How to Streamline Your Business and Sign Higher-Level Clients

You’re on a mission to grow a business. You dedicate a lot of time and love (and probably blood, sweat and tears) into that business, working to add to your client base and your knowledge base.

Eventually, you realize there’s only so much time in the day–and some of those hours go to your family, your friends and your own health. (Way to go for taking care of yourself, hon!)

How do you keep on growing then? It’s all about streamlining your services and upleveling what you’re offering so you can attract higher-level clients.

As a new business owner, you learn to develop systems–systems that use certain tools to get the job done. That’s what makes you more efficient and able to offer an exceptional experience to your clients. For a while, that works because you’re working with business owners who hired you specifically for your ability to get the job done–often on your terms.

Eventually, that doesn’t work anymore.

Now, I’m a Trello fan and I love to use Trello to keep myself and my clients organized. But the reality is that some clients just don’t want to use Trello. Or Asana. Or Basecamp. They have their own tools in place that work for them.

Here’s what we’re not taught as new business owners: It’s not really about the tool; it’s about the system behind the tool. If I’m working with a high-level client and they don’t want to use Trello, we don’t use Trello. I’m not going to try to convert them to the tool I want to use if their team is already using something that works for them.

(As an aside, if what they’re using isn’t working, you better believe I’ll try to convert them. Because a team needs a tool that works.)

Higher-level clients are different.

For any business owner, a higher-level client is someone who likely has a team and more established processes within their business. They also have recurring revenue and possibly some passive income–which means their overall revenue is higher. They might be an influencer or a bigger name in their industry. In short, they’re someone who expects white glove service.

Think you can’t provide that high-level service because you’re tapped out on time and resources? Think again!

White glove service comes with a higher price tag, because you’re going deeper and wider with these clients. You’ll be able to serve fewer, higher-paying clients in the same amount of time.

This all goes back to being the operator in your clients’ businesses. You’re no longer the “doer,” but rather leveraging the client’s team to do the work that needs to get done. And you’re the leader, the director of operations that makes sure that the work actually gets done.

It’s all about being flexible and making shifts in the way you do business. Those procedures and systems you set up early in your business? That prepared you for where you’re going in business now.

In short, here are some of my top tips for upleveling your business and starting to work with higher-level clients so you can serve fewer clients, better:

• Be flexible in the tools you use to manage the clients. Know that it’s about having systems, not the actual tools you use.
• Don’t try to convert clients to the tools you use. Instead, integrate what you do into their tools.
• Leverage the client’s team to do the work so you can serve as the operator.
• Remember that communication is key: With your team and with your client’s team.

Want to learn more about how to uplevel? My Director of Operations Certification program can help you make the shifts and changes you need to make it happen. Find out more about the certification here.