Drowning in Work and Still Broke? A Business Smackdown

TL;DR

To stop working constantly without earning enough, track where your time goes, calculate every hidden cost, and adjust your pricing and packages accordingly. Jill charges $120 per hour, yet prep, travel, scheduling, and other unprofitable activities may be consuming her revenue. She should also advertise speaking and workshops directly on her website. Read on for the three-part Business Smackdown challenge and its concrete action steps.

Transcript

let's get ready for Q and A [Applause] Tuesday Jill writes I'm a personal stylist and I've been building my business for two and a half years now doing pretty well on the local Fame front I appear regularly as a style expert on Fox Providence and was just invited to appear on Fox 25 in Boston the TV exposure results in more clients which is great b... Read More

Key Insights

• 🙊 Personal stylists can experience growing pains when transitioning from hourly work to larger projects or speaking engagements.
• 🖐️ Time management plays a crucial role in maximizing profitability and avoiding overwhelm.
• 🆘 Charging for hidden costs and accurately assessing pricing helps personal stylists earn their worth.
• 🙊 Actively promoting speaking opportunities on websites can help personal stylists expand their business and reach new clients.
• 💗 Proper organization and prioritization are essential for personal stylists looking to grow and scale their business.
• 👨‍💼 Hiring additional help, even on a small scale, can alleviate overwhelm and improve business efficiency.
• ⌛ Regularly evaluating time usage and revenue generation helps personal stylists identify areas for improvement and growth.

Questions & Answers

Q: How can you stop drowning in work without making enough money?

Record everything you do for one week, from waking up until going to bed, without changing your normal routine. Beside each block of time, write down how much revenue that activity produces so you can identify time spent on activities that bring in no money.

Q: What is the three-part Business Smackdown challenge?

The challenge is to examine time management, calculate hidden business costs, and act on the opportunities you say you want. Jill is told to track a full week, revise prices or packages, and add a “Hire Me to Speak” tab to her website.

Q: Why might Jill be busy despite charging $120 per hour?

Her paid rate does not show how much unpaid time and expense each client requires. Prep work, travel, emailing, scheduling, and marketing may be reducing the profit generated by her client appointments.

Q: How should Jill audit her time management?

She should document exactly what she does from the moment she wakes up until she goes to sleep for one week. Assigning a revenue amount to every recorded activity will reveal which tasks are profitable and which consume time without producing money.

Q: Which hidden costs should a service business include in its prices?

The transcript specifically identifies preparation time, travel time, and hard expenses as costs that can be overlooked. These costs should be built into service packages or covered by charging more per hour.

Q: How could Jill adjust her pricing and packages?

She should first determine the real time and expense required to serve each client. If a client requires three hours of preparation or an hour and a half of travel, she should charge for that time, include it in a package, or raise her hourly price.

Q: How can Jill move from hourly styling work into speaking engagements and workshops?

She needs to make those services visible on her website instead of merely wanting them. The recommended first step is a simple “Hire Me to Speak” tab that also uses her news clips as social proof.

Q: How much revenue could Jill generate under the example in the Business Smackdown?

At $120 per hour, four styling hours per day would produce $480 daily. Across five days, that becomes $2,400 per week and $9,600 per month, an example used to show why Jill should examine where her revenue is going.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Jill, a personal stylist, wants to transition from hourly work to bigger opportunities like speaking engagements and workshops.

• Despite appearing on TV and having an intern, Jill feels overwhelmed and unable to hire additional help.

• Marie advises Jill to improve time management, factor in hidden costs, and actively pursue speaking opportunities on her website.