There’s more to simplifying your business than setting up automations and niching down your offers in order to have a profitable online business.
Is this a countercultural approach to building a profitable online business in 20 hours a week? You bet it is!
Today, I’m collaborating with Steph Blake where she is breaking down her simplified approach to a profitable online business, diving into the societal misconceptions surrounding work and success, debunking the hustle narrative, sharing how she sells differently than others, finding the balance between automation and personal connection, and the necessity of tailoring systems and processes to avoid burnout and instability in your business.
How to stay motivated while building a profitable online business
Entrepreneurship and life in general is a journey.
But it has been so ingrained in me for my entire life that you have to work a lot in order to be successful. Society tells us that. Steph notes she saw her parents doing that. Her mom was a single mom who worked 60 to 80 hours a week.
So, Steph grew up seeing that, and that’s what she thought success meant.
But she did not want to overwork herself to the point that she ended up in the hospital.
Steph notes to maintain 20-hour work weeks is almost harder than figuring it out initially because you have to decondition yourself and reprogram your nervous system and your mind to be okay with working less because that has truly been the hardest thing.
Creating the strategies to work less, that’s not very difficult. It’s really not hard, but keeping yourself motivated to work less and really focus on understanding what you want out of your life and going all in on that is so much more important than just saying I work 20 hours per week.
And this is a countercultural sales strategy because we always here about the hustle and grind culture but it’s okay to make a living and thrive working 20 hours a week.
The power of 1 for a profitable online business
The basic strategy we have to start with is these foundational elements.
We have to get really focused on one thing.
And that sends people running because they get so scared. They’re like, I can’t do one thing. I can’t sell one thing. And the truth is, you don’t have to sell this one thing forever. But right now, we really need to simplify your business for success.
We need to get your life back and we need to get your time back.
So, it is a necessity to pick one thing to focus on and double down on that.
Double down on whatever works and go all in on that and get rid of everything else.
Because if you’re selling 5 different things, your energy is divided between those 5 different things. Versus if you just go all in on that one thing, you will 5 x, 10 x your results for that one thing.
But most people get distracted.
They think that that one thing isn’t working, so then they create another thing.
But they don’t give it time.
They don’t give it the time and the energy it needs.
And frankly, they’re not selling that thing either. Which is really important. They’re not talking about that thing. They’re not selling it every single day.
So, that’s why they create new offer after offer after offer instead of just staying consistent with what they actually know works and what actually resonates with their people.
Celebrating the big and little wins
Steph notes every month, she will sit and will review what happened the previous month.
And not just looking at the money because, yes, that’s something that she’s always looked at. We always need to look at our money, but she also looks at all of the things that she’s done.
So, maybe there were projects that she worked on that in the moment seemed like kind of small, but in the big picture they are really moving the needle forward.
She spends about 3 hours a month, breaking down every single thing that happened in that past month because if it doesn’t get documented, and if she don’t celebrate every single person and every single win and every single thing that she did and her team did, she’s not going to appreciate it and she’s going to forget about it.
Then the next step to that is that she sends those wins to her email list.
And she gets very vulnerable, and will shoot it out into the world because that also helps hold her accountable to do it.
The Power of 1
Solve one problem
Every single business solves a problem, and you need to figure out what problem your business solves.
Create one offer
From there, we can create that offer that solves that problem.
So, we have one problem, one offer
One person
And then we have to figure out who we’re selling that offer to.
So, then comes our one person.
Value of your offer
Now we need to understand how we articulate the value of that offer.
We need to be able to very easily and very quickly convey the value that that one person will get from this offer that we’re selling.
That’s our one message.
Where will you market your offer?
And then we need to focus on marketing our business on one social media platform.
Because a lot of people, again, they’re trying to solve multiple problems, sell multiple offers, sell them to multiple people.
And then, again, like I talked about before, your attention is just split between all of these different offers, these different problems that you’re trying to solve.
And then that just creates more problems in your business and truthfully in your life if you don’t simplify it.
And that’s why so many people burn out.
That’s why so many people give up on their businesses because they’re just doing too much.
They’re doing too much, and they’re letting their head get in the way.
Avoiding burnout while building a profitable online business
If you’ve been in business for a long time, great.
But you will get to a breaking point if you don’t set up systems and your business is not set up sustainably for the long term.
So many people start their business, they’re seeing some level of success, but they’re noticing they don’t have back-end systems in place.
All of a sudden sales are coming in but their team members are burning out.
Their team members are leaving very quickly because they don’t have processes in place.
The business owners are working 80 to 100 hours a week and are on the verge of a heart attack.
They know that it cannot continue this way.
Therefore, setting up systems is incredibly important for the beginning stages of your business.
But even if you’ve been doing this for a while like, for example, Steph had her business for 4 years before she realized she had to do this.
She was that person on the verge of burning out if she did not make that change.
And frankly, I think that happens more often than we realize because a lot of people don’t share what’s happening behind the scenes.
They just like slowly fade away.
So, the longer that it takes you to admit that you need help, the further you’re pushing yourself back every single day from that inevitable success that you want.
And that just continues to lead to burnout because you’re just doing things that you don’t need to be doing.
Tools, strategies and systems to streamline your business for a profitable online business
The specific tools that Steph uses:
- She has an all-in one-software suites called the Simple Business Suite https://shesells–the-blake-collective.thrivecart.com/simple-business-squad/
This does the majority of the heavy lifting for her. Everything in one place – website, CRM, checkout, all of it is in one place.
- Clickup – This project management tool helps keep track of tasks and everything is organized and color coded.
- Airtable – This is great for organizing content
https://airtable.com/invite/r/G8nZbTn5
- Thrivecart – You can get a lifetime subscription and it’s great for housing courses
https://shesells–checkout.thrivecart.com/thrivecart-standard-account/
What a typical 20-hour work week looks like
One of the things that has allowed Steph to be so successful with a 20-hour week structure is the flexibility to work when she wants and move things as needed.
Typically, she will work on the weekends and prefers it that way because it works best for her family.
And weekends are so quiet. Her team’s typically not doing anything. She’s not getting a bunch of emails or inquiries from people. It’s really the time where she can stay focused on doing the bigger projects or the higher-level thinking tasks that she has to do.
Versus during the work week, that’s when she does a lot of her calls and stuff during the work week.
To get to this point where she just gives herself permission to work on whatever she wants when she wants she has become much more comfortable with being okay with just kind of going with the flow and being available for her family and working in the evenings when they’re asleep.
Overcoming challenges to a 20-hour work week
The biggest and she still has to do this work is deconditioning.
Deconditioning and knowing that it’s okay to work less.
And if she’s working less, not filling her plate with more work because she feels like she has to or is supposed to.
That has by far been the hardest thing of reconditioning her mindset, her nervous system, and most importantly giving herself permission to not work when other people are working.
That’s been a tough one too because I was in corporate for 10 years.
Curious to hear the full conversation between Steph and I? If so, press the play button at the top and listen in or click here!
Steph Blake Bio
Steph Blake is the founder & CEO of the Simple Business School™ membership & Simple Business Suite™, a customized all-in-one software for online business owners.
She’s a business coach & productivity expert who helps online business owners run simple, streamlined & profitable businesses in less than 20 hours/week.
She’s been in business for 8.5 years and has helped thousands of people start and scale their own businesses to reach their unique freedom goals.
She’s also a tech nerd, systems strategist, wife, mom of 2 boys under 5 and Amazon Prime addict. Her favorite place to hang out is Instagram! You can find her at @theblakecollective.
Connect with Steph Blake
Website: https://theblakecollective.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestephblake
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblakecollective
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theblakecollective
Simple business Show – Private Podcast: https://simplebizshow.com/
