How does a solopreneur leave a legacy? Today’s guest, Frank Bria, asked himself that question one day when he realized that his consulting practice wasn’t something he could easily pass down to his children. “I needed to figure out what a good model would be for folks who have higher level skills and want to continue to do that kind of work and be paid well for it, but do it in a leveraged way,” he said. Lucky for you, Frank found a way, and he’s sharing his OBT with you today.
Leveraging Services
Pop Quiz: What’s the number one way to create growth for a company that provides services? Create a PRODUCT. “I'd go into consulting services and organizations inside of software companies and help them productize what they do. And I realized that - duh! - you can do the same thing with a small business.”
But doesn’t that cost millions of dollars? Not according to Frank. That’s why he created the High Ticket Program, to convert small businesses skills into products - namely, courses. And while the program ultimately contains a number of smaller milestones, the entire thing can be broken down into two main pieces: establishing and validating a new program and turning that program into a seven-figure business.
Best Practices
“I never tell anyone there's only one way to do stuff that's just not true, but there are ways that are more likely to be successful than others,” Frank said, and I’m inclined to believe him. I’ve been using SOPs for my business for a while, and it’s a vital part of what makes my own business scalable.
If you aren’t sure where to start your SOP, Frank’s OBT is a great one:
Stoplight
“Businesses that were holding some kind of a meeting every week to go over their customers internally-- they were outperforming those that weren't.” It’s simple, but the impact of this process was profound for the businesses implementing it. “You want to bring all your customer facing people in a meeting every week to go over your customers one by one.” Frank advised. “I like a stoplight chart. Green, yellow, red. So every customer should have: green, they're on track; yellow, they need some assistance; red, they're behind.”
Once you’ve established where they fall on this chart, you and your team can create an actionable next step. Whether that means a solution for being behind, learning to help them catch up, or instructions for reaching their next milestone. No client gets left behind, and every client receives personalized attention until they’ve graduated the course.
If you’re still not sure where to get started on creating best practices for your product or how to productize your services, visit Frank’s website where you can download a free handbook filled with some of Frank’s tried and true best practices. You can also follow up with Frank on LinkedIn.
