I think we've gotten a little too comfortable measuring the success of a service business by how much revenue it makes every month and how many clients are on the roster.
Those numbers are useful, sure, but they tell me very little about what your business needs right now, where your opportunities are, or which strategies are going to work for you.
I've been having a different conversation with my clients lately, and it revolves around something I'm calling business maturity.
Because I've noticed that two service providers in completely different industries can be experiencing the exact same problems, and the strategies I recommend to them are often identical. Their revenue might be wildly different, their offers might look nothing alike, but their businesses are operating at the same maturity level.
And once you understand where your business falls, you can get a whole lot more strategic about what actually deserves your attention.
Your Business Has a Maturity Level, and Your Revenue Doesn't Determine It
Here's what I've started noticing after working with service providers at different stages of business.
The strategies that help someone establish a new offer are different from the strategies that help an established provider generate leads from strangers. And once those leads are converting consistently, an entirely different set of opportunities becomes available.
The problem is that we're constantly watching what other business owners are doing and assuming we should be doing those things, too.
Someone is expanding their agency, so you start thinking about hiring.
Someone is getting clients from LinkedIn, so you decide you need a visibility strategy.
Someone launches another offer, so suddenly you're questioning whether your current one is enough.
Meanwhile, you might be ignoring the exact opportunity sitting right in front of you because you're trying to operate like a business that's several stages ahead of yours.
This is what led me to sketch out a framework I'm calling the Authority to Advocacy Curve.
It looks at how your business moves through three maturity stages, from relying on your existing relationships to building visibility that brings in new clients, and eventually developing the kind of reputation that makes people advocate for your business.
Each stage has different needs, and the strategies you use should reflect that.
Stage 1: Referral Reliant, and There's Nothing Wrong With That
I'm currently developing a brand new offer, which means I'm right back in the first stage of maturity for that specific offer.
Yes, even though I've been doing this work for years.
Because here's the thing. Until you've pressure-tested an offer with actual paying clients, you have questions that need answering.
You need to understand who gets the best results, what your method looks like, how long it takes someone to achieve the outcome, and what the offer needs to include.
And the fastest way I know to figure those things out is by working with people who already know and trust you.
I'm talking about past clients, current clients, colleagues, peers, and people in your existing network who might be a fit for what you're developing.
This is what I call boots-on-the-ground marketing.
You're identifying people who you believe would benefit from your offer, opening conversations, and inviting the right people to work with you.
For my new offer, I'm starting with direct outreach to people I already know. I don't have a sales page or a fully developed process yet, and I'm fine with that.
I want to work with those first few people, understand what needs to happen to deliver the result, and build from there.
At this stage, visibility is low and referrals are high.
And that's appropriate.
You don't need an elaborate content strategy for an offer you haven't figured out how to position yet. You need experience delivering the result and enough information to understand what you're selling.
One thing I want you to understand is that your overall business can be established while a brand new offer is operating at this first maturity stage.
You can have years of experience and still be referral reliant for something you're introducing for the first time.
Stage 2: Building Visibility and Establishing Your Authority
Eventually, many service providers reach a point where their referrals start slowing down, or the quality of those referrals becomes questionable.
Suddenly, you're getting introduced to people who have very little to do with the work you actually want to be doing.
Your cousin's friend needs a website. Someone's neighbor wants a service you stopped offering two years ago.
And you're wondering why nobody seems to understand who you want to work with.
Well, have you given them a clear reason to understand?
This is where visibility starts becoming important, but it's also where I see service providers wasting an incredible amount of time.
You start posting on Instagram, writing blogs, updating your website, or creating content on LinkedIn because you know you need to reach people outside your existing network.
Except nothing seems to be working.
You're spending time creating content, but the people engaging with it aren't the clients you want. Or you're getting attention without anyone actually hiring you.
So you assume you need a different offer, a lower price point, or another rebrand.
And I want you to consider whether the real issue is that you haven't established your authority in a way that makes sense to someone who has never met you.
When someone already knows you, they're often buying because of the relationship and trust you've established.
A stranger doesn't have that context.
They need to understand who your service is for, the specific result you deliver, and why your methodology is the right approach for getting them there.
This is where the work we do inside Sold Out Services becomes particularly relevant.
We identify your Level 10 client, define the primary result they're paying for, pull your methodology out of the work you're already doing, and structure your offer around delivering that result.
Then we build visibility around an offer that has a clear position in the market.
Because spending hours creating content for an offer you can't explain to a stranger is going to get frustrating pretty damn quickly.
Once you understand which activities generate qualified leads and which campaigns bring in clients, you have something you can continue repeating.
And you can stay at this stage for as long as it makes sense for the business you want to run.
Stage 3: Authority Meets Advocacy
Here's where the conversation gets particularly interesting.
You've figured out your visibility. People understand what you do, you're attracting clients who are a good fit, and your marketing is producing results.
You've established authority, and people are starting to recognize your reputation.
At this point, it's tempting to pour even more attention into bringing in new leads.
More visibility, more clients, more revenue.
But there's another opportunity available to you, and it has everything to do with the people who have already paid you.
I'm talking about advocacy.
There's a difference between someone knowing you can get them a result and someone being so impressed with the process of working with you that they can't stop recommending you.
Your clients expect you to deliver the result you promised. That's what they're paying for.
But what did it actually feel like to get that result?
How did they experience your communication, your methodology, and the way your business operated while they were working with you?
Did the process make them want to work with you again?
Did they leave thinking that everyone they know should experience working with you?
Because that's the kind of reputation that creates what I affectionately call a feral little army of advocates.
These are people who recommend you because they know what it's like to work with you, and they want other people to have that experience.
Your Client Results Are Only Part of the Equation
This becomes particularly important if you're thinking about growing from a solo service provider into a microagency.
I see so many business owners start having conversations about hiring a junior designer, a strategist, or another team member because they want to increase their capacity.
And yes, hiring might make sense.
But I want to know what happens to the experience of working with your business when another person becomes responsible for delivering part of the result.
Are clients still getting the same quality of work?
Are they experiencing the same level of communication and attention?
Does your process actually support someone else delivering the service, or does everything still depend on you?
Because if the founder is responsible for every client result and every team decision, there's going to be a ceiling on how much that business can handle.
Before you add more people, I want you thinking about what I'm calling your holy shit standard.
What does someone experience from the moment they become a prospect until they're finished working with you?
What happens during onboarding? How do you help them experience an early win? How do they know they're making progress, and what does communication look like throughout the process?
Those details matter because you're creating an experience that other people will eventually need to deliver on your behalf.
If you want to increase your business's capacity, the way you deliver results needs to be considered before you start adding more clients and more team members.
Otherwise, you're growing the amount of work coming into the business while the quality of the experience becomes harder to maintain.
And that will eventually catch up with you.
Figure Out Which Stage Your Business Is Actually In
What I want you to consider is where your business is operating right now.
Maybe you're developing an offer and your biggest opportunity is having direct conversations with people in your network.
Maybe your referrals have become inconsistent and you're trying to figure out how to attract clients who have never heard of you.
Or maybe your visibility is working, you're booking the right clients, and it's time to give the experience of working with your business the attention it deserves.
You don't need to solve problems that belong to a more mature business before you've dealt with the opportunities in your current stage.
And you don't have to keep pursuing the next stage if the business you're running is already supporting the life and work you want.
I want you making those decisions based on what your business is showing you, rather than someone else's revenue or hiring announcements.
Listen to the full episode of Sell the Damn Service for my complete breakdown of the Authority to Advocacy Curve and how I think about business maturity.
And then come find me on Instagram at @SellTheDamnService. Send me a DM with the word "referrals," "visibility," or "advocacy," depending on where your business is right now.
I have questions about what's going on over there, and I'd love to hear which stage you're in.
Chapters
00:01 | Why revenue and client count don't tell the full story
02:23 | Introducing the Authority to Advocacy Curve
04:40 | Stage 1: Building a new offer through referrals
06:59 | Why low visibility can be the right strategy
09:24 | When referrals stop bringing in the right clients
11:46 | Stage 2: Building visibility by establishing your authority
14:13 | Stage 3: Turning authority into client advocacy
16:36 | Creating the "holy shit standard" for your clients
18:49 | Why the experience of getting results matters
21:32 | Growing your team without compromising client results
24:01 | How to identify your current business maturity stage
Ready to Restructure and Productize Your Service?
Inside Sold Out Services, I help service providers examine who each offer serves, what happens after someone buys, and where qualified clients are being left without a clear next step.
You do not need to create an entirely new business every time you reach capacity.
There may be more revenue, impact, and long-term client value hiding inside the client relationships you have already built.
If you’d like to see a library of all published episodes in a gallery with easy-to-find links to all listening platforms be sure to check out the Sell The Damn Service Episode Library.
