Table of Contents

#1 Building Too Much Complexity Too Soon

I have worked with so many coaches and consultants who make the costly mistake of trying to add more complexity before they are ready. I fell into the same trap and at one point I had 20 funnels built. I learned quickly that I didn’t need them and ended up deleting them all. It was a waste of time and energy. I understand how easy it is to get sucked into the internet marketing world and feel pressure to build out complex systems with a lot of moving parts in order to be successful. The fact is you don’t need a ton of complex systems.

The fastest way to grow your business is to keep it simple.

This quote by Steve Jobs changed my entire perspective on how to run my business, “with focus and simplicity you can move mountains.” Steve Jobs ran a successful company so I took his advice to heart. When I made this change in my business, I unlocked exponential growth. Focus on how you can keep things very simple in your business rather than focusing on complex systems that take too much time and energy

#2 Focusing on Low-End Offers and then Trying to Sell High-End Offers

The second common mistake coaches and consultants make on their journey to 7 figures is starting with low-end courses and services versus selling high-ticket offers. Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business and if you structure your business to be reliant on volume, then you will need to make a lot of sales in order to meet your income goals. This is difficult especially if you do not have an established brand or following. You would need to make hundreds or even thousands of sales to hit your income goals. Course creators advertise that selling courses is easy, but I know a lot of course creators who are broke. 

The fast track to infusing your business with the capital you need is to take your genius and turn that into a high-touch, high-ticket offer. It is easier to sell a high-ticket offer because you will be the one who will personally sell the offer over the phone versus trying to sell a course from a landing page which requires its own sophisticated marketing strategy. You’re more likely to get your client results by working one-on-one with them because courses have an eighty-five percent attrition rate. This means people who buy a course, never do anything with it.

They have no one to keep them accountable. If you are serious about scaling your business faster, making an impact, and injecting cash flow into your business, then go for high-ticket coaching or consulting offers. Once you hit seven figures, you can cascade down and offer your low-end products. Simple math will show you that by closing a handful of six-figure or even a handful of high five-figure deals, you are going to achieve your goals much faster than trying to push a ton of low-end products.

#3 Trying to be Everywhere at Once

Another common mistake coaches and consultants make on their journey to 7-figures is trying to be everywhere all at once. So many coaches and consultants try to be on all the different social media platforms. Yet, every single social media platform has a different strategy. How you show up on Instagram is going to be very different from how you show up on Linkedin, which is a B2B platform.

It’s very important to choose one or two platforms to focus on. Think about what platform your ideal clients are on and start there to build your brand. I built a 7-figure business on Linkedin alone. It would have been very difficult to gain that kind of traction if I was trying to be on other platforms as well such as Twitter, Instagram, and Tik-Tok. To avoid this mistake, become laser-focused on one or two platforms, build your audience and your credibility, then as you master that platform, you can expand to other ones. The benefit of focusing on only one or two platforms is you will be bringing in cash flow to expand to the other platforms sooner.

#4 Focusing on Quantity versus Quality

The fourth common mistake coaches and consultants make when trying to scale to seven figures is focusing on quantity versus quality. This can manifest in several ways. The first way this can manifest is when you are focusing on building your audience. It is much better to have a highly curated network of followers who are your ideal clients and likely to buy from you than rapidly growing your following for vanity metrics. This could mean adding a bunch of fake followers or adding real followers, but they aren’t your ideal clients and will most likely never buy from you. Another way quantity versus quality can show up is in the content you put out.

Sometimes, coaches and consultants try to mimic gurus who have sophisticated marketing teams who are able to assemble a ton of content. Instead of focusing on one solid piece of content that really educates their audience, these coaches or consultants will put out little sound bites without really telling their audience anything. When you are just beginning to put content out there, you don’t have enough brand awareness for your audience to associate you with the problem you solve. You cannot compete with the gurus with their marketing teams, so don’t do it. Focus on quality in the content you share and you will be on your way to gaining traction on building your own brand and following.

#5 Building a Business Model not Aligned with your Desired Lifestyle

A big mistake many coaches and consultants make when creating their business model is creating one that does not align with the lifestyle they wish to live. You may be focused on a volume base model which means that you are billing by the hour, constantly marketing courses, or selling shorter-term engagements that keep you in a cycle of constantly needing to close a sale. The way out is to be very intentional with how you design your business. For example, if your goal is to work 20 or 25 hours a week, you need to make sure the numbers make sense. You will have to look at your pricing model and the number of clients you will need to achieve your goals and the number of sales calls you will need in order to close enough clients to meet your income goal.

I’ve seen many coaches and consultants who are making a lot of money but they end up resenting their business because they are working all of the time. It ends up feeling like another job. It’s important to take the time to be intentional so you can build a business aligned with the lifestyle that you want. If your goal is to work less and make more than having an ultra-high end model is very congruent with that. This is what I teach my clients so if you’re interested in learning more, click the link in the comments below.

#6 Not Paying Enough Attention to Client Deliver

A huge mistake I have seen coaches and consultants make on their journey to 7-figures is to focus so much on client acquisition that they don’t pay enough attention to client delivery. They get really good at marketing and sales, but they fall short on helping their clients achieve the results they are looking for. This is a losing game. You can’t be good at just marketing and sales, yet you don’t have your team, systems, and processes in place to help those clients that do hire you get the results they hired you for in the first place.

Your clients will get angry if they aren’t getting the results you advertised and you may end up with chargebacks or worse, your reputation to provide the means to get clients’ results will suffer. I have seen this happen with colleagues of mine and previous coaches I have worked with. Don’t let this happen to you. I built my business with the intention to not only acquire new clients but to focus heavily on how we could continually optimize the client delivery experience. If you want to build a good brand reputation and scale your business, you must focus on client delivery.

#7 Trying to Scale Too Fast

Finally, one of the biggest mistakes I see coaches and consultants make on their journey to 7-figures is trying to scale too fast. I usually see this with coaches and consultants who are just starting out on their journey and making low six-figures. When they get that initial money, they get excited and feel they can jump quickly to seven-figures. I understand how exciting it is to see that validation and the potential of making exponentially more just around the corner, but if you want to build something that is truly scalable, it takes time. Don’t believe the guru selling the 8-week courses promising you a fast track to seven-figures. Oftentimes, the way to go faster is to first slow down and build the infrastructure that’s going to support your growth.

I already mentioned how important client delivery is, but you also need systems in place such as marketing systems, sales systems, and your operations and processes. Training a team that you can count on in the long run is also crucial to you scaling to 7-figures. When it comes to scaling a business to 7-figures, remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. You will build it step-by-step. It is okay to slow down to speed up your journey. I promise when you take the time to put the infrastructure and team in place, you can actually grow by leaps and bounds.

Let me know in the comments which of these seven mistakes you are making or have made. If you are ready to avoid these mistakes and scale your business to 7-figures with the support and guidance of someone who has done it, apply to book a call with me.