371. What to fix first if your business is stuck at $3-5k months

Speaker A: Welcome to the Moms Do Business different podcast, where we simplify business, honor our capacity, and build peaceful and profitable companies that support our lifestyle. I'm Kay Hillman, a service provider and coach with two young boys, and in each episode, we'll talk sales strategy and stewardship for Christian moms who want financial safety and to always have options so you can steward your life and family. Well, these episodes are recorded right from my bed, next to sleeping kids, but the conversations here are raw, honest pressure, practical, and rooted in faith so you can build a business that actually fits your life. Here, we say the quiet part out loud. Welcome to the vibe. Hey, boo. Hey. Happy whatever day you're listening to this on. So today I, um, want to answer a question that I have gotten quite a few times. And actually on threads, someone asked this question and I was like, ooh, let me respond to this. So I had put a post up, and someone said, I've been stuck around 3 to 5k months for a year. I'm posting content consistently, I've created offers, but nothing seems to push the business forward. What would you actually fix first? And I thought that was such a great question to ask me. Um, if I can find the thread, I'll put it here so you can see how the person asked the question. But this is, like, the main point of it, and they were just saying, like, they're stuck between 3 and 5k months. And as someone who I have been there many times and I have clients, um, especially like when I'm doing my sales breakthrough audits, it's a pattern that I see over and over and over again where a lot of business owners get to that 3k mark, and then sometimes you have like a $5,000 a month, and then you bump back down to 3,000 or 2500 or even $2,000, and you're like, dang, I get out of this window of 3 to 5K. And first I want to say it's not a bad thing to make $3,000 a month or $5,000 a month. Like, this is not a bad thing. It's just if you want to make more or if you're stop. If you're tired of, like, one month it's up, and one month it's down, then you might have this question. And so, uh, again, like I said, I see this happen all the time. For my founders who come to me and they're looking for a sales audit. What happens is a lot of times when I'm looking at their business, a lot of times you've created multiple offers, you're posting consistently. But when I ask you, what problem does your business solve? A lot of people struggle to answer that question clearly. Like, I really want you to think to yourself, if I asked you, what is the one problem your business solves, what would you say to me? And not a super long, dramatic answer like, what? In the simplest words, you know, in 20 seconds or less, like, what is the answer to the question, what problem does your business solve? The key thing that I find, the key, like, thing that I diagnose when I'm doing these audits or when I'm talking to a client inside the support line, it's always a clarity problem. You do enough work, right? Like, your effort, your work ethic is not the problem. It is clarity. Clarity is your issue. And I know a lot of times people don't always talk about this, and maybe clarity sometimes seems like a little bit abstract in the sense of like, oh, I just need more clarity. But it's like, yeah, sometimes you actually just need a little bit more clarity. You are doing the work, you're posting online, you're being consistent. You have a few clients, but you're not seeing that real growth and traction. That is what's happening. Like, what's happening is that because you don't have clarity, you're not able to give other people clarity around what it is that you do. So you constantly find yourself stuck in this kind of roller coaster or like, cycle of three to $5,000 a month. And again, it's not a bad place to be unless you don't want to be there, right? If you don't want to be making three to $5,000, then you're going to be very frustrated in this point. But the truth is that a lot of people don't really understand what it is that you do or how you can help them. And so you get stuck and you kind of get capped because every client works with you because they know you, they have a relationship with you. Uh, you've had time to talk to them extensively about your offer, and so that's what makes them comfortable enough to buy. But, like, people don't just come to your page or come to your blog or whatever and say, oh, yeah, I know what she does. This is what she's offering, Boom, I'm gonna buy it, right? That clarity is missing. So I think a lot of times what people assume is that you're assuming as the business owner, that the algorithm, you know, is betraying you or something like, and trust me, I've been there. Like, one thing I more times than I can count is blame the algorithm. And it's easy to blame the algorithm because it's always changing. So we can always say, like, okay, it's the algorithm. Or maybe you think, like, okay, I can post more. I need to post, you know, trial reels, I need to post more reels, I need to post carousels. Right. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do those things, but I'm saying that's not the problem. The problem is not the algorithm, how much you're posting, or the fact that you need more visibility. Right. I'll see. I see some people who, they'll come to me and they're like, you know, yeah, I did like all these bundles and I did these podcast swaps and this and the third. And you're wondering why nothing came from it. It's because those are not, like, those things are not the problems. What's usually the problem? And there's kind of four big problems that I see. The number one is going to be unclear positioning. Your positioning is not clear at all. I literally had a client who, um, was in the support line and she came to me and within one week we cleared up her positioning, we cleared up her messaging, and within a week she signed a client, 850amonth for three months. Signed it within a week because we fixed her positioning. That is, that's the power of having a clear position about being able to clearly answer the question, what problem does your business solve? And like it being the most simplest, like way to communicate it. Right. The simplest way you can say it. So that's the, that's the first problem I see. The second problem is a lot of times we have offers that solve very vague problems. So. And I've been like, I'm sharing this from personal experience and from actual clients that I work with. But a lot of times we create these offers and they solve very vague problems or problems that are not pressing. Like the person that you're trying to serve. Like this problem. Yeah, Like, I guess I can solve it, but also it's not a big deal for me to solve it right now. And so inside of, um, really any offer that I do, I teach people a framework on how to create a bare minimum high converting offer. And we talk about how do you create an offer that gives someone a solution to a problem they have right now, not a problem that they might have in six months or a problem they might have in two years or whenever they feel like addressing the problem, but A problem that, like, if they don't solve it today, I'm not saying their life is over, but, like, low key. They'd be feeling like, oh, my gosh, it's the end of the world. That's what we want to make sure our problems are solving. So going back to that question, what's the one problem your business solves? If it's something that's not pressing, if it's something that people can kind of wait on, or whatever, maybe you need to consider a different problem that you're focusing on. And it's not to say that every problem or every business is solving a burning desire right now, but for your buyers, for the people that are buying your problem, your offer should be solving a problem they have right now. And it shouldn't be vague. It shouldn't be like an abstract, like, oh, I can help you build your business. I can help you start your business. I can help you do, like, no girlfriend. Like, we need something very specific and tangible that people can be like, oh, okay, I understand. Right. So for me, like, the support line is designed to help you solve your business problems in real time immediately. So what's your problem? Come and ask me. I will give you a very direct, clear answer. And we're going to map out and create a strategy so that you can get out of whatever situation you're in. So going back to that client I was telling you about, she came to me and she was like, girl, uh, I don't know why people are not buying. People used to buy all the time. They're not buying anymore. I don't understand what's going on. Okay, cool. Let me look at your business. I look at it, I'm like, okay, positioning number one. And even she came to me and she was like, I think it's a positioning thing. And I was like, it probably is. So when she started working with me, I got in there and I was like, okay, here's what we're gonna change. Here's what we're gonna say. Here's what you go. Here's what you do from this point forward. Next thing she knew, boom, she signed a client. One week, seven days. Like, I kid you not, it was seven days. She reached out to the person on, I think, Friday, Wednesday, they have a sales call that the Friday after that Wednesday, she. The client was booked. Like, she was starting on Monday. They had their first call, or I think their call was on Wednesday. So it was like another week. But anyway, long story short, within seven to, like, 10 days, that person like, my client had a client. 850 bucks, cash in the bank. Okay, that. That's a. That's an immediate problem. Okay? So the problem that I'm solving is immediate because I'm like, okay, what is the actual problem you have? That's what happens in the support line. So I want you to think about for yourself, what problem does your business solve? And then are your offers clear enough? Do you. Are you offering a solution to a clear problem? Not something that's vague, not something that's, like, theoretical or, you know, giving them hopes and dreams or, like, good feelings and good vibes. Like, girl, people not paying for vibes. Like, they're not paying for good feelings. They're paying for a problem to be solved. Are you clear on what that is? Another problem that I see a lot of times that's keeping you kind of capped at this 3 to 5k mark, or constantly, like, hitting that 5k and then dipping way down low. Right? So the third thing would be weak sales conversations. So this is something that, again, inside the support line, I will work with someone on this. Like, in the support line, if you know that you're having a lot of sales conversations, like, you get a lot of dms, um, or you are getting on calls, but for whatever reason you're not converting, then the support line is perfect. Because inside the support line, I will talk you through what your unique framework is in terms of having sales conversations. But a lot of times people have very weak sales conversations. And because of that, you are not able to convert people into a buyer. So you kind of find yourself stuck in. I'm, um, getting sales calls. Calls, or people are asking about my offers, but when it's time to buy, they ghost you. Or when it's time to pay or talk about paying, you know, all of a sudden, um, you know, they're not available, or they're saying, like, you know, not right now, or whatever. If that's happening, there's something happening in your sales conversations. It could also be the offer. Right? It could be a vague offer, or it could be unclear positioning, but all these things together will make it to where you have weak sales conversations. And I mean weak sales conversations. It's exactly what it says. You basically tank your own sales, and that sucks. Uh, okay. It puts you in a spot where you're like, dang, I'm having all these conversations. I'm doing what everybody says to do, but I'm still not able to sign bigger clients or more aligned clients or, you know, people that stay with me longer or whatever. Like you're not able to get those things or you constantly like attract people that they only buy your low ticket offers. Um, which is not a bad thing if you have like the property business model. But if everyone is only getting your little ticket offer, that could be a sign that people don't trust you in the sales conversation. And so we need to get to the bottom of that. So that's like a third problem. And then the last problem, and this is one that I feel like is an underrated one, but it's also like so key along with that clarity piece. But it is inconsistent lead generation. Right? So having an inconsistent lead system is another thing that will keep you constantly like circling the drain when it comes to uh, making sales and pushing outside of that five thousand dollar mark. Because one thing that people don't think about is you. The audience that you build today will feed you in three months. But if you don't continue to build your audience, if you don't continue to build your community or your lead pool, then in three months the leads are going to dry up and then you won't have anyone to sell to. And now you're back to a $1,000 a month or a $0 month. And that really sucks. And so a big problem that I see a lot of people have is that you just don't have a clear or a consistent lead generation system and you're hoping that, you know, a launch will float you. But it's like, okay, after the launch you need new people to talk to and sell to for the next launch. And I don't mean launch in a sense of like an uh, actual launch. I mean, the next time you have spots open to work with you, you need to make sure there's a pool of people that are interested in your offers. And this is something that like I have even recently just run into this for myself of, uh, after I officially made like the pivot into like, okay, we're going to focus on media and advisory work here. When I did that shift, one thing that I realized is like, okay, I don't have a lead generation system for this type of business model. So now what do we do? And so I had to take some time. I took like the first couple of months to really figure out, okay, what is the lead system? How do we, you know, stabilize this so that I don't have to worry about inconsistent leads. And anytime I want to sell, I have a fresh and engaged group of people to sell to. So there's two things I Have for this one, I have a lead magnet called your next 10 clients framework. It's literally a framework that teach you, teaches you like step by step how to go about signing your next 10 clients. Like it's very simple, very easy. Um, it's like, I think it's, I don't know, it's like 15 pages. But when I say like you get all the tea, like you get all the tea on what I teach my own clients on how to sign their next client or get their next client, like I feel like low key. I probably did this with that client that um, got her client or she signed a client within seven days. I just walked her through this really and just like fine tuning how to do it within her business. And she signed that client that quickly. And I know that she's just going to continue to sign more clients. Especially she has a launch coming up. So there's so many things going on. But I'm saying all this to say grab that in the show notes below, there'll be somewhere. Grab that. And then also the other thing that I would say is if you are someone that you have like inconsistent leads or you're not sure how to track your leads or have a system for tracking leads, I want you to grab my 100 lead system. It is like it, okay? It's the thing that I use every day. Like in my business, I use this every single day because I am a stickler for tracking my leads and making sure that I'm being intentional about growing my leads and having a very consistent lead flow. Because if you do not have that, I promise you there's not enough, there's not enough classes, courses, coaching, whatever that you can do in the world to, to fix the fact that you're not having sales besides focusing on leads. I don't care what anybody tries to sell you. I don't care what I try to sell you. At the end of the day, I myself will always come back to, hey, how many leads do we have? Here are the numbers to make the math math for you, right? And so if you don't have that, I would highly recommend or sorry, if you don't have a system for lead generation. Let me say that if you don't have a system for lead generation that I use mine, okay? It's the 100 lead system. It's very easy. I do it in like 10 to 15 minutes a day. Like it's so it's stupid simple. But like you have to prioritize and be very intentional with it. So anyway, Those are like the four things I see. Number one, unclear positioning. Number two, your offer solves a very vague problem. Number three, weak sales conversations. And then number four, inconsistent lead system or having an inconsistent lead system. So what would I fix first, right? Because that was the question, right? So I don't said all this. The first thing that will fix is kind of three steps. Step one, you need to have a clear problem, okay? A very clear problem that your offer solves. Know how to articulate that. That's the number one thing. Number two, simplify your offer. Have a very, very simple offer. What is the least that you can do to get someone the most specific result they can get? That's number two. And then thing number three, a lead generation strategy. So all three of these things go together, but I want you to work on them in order. So if you keep bumping into like, dang, I'm only making 3,000amonth or 4,000amonth, or you make 5,000 and then you bump down to 2,000. If you are in that like cycle one, get a clear problem that your offer solves. Like, have a very clear problem. And like, for now, until like the next year, I want you to only focus on talking about that, that one problem. Thing number two, a very simple offer, right? What's a simple offer that you can sell? How can you streamline one of your existing offers? How can you make an offer that you have or create a new offer that is very, um, very intentional, very direct, and at the end of the day, everybody is clear on what the end result is. And then thing number three is a lead generation strategy fix. Be intentional, grab my 100 lead system. Create your own lead system. I don't care. But be intentional about your lead generation and constantly adding new people, new community members, you know, new buyers to that system so that you are able to consistently sell. This is like one thing that I see for people that are making under 5,000, under $5,000 is that you don't necessarily have a sales problem, right? Not in the sense of like, I mean, obviously, yes, you're not making enough sales. Like, you're not making the sales that you want to make. But it's not that you have like a sales problem. You need to take like this whole sales and hire, you know, this person that does like, you know, sales calls for you. You don't have to do that. You need to have clarity on your position, clarity on the problem you solve, clarity on what you do. And then you have a lead generation problem. So you need to fix Your lead gen, you need to fix and actually have a tangible, like a strategy that you're like, here's what I do first, here's what I do second, here's what I do third, here's what I do every day, you know, here's how I track it every month, whatever. You have to have those two things. So it's not. Not like, yes, sales is the symptom, right? Sales is what you notice because you're like, dang, I'm not making the money I want to make. But it's not the problem, okay? It's a. It's indicating that you have a clarity and positioning issue and that you have a lead generation problem, especially when you're under 5k. When you're over 5k, there's a few other things that are at Play. But under 5K, I'm telling you, sales is just the signal, okay? It's just a symptom that's telling you that there's something else that's wrong. And in this case, it's clarity and lead generation. Like, I have found for, I would say 90% of my clients, whether they're doing a sales audit, whether they are doing the support line, um, whatever, like, whether they buy the 100 lead system, like, it doesn't matter what they get from me. I find that 90% of them have one or both of these as their problem. So I just want to encourage you, like, what you need to grow, what you need to, like, push past that 5k mark or even just get above 3k consistently. What you need in this stage, in this first stage, is clarity and focus. You need to build the habit and build the routine of, of generating new leads and being consistent with that. You need to generate the habit of, hey, here's my position, here's what I stand for, here is what I help people do. Here's the problem that I'm solving, and here's how I talk about it. Point blank, period. That's where your focus needs to be for right now. And after that, you will see a, uh, return on your time, or you will see return on the time that you spend doing work in your business and showing up. And like, I think the cool part about being under 5k is that you can really do that sustainably and consistently in like, uh, I mean, some of this stuff, like in terms of your lead generation system, that can be done in like 10 to 15 minutes a day. And then other things, it might take you maybe an hour, right? But even with that max, you can spend 10 to 15 hours a week in your business. And that's in a, like, that's like including spending time with clients. And that's all like you're just spending 15 hours. And it's just a very sustainable, very lean type of business model. And that's what I love. Like, I'm so geeked up about helping people build a very bare minimum, simple business, right? A business that it pays you what you want it to pay you to live the lifestyle you want to live. And if that is what you're trying to do, I promise you, like, I know it's so fun to be like, oh, I need to do, you know, carousels and reels and this. And third, and I'm not saying you shouldn't, right? Because like, how else are you going to generate leads? So I'm not saying don't create any content, but what I am saying is that there are some other structural things to think about, other ways that you can generate leads and be very intentional with it so that you don't have to spend a ton of time creating content that you really don't want to be creating in the first place. I'm still a huge advocate and huge believer in content on different levels. We do need different types of content. But like my client that I told you about earlier, she didn't write any posts. Like she just create. She, uh, I had her commenting on threads. That's what I had her doing, comment on threads. I didn't even have her create her own threads. She literally commented on other people's threads. So that's what I mean by like, you don't got to do the most. Like you really don't have to do the most. You just need to have that clarity, that very clear positioning to have an offer that's very simple and a lead generation strategy that you are implementing and following every single day, or at least whatever days you say you're gonna follow it. So like I said, make sure you grab the, your next 10 clients framework. That'll be in the notes below. If you don't have a lead generation system, grab the 100 lead system. Like I think it's 10 bucks or something. Like it's. I don't even make that expensive because I really want people to just have an actual system. And um, and yeah, I would love to serve and support you. You can grab some time with me inside of the support line where I will literally answer any question you have about your business. Like strategize a launch or just like how to position yourself, how to create a simple offer what your lead generation strategy is going to be like. I will geek out with you about that inside the support line. So come hang out with me over there and yeah, that's it. I'm gonna pray us out and then we will be done. Father God, I just want to thank you so much for this time that we have together. Lord, I just thank you for the woman that is listening to the sound of my voice. And I pray that you give her focus and confidence and the courage to simplify and just, just be obedient to what you have called her to in this season. God, I pray that she continue to and just lean into the divine clarity and wisdom that you have for her. Lord, I pray that whatever problems she has in her business or the things that she's experiencing, whatever roadblocks there are, that you just walk alongside her and guide her and keep her as she makes sound decisions rooted in you to continue to glorify you and show up the way that you want her to show up in what she's building. God, we just thank you for the work that you're doing, the things that you have planned and that the, the paths that you have paved in advance for us to just continue to walk in what you have called us to. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. All right, girl, that's it for this one till next time. I will talk to you later, darling. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. I know you loved it, so go ahead and leave a five star review. Make sure to share this episode and tag me at Moms Do Business different and at Mrs. K. Hillman so Ayanpa knows it's real. May you walk in your purpose and calling every single day to steward the life and business that God has called you to. Until next time. Let's get this money.