In today’s episode, we’re tackling one of the biggest challenges service providers face: overcoming the fear and overwhelm of transitioning from manual, 1:1 services to using online business tools. Many business owners worry that automation will reduce the quality of their services or even drive away their existing clients. But that doesn’t have to be the case!

Join me as I break down simple, actionable strategies you can implement today to start easing into automation—without sacrificing the personal touch your clients love. I’ll show you how to start small by focusing on packaging repeatable parts of your business, so you can maintain a high level of service while streamlining your workflow. You’ll walk away with three practical tips to automate and scale your service delivery, freeing up time and creating a more consistent client experience.

Key Topics:

1. Why most service providers feel overwhelmed by online business tools.
2. How to start with small, manageable phases for automation.
3. Practical steps to standardize and package key areas of your business.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to simplify your onboarding process with a step-by-step sequence that provides every client with a consistent welcome experience.
• The best online tools for scheduling that eliminate the need for constant back-and-forth emails.
• How to build a client resource library so you can answer questions and provide support—without being on-call 24/7.

Resources Mentioned:

• Calendly
• ActiveCampaign
• Loom
• Zoom

Actionable Tips from Today’s Episode:

1. Standardize Your Onboarding Process using simple tools like email automation to save time and reduce repetitive tasks.
2. Automate Your Scheduling with tools like Calendly to make it easy for clients to book time with you.
3. Create a Client Resource Library with common guides, tutorials, and resources to enhance your client experience.

About Me:

Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results. 

I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business. 

Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

Here are two ways we can help you create, grow and scale your business:

1. Want to package or pivot your business? Download our free Step-by-Step guide to get the exact steps you need to create and grow an online business.

Step-By-Step Guide

2. ALREADY HAVE AN ONLINE BUSINESS & READY TO INFINITELY SCALE?

Download our free 50 Ways to Engage Your Customers guide or Schedule a 30 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

Thanks for listening!

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Mentioned in this episode:

https://taralbryan.com/step/15-learn-to-scale-call

Tara Bryan: 00:00:00

Hey everybody, welcome to today's episode.

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One of my favorite sort of challenges

that I hear a lot about from people is

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the fear of sort of transitioning to an

online business model is going to cause

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them to lose all their existing clients.

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So I want to talk about that today and

just unpack that a little bit because

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one of the biggest misconceptions

of this is that you're going to

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just take all your current customers

and shove them into a new model and

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that's not actually going to happen.

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So what we recommend is that you look

at what you're doing today with your

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custom one on one clients or service

clients or however you're servicing

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them today, and you look at what are the

foundational aspects that each of your

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clients needs to have and, and you're

already doing in one way, shape, or

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form, and then to peel that out and make

that into something that's scalable.

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So for example, if you're spending

time, you have maybe like a five step

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system for how you take each one of

your clients through, you know, from

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their problem to a solution, even if

you're doing done for you services.

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So, for us, we had a 5D model, and

our 5D model was the model we used

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for each and every one of our clients.

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It didn't matter, you know, who they

were, what kind of level of customization

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they needed, we would take them

through the 5D model every single time.

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So I was spending time kind of,

you know, grounding them in and

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like, okay, so here's the 5D model.

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Here's what it is.

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Here's what's happening in each phase.

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Here's the outcome that we're looking for.

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Here are the things that you

need to do in this phase.

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And then the things that we

need to do in this phase.

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And then, you know, how we get to the

next phase and all the things, right?

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So it was each customer went through it.

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The way that we dealt with each customer

was just slightly different, but we would

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walk them through that solid approach.

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And so instead of saying, okay, existing

clients, like, I'm totally changing my

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business model and now, you know, you're

out and this new, you know, new customers

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are in, it's looking at it from a phase

perspective of like, okay, so what about

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that 5D model can I start to package?

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Can I start to look at, oh, well,

I'm saying the same exact thing when

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I'm onboarding all of my clients.

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Okay, great.

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So that onboarding can be something that

I create one time, and I put out there,

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and then I have all of my customers watch

that onboarding or interact with that

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onboarding, and then we carry forward

going through the 5D model, right?

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So that's a great example.

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Like, can you pull out something

that you're doing with all of them?

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You're just not, there's

just no system to it, right?

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Like, you're just,

every single time it is.

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You're just repeating yourself.

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So can you do it with onboarding?

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And can you do it within each

of the steps that you're taking

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your people through, right?

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Yes, there's always going to be some

customization or some difference

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when you're working one on one with

customers, but can you find that common

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denominator and then the sort of the

custom differences are sprinkled on

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top, but you have that common, whether

it's teaching, whether it's you know,

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material gathering, whether, you know,

it's an activity or something that they

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need to do, can you standardize that and

then still have these pieces on the top?

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So that would be the very first thing

that I would say, like, when you're

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looking at a phased approach, like, can

you peel away some of that and slowly

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start packaging the steps that you are

doing for each and every client, right?

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It doesn't need to

necessarily be different.

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The other piece of this is that can

you, like in the materials or in the

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project plan or whatever it is that

you have that are sort of tactical

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materials, can you make those consistent?

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Maybe you, maybe the branding changes,

but, but the, the materials or the things

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that you're having them do all along

the path are probably pretty similar.

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Can you make those into something

that is consistent, that you

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don't have to recreate for every

single customer that you have?

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And then the third thing is, is like,

are there phases that can be peeled away?

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So for example onboarding is one of the

examples, but is there something before

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onboarding that all of your people

either need to go through or should

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go through that you can peel away?

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So it's like, first you go through

this and then you join, you

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know, this one on one experience.

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And then after the one on one

experience, then you do this, right?

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Like, are there phases, are there

pieces that you can peel away that

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can be packaged either on either

end or somewhere in the middle.

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So again, start sort of just becoming

aware of what the similar or, or

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same things are that you're doing.

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You're repeating with

each and every customer.

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Once you have that, that step by step

methodology, that will also help you

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because the way that you're going about

helping each customer is the same, right?

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We have the 5D model.

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We're walking through the 5D

model each and every time.

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I will tell you the minute that I had

that 5D model versus just saying, yeah,

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for sure, I can do whatever this random

thing is that you want, and changed

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it to, yes, we can do that thing,

but we're going to run through this

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model, we took ownership of not only

the timeline and the budget, but also

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the way that the work was completed.

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And so we could help them stay

on track much, much easier.

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So once you've set up that step by

step methodology, then you can start

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identifying what those repeatable

things are for every single customer.

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And then, yeah, you will have kind

of that You know, fairy dust piece on

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top that is the unique thing for that

customer or your unique approach or

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how you help them or whatever else.

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But that then becomes 20 percent instead

of 100 percent of what you're doing

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when you're helping your customers.

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So when you're thinking about that, like

the fear of you know, what am I, what do I

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do with my existing customers and they're

not going to want to move to a group

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model, they're not going to want to move

to an online model, is use those customers

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to start defining what that foundation is.

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And I promise you those customers will

have so much more clarity and, and so

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much more than kind of that ad hoc,

you know, oh, I forgot I was supposed

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to tell you this, or, you know, I

didn't do this, or I didn't do that.

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They will get results faster, and

you'll be able to have more meaningful

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conversations with them that are unique

to their particular situation while

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all of this is getting dialed in.

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And then when you have new customers,

you run them through and then

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eventually everybody is going through

it in the same exact way, which is

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adding consistency, predictability

into your business, and gives you

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clarity and your customers clarity.

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So, there you go.

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If that is a challenge that you have of

like, what the heck, like, how do I make

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this change without losing my customers?

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is I think you would be surprised once you

start to own your methodology and create

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tools and assets for that, how much it

actually helps your existing customers

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with clarity, confidence, and results.

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So there you go.

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That is my tip for you today.

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www.

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taralbryan.

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com.