147: A Simpler Way to Build a Scalable Business

If your business feels heavier than it should right now, this episode is for you.

Most entrepreneurs don’t struggle because they lack ideas… they struggle because they have too many. Too many offers in progress, too many directions pulling their focus and too much noise making everything feel harder than it needs to be.

In this episode, I’m sharing why you don’t need another idea - you need one clear direction.

We’ll talk about:

• Why more ideas often lead to more overwhelm and burnout
• How scalable offers can actually simplify your business
• The hidden cost of trying to do everything at once
• The mindset shift from being busy to being intentional

I also share my own experience of stepping back, choosing one clear focus and how that decision changed the way I built my business… creating scalable income without relying on doing more.

If you’re craving clarity, simplicity, and a calmer way to grow your business then this episode will help you refocus and move forward with intention.

Listen in and discover a simpler way to build a scalable business.

Transcript

Karen [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 147. And in today's episode we're going to be talking about an easier, more sustainable way to build a business that is scalable. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Welcome to Online Business Uncovered, the show that lifts the lid on what it really takes to turn your brilliance into digital products, passive income and time freedom. 

I am your host, Karen, an online business strategist, course creation expert and your go to for building a business that works for you and not the other way around. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur, feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or maybe you're just ready for a smarter, more sustainable way to grow, then you're in the right place. Because each week I'll be bringing you inspiring conversations, practical strategies and step by step guidance to help you create scalable, repeatable digital products that sell even while you sleep.

Karen [00:01:06]:
So if you're ready to stop trading your time for money, reclaim your time and finally build a business that gives you the freedom that you deserve, hit, subscribe and tune in every Thursday. Let's uncover what's truly possible for you, starting now. 

Hello and welcome to today's episode. This is Online Business Uncovered and today we are talking about turning your expertise into something that you can scale. I'm your host, Karen and as always, I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. 

This episode is sponsored by the Digital Creators Hub, which is my free all access community designed to kick start your online journey. Now inside the hub you will gain access to practical tools, to resources and replays of my live master classes. And the idea is that you are supported in getting started with turning your valuable knowledge into expertise.

Karen [00:02:19]:
So I'm giving you the first step to get started in the Hub. Now, the Hub is completely free, so head on over to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/community and go and get yourself in there today because it is January and there is no better time now to get started with that online business. All right, so back to today's episode and if you are currently in a place where you're feeling overwhelmed, maybe you're feeling stretched in, or maybe you are wondering why your business is feeling hard, even though you feel like you're doing all the right things, then this episode is going to be for you. Because today I am breaking it down. I'm talking about scalable offers and how you can create a business that you can scale in the easiest way possible. Now, before I Dive in. And I talk about clarity. I want to really start by talking about scalable offers and why they matter so much.

Karen [00:03:30]:
Especially if you are somebody that maybe is feeling disillusioned or fed up with your business. Maybe you are fed up a working with clients or maybe you just want to create some balance in your business where you are able in to make money wash not your desk. But then you can still make clients, still make money from your clients in the background. If that is you, then you are absolutely in the right place and that's what we're going to dive into. Something that I know to be true is that most business owners overwhelm doesn't come from a lack of ambition. I think it actually comes from building a business where income is directly tied to effort. And what that means is if you don't show up, then the income stops. If you don't go looking for that next pipeline of clients, your income will stop.

Karen [00:04:27]:
If your life gets busy and things happen in your life, maybe a family member's ill, maybe you are poorly, or maybe you want to take an extended holiday or you want to do something where you don't want to work or you don't need to work for whatever reason, then if your income is directly tied to your effort, what that means is that your income will most likely stop. And I think it's fair to say probably in a lot of business owners cases that is probably true. And I know from the conversations that I've had with business owners that I network with when I talk about scalable offers and we have that conversation often they won't have have anything outside of their services in their business, which means that they're vulnerable because if they do have to stop work for whatever reason, they haven't got a way of bringing that income in. So that's why it's important to really think about what scalable offers you create in your business that you can sell on repeat. And when I talk about it being scalable, it just means that you can just continue selling it. So it doesn't matter whether you sell it once or you sell it 10 times or a hundred times, or a thousand times. It just means that you can continue scaling your sales without having to do any more work. So you build it once, you sell it on repeat and you make money from it.

Karen [00:06:06]:
The thing that scalable offers in your business allows you to create is sustainability. Now I've spoken about this on the show before. When I was working in my service based business, I I had a branding studio for a Long time I had no offers that I could sell without me being tied to it. And what that meant was I was always on all the time. I was always on the hook for the, for the work that needed to be done. I couldn't sell a simple solution that targeted an area of what I did because I didn't have that created in my business. And what that meant was that actually the model of business I was building was not sustainable long term because it meant it was all on my shoulders. So I think as we build our businesses, especially in 2026 and beyond, we need to make sure that we're building something sustainable, that we can continue to grow but can thrive when we're not there.

Karen [00:07:18]:
Because scalable offers allow you to kind of change the dynamic of your business because it means that you get to start getting that freedom. And I think one thing that is true, most business owners or entrepreneurs start their businesses because they want some kind of freedom. It might be financial freedom, it might be creative freedom, it might be time freedom, it might be, you know, freedom over choosing the work that you do so that you become autonomous in the work that you do. It doesn't matter. I think freedom sits at the very core of most business owners desire. But we can't get that freedom, that elusive freedom if we are on the hook all the time. Like we, it just can't happen. I used to, like I say in my branding studio, I used to run a team and I would have a project come in and then I would get my team team to do their parts within the project.

Karen [00:08:22]:
But it was still on my shoulders. I still had to manage that project to make sure that the brief was being met in the time frame that that had been agreed to, the budget that had been agreed, it was still on my shoulders. So although I had people supporting me and helping me within my business, it didn't take away from the fact that I was still on the hook for the end result. So we want to flip that. We want to start thinking about how can we start to create something that grows in the background so that we can actually build and scale a business that doesn't require more from us. Now the great thing about scalable offers is they allow you to package up your expertise once you only want to do it once, you don't want to do more than that. You know, I, I, a conversation I have a lot with other entrepreneurs is, is when they say to me they've got an online course in their business and I'll be like, oh, okay, that's Amazing. Tell me about it.

Karen [00:09:26]:
And they'll be like, yeah, I deliver it every quarter and it's six weeks of training that I deliver in person via Zoom and I help my cohort get a result. And I'm almost like, but that's not an online course, that's a program. An online course, something that you can scale is that you build it once and then that's it. You don't have to be there again. So if that's you and you have something that you deliver on repeat, but you're having to be there in person, then I'd like you to just maybe shift your mindset around the possibility of not being there in person but still delivering it. Because that's where online courses come in. You don't need to be there. In fact, the whole point is that you're not there.

Karen [00:10:20]:
The other thing a scalable offer allows you to do is focus on creating something like an online course or a membership or something that people can get access to the information as and when they need it. So they don't rely on you being there because. Because it's available 24 7. Now, again, you know, this could be through a online course, or it could be through a membership, or it could be a repeatable group program. I think predominantly the goal isn't about offering more. It's not about creating more offers. The goal is about leverage. It's taking what you have and leveraging it so that you get the maximum return out of it.

Karen [00:11:04]:
Now, I think one of the problems that most people struggle with is not the fact that they lack ideas often, it's that they have too many ideas. So what then can happen is that you then start creating something and then you get halfway and you give up because you start second guessing yourself. Or maybe you become overwhelmed, or maybe you, you know, start to lack confidence as to whether or not somebody would buy the thing that you're creating. Or it might just be the fact that you're juggling so many things in your business, you haven't got the bandwidth to just focus on that one thing. Or maybe you're just thinking, I've got all of these ideas and I just have no way of knowing what one's going to work. I think somewhere along the way, I think clarity often gets replaced with this constant doing. We're in our business doing all the time with firefighting. We're trying to keep the business going.

Karen [00:12:06]:
So we get into the weeds of what is required and that's where we get stuck. It may be that you're constantly posting or maybe you get sort of caught up in the learning where you're just, you're doing course after course where you, you feel like you have to learn another thing and another thing and then you become a perpetual learner as opposed to somebody that is doing. Or maybe you are somebody that just tweaks. So you create the thing, you get it all set up and then you tweak it over and over again. So rather than getting it out there selling it, you're actually tweaking it. And then maybe you're somebody that is doing a little bit of everything and you are taking action, but nothing is really land. I want to assure you that if that's you, you're not behind, you're not failing. All you're doing, which is a common mistake, is you're just trying to do everything at once.

Karen [00:13:02]:
And I think that's where we need to just put, take a pause and reassess what it is that we actually want to get done. Because I've been there, I know what this is like where you've got so many ideas, you can see so many outcomes, and then you get caught up trying to do so many things at once. There was a stage in my business where I was literally dealing with multiple ideas, multiple offers, and, and this constant feeling where that I should be doing more all of the time. I should be further ahead, I should be, I should be, I should be constantly going through my head. And externally I was looking really productive because I was moving forward. But on the inside it felt heavy and it felt messy and I didn't feel in control. What I then realized was that I'd lost the direction of my own business because I was trying to do too many things all at once. I was so busy, but I wasn't being intentional and that was the problem.

Karen [00:14:09]:
So here's the uncomfortable truth that I see so many times. Scalable income is not from. You don't create it from piling on more ideas. It comes from simply choosing one clear path and building it out properly from start to finish. Stay in the course, doing the work. And that one product needs to fit your life. You need one way of selling it that's not going to drain your energy. And you need one simple system that can grow without demanding in more of your time.

Karen [00:14:53]:
And for me, when I stopped asking, what else could I create? Because I am a creator. I'm a qualified and experienced graphic designer. That's my background. I build or I used to build websites, I used to create, you know, I used to design products and things like that for clients. So getting caught up and lost in the creation was kind of my happy space. But when I stopped asking myself what could I create and I started asking what do I want this business to actually do for me, that's when it all began to change. Because I became intentional on moving my business forward to achieve a specific goal. I became focused, I became consistent with my efforts and I took intentional action.

Karen [00:15:54]:
And it didn't happen overnight. It happened because I was consistent with what I was doing. So I want to share a really simple reframe that you can use today. I encourage you, Instead of asking yourself, what should I do next? Try asking, what is the one thing that deserves my focus right now? It could be anything that is going to move you closer to your goal. Then I want you to filter your ideas through these specific questions. Does this support the life I want my business to give me? Does this reduce complexity or does it add to it? So are you making it harder for yourself and can this grow without me having to work more hours now? If the answer is no, it doesn't mean that what you're thinking is a never. It just means it's not the right thing for right now. One clear direction is going to give you so much relief in your business because that's when things will start to shift.

Karen [00:17:15]:
Your content will become so much easier to create, your messaging will become clearer, your decisions will become simpler. And mentally you'll start to feel like you can breathe again because you're only having a focus on one thing. So what I encourage you to do is stop feeling like you have to do everything now because you don't choose one thing, one product that is going to make a difference in your business and in your life. And then I want you to focus on that one thing. It could be an online course, it could be a membership, it could be a digital product, or it could be a group program. It doesn't matter. They are simply the vehicles to get your content in front of the people that you want to help. What you need to focus on is just one idea that you need to create because each of those ideas is going to take time and you need to give yourself the space and the grace to allow yourself that time to create the thing that you want to create and not get bogged down with all the other ideas that are clouding what it is you're trying to do now.

Karen [00:18:34]:
The great thing about being in the online space is that digital products aren't adding more to your plate when you Create a digital product in your business that you're selling, you're simplifying your business because number one, it's going to capture your brilliance and it's going to and you're going to create something that's really going to support somebody else. It's going to work for you on repeat. So whether you can sell one or 100, it doesn't matter. You're going to sell it on repeat, you're going to make money, and it's going to give you leverage instead of you having to put more effort into everything that you're doing now. Something that I need you to hear is that you do not need to start with a huge online course. I think that's one of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make when they start out in creating digital products. The smartest move is one simple, focused offer that solves one clear problem. That's could be a resource, it could be a check checklist, it could be a cheat sheet, it could be a swipe file, it could be a toolkit, it could be a masterclass, it could be a how to document, it could be a mini course.

Karen [00:19:58]:
It doesn't have to be big, it just needs to answer a problem that your idle person is struggling with right now. So if you're listening to this and thinking, I know I need clarity, but I don't know where to start, that's exactly why I create simple frameworks and tools to help you step back, choose the direction and build from there. I have a product called the Passive Profit Accelerator. This is a very simple toolkit that gets you started with planning your first digital product in your business. That's going to move you towards creating that passive income. I will put the link to the product in the show notes, but I would encourage you to check it out and to get started. Your business is a vehicle, but if you do not choose the destination, you will keep driving around in circles. You'll be busy, you'll be tired, and you'll be wondering a year from today why it's still feeling hard.

Karen [00:21:05]:
You most likely don't need another idea. As I said earlier, you just probably need one clear direction. And that's exactly why I'm here. That's exactly why this podcast exists, and that's exactly why I created the Passive Profit Accelerator is to help get you started. So check it out. As I said, it's in the show notes and I would love you to reach out to me and let me know what it is that you decide to create. So visit me on Instagram aarondigitalcoach say hi and let me know what are you gonna create that's scalable, that you can sell and repeat and that's going to make you money in your business. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode.

Karen [00:21:53]:
I hope it's given you some clarity and sparked some new ideas. If you found this helpful, then I'd love you to share it with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur who is also building their online business because this might be exactly what they need to hear today. And if you this episode has got you thinking. Okay, I'm ready to started. Get get started. Then come along and join my free community, the Digital Creators Hub Inside. You'll get access to free tools, resources, monthly masterclass replays, and you'll be the very first to hear about my upcoming workshops. Head on over to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/community.

Karen [00:22:33]:
I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Online Business Uncovered. If today's conversation has sparked an idea or gave you a dose of clarity, then please make sure to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned. New episodes land every Thursday, so hit follow or subscribe to stay in the loop. And if you're loving the show, a quick rating or review goes a long way in helping more brilliant entrepreneurs like you find this show. Until next time, keep showing up, keep sharing your brilliance, and remember, freedom in business is possible and it starts with taking the next right step.