize a critical business truth that no one really tells you...
The more things you offer, the harder it is to scale.
- There are more processes and workflows to keep track of. 🕸️
- More tasks to train a team on. 📝
- More templates for contracts and onboarding and all the things. 🗃️
- More stuff to promote and create content around (which leads to a diluted message). 📢
- More tools that are needed to do all of the work. 🔨
- More products to keep updated, take photos of, create webpages for.
And that's just to name a few.
Simply put, all of that creates more work, more bottlenecks, more stress, and the opportunity for more confusion.
I realized if I wanted to continue to grow my business, I didn't need more offers. I needed more focus.
I realized with betters systems and processes, I could create efficiencies in my business that would lead to affordable and powerful marketing + content support for clients.
So I took a proverbial ax to my services.🪓
I scrapped my brand and website services, going all in on what has (for much of my 15+ year career) been my one true love — strategy.
And it was like flipping a switch. I felt lighter. My message instantly felt clearer. My to do list was cut in half. Things got more streamlined and started to move easier. I had more time to devote to the things I was passionate about and more revenue started to flow as a result.
One of the hardest things to do as a business owner is to turn a critical eye to the things you’ve created and make deep cuts. It’s risky. It's personal.
They’re things you’ve likely devoted countless time, attention, and money to over the years.
👉👉 But just because you’ve already invested a lot is NOT a good reason to keep investing more.
As the Kenny Rogers song goes, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, and know when to walk away.” 🃏
The BIGGEST thing I see slowing down entrepreneurs isn't a lack of time, or money, or followers.
It's a lack of focus.
So here's a challenge for you as 2025 winds down:
Get critical with your business.
- What are the things that energize you?
- What are the things that weigh you down, that create more work than they bring in?
- If you HAD to get rid of things, what would you drop?
- Then ask yourself what's keeping you from dropping them.
When you’re operating as a team of one (or 2, or 3), the biggest advantage you can give yourself is to be **hyper intentional** with your focus and energy.
Try it out. I pinky promise you won't be sorry. 😘