This week’s solo episode of Hourly to Exit comes at my area of expertise – intellectual property (IP) – from the business side. The prerequisite for scaling your business is turning your expertise into intellectual property that you own or control so you can add complementary products or productized services to your existing services. 

I call these 8 business problems, but there really is one problem with 8 symptoms. The big problem is that you have not developed assets--which could be products or processes--that allow you to decouple your income from your time.  Those things that allow you to decouple your income from your time are intellectual property solutions. 

Let’s discuss the 8 symptoms that your expertise-based business is not effectively deploying intellectual property.

If you want to discuss how to protect the IP assets you should be creating, contact me to discuss.

Resources Mentioned:

• 8 Business Problems that Have IP Solutions

Connect with Erin to learn how to use intellectual property to increase your income and impact. hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music

A Team Dklutr production

Hello ladies.

Welcome to the Hourly

to Exit podcast.

I am excited for this week's

conversation because I

think you know this about

me, that I'm always trying

to figure out a way to make

the intellectual property

concepts more accessible and

applicable to your businesses.

So I've been thinking

about, instead of.

Attacking it from the

intellectual property side,

which is a bad habit of mine.

I'm gonna attack it

from the business side.

And so what is happening in

your business that suggests

that you need an intellectual

property solution?

When we are growing our

businesses, of course this

podcast is called Hourly to

Exit, where we're starting

out and we are providing

one-on-one services.

Maybe we're still

providing them hourly.

Maybe we have developed

packages, but we're still

doing it on a one-on-one

basis, and so we will hit a

few kind of road bumps that'll

be very hard to get over if

we aren't thinking about.

Creating intellectual

property that we can

use in our businesses.

So typically this happens

when we are selling

ourselves as the expert.

I'm selling me Aaron Austin.

Not that I'm selling

my expertise, I.

In harnessing the power

of intellectual property.

And so when you're selling

yourself instead of selling

your expertise, it will

show up in a number of

places because the fact is

that the prerequisite for

scaling your business is to

turn your expertise, into

something that you can create

complimentary products.

Complimentary services,

typically productized

ones that compliment

your existing services.

I will never recommend,

assuming you wanna continue

to provide one-on-one

services that you stop

doing that there's a lot

of value to providing

those one-on-one services.

First of all, you learn

so much, when you hear

that feedback from your

clients and it helps,

increase your expertise.

those one-on-one services

are a huge part of continuing

to develop our expertise.

but is it the only

way, that you are.

Providing value

to your clients.

And so while I entitled

this, eight Business Problems

that have Intellectual

Property Solutions.

the honest answer is there

is only one problem, but what

we have are eight symptoms.

And so, the big problem is

that you haven't developed

assets, whether that are

products or processes.

That allow you to decouple

your income from your time.

we talk about

that all the time.

you need to be able to

decouple your income

from your time in order

to scale your business.

And by scaling, we mean not

just increasing revenue.

'cause we could double our

revenue by billing twice as

many hours, but that's not how

we wanna grow our business.

We want to scale by increasing

our revenue, while also

increasing profit, which means

we're decreasing the cost

of generating So whether

that's, increased, decreased.

Time, or, other resources if

you have other things that

you use from third parties.

so that is what intellectual

property is about.

It is about creating assets

that allow you to decouple

your income from your time.

it's not any more

complicated than that.

It's not, patents and

software and all those

things, the things that

we do in our business that

allow to decouple our income

from our time are generally

intellectual property.

Some registerable,

that is not.

but we'll talk

about that as well.

So let's get started.

the first business problem,

client concentration.

So there are only so many

clients you can serve at a

time if you are the expert

providing one-on-one services.

And, high client

concentration, the danger is

that, you lose one client.

That could be the

end of your business.

Maybe you have, you can only

serve one client at a time.

Maybe you can only serve

two clients at a time.

And because they

are so, uh, time.

consuming.

You don't have time to

do business development

while you're on doing this.

And so even if you have

very happy clients, when

the engagement comes to

an end, you don't have any

more clients coming along.

So client

concentration problem.

what is your intellectual

property solution?

you can continue to do

those one-on-one services,

but how can we get you to

be more effective so that

you can serve more clients?

On a high level, on a

one-on-one level, if

that's what you desire.

So that would mean making sure

we're creating efficiencies

in our business and these

things we'll see these,

as we go forward as well.

We're creating

standard procedures.

We have templates, we have

models, so that allows us

to become more efficient

in how we deliver our.

One-on-one services

to our clients.

And those systems and

processes could be also by

the way, your sales funnel.

So that's not just about

delivery, it's also about the

operations in your business,

about how you, bring people

in, how you move them through

your pipeline, how you

onboard them and offboard.

Then those are all things

that can be, systematized

so that you become more

efficient and therefore

you can serve more clients.

Within the same kind of box of

time that you have available.

so that you don't have, the

same client concentration

problem, business problem

too, revenue concentration.

So if you have a client

concentration problem, you

certainly have a revenue

concentration problem, and

that means that all your

revenue is coming from a

single type of revenue,

such as from one-on-one

services, so you don't have

a one to several model.

For a one to many model

or something else,

that is a different.

Revenue model.

So could it be hourly?

It could be by retainer,

it could be, project

based, value based.

and so when you.

Create different

revenue models.

typically that goes

with different type

of products as well.

then you can have new

revenue streams that

are less dependent

on you and your time.

And so that could

look like things like.

online workshops that you can

deliver more efficiently or

you can deliver at a lower

price point, and therefore

you can bring in a different

kind of client that you can

fit in inside of the time

that you have available.

It reminds me, I wasn't even

thinking about this, but it

reminds me of the how do you

get the most rocks in a jar?

And you put the biggest

ones in first, and then

you put the little ones in

to go around, and then you

put the sand at the end.

But if you did the other way,

then you wouldn't be able

to get nearly as much in.

And maybe we think about, our

revenue models in that way.

Like we think about the

biggest ones, the one-on-one,

and then we think about

what's the medium rocks

that we can get in there.

And then maybe down the

line, digital products as

a whole separate animal.

but.

That's something to

think about is the way of

filling your jar is big,

medium, and then small.

So revenue concentration,

earner concentration.

If you are the expert, they

only want you providing

one-on-one services for them.

You're available to them,

you're the one, creating.

All the revenue, you're the

sole earner in the business.

Then when you aren't out

there delivering services,

you aren't making any money.

Very hard to take a vacation,

very hard to work on product,

business development, very

hard to, get a manicure even.

Right.

so.

That means you need

to create systems,

templates, and models.

So that allows you

to create leverage

through other earners.

and it was just your genius

out there being genius, a.

And that's what people are

paying for, then you gotta be

out there being GenY all the

time in order to make revenue.

But if you can create systems,

have some templates, have some

models, and you can use either

employees or contractors to

help deliver some, or maybe

even all of the output, on

the legal side, inside of,

in-house legal departments,

you'll often have the business

person who, does a term sheet

with the client and then

they send that term sheet

to the legal department and

it is a contract manager to

the non-lawyer who does the

first draft of that agreement.

The lawyers don't do those.

And then, you know, once they

have that first draft, then

the lawyer looks at it, of

course, before it goes out.

But that's a way to create

leverage in your business.

Anytime you are using

a resource that is less

expensive than you, that

allows you to do higher level

things, then you're creating

leverage in your business.

And so that is one way

to help you not being the

only person that is driving

revenue in the business.

The fourth business

problem, revenue, ceiling.

there's only so much you

can charge for facilitating

a workshop or for

providing coaching session.

Is it Tim Robbins, who

came up today and, I know

that he charges like a

million bucks a year or

something for his coaching.

so if you're not, you

know, him, how can I

not remember his name?

then, there's gonna be

a ceiling on how much

you can charge, right?

And so you need to, again,

Figure out a way to decouple

your income from your time.

Once you hit what the

market will bear in terms

of pricing and you have hit,

time, limits on how much you

can work, then in order to

keep growing, then you need

to decouple those things.

And so that means.

Creating some sort of

asset that can create

revenue without you.

We talked about employees

and contractors, but

another way to do that

is through licensing.

So if you have a workshop, for

instance, that right now you

are going out and delivering,

you're facilitating your

workshops personally with

your clients and if you are

able to create a license

where, Other facilitators who

you know, like and trust can

use your workshop to either

service your clients, 'cause

you can only service so many.

You know, the demand is

there that you can't meet.

Or maybe they have their

own clients, but they have

a need for this type of

workshop and they don't

have their own, they can

license yours and deliver

it to their end clients.

And that means that.

You are getting revenue from

the delivery of your workshop,

but you aren't delivering

it, so that's another way to

bust that revenue ceiling.

The fifth is

inconsistent cashflow.

When you're doing

custom services, we all.

Are familiar with the

feast and famine cycle of

selling custom services.

especially if you

don't have the capacity

for multiple clients.

And you know, this all feeds

together with that client

concentration problem as well.

so you.

Have that whale client,

who doesn't love a whale

client, that will keep

you busy for, a year.

then what happens

when they're gone?

because a client that will

keep you busy for a year

is not gonna be signing,

you off of your website.

There's gonna be a long

sales cycle that goes

along with that, and that

can be pretty unnerving.

to even out your cash flow.

having an intellectual

property solution of

creating an asset that you

can sell access to on a

recurring basis, also known

as recurring revenue, helps

even out your cashflow.

So maybe you have a library

of digital resources that you

can sell subscriptions to.

Maybe you have a community

that you can sell access

to, and these are ways to

create recurring revenue

streams so you can.

stabilize your cash flow.

Your sixth, business

problem, is weak positioning.

know, if you're not developing

some sort of signature

solution that you are known

for, or you aren't attacking a

problem that you are known for

in the industry, Probably you

are just selling your time.

You're just, responding

to RFPs and you're letting

the client tell you

what you want from them.

And then, okay, I can do that.

And you, and you do it.

You do, they're happy and

they do it, but you're not

creating the thing that

you become known for, who

you go to person, for.

And so to be that

go-to person, that

means creating some.

Intellectual property around

that, you're creating some

original thought leadership

that is speaking to the

specific problem or the

specific niche that you

want to serve, and around

that you are creating some

branded services or some

branded solutions around that.

That of course, is

intellectual property.

The seventh stagnant

profitability.

So if you are out there

juing with with every new

engagement, then you're

probably, not getting the

benefit of the increased.

Efficiencies of having

systems, templates and models.

know, if you're starting

from scratch with every

engagement, then you meet

with your client, you find

out what, their issue is and

you go to the drawing board,

like an artist starting with

something completely unique

and original for your client.

And there may be a place

for that, in your business.

But that does mean that

you will not be able to.

Increase your profit and

your business, because it'll

be very hard to get more

efficient, in that model.

So, systematization,

templates, models, if you're

not billing by the hour,

then you wanna become more

efficient, because that

means lowered costs and

therefore increased profit.

And back to using less

expensive resources.

And that, by the way,

could include technology.

Like when you really kind

of have a whole system in,

place for getting from A to

Z in delivering value to your

business, there may be a spot

for technology, and this is.

even more relevant obviously

today with ai, to figure

out like, what part of this

can I use technology to

help become more efficient?

it can't be just

about you being GenY.

It there has to be a system to

it for you to really be able

to take advantage of that.

And then our last, our

eighth business problem,

is the impact ceiling.

we all got into the business

because there was some

impact we wanted to make.

There's something we

believed in that we thought.

We could make that

happen, and create great

value for our clients.

We love our clients and

we wanted them to succeed,

but when we're doing it

on a one-on-one basis, is

there, again, there's only

so many people we can impact

on a one-on-one basis.

Now, personally, you

know, I'm a lawyer.

We do one-on-one a lot.

But I also want to help women

understand the value that's

hidden in their businesses,

to make sure they're capturing

all the value so that they

can use their businesses,

not just for income, but

also to create wealth.

Because, I believe wealth

in the hands of women

can change the world.

But how many women can I

impact if I'm only doing it

on with my one-on-one clients?

And that's why I have this

podcast, my newsletter, and

I do workshops and I, guest

expert and things like that

so I can reach more people

and have a bigger income.

of course, I am

creating intellectual

property around that.

in the form of.

courses to come,

folks to come.

but right now it's mostly

through my, frameworks and

that I work people through

and I have, systems for

helping them create licensing

programs, systems for

making sure that they are.

Tracking and, protecting

and monetizing their

intellectual property.

And so that's how you

increase your impact by

creating resources, whether

they're for sale or for free.

'cause most of my resources

are free, to make sure

that you are impacting as

many people as possible

with whatever the special

message is that you are

bringing to the world.

So, Again, it all boils down

to that same issue, is that

if you're doing something that

requires you in person with

your time, then you will hit.

All of these ceilings of

impact and revenue, these

concentration problems,

these cashflow problems,

positioning problems,

profitability problems,

all of them mean that you

haven't developed some assets

that allow you to generate

revenue to increase impact.

Without you working more.

So if you have any questions

about that, I'd love to

talk to you about it more.

you can find

me@thinkbeyondip.com and there

you can see how you could

work with me and I'd love to

hear your feedback on this.

If there's anything

that wasn't clear,

please contact me.

That's, makes my day I hope

this was helpful for you.

I really enjoyed

putting this together.

So in case you are a

visual learner, I did

create a graphic that goes

through the eight problems

that have intellectual

property solutions.

And so there should be

a link in the show notes

where you can sign up to

get a copy of that graphic.

And as always, I welcome your

questions and comments, and

thanks again for joining me.