Level Up Your Business:
Tips from Successful Entrepreneurs
Do you ever look at other entrepreneurs who are growing their companies by leaps and bounds and wonder how they are doing it? If you want to level up your business, you can’t just take a magic pill and expect overnight results.
There may not be a secret formula for success, but there are some smart tactics you can try. I asked successful entrepreneurs to share the one thing that made the biggest difference in growing their business.
But first…
What does ‘level up’ mean in business?
When we talk about leveling up a business, we mean taking it from one growth plateau to the next.
There is no one correct way to level up. It looks for every business owner depending on where they are in the the business-growth journey.
Leveling up can look like:
- Going from zero sales to getting the first sale.
- Being able to hire your first contractors.
- Earning enough to start paying yourself a regular salary.
- Shifting from delivering services to managing a team.
- Making your first 5-figure month, 6-figure year, 7-figure revenue, etc.
No matter how much you earn, how large or small your company, there is opportunity for you to break through your current status and reach new goals.
Your goals may be related to making more money, having more free time, giving back to your community, or something else entirely.
Whatever your business status and your long-term goals, read on for tips that can help you level up in the ways that feel right for you.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
1. Stop charging hourly.
“I stopped trading time for money. I started creating packages and experiences and setting a flat dollar amount. Then, people were no longer just hiring an hourly helper, but an actual service provider for specific parts of their business. I stopped getting one or two hour jobs and saw my income drastically increase.”
2. Raise your rates.
“I bumped up my rates in early March, and I’ve been able to take on fewer projects while making more money, which lets me focus more fully on each client. Raising what your expertise is worth can be intimidating, but it’s worth the more manageable schedule and happier clients.”
3. Use a retainer model.
“When I was prepping my business for the arrival of my baby, I decided to switch from all one-off, short-term projects, to a retainer model. I like them because I’m able to dig in deeper with each client, which has been really exciting. And now I know the minimum monthly income my biz will generate, so my husband and I can plan around that. (Plus, with the time I’ve freed up, I’ve been able to improve my email marketing and complete a digital product that is bringing evergreen income to my business.”
Julienne DesJardins, Digital Marketing
4. Fire bad clients.
“It’s never easy to let someone go, but I found that getting rid of one to three bad clients freed up my time and energy to be amazingly of service to people who were a better fit. If someone was too difficult, too demanding of my time, or simply contacting me too often, I let them go. Every few months, evaluate whether or not any of your relationships are still working of whether they are conflict-ridden or just aggravating. Up-leveling means releasing people who are no longer of service to you or who you are no longer of service to.”
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5. Invest in smart tools.
“The single best thing I’ve ever done so far to level up my business was to spend $5 for Boardbooster to help increase my traction on Pinterest and increase traffic to our website. My last five bucks literally helped me boost my Pinterest profile by 2,000+%.”
6. Automate, automate, automate.
“The best thing I’ve done is automate as much of my business as possible. For example, my to-do list app runs almost entirely on recurring tasks and activity in integrated tools like my clients’ project management apps—I hardly ever need to manually add items to it. As a side hustler, it’s great to be able to get home from my day job and jump right into the real work instead of wasting time on admin and planning.”
Brittany Berger, Writer/Marketer
Grow and Use Your Network
7. Get to know your customers.
“Spend time getting to know your customers and take an interest in them. Learn about them and their businesses, and share some of your own stories to establish a personal connection and make the customer feel confident in purchasing from you.”
Vladimir Gendelman, Company Folders, Inc
8. Add a business partner.
“Bringing in a partner was the biggest move to level up my business. My business partner brings a whole other perspective to our work as he’s a lawyer and a very conservative business risk taker. For creative types, having someone to keep us accountable and focused is a huge asset!”
Kim Herrington, SEO & Analytics
9. HIre a coach.
“I joined a high-level business coaching program that includes coaching, training, and a community of fellow entrepreneurs doing transformational work with their clients. I’m getting the support I need from coaches who know and have succeeded in business, much like I provide for my clients. Life has taught me many times that I can do great things on my own, and I can do much greater things with a little help!”
Chrysta Bairre, Live Love Work
10. Trust your team.
“I’d say the secret sauce that has allowed me to level up my business recently is having full trust in my team’s abilities to deliver. While I have no actual employees, I work with about 20 various partners and contractors so there is a lot of delegation of tasks. Trusting your team is vital to expansion, and now that I’ve built closer relationships and defined goals with my team, it’s operating a lot more smoothly.”
Arne Giske, The Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast
11. Create a community.
“The single best thing I have done to level up in my business is finding a community. I am an introvert and tried to do it all on my own in the past. This year I decided to change a few things and after getting out of my comfort zone and trying to build meaning relationships and be a part of relevant communities, it has opened lots of doors that will be very beneficial to me in the coming months.”
Change Your Mindset
12. Don’t beat yourself up.
“My business took off once I was able to stop beating myself up, being critical about my thoughts and actions, and doubting my abilities at every turn. The key was recognizing how much of that was based on harmful patriarchal conditioning and then making the conscious choice to redefine success on my own damn terms.”
Becky Mollenkamp, The Gutsy Boss
13. Rewrite your story.
“When I was struggling to uplevel my business, I realized that “I” was the problem. I got quiet and began to journal. I asked myself what my fears were and what was holding me back. I was able to get to the root of the problem. I realized it was an old story of not being worthy and that it no longer served me. I changed my story and my mindset and—bam—my business is on fire.”
Kimberly Capolattaro, Mindful Life Coaching
14. Be more productive.
“I am a procrastinator and though I’m not completely cured of the P-disease, I can confidently say I leveled up in my business by facing my procrastination problem. Leveling up means more than making money or getting new clients, it also means completing tasks that will ultimately help my business grow. When I was in denial of my problem nothing was being accomplished. Now I finish tasks and with each one I check off, my business takes a step forward.”
Charrish Ferguson, Bout Your Biz
15. Keep your eye on the ball.
“Do one thing, however small it maybe, every day to move your business forward. It might be sending a tweet to a potential client or adding a testimonial to your site. If you’re consistently performing one task every day with the future of your business in mind, you’ll be moving your business forward 30 steps each month.”
Lizzie Davey, Wanderful World.com
16. Take time to ponder.
“The best thing I’ve done to level my business is to stop and think. Making time to brainstorm crazy ideas is how to grow. We get so caught up in checking off our to-do lists that we never sit back and just think. When I’m too bogged down with an intense work week, I carve out time where I have no choice but to let my mind spin those creative wheels.”
Samantha K. Williams, Aurora Publicity
17. Dream big.
“The best thing I did to up level my business was acknowledge I had big dreams and accept I was allowed to pursue those. Once I realized I am just as exceptional, and human, as everyone making Oprah/Beyonce/Marie Forleo money, then I could direct my businesses in a way that aligned with my desires. I felt at ease charging more, working more hours, and talking about my goals and accomplishments. It’s okay to set crazy-high goals no matter where you are in life. The truth is there’s room for all of us to be wildly successful.”
Sonya Highfield, Real World Creatives
18. Know your limits.
“Take the time to have an honest conversation with myself regarding my own limits. In any business, it’s easy to want to just go go go but knowing your own limits ensures you’ll avoid burnout and consistently put out the best product that you can. If you find yourself struggling to juggle it all—posting promos to Facebook groups, getting content on your website, developing opt-in freebies, etc.—then stop. Identify what gives you the most return on investment and focus on that. The “smaller” bits will fall into place as you continue to build your business.”
Amber Temerity, Thrifty Guardian
19. Make yourself a priority.
“I committed to a high level of self-care. When I started giving my body and mind the time and energy it needed, I was showing up 100% and being fully present with my clients. The results were stronger relationships and a powerfully run business.”
Angela Doucette, Warrior Spirit Coaching
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Do What You Do Best
20. Concentrate on your strengths.
“I’ve narrowed down and focused my services around what I do best. I used to offer many different types of design services because I’ve had the experience, but I’ve noticed a trend among my best clients – they always order logo design and branding first, and move on from there. Deciding what I’ll no longer offer to new clients has helped me to streamline my on-boarding process significantly.”
Nela Dunato, Artist & Designer
21. Be yourself.
“Being authentic with your audience is critical for growing your business in a way that is both sustainable and enjoyable. If you’re constantly catering to perceived needs of potential clients by tweaking your image, you’ll end up presenting a very discontinuous brand across your entire platform. Additionally, you will be attracting clients that are ultimately non-ideal, ones who you don’t enjoy working with, making your business much more work than it already is.”
Bailey Richert, Business Coach
22. Cater to the customer.
“The best thing I’ve done to take my business to the next level is redesigning my site to focus on the needs of the customer. Making the site more appealing for visitors is likely why the ratio of visitors to inquiries has more than doubled. Specifically, I moved a video of me talking from the top of the page and replaced it with with a good image and a phone number. I realized a lot of businesses looking for marketing want someone to talk to now, so this just makes their life easier.”
23. Do more content marketing.
“Something that helped us to level up our business has been adding more detailed content to our blog. We began taking questions that our members were having in our Facebook group and answering those comprehensively in a blog post. We answered these questions using video tutorial, text with screenshots, as well as back and forth conversation between ourselves and a student. The results are highly actionable blog posts that speak to our target audience!”
Katy Martin, Web Designer Beauty School
24. Share your knowledge.
“The best thing I did to level up my business was to educate my audience. For the longest time I was only only focusing on promoting my work and my products to my current audience. As soon as I started sharing my knowledge and educating my audience, not only did my following and client base sky rocket, it brought back repeat customers. Becoming an active voice in my field, has been the best thing I have done for my business.”
25. Give more than you get.
“The best thing I did to level up my business was to lead with generosity! I give free talks, free Q&A sessions in Facebook groups and do free calls where I give away a lot of advice. This has people giving me referrals, writing beautiful testimonials, and signing up for my services because they’re left wondering “If the free stuff is this good… what will I get when I pay her?”
These are all great tips, Becky! Some serious out-of-the-box advice here from great entrepreneurs. Thanks for adding my tip into the mix.
Thanks for reading and contributing, Kim!
So much good advice in here! Thank you for making it 24 instead of 10, because there are that many more takeaways!
Sometimes 10 is just too limiting! Thanks for reading.
Fantastic post! Thank you for sharing all of this excellent actionable advice. 🙂 I will be reading this one through several times and also checking out the links.
Thanks for reading, Nicole. I hope you find a lot of great, actionable advice that can help you take the next step up! I know I did.
I loved reading the other tips from other entrepreneurs , I can’t wait to explore the links and seeing how I can apply one or two things I’m not doing! Thanks for having me be a part of this.
Thanks for participating and reading!
Hi, Becky! Thanks for this post. It was such a cool opportunity to share thoughts on how I as well as the other bloggers and creativepreneurs boosted our own businesses. Godspeed!
Mecyll
http://www.bitchychicken.de
Thanks for sharing, Mecyll!
Fantastic post, Becky! I need to re-read and re-read this. :):) Needing a kick in the pants lately! Thank you!
So glad you found it helpful, Amanda. I know I learned a few things from the other contributors!
Fantastic post….I need to bookmark this for sure!!!! 🙂
What a fantastic, helpful post! I’ve already done some of these things, like pricing in a way that allows me to spend time getting to know each client. However, some of these ideas (like the one about Boardbooster for Pinterest) are new to me. I’m all about investing in smarter tools. Thank you!
This was an incredible article! What a roundup of valuable insights… I’m so inspired!
Thanks for reading, Corry!
Thanks, Tara. I learned a lot from the other contributors to this post as well!
Thanks, Lindsey. I’m so glad you found it helpful.
Thanks Becky, I didn’t know about boardbooster for Pinterest. On it!
Thanks for reading!
Everything in this was 100% relatable as I went through as my first year being a full-time entrepreneur and it was essential.
So glad to hear the advice is on target for new entrepreneurs. Thanks, Mariah!
Great tips Becky! Always helpful to see in one place to really help remind yourself 🙂
Thank you for reading, Beth!
These tips are great and totally agree about Board Booster, it rocks!
Thanks for reading, Alissia!