Client Look BTS: 5 Steps I took to Reach 5-Figure Months in my Business

Given all that’s going on in the world, I thought about postponing this blog.

But, this post and client look behind-the-scenes is just as relevant today. 

The business principles that allow you to make money doing what you love haven’t changed. And, now more than ever, I want to you to see how much is possible in business in the online space for you, too.

Kristin Prius is the owner of K Design Co. and a brand strategist who helps female entrepreneurs and business owners command the spotlight with beautiful, strategic design.

She was kind enough to share a look behind-the-scenes at the five steps she took to reach five-figure months in her business.

Kristin’s story and journey to five-figure months:

In 2019, my business experienced massive growth.

After 5 years of being in business with a steady but humble increase in my sales numbers, I was able to 2x my revenue in a single year and finally reach 5-figure earning months. This didn’t happen by accident. It was part of a strategic set of decisions that I made at the beginning of 2019.

In 2018, I realized my business was doing fine, but I wanted to do better than fine. I wanted my business to grow and really make an impact. I wanted to work with my soulmate clients, providing them amazing and beautiful design work, and who would pay me my rates without a second thought.

Here’s what I did to make it happen:

I hired a business coach.

Hiring a business coach was the single best decision I made all year. I may be biased, but having an amazing business coach like Kim by my side to support me for 6 months in all my major business decisions was seriously life-changing.

I’m the kind of person who always second-guesses every decision, so having her there to be my sounding board was like the missing piece of my business I had always wanted and needed. This one decision was the first domino in the series of events that helped my first hit record-breaking month.

I changed my mindset.

Up until 2019, I didn’t realize that I had been stuck in a pattern of self-doubt. I doubted the value of my offerings and my worth to my clients. I doubted that anyone would really pay the price I thought I should be charging.

I doubted that I could show up confidently and ask for the sale. I doubted that I could feel good about making more money and that there would continually be more clients who wanted to work with me and pay me for my creative talents. All of these doubts were, of course, unfounded in any real truth. 

The more I worked with Kim, she helped open my eyes to the fact, that I had the power to exchange the energy I spent on self-doubting and untruths into fuel for growing my business.

As a part of my mindset work, one of the most powerful exercises I did for my business was to cast a vision of what I looked like as a six-figure business owner. I wrote down all the things I would do, say and even wear--painting a vivid picture of my future self that could help guide my actions to becoming this very person.

I raised my prices.

Pricing is a sticky subject for many business owners and I was no exception. Even though I had consistently raised my prices year-over-year since I started my business, I still didn’t feel like I was being fairly compensated for the amount of heart and effort I put into my projects and clients.

Especially, for large-scope projects like websites where I had to hire subcontractors, at the end of the day, my piece of the pie felt too small. I knew I had to make a big change if I really wanted to not only realize growth in my business but to also be able to bring home the amount of money that made all my efforts worth it.

Let me be clear: I didn’t raise my prices out of greed, but out of necessity - I needed to be able to continue to give my clients amazing strategic designs and serve them at the highest level and I couldn’t do this if I didn’t raise my prices.

I set boundaries.

As a service-based entrepreneur who is also a self-proclaimed people-pleaser, I often found myself bending to my clients’ every whim.

This resulted in me checking my email constantly and squeezing in last-minute project requests even if it meant working in the evenings or on the weekends.

I didn’t have clear boundaries set in place for deadlines and communication and this took a severe toll on my business and my personal life. Setting more clear boundaries for my clients was one of the easiest things I implemented that has helped preserve my sanity and take back some time for myself.

Even though I am passionate about my business and serving my clients, it doesn’t serve either of us well to be accessible and accommodating 24/7. I’ll be honest, when it comes to boundaries, I still see areas for improvement, but this is something I am continually working on as my business and processes evolve.

I grew my team.

Towards the latter half of 2019, it was clear that all the action I had been taking was creating some serious impact. Clients were lining up and I had an ever-growing to-do list.

I realized that there was no way that I could continue to grow my business at this rate on my own. After assessing which areas that I needed help in the most, I decided to hire a design assistant that could help carry some of the creative load and a virtual assistant that could help me with my marketing.

Having these two people to support me on a regular basis has been an incredible relief. I no longer feel like all of the burden is on my shoulders. They help me take care of smaller tasks and projects so I can focus on my bigger projects and long-term strategic goals.

After implementing all of these seemingly simple changes in my business, I was floored by the result. I blew my 2019 revenue goal out of the water and had to create a new goal in November.

For the year in total, I invoiced over 100K in my business and had three consecutive 5-figure months. To some people, these are just numbers, but to me, it was the opening of a door to so much possibility.

Honestly, I had never even dreamed to grow my business to this level and seeing it actually happen, made me giddy with excitement about what the future holds.

And to think it all started with a simple decision to invest in myself - I’m so grateful I made that decision and I know that as I continually invest in myself and my business, there’s even more success to come.

Gah, so good! I'm so proud of Kristin and hope you'll use her story as an example and reminder of how much is possible for you in business right now and always.

With love and wishing you your version of success.