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Home › Guest Post › The ONE Big Priority that Will Make or Break You as an Entrepreneur

The ONE Big Priority that Will Make or Break You as an Entrepreneur

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A guest post by Michael Knouse

Every entrepreneur I know goes through the proverbial rough patch where their income hasn’t quite caught up with their six figure dreams. And throughout this two-year period (on average) where you’re giving it everything you’ve got, you begin to wonder if you’re going to make it.

You’ve done everything you were supposed to do. You created your LLC, you had those beautiful business cards printed on 100% recyclable thick stock paper, you spent hours crafting the ideal business plan, your podcast is humming along nicely…but something isn’t working.

More specifically, you’re working harder than ever but the money just isn’t there. And something has to give…soon!

The Hard Truth That Most Entrepreneurs Never Talk About

Nobody ever sat me down and told me that sales and marketing needed to be my #1 priority as an early stage entrepreneur. And if this weren’t obvious to a guy who spent years in software sales (yours truly) then I can only imagine how hard it must be for the mompreneur down the street.

The most important lesson that you will ever learn about building a business is that your success (and financial stability) will come from expertly communicating the value of your product or service – not rebranding your website, podcasting, blogging or spending time with your mastermind group.

In other words, you need to spend 20% of your time doing what you love (in my case, coaching and creating) and 80% of your time marketing, selling and answering a shitload of email. Survival will totally hinge on how quickly you adopt the role of marketer and moneymaker first, creator of pretty things, second.

Your Bank Account Is Trying To Tell You Something.

You are either doing an awesome job, a mediocre job, or a crappy job of communicating the value of what you do.

That’s it.

Your bank account will reflect this back to you with such clarity that you’ll want to scream (with either joy or pain depending on the balance).

Money is an impartial teacher that doesn’t care if you are karmically blocked, energetically aligned or some other woo-woo bullshit.

Money is simply a measuring stick that reflects the value you are providing to others in the marketplace.

My Big A-HA Moment

Startup Sessions Logo_FINALI remember feeling so dejected once I realized that the thing I wanted to do (coaching + creating) was going to have to take a back seat to me actually running a business. I was seeing my entire entrepreneurial vision begin to collapse right in front of me.

And then I went for a run.

And on that run I got clarity. I realized that the reason I got into business wasn’t exclusively to coach people or create things. I started my business because of my desire to have creative control, to make an impact and to enjoy the freedom of having unlimited income potential.

It was in that moment I realized that coaching others is the gift I get to receive for running a successful business. It was the first time I had ever thought of it that way.

It’s so important that you really understand this so I’ll say it again.

Delivering your service is the gift you receive for running a successful business.

So to build a sustainable and profitable business it’s true that you’ll need to dedicate much of your time to telling your story and finding clients. The key is to recognize the purpose behind your business and connect the dots between the part you love and the process for finding those clients you love to serve.

As an emerging entrepreneur, you have infinite possibilities in your ability to impact others and do meaningful work. Pretty different from a regular J-O-B!

And when it comes to your business, not understanding what to do is the worst. Now that you know how your business is meant to work, go out at focus on the stuff that will allow you to receive the gift of doing what you love.

And when you get to the I-freaking-can’t-do-this-anymore / looks-like-I’m-gonna-have-to-quit bridge, just trust that you now know what to do and focus on the results that are coming. As long as you do that, the money will show up. And so will the random Wednesday afternoon where you’ll uncork a bottle of Dom Perignon, Skype your best friend and tell her you just delivered a five-figure month.

Michael Knouse is an Unconventional Startup Strategist, a Coach for Emerging Entrepreneurs, and creator of The Startup Sessions Podcast and Work Freedom Roadmap. He spent 14-years in the technology and software industry before founding The Startup Sessions and making the leap to full time business builder.

Michael works with burnt out employees and emerging entrepreneurs to help them craft a meaningful business, bring structure to their creative ideas and align purpose-driven work with financial stability.

Michael lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Jill, where he enjoys trail running, skiing, yoga, enjoying great coffee, sipping IPAs, and teaching others how to embrace their brilliance and do work that matters.

  • These are some great tips. I especially like your A-HA moment.

    What I also find helps me to focus on how I can succeed is: what can I do to provide more innovation especially where many others have done the same? And I try to look for the things that I would find value in myself, like e-books that cut through the hype and deliver awesome content.

    Also, sales and marketing really is the #1 priority sometimes.

    • Yes, the A-HA moment was a biggie for me. It was one of those Oh-my-God-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into moments. But once I was able to reframe it then my business became more fun and more profitable.

      I love your perspective on providing more innovation. This is so important for entrepreneurs as most of the best ideas are just more innovative ways of doing things that have already been done before. Airbnb and Uber are examples of this. Airbnb took the idea of lodging and found the gap between hotels and underutilized personal space and they’ve built a huge company around that one innovative idea. Same thing with Uber – they took the idea the taxi and expanded upon it to offer a new and innovative solution to the masses.

      Thanks sharing your insights and additional ideas – very helpful.

    • I love the focus question you use! Mine is: “What actions can I take to serve my best customers better, every single day?”

      If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d love to know what your business is all about 🙂

  • Jane Manthorpe

    Michael, Its a catch twenty two!! What if your business is coaching (offline and online) and that is the source of income you need to run your business (when you are starting out)? I am writing a book(s) and online courses, but that takes time to recognised and produce financial reward after making a difference in peoples lives. My income stream is my coaching (right now) but my aim is have an online business as well, but not sure what direction yet. My purpose of my business is to reach out and make a difference in shy unconfident woman who lack self love/body love and fear expressing who their authentic true selfs. I want to serve by sharing my story and the way I overcame what they are suffering from via coaching and

    • Hi Jane. My main source of income is coaching as well. In fact, one-on-one coaching produces 90% of my revenue. And I personally believe that coaching/teaching others is the best and lowest risk way to start a business, especially if you’re new to the whole entrepreneur thing.

      Coaching is a fantastic way to build a baseline income and gather all of the feedback and input from your clients to create other books, online courses, etc. From my perspective, you are taking the smartest approach to getting your business off the ground. A lot of people try to jump online and make a big splash and make their 6-figure income but that is not reality for most of us. Any business takes time to build and cultivate.

      I spend at least 80% of my time having complimentary enrollment discussions with prospective clients via Skype, email, and in-person. This is how I find my clients and it works. The rest of my time is spent serving those clients. And I’ve recently experimented with a high-touch online group program that I really enjoyed as well. And almost all of the participants in that program were people that I had talked with at one point in my sales and marketing efforts.

      I’m also building my business to scale upwards by delivering more online content but I’m finding that the majority of my content is being creating through the work that I’m doing with my one-on-one clients. I think this is a very natural way to scale a coaching business.

      I love that you are so clear with your purpose for who you serve and why you’re serving them. I have a friend that has built an incredibly successful business by sharing with others how he overcame his own shyness and lack of self confidence. But he’s a guy and works with a lot of other guys so I love that you are connecting directly with other women.

      Keep delivering your value to your one-on-one clients and growing your audience. Two fantastic resources for growing your coaching business with few resources is the book ‘The Prosperous Coach’ http://theprosperouscoach.com/ and my friend Shenee Howard’s 100 People Project http://heyshenee.com/labs/. I’ve personally used both of these resources to more than 5x my revenue over the past 6 month.

      All the best, Jane. And thank you for sharing so openly and honestly.

    • Jane, I echo Michael’s comments and totally relate to the position you’re in as well. After 5 years of business, I too am just beginning to scale up my company by offering programs and books, and it is a challenge to develop those income streams while maintaining a successful consulting practice.

      At this phase, I’m further increasing my prices so I can keep the same income, take on fewer clients and have more time to work on my other business projects (which will eventually help many more people). Maybe that’s something that could work for you, too?

  • I have heard talk about this AHA moment and dang I keep waiting for mine to happen! In the meantime though I do keep plugging away…changing this and changing that and yes doing all those things you talk about. But I do have to say that many of those things that I keep doing seem to be helping me focus in a bit more each day. Now…if I can get over that hurdle of the marketing and sales…

    Thanks again Michael for a great post. You always make me stop and think and really take a good hard look at what I’m doing – or trying to do!

    • Kendra, funny thing is those A-HA moments seem to show up when you’re least expecting them. 🙂 It’s great to hear that your actions are helping you find focus. I’ve found that to be true as well. With time and consistent action, we can’t help but find more focus and direction (and even purpose) in our work. Marketing and sales is just part of the deal. And as soon as you can embrace that, the better off you’ll be. Most people don’t like to hear this but it’s the truth. So many people claim to have found internet riches but I’ve personally found that this always starts by building a foundation of impacting one person at a time. If you help enough people, one at a time, you can leverage the wisdom and expertise that you are gaining to build a more impactful and effective business. But it does take time, focus, and yes, marketing and sales.

      Keep up the great work, Kendra. And thanks for openly sharing your journey.

    • Hi Kendra, thanks for your comments – it’s great to know that you’re making progress. Would you be comfortable sharing what kind of business you’re working on? And what your biggest hurdle is when it comes to marketing and sales? Maybe I can help. 🙂

  • Michaela Cristallo

    Love this post Michael! Your advice is always solid. I loooove this “Delivering your service is the gift you receive for running a successful business.”. Interestingly I had never thought about it this way either, but it makes alot of sense. I come from a marketing background too and I am always shocked when I consider how little focus I too put on marketing and sales when I first started. It feels like it should have been more obvious, but it really wasn’t! I too got caught up in the product. We’re here to learn though right?

    • Hey Michaela! Great to hear from you. Yes, yes and yes to everything you just stated. Why is it that we tend to make things so damn hard at first? I guest it’s just proof that the obvious is not always so obvious. That’s why it’s so important to step away from the computer every once in awhile and gain a new perspective on things. That and asking others for help. Two things I’ve had to learn since I started my own biz.

      Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your experience as well. It’s always great know that I’m not alone. 🙂

  • Brooklyn

    Eye opening post Michael! I actually started using timers to help me understand what I was spending my time on.

    I have had several A-Ha moments just when things seem overwhelming and impossible. I like the idea of one-on-one coaching that you mentioned. I was wondering how long it took you to gain your first client meeting. It seems like it could be intimidating in the beginning. I have seen you grow in your business, and it is very motivating.

    • Hi Brooklyn. Using timers is such a great idea. I’ve done that too and it really helps to understand where your time is going during the day. Tools like Rescue Time are also great at keeping you focused with your online activities.

      One-on-one coaching and consulting are the easiest ways to build a solid foundation for a services business. I’ve tried leveraging group programs and other online methods and I find that starting with 1-on-1 coaching is the most powerful way to get cash in the door immediately. I tell all of my clients to get battle tested with 1-on-1 clients first. It’s too stressful to start with programs and products – especially when you’re new ot have a very small list.

      What I did at first was get 3 BETA clients to test my coaching skills with. They didn’t pay me but they did agree to act as a case study or testimonial. They also agreed to give me feedback along the way. I worked with these 3 clients for a month to help them solve one specific problem. At the end of the month I had a coaching program and the testimonials and confidence allowed me to announce something tangible to the world.

      I’ve had coaching clients ever since. And the cool thing is that I’ve become a better coach over time and I’ve been able to deliver consistent results so I’ve raised my rates. Now I have fewer clients at a premium rate and I am able to serve these clients much deeper. The knowledge I’ve gained from the 1-on-1 work has also led to the content for a group program that I just ran. 1-on-1 coaching is a very nice way to transition into group teaching or programs.

      I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you want more info on this. I’m always happy to share. 🙂 Thanks for your insight and questions. The first stages of getting a business off the ground are usually the most challenging and the most important.

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  • Thanks for this post Michael! I can’t agree more about your statement that “expertly communicating the value of your product or service” will build business success (and financial stability). I’ve spent the last year working on my brand, my ideal customer and my offerings and when I direct people to my site I often hear “you’re JUST who I’m looking for!” – however converting these leads in to sales aren’t always successful and I usually lose out to ‘cheaper’ services and ‘friends’ who can do it free.

    I know I need to work more on marketing my brand as I’m relying on referrals and word of mouth – Facebook has been a great source of leads for me so far.

    Coaching is something I very much would like to do however I hadn’t thought of doing this now! I’ve been focussing on doing the 20% to build up my portfolio and references and I’ve been all gung-ho about launching some online courses next year, but coaching one-on-one now would make a lot of sense and help me clarify the content of the courses. A-HA!

    May I ask how you started off with regards to your pricing?

    • Hi Deb, I’m sure Michael will get back to us on his stories about pricing but here’s mine: I started off WAY too low. And as I raised my prices, I found that the more I charged, the better quality clients I got – people who really wanted results and who really saw how I could help them.

      Converting sales is all about explaining the benefits – helping the client visualize the outcome of working with you. The better job you can do of that, the more sales you’ll close.

      • Hi! Good point about about explaining the benefits – something I probably don’t do enough 🙂

    • Hi Deb. Freelancing can be a really competitive market but so can coaching. As a freelancer, I believe that case studies and word of mouth is so important. My personal web designer does a really nice job of capturing her client’s work as case studies on her site at http://www.nataliemcguiredesign.com/design-work/. As for getting more freelance clients, I recommend the Book Yourself Solid principles taught by Michael Port. He has some really good stuff on finding good leads and converting them.

      An exercise that I have all of my clients do is to interview industry experts. These are successful people in your specific industry that have the profits and business that you eventually want to have. People are surprisingly generous with sharing their success as long as you approach them in the right way. If you conduct 10 interviews with industry experts it will save you at least 5 years worth of heartache in developing your business. Let me know if you want some help with this. I have a free guide that I’m happy to share with you.

      As for coaching – what subject would you be coaching on? I’ve found coaching to be a great way to deliver my value and get paid for work that I enjoy doing. When I started coaching, my initial 3 clients were free in exchange for testimonials and case studies. Then I started charging $350/mo for weekly sessions. After 3 months I raised my rates slightly but started requiring clients to purchase at least 3 month packages from me. These 3 month packages were $1,200 ($400/mo). Then 6 months later (after getting great results with my initial clients) I increased my rates to $2,400 for a 3 month package of weekly sessions. My latest (and current) 1-on-1 rate is $3,600 for a minimum 6-month coaching agreement. This is for 3 calls per month for 6 months. In June I will be bumping my rate to $5,000 due to demand. This is the nature of offering coaching as a services business – you start low and then begin charging more based on the value that you can deliver. As you gain experience and as more clients want to work with you, you gain leverage in your business by raising your rates and working with fewer clients so that you gain some lifestyle back.

      I always tell people that 1-on-1 coaching is a bad business model because it’s not scalable but’s it’s the simplest and easiest way to bootstrap a simple idea while delivering value and receiving invaluable feedback. A better business model is developing group courses and online content but 1-on-1 coaching forms the foundation for this. I hope this is helpful to you. All the best on your endeavors and please reach out to me at http://www.thestartupsessions.com/ if you have further questions.

      • Hi Michael, I’m so sorry I never saw this reply and responded – thanks so much for the tips about Book Yourself Solid I’ll be sure to check it out! Interviewing experts is a great idea, I listen to a lot of podcasts but there’s nothing like being able to ask your own questions. I might do this via Blab!

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