Scalable Business Models: Exploring ways to stop being the bottleneck in my business

I find myself increasingly thinking of ways to shift from a one-to-one transactional mode of working to a more scalable model of working.

The concept of working once and continuing to reap rewards from that work appeals to me. Many will refer to this is seeking to generate a passive income. And, although that is true, for me that is not the primary motivation.

I consider it more as a way of minimising the wastage of energy by carrying out the same task repeatedly. For example, in my consulting work, I sometimes get bored of the sound of my own voice (!) as I often find myself repeating the same pieces of advice to different clients. The same words rolled out again and again - the only difference being that it is just different people listening.

The difficulty I have in scaling my line of work is that no one client is the same. So in each case, things have to be modified and adjusted so as not simply a case of creating an online course or training module.

But this does not stop me from thinking of ways in which I can deliver consulting and advisory services in a way that those who want the advice can nibble at it as and when they need it. This can make it more affordable for clients and also allow me more time to focus on creating new frameworks, idea and strategies for clients. Also to have more spare time and, more importantly (for my sanity) stop hearing my own voice!

I have experimented with online training and posting free content online and, although this has been great as a lead-generating tool, I have found it difficult to transition this into an income-generating mode of working that works for both sides.

As I mentioned above, no single client is the same so it's very difficult to capture everyone's specific needs and circumstances within a 'one size fits all' course.

Another way of achieving this is potentially to look at working in group sessions with live group calls etc as I've seen this work in other areas; however, there is a confidentiality issue with my work so I'm not sure whether this would work well for my clients.

There are certain ways in which I've managed to automate areas of repeatable work, for example, in relation to letter and report generations; however, this does not remove the need to engage in one-on-one client relationships for each piece of work which creates the bottlenecks and potential energy wastage through duplication of advice etc.

I must confess that I do enjoy working with clients, so even if I was to remove the one-to-one aspect, I suspect that I would miss this aspect. However, I know that I am the bottleneck in my business and I'm finding this difficult to overcome.

The obvious option is of course to get into the traditional route of recruiting an army of like-minded teammates who can work on projects with me. However, I value having the free-time to dip in and out of work and I'm not sure whether this would work well within a more traditional and formalised business structure. Also, it doesn't solve the problem that I'm trying to address which is how to scale consulting services.

I will keep on exploring ways to create a more scalable consulting platform, although I suspect that the answer will ultimately lie in a hybrid of 1) a more scalable platform plus 2) a team who can work with me to deliver the client work.

The quest continues...