3 Elements You Need to Scale Your Public Speaking Business

For many business owners, including those running professional speaking businesses, a common goal is to scale, or grow, your business. But what exactly does that mean, and how is it done without requiring more of your time? This article will share the three key elements you need to scale your public speaking business.

If you’ve been following me for some time, you probably know that I have been coached by Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach for many years. I remember Dan asking us to think about our business if it were multiplied by ten. At that time, I had a hard time imagining that.

But guess what. Just two years after Dan put that thought into my head, I had multiplied my business by ten!

I mention this because as you read this blog, I want you to remember that it is possible to scale your business by a factor of 10x, or 20x…or whatever number you choose.

So, let’s get into exactly what you need to do to scale your speaking business.

3 Elements You Need to Scale Your Public Speaking Business

When we talk about ‘scaling’ your business, we are talking about increasing your overall revenue and decreasing your overall costs. Hence, you create more profit in your business without depending on more of your time. Seem impossible?

It’s not!

In my book,?Scaling Your Speaking Business, I lay out exactly what it takes to earn more while doing less. I share ten strategies in the book that you can use to 10X your business. For today, we are going to look at just three to get you started:

1. Systems
2. Team
3. Leveraging each customer

1. Systems

Systems are essential to scale your speaking business because systems will remove you from day-to-day operations.

Everything you do more than once should be set up into a system. Email responses to inquiries, client proposals, checklists for packing and travel, blogging, or podcasting – these all need systems. The goal is to create these systems and then pass them to capable team members, so you don’t need to be involved.

If you can put systems in place to handle all of your repetitive processes, including generating leads for your business, then that leaves you more time to be on stage delivering a keynote or selling.

So, the first step to scaling your speaking business is to inventory what systems you currently have in place and what systems you need to create. For the systems you have, are they working, or do you often have to get involved in the processes? If they are broken, fix them.

The goal is to free up your time, so build the systems you need to do that.

2. Team

Once you’ve built your systems, you will need the right team in place to execute. The first thing I often hear from speakers when I talk about building a team is, “I can’t afford a team.” Well, let me tell you this: you can’t afford not to have a team, especially if you want to scale your business.

You have to place a higher value on your time if you want to scale. For example, let’s say you charge $5000 per speech. That means your time is worth a minimum of $500/hour. Therefore, your time in the business should be spent either speaking or selling – the two areas that require you and your high-value time. Everything else should be handed off to your team. It’s their job to handle the lower-level tasks that allow you to stay in the high-level earning space.

So be prepared to start handing off things: presentation design, invoicing, booking travel, shipping books, editing content, posting to social media, etc. Your duties are proposal writing (templates), speech customization, and client conversations (closing deals).

Everything will change when you are freed up to work in your zone of genius!

3. Leverage Each Customer

If you are a speaker whose main revenue is generated by keynote speaking, you’d either have to raise your speaking fees or increase your average client invoice to grow your revenue. Now I’m all for raising fees, especially if you are busy.

But if a client lands on your doorstep, looking for you to help them solve a problem, why are we stopping with just a keynote? As my friend Chris West says, “the keynote is just the opener.” The door is now open for true transformation and change for that client, so think about how you can serve them in the long term.

Consider offering a long-term solution that may take three months, six months, or a year to deliver. It could involve a keynote, several deep dive virtual breakouts, some executive coaching, and maybe your book gets into every audience member’s hand.

The more you can leverage all the services you offer to every client, the faster you’ll increase your revenue – thus scaling your speaking business!

Scaling a Speaking Business is a Journey

Scaling a business is a journey that can take months or years to generate big results. So, don’t hurry. It takes time to put the pieces in place and get them right. The key is to get started… take action. With the steps I’ve outlined above, you have what it takes to do that!

If you want to take a deeper dive into all the strategies for scaling your public speaking business, grab my book?Scaling Your Speaking Business. I wrote it to provide a simple, easy-to-follow, and actionable path any speaker can use to grow their business.

I’ll see you soon, Wealthy Speakers, and let’s scale up those businesses!

Need help building the speaking business of your dreams? Visit the Speaker Launcher blog and check out the Wealthy Speaker Podcast.