This episode is for those in Phase 2 – 4 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
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[00:00:00] Hi you guys and welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m April Beach, your host, and I am so glad you’re here. You have tapped into one of our best of episodes. These episodes are cherry picked from our most popular episodes with the most downloads with the most comments. So these are the ones where whether it’s in a speaking engagement, or whether it’s by writing to us or sending us messages on social media where you guys have reached out and said, Hey, listen, this episode you did was really powerful for me. Thank you so much.
[00:00:30] And they’re also the other episodes that we believe are the most important as we move into the next year for the online business landscape that we are going into for coaches and consultants and experts and speakers and authors. And so this episode is absolutely amazing, though it’s previously recorded, all of the resources can be found by clicking on sweetlifeco.com.
[00:00:54] You can visit us online and just very simply select the podcast and you’ll find all of the show notes [00:01:00] in there, for you with up to date links, making sure that you’re getting to the right place. If you’re looking for a resource. Now special message to those of you guys that have been waiting for this show to come back.
[00:01:15] I am so excited to announce that the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast is dropping the week after Christmas, before New Year’s as we roll into the new year, going from 20 to 23, and I can’t thank you guys enough. If you are a new listener to the show, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but after five years of faithfully dropping a business training or recording, a strategy for you every single week and winning awards for this show, I needed to step back and take a break. And you guys have been so gracious in actually encouraging me to do that.
[00:01:51] What turned out to be one month off, turned out to be about a year off of recording this show, but the reality is, is that we have [00:02:00] been producing so many business trainings, hundreds and hundreds of them for five years, that entrepreneurs have relied on. I needed to take a step back and get a perspective of what you guys really needed for the next generation of the show.
[00:02:15] How should this show actually help you to continue to grow your businesses? And many of your businesses have significantly grown since we first started this show. And you are growing and we’re growing and what does that actually look like?
[00:02:27] So I have had the gift of spending almost a year to build the entire next generation of the Sweet Life Podcast for you, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. I’m so excited. So the wait is almost over and I wanted to send you a message about it. Thank you for the emails and the comments on social media encouraging me to enjoy my time off. But April, please come back. I need your show to grow my business.
[00:02:50] You guys are amazing and you have really been the fuel to the fire. That has helped me see clearly, clearly of where this show is gonna go in the next gen. It’s gonna sound a little bit [00:03:00] different, but it will continue to be the place where you can come for true proven business trainings that are transformational for your company. That is business coaching that isn’t pulled out of thin air from experts, delivered to you in such a way that you can implement it. That’s why this show has been so popular. Over the years, and that’s what we will continue to do for you.
[00:03:25] I can’t wait for you to hear what we have planned. The first series we’re kicking off is called Becoming Known and the Experts, so we have in here that are teaching you these proven business trainings, without a hook to sell you something. They’re just coming in here to pour into you, are absolutely epic. I can’t wait.
[00:03:42] So if you haven’t yet subscribe to the show, please click subscribe. Please share this with your friends. Please resubscribe in case that you were unsubscribed during my little hiatus. And I just love you guys so much, and I’m so excited to be back here. I can’t wait to drop the whole entire NextGen of the show and [00:04:00] the episode’s coming for you. And in the meantime, enjoy this best of it is very powerful and it’s been chosen for you for a reason. I’ll talk to you guys soon.
[00:04:13] You’re listening to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast. Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mentor and entrepreneur activator, April Beach.
[00:04:32] Hi guys. I’m so excited to talk to you today. This is one of my favorite topics, actually. We’re gonna be moving into my favorite topic for the next couple of weeks on the show. We are kicking off a series here on the Sweet Life Entrepreneur and Business Podcast that is all geared towards helping you make sure that you are designing your offers and your business structure and your business model correctly in a way that works for you.
[00:04:57] And this is such an important time to do it. It’s the [00:05:00] end of the year. We’re about to roll over into 2022, and so I wanna make sure that you’re fully equipped. To see the business model, the offer structure, and the business design that’s going to equal that lifestyle and the profit that you want moving forward.
[00:05:13] And so the next couple of shows are totally dedicated to helping you tap into the ultimate guide, the ultimate database for you to design your perfect business model. And so that’s what we’re talking about, kicking off today’s show. This is episode number 250 here on the podcast. And I’m April Beach host of this show.
[00:05:36] Thank you so much for being a listener to us. We’re gonna be rolling on five years of producing here in just a couple of months, and I just appreciate you guys so much. So first of all, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate all of your listenership over the last four and a half years to this show, sharing this show with your friends.
[00:05:53] We don’t have any advertising here intentionally. On the Sweet Life Podcast. I hate listening to podcasts and [00:06:00] they’re like, hang on just a second. Let me share somebody else’s unrelated message so I can make more money. Totally drives me crazy. Um, and so we intentionally have refused advertisers here on this show, and we’ll continue to do that because our goal is giving you business trainings and coaching that you can take to the bank.
[00:06:19] And we would really appreciate if you’d share this show with your friends. And if you have never done so before, if you could just please leave us a review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, that would just really mean a lot to us. So thank you so much for tuning in. I’m April Beach, as I said here at the, the host of this show and founder of the SweetLife Company.
[00:06:40] And everything we do as a company is working with entrepreneurs like you to design your business, your suite of offers, your customer journey roadmap, your signature offers in your programs to deliver high profit deep impact lifestyle freedom. So if you would like to work with us to apply to join our business growth programs, please cruise over to [00:07:00] sweetlifeco.com, and I would love to personally meet with you. Okay.
[00:07:04] Back to today’s show. Here is what you can expect. Again, this is episode number 250, and there is a very important tool that goes along with this episode in the next couple of episodes. That tool is an 18 page, totally free 18 page ultimate guide to online business models. And so before we get started, you can grab that guide in two different very easy ways.
[00:07:28] First of all, you can go to. SweetLifeco.com. Click on the podcast and go to this episode. It’s right there. Number 250, and there will be a link for you to download the Ultimate Guide, totally free. Grab that or if you’re on the go, you can text the word guide. Very simple, just lowercase the word guide and you wanna text it to this number.
[00:07:51] That number is 8 0 5 2 4 5 0 8 8 0. So just text the word [00:08:00] guide to that number and I’ll send you a link so you can go download it there. Okay. This is gonna be an important tool moving forward because the ultimate guide summarizes all of the business models, the most common business models for coaches and consultants and experts and service based businesses in the online space.
[00:08:18] And why this is so important is I’m literally saving you 20 years of time by giving you this guide. I have ran a business model in every single one of these most common ways, and so I break down in this guide the structure of that business model, everything from courses to masterminds, to live events, to membership communities, to group coaching programs.
[00:08:40] I break it all down for you, but then I also tell you exactly how it’s gonna affect your life. because it’s all fine and good and dandy, right, when we see it, you know, structurally on paper. But in the end of the day, I’m a lifestyle business designer, and you went into entrepreneurship to change your life. So let’s make sure that the business model you’re choosing is in fact gonna [00:09:00] equal that lifestyle that you want.
[00:09:02] So I literally drop in 20 years of online business experience. To you in this one ultimate guide so you can see the structure of the business model and I’ll tell you exactly what it’s gonna look like for your life. Here on the next couple of shows, we’re gonna be really diving in more to specific business models and having a conversation about them in depth.
[00:09:21] So again, go grab that ultimate guide. It’s totally there for you and hitting you, not it will save you decades of time. That’s why I created it. Okay, so in this episode, this is what you can expect. This is a great show for those of you guys who wanna level up and stop copying what others are doing.
[00:09:37] Maybe you’ve joined a lot of programs. You have somebody said, oh, you should launch a course. Or, oh, you should host a membership community and it’s not really worked out for you. Or you have thought about doing those things, but you’re not exactly sure whether or not that’s gonna be the right solution for your business. So when you tap into this show, You are gonna get this formula specifically here on this one episode for [00:10:00] how to choose a perfect online business, offers courses and masterminds, and I actually give you my seven questions to ask yourself that lead to your perfect business model and offer types.
[00:10:12] So I’m gonna tell you those seven questions to ask yourself as well, to get even more clarity, and I’m gonna dive into some of the actual workshopping that we do inside the Ultimate Guide. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive in together.
[00:10:33] Okay guys. So here we go. Episode number 250. This episode kicks off a series called The Ultimate Guide to your Perfect Business Model for coaches, experts, and consultants. And these next couple shows unpack the process of intentional business design. Offer engineering and business architecture to build a business for high profit, deep impact lifestyle results.
[00:10:55] And so let’s go ahead and kick off this series together and let’s start with just the [00:11:00] basics. Okay. So the first question we’re gonna talk about and answer is, what is a business model? I was just speaking and teaching at a retreat in Costa Rica last week, and I was teaching on business model. Business design, and I asked the women in the room, you know, who can explain to me what a business model is?
[00:11:18] And nobody could answer that question. And so if you’re sitting here and you’re listening and you’re thinking, oh gosh, I don’t really know what a business model is, you’re not alone. Right. So let’s kind of start at the basics, and it’s actually not as overwhelming and complicated as it may seem. So the term business model refers to your plan for making a profit by the types of products and services that you sell. Also known as your business model is the way that you serve your clients and make money.
[00:11:48] So examples of common business models for coaches and consultants and service based providers and experts are coaching one on one, group coaching, [00:12:00] online courses, membership communities, masterminds, retreats, live virtual events, and more.
[00:12:08] Those are types of business models. So as we dive in, especially over the next couple of weeks when I’m talking about, Hey, how to find your perfect business model, what I’m really saying is, should you launch a course? Should you launch a membership community? Should you have a mastermind? Should you be doing live virtual events? Should you have a retreat? Those are all the questions that I would love for you to have more information to answer for yourself, and that’s why we’re doing this series. So if that sounds good, let’s keep going.
[00:12:36] So the next topic that I wanna talk about regarding business modeling is the power and the importance, and the depth of how your business model affects your life. And if you know me, this is not a surprise. If you don’t know me, let me make it really, really clear. I am a life first business designer. That means that for my own companies, and for [00:13:00] people that I work with, the very, very most important thing is like saying, Hey, listen.
[00:13:04] This is all great to make money, but money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness, so let’s make sure the business we’re engineering is in fact gonna give you that lifestyle that you want. And that’s my superpower. That’s my area of expertise. I want you to know that your business model is a primary driver to the life you wanna have. But the reality is, you guys, very few entrepreneurs are actually aware of that. They just think, I’m gonna be happy when I, when I launch a course and sell a thousand seats, or I’m gonna be happy when I have a successful mentorship program. That’s not it at all. The way to happiness is business model design. Then we reverse engineer it into high sales. But it really starts with picking the right business model. If you do not have the right business model for your life, you are not gonna find that happiness that you hoped to find in entrepreneurship.
[00:13:55] And this is for you if you’re brand new in business. But I’ll be honest, the majority of clients I [00:14:00] work with have been in business for years and years, and they’re ready to scale their business and they really wanna intentionally make sure the programs they’re building in the future. Are done really well and mindfully and are gonna give them the results they want.
[00:14:11] So whether you’re new or you’ve been doing this for 10 years, this is something that I wanna make sure that you’re aware of the power and the importance of this. Your business model directs the cadence of your year, your quarter, your month, your week, and your day. So your business model is going to determine how you flow through your year and your quarter, and your week and your day, and your months and your time, and all the things it drives, what you do, who you do it for, and how you do it.
[00:14:43] And so let’s make sure you really, really love those things. And then it also drives your time and your schedule and the expectations that others have of. Those are all the things that your business model does. And so it’s incredibly important that we’re picking the right one for [00:15:00] you. So designing that perfect business model is our superpower, and that’s why I’m gonna geek out on this over the next couple of weeks because it’s pretty much the primary gem and jewel that we start working with clients on when they come into our business growth and mentorship programs.
[00:15:16] And so I wanna make sure that you are tapping into this as. Okay. And then the next question that we need to answer is, what business models are available to you? The most common business models for coaches, consultants, mentors, experts, especially over the last 17 years, are online and virtual coaching and consulting, whether that’s one on one or one on group.
[00:15:40] We also have online courses. And those courses are either evergreen, which means they’re available at any point in time. They’re prerecorded or they can be taught live. We also have memberships and communities masterminds, low ticket item grabs, and that business model we’re gonna dive into. And I’m [00:16:00] really excited to unpack that business model where everything is just like a, a smaller mini offer and a mini price.
[00:16:06] And then of course, our also live virtual events and in-person retreats or in-person. Product based business models, which we are not. Just so you know, really clear up front, we are not diving into product based business models because this podcast is strictly designed for service based entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and experts.
[00:16:25] But we are gonna be talking a little bit about products within the business models. And so those are the most common online business models and they are constantly evolving and as they evolve, one of the things that’s happened over the last couple of years is the business models we’re now designing with our clients are hybrid offers.
[00:16:44] Starting in around 2016, we started designing what’s called hybrid models, so it’s a combination of some of these primary models that we talked about, and we’re also gonna be talking about hybrid offers and really how to engineer the perfect hybrid offer [00:17:00] here on the show in the series as. So those, those are the business models that are most common.
[00:17:05] Now. There are so many cool outside of the boxings that are happening, and as things like virtual reality come into play and different technologies, these are gonna continue to grow. But here on the show, we’re gonna start with the core business models for online coaches, consultants, and service base providers.
[00:17:21] So you can consider those and how they would scale with your business. And so the next question is really to ask yourself what’s happening right now in your sapce. You are an expert in your field or you’re becoming an expert in your field. And so what is available? What are people commonly buying or what are, how are the ways services are being delivered in your field right now?
[00:17:43] And so first of all, I want you just to take a second and do like a mental inventory of how other people are buying your type of services currently in your area of experise and whether or not they have, or maybe they don’t have [00:18:00] a type of business model that you might want to create for yourself. Just because it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that you can’t create it.
[00:18:06] So I wanna encourage you in that. So what business models are available to you truly depends on, first of all, the content that you’re delivering. So your content is going to dictate your business model. That’s rule number one. And that’s also the number one mistake of not doing that that coaches and consultants make, is not letting the content drive the model, what you’re doing, what you’re teaching is gonna dictate the best way to deliver that to people.
[00:18:33] So the formula, and this is the formula I teach and it’s so fun to teach it. The formula is connecting the way you want your lifestyle to function and your area of expertise in your content, and that’s gonna give us your perfect business model. And so let’s go ahead and move forward a little bit. How is it then that we take this business model and really start designing it for you?
[00:18:57] So your business model. [00:19:00] Can be one way for one product or service that you offer, and you can have a suite of offers in your business, so a collection of services and programs in your business, and each of them can have totally a different business model. You don’t have to just have one. So we’re talking about business modeling and we’re relating this to one program or one offer, one signature offer, which I love to teach on, as you guys know, signature offers and signature program.
[00:19:29] Or you can have one business model for all of your offers. And if your offers or your coaching programs take people through a long term journey of progression in working with you, you can have one business model that’s actually broken up into different phases of growth that people would continue to grow with you.
[00:19:51] That’s how our programs work. And that’s some of the ways that we’ve been engineering our programs for and with our clients. And it’s really powerful because when [00:20:00] we’re doing that, we’re creating a long term roadmap and a client journey that keeps clients with you for years and years and years. So we have a ton of clients that have worked with us for over 10 years.
[00:20:11] The reason why is cuz we’re constantly developing a different step to keep them growing more and more and more. And you can have one business model that is all of the steps in a long term journey. Or we can just talk about one business model for one offer of yours. So I wanna make sure I’m sharing that distinction for you.
[00:20:29] If you’re thinking, wow, is this business model just for one program or one coaching program or one offer, or is it for everything? You choose? It can be either. So here are some questions and I want you to break down these questions and I want you to think about them. And this is how we’re gonna end this week’s episode.
[00:20:45] Just processing these. These questions are also put in a worksheet for you in the ultimate Guide to business model, so make sure you download that, but I’m gonna share them with you so your brain can start processing them right now as we wrap up this week’s show. So I want [00:21:00] you to answer these questions as if it were five years from now.
[00:21:03] If you can’t figure out five years from now, go to. If you can’t figure out three years from now, I want you to go to the next 18 months, okay? But start out as far as you can, and I want you to imagine yourself there. And if you’re building a business with intention for time freedom, geographic freedom and freedom to scale your services in a way that’s really gonna make you happy, these are important questions to ask yourself.
[00:21:27] Question number one, how many hours per week do I like to? So again, try to focus five years from now, maybe three. You have to come in close enough. Then you can do 18 months. How many hours per week do you really like to work? How many do you want to be working in the future? How do you really love to serve your clients?
[00:21:49] So I want you to ask yourself, how do I really love to serve my clients? Do you like meeting with them one on one? Do you like coaching in groups? What really fires you? [00:22:00] How do others love working with me? So do you have a team working with you in the future or is it only a solo gig? That’s question number three.
[00:22:12] Question number four, do you move and travel or do you stay in one place? Again, this is in the future. Question number five, do you work at home or do you work in an office? What does that really look like to you? Lesson number 6. What are you really good at? We need to ask yourself, what am I really, really good at?
[00:22:32] And what content are you delivering in your signature program or your signature offer? And then of course you need to ask yourself, what does my perfect client actually really need from me? So how do they need me to work with them? How do they need me to show up for them?
[00:22:50] And those are seven key question. Of starting the process of business model design, and there is an eighth question in there that is the most qu, most important question of all, [00:23:00] and that question is in the worksheet for you. So make sure you go ahead and download that. Now, like I talked about, over the next couple weeks, we’re gonna be diving into this entire series all about business modeling, all about business architecture and design.
[00:23:15] I love this. We have done a ton of shows on this over the last five years because this is my area of expertise, but I’m super excited to do them in a series for you so you can go through and follow with me and process them as we go. And each episode’s gonna focus on one business model type, and I’m gonna give you the pros and the cons of that business model type.
[00:23:35] And I’m gonna tell you the lifestyle result of that particular business model and whether help you figure out whether or not you’re, you would love that. So my goal is to save you literally at least five years of time launching the wrong kind of offer in this show. And you’re gonna be able to go through and choose which one’s gonna be right for you, so you can stop copying what others are doing, and truly design a business that’s gonna give you the profit and the life that you want.
[00:23:58] And the reality is this, though. [00:24:00] Your business is totally gonna change just as you change. So by fully considering your long-term business model, revisiting it and revising it as needed for your life, and as your life changes and taking control of the circumstances by pre-planning and building services that can scale, you’ll always have a business that’s built around your life, not your life around your business.
[00:24:25] And of course, because you know me, I’m always on a plane. I love to travel. If you’re like me or if you want to be like me, if you’re building a business with the, with the intention of time freedom, geographic freedom and freedom to scale your services in a way that makes you happy, then these are the episodes to make sure you’re tuning into.
[00:24:42] And frankly, that’s what our business growth programs are designed for. So if you’d love to work with us, then you are more than welcome to apply. You can cruise over to SweetLifeco.Com and you can check out our Wavemaker program, our your signature offer masterclass, and our business launch programs as [00:25:00] well.
[00:25:00] We would love to hear from you and connect with you. Really work through the process as to whether or not working with us is the right fit. And of course, you have these podcast episodes to eat up and take to the bank. Thank you so much for tuning in with us this week. This is Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast, episode number 250, and all the show notes. Can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com. Simply click on podcast and that is also where you can download the ultimate Guide to Business Models. And last thing, again, if you want to get it by text, just simply text the word guide to the number 8 0 5. 2, 5, 4, 0, 8, 8 0. Okay, that’s it for today. Have an awesome week, and I will talk to you soon.