10 Capital-Efficient Ways to Scale to $10M+

A lot of companies never make it to the 6-figure mark, let alone the 7 and 8-figure mark, without outside funding.

But, when you bring outside investors into your business and create loans and debt, it adds an aggressive amount of pressure to you and your team. You now essentially have "bosses" to which you are being held accountable for one thing: getting the fastest and greatest return on their investment in your business.

As a business owner who bootstrapped my way to $10 million in revenue without taking on any debt, outside investors, or capital injections, I believe that scaling your business organically (without outside funding) is hands down the best way to do it.

And if you're wondering what the difference is between a $1M and a $10M business is, it's about $2.7 million in take-home income.

As a 7-figure business owner, you are likely bringing home around $300K each year. However; with an 8-figure business, you're bringing home around $3 million. So, let's talk about 10 ways to make it happen , with zero outside funding:

#1: Starting a side hustle

If you have a primary stream of income (your career or another business) and decide to start a side hustle, you can fund getting that side hustle profitable without going into debt to do so.

I personally built my company from 0 to $1M in annual revenue while I was still working my corporate job, before I became a full-time entrepreneur, so that I had the funds to reinvest in the business.

#2: Podcast guesting

This has been one of my top growth strategies since the day I started my business. While it's a time investment versus monetary, it's one of the best investments of time that you can make in my opinion.

I recommend guesting on someone else's podcast at least once every single week, and make sure that there is audience overlap between the show you are joining and the audience you want to attract. This doesn't mean that as a business coach, you can only collaborate with other business coaches. You might collaborate with a health coach for high performers, a wealth strategist, or a digital marketing expert. Step outside of your industry, but make sure their audience is relevant.

#3: Building your content empire

Building a content empire is producing free, value-add materials that will live permanently across your channels: podcasts, youtube videos, social media content, etc.

This is the key to ensuring that when your brand is discovered, people want to stick around. It gives them a taste of your knowledge and expertise, inspires them, and positions you as the person they want to learn from and work with. The Conviction Marketing method has been my formula to creating compelling content that converts and it's what I leverage to this day to continue nurturing our existing audience and turn them into clients for life.

If you are building your business with a limited amount of time, you can create content from your car, on your lunch break, while you're waiting to pick your kids up from school... the list goes on. My motto? Take imperfect action and don't be afraid to show up as your authentic self. It's highly likely your audience will value and appreciate you for it even more.

#4: Creating an apprentice or internship program

This is one of the best ways to find top talent for your organization while also bringing on team members who can help contribute to the bottom line.

There are, however, rules and regulations depending where you live, so make sure to do your research. If you can get an apprenticeship or internship program working for your company in compliance with state regulations, it will be a huge facet in developing your team quickly.

#5: Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is a fast and easy way to get exposure to your brand and ensure that you are consistently generating leads who you can turn into paying customers.

The speed of social media advertising compared to doing this purely organic is infinitely faster, so if you want to gain traction fast, this is where you should be reinvesting the revenue you generate in your business.

#6: Media buying

This can be in the form of podcast advertising, sponsorships, or ad placements on platforms such as Youtube or Hulu. Media buying is a proven methodology for getting more exposure, gaining followers, and creating raving fans of your brand.

Think about a TV commercial: paid media that leverages someone else's audience. Media buying is essentially the same thing; you are leveraging other people's audiences to gain exposure and become discoverable in the most efficient and effective way.

If you want people to visit your platforms, follow you and engage with the work that you're doing, this is a massive shortcut that can provide both a direct and indirect ROI.

#7: Hiring appointment setters

You need people on your team who can take every new individual who enters your ecosystem and move them into a conversation -- either with yourself, or with a member of your team.

This is how you turn follower, subscriber or fan into clients for life and start generating income. The responsibility of an appointment setters is just that: get more appointments booked (remember the 3 C's are absolutely critical to scaling your business: content, conversations, and consultations that lead to closes).

#8: Solidifying a launch mechanism for your business

Launching can be an absolutely free tool that you leverage to build your brand and simultaneously generate sales. The process of launching consists of you as the CEO delivering exceptional, high-value content that teaches and empowers, and then extending an invitation to say "yes" to an offer.

We utilize my signature Live Launch Method to do this, coupled with a concept called "launch cycling" (where you repeat 6-8 times throughout the year), and it's resulted in countless 6 and even 7-figure leaps in revenue for us and countless clients in our coaching programs.

#9: Building a sales team

A fatal flaw that takes many people out of the game is not hiring salespeople. What ends up happening is, the business owner gets so busy managing the business and working with clients, that no one is selling on behalf of the comapny.

There has to be dollars coming into the business daily, and the way to do it is building out your sales team. If you need support in taking that next step to make your sales hire, book a 15-minute strategy call with my team to walk through organizational structure and what the process looks like.

#10: Booking consistent calls

There are a ton of ways to get people booking with yourself or your team, so that sales conversations are always happening; however you decide to do it, there needs to be a system in place for driving daily consultations.

This allows you to spend your remaining time and dollars in the right way to translate into dollars added to your bottom line.

As you begin to build and grow your team, these 10 strategies will continue to multiply and duplicate so that you can scale even beyond.

For more resources, subscribe to The Kelly Roach Show or follow our business coaching and consulting page, The Business Advisory .