Sometime around 2006, this was going on inside my head:

“I hope this client says NO.

I can’t handle any more work. I’m already working days, nights, and weekends.

I can’t handle another project, I don’t care what they pay me.”

This was the sad state I was in.  I was so busy that I didn’t want any more projects.  I was even hoping that prospective clients I had already agreed to meet with would cancel on me.

I was thinking, “How glorious would an extra 90 minutes today to get caught up on stuff be?”

You see, it was my fault.  I brought this on myself.

I had sold website project after website project.  You’d think I’d be so stoked, but the reality was that each project took so many hours of my time.

I was trapped by trading my time (of which I had very little left) for money that never seemed like it was enough.

I was overbooked.

The solution to a problem like this is pretty simple, but it’s super uncomfortable unless you’ve reached the breaking point as I had…

I decided to fundamentally change how I offered services by modeling what I saw in successful companies in other industries.

I reengineered my business to operate under what I now call the “Leverage Service Model.”

(Fancy name, right?  Yeah, we spent a while thinking that one through… lol)

But it’s the perfect name because what I wanted was leverage.  I wanted to be able to provide my clients with a ton of value without it taking as much of my time.

Selling and building websites the way I had been doing it was the opposite of this.  I was providing value but the number of hours each project took was massive.

Even with things like doing SEO or Facebook ads.  I was making a little better money on this because that stuff was recurring monthly, but it still demanded a lot of my time.

So, here’s what I did:

1. Simplified my offerings

Why was I agreeing to build websites for $3,500 when I could charge the same for something like reputation management and have it take a fraction of the time.  40 hours for a website vs. a few hours a year for helping a business with their reviews.

This was pretty eye-opening to me.  So much so that it made me wonder… how could I create that kind of leverage in other areas of my business?

2. Found partners (or software) to do the repetitive work

What I figured out was that if I were to simplify what I was offering that I could more easily delegate things.  So that’s exactly what I did.  

I paired down my services to what I called the “minimum effective dose” and then negotiated really good rates with third-party vendors to actually do the work.

For example, I found a partner that could do all of my on-site SEO for a flat rate per page.  I found another that was willing to come up with FB & PPC ad creative and charged a low rate per ad.  I found partners to fulfill all the “ingredients” that made up my services.  

3. Refocused my time on project management (and sales)

No longer being responsible for a lot of the work, I was able to refocus my energy on being the main point of contact for the client and also bringing in new business.

I managed the process, others were doing 80+% of the work.

And, you know what?  I realized that most of the work that I was delegating was very administrative and routine.  There weren’t a lot of strategies.  I didn’t realize how much of my valuable time was being spent on tasks that I could so affordably and reliably have done by someone else!

4. Ultimately handed off project management

In time, I was able to bring in some extra help to replace me as the project manager.  It was mind-blowing to me that I once had a business that I thought would NEVER run without me and now it was starting to happen.

This was made possible because I had very specific recipes and I began to realize that even the management of client projects was just a series of administrative tasks.  There was very little “magic dust” that required my personal brain on it.  

5. I handed off Sales 

Finally, I was able to hand off sales.  I had both of my feet out of production and delivery and could begin to focus more attention on other areas of the business that were interesting to me.

This didn’t happen overnight, but it started with being incredibly frustrated.

It started because I wanted clients to tell me NO.

I’m so glad they didn’t because it was the mounting pressure of new clients that forced me to take a long look at my business and ask, “is this the best way to run a business?”

The answer to that was, no, and I found what was.  

If you’d like to learn more about the Leverage Service Model, DM me on Facebook or Instagram. Just mention, “leverage” and  I’ll get you set up with member access to the free training video I made on it.