212: Double Your Revenue Without Doubling Your Client Load
Ever feel like you're stuck on the service provider hamster wheel? You know you want to create digital products, but your calendar is already packed with client work, and finding time to build something new feels impossible.
In this week's episode, I break down exactly how to balance both worlds without burning out. You'll learn a practical, step-by-step framework for building digital products while keeping your service clients happy and well-served.
I share the same strategies I've used with hundreds of service providers to help them transition from solely trading time for money to having scalable, passive income streams—without sacrificing their existing business.
You'll discover:
Why most service providers fail when trying to add digital products (and how to avoid their mistakes)
A realistic timeline for building your first digital product while maintaining your client load
The email list growth strategies that work specifically for busy service providers
My "minimum viable product" approach that gets results without perfectionism
Whether you're a coach, consultant, designer, writer, or any kind of service provider dreaming of more freedom and scalable income, this episode gives you the roadmap you've been looking for.
P.S. If you've been thinking about adding digital products to your business for a while but keep putting it off, this is your sign to finally take action. I promise it's more doable than you think!
Episode Highlights:
[00:01:00] The compelling reasons to add digital products to your service-based business, including income diversification, scaling your impact, and creating different entry points to work with you.
[00:04:00] Phase 1: How to grow your email list quickly by leveraging other people's audiences through virtual summits, bundles, newsletter swaps, and podcast appearances.
[00:07:00] Phase 2: Setting up a tripwire funnel to start monetizing your new email subscribers with low-cost offers that solve specific pain points.
[00:08:00] Phase 3: Creating a minimum viable version of your signature offer that can fuel your entire digital product growth.
[00:10:00] Practical time management strategies for balancing service delivery and product creation, including batching similar tasks and implementing a client day model.
From Service Provider to Digital Product Creator: A Strategic Roadmap
Are you a service provider who dreams of creating digital products but feel stuck in the hamster wheel of client work? You're not alone. As coaches, consultants, designers, writers, and other service professionals, we've built businesses around our expertise and client relationships. But many of us hit a ceiling - there are only so many hours in a day, and trading time for money has its limits.
The good news? You don't have to abandon your service business to build a thriving digital product portfolio. In fact, your deep expertise and understanding of client problems gives you a significant advantage in the digital product space. But let's be honest - adding digital products to your service business is essentially like running two businesses simultaneously, at least in the beginning. It requires intention, strategy, and a clear roadmap.
In this post, I'll share a practical framework for successfully transitioning from solely offering services to having a healthy mix of service offerings and digital products. Let's dive in!
Why Digital Products Make Sense for Service Providers
Before we get into the how, let's talk about the why. There are several compelling reasons to add digital products to your service-based business:
Income Diversification: When your entire income relies on trading time for money, you're vulnerable. If a client drops, there's an immediate hole in your revenue. Digital products provide more stability and resilience to your business model.
Scale Your Impact: There's only one of you, but your knowledge can help hundreds or even thousands through well-crafted digital products. You can reach more people and make a bigger difference without working more hours.
Create Multiple Entry Points: Not everyone can afford your high-ticket services right away. Digital products allow people to experience your expertise at various price points, often leading to service upgrades later.
Increase Your Value: Having a suite of digital products alongside your services creates a clearer client journey. This ecosystem approach can actually make your premium services more valuable and allow you to be more selective about which clients you take on.
The question isn't whether digital products make sense for your business - it's how to add them without dropping the ball on your client work.
Phase 1: Building Your Email List (Months 1-3)
The foundation of digital product success is a responsive email list. As a service provider, you've likely relied primarily on referrals and word of mouth. While those are valuable for services, digital products require a different approach.
Start by dedicating specific time to your product business. Block off at least 5 hours per week on your calendar - perhaps Friday mornings or Wednesday afternoons. Treat this time as sacred, like you would a meeting with your most important client. Because in a way, it is.
Next, create a high-value lead magnet that showcases your expertise. This should be something quick to consume that solves a specific problem for your ideal audience. Templates, checklists, guides, and mini-trainings work particularly well for service providers.
The fastest way to grow your list isn't to build an audience from scratch - it's to leverage existing audiences. Consider these strategies:
Speak at virtual summits where you can share your lead magnet
Join relevant bundles featuring resources from multiple experts
Arrange newsletter swaps with complementary service providers
Guest on podcasts in your niche with a compelling offer
These approaches help you "borrow" established audiences and convert them into your own email subscribers. For service providers pivoting to digital products, this is one of the quickest ways to build momentum.
Phase 2: Creating Your First Sales Funnel (Months 3-4)
Once you've started building your email list, it's time to monetize those new subscribers with what's often called a "tripwire funnel." This basic sales funnel includes:
Your free lead magnet
A low-cost tripwire offer ($7-97)
An order bump on the checkout page (a complementary small offer)
One or two strategically chosen upsells
Your tripwire product should be an irresistible, low-risk offer that solves a specific pain point. For most service providers, a mini-course works perfectly here. It's substantial enough to provide real value but small enough to create relatively quickly.
This initial funnel serves multiple purposes. It starts generating revenue from your list-building efforts, allows you to test market demand, and helps you identify your most engaged customers who might later be interested in higher-ticket offers.
Phase 3: Developing Your Signature Offer (Months 4-6)
By months 4-5, you're ready to develop what I call a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for your signature offer. This is a higher-priced offer that will fuel your entire digital product growth.
For service providers, a "done-with-you" model often works well here. This might include some digital product components combined with group coaching calls or workshops. The beauty of this approach is that you don't have to build everything upfront. You can develop content as you go, based on real-time feedback from your first cohort.
This signature offer becomes the cornerstone of your digital product suite. It should reflect your unique expertise and methodology while addressing a significant pain point or desired outcome for your audience.
Phase 4: Refining and Scaling (Months 6+)
After running your signature offer with your first cohort, it's time to refine your program and scale your marketing efforts. This involves:
Gathering feedback from initial students: What did they love? Where did they get stuck? What results did they achieve?
Using this feedback to improve your program for the next cohort
Documenting and systematizing your delivery process
Creating templates and standard operating procedures where possible
Identifying opportunities for automation
As your digital product revenue grows, you can gradually reduce your client load. For instance, you might take on 10% fewer clients each quarter, replacing that income with digital product revenue.
Practical Time Management Strategies
Balancing service delivery and product creation is challenging, but these strategies can help:
Batch similar tasks: Have specific days for client calls versus deep work on your products.
Implement a client day model: Only take client meetings on certain days of the week, leaving other days free for product development.
Build systems for everything: The more you systematize routine tasks, the more bandwidth you'll have for growth activities.
Leverage your client work: Look for ways to create products based on work you're already doing. Can you create a template from that custom strategy you just developed? Could you record yourself solving a common client problem and turn it into a tutorial?
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
As you embark on this journey, watch out for these common mistakes:
Perfectionism: Your digital products don't need to be as polished as your one-on-one work. Done is better than perfect, especially for your early products.
Underpricing: Many service providers dramatically undervalue their digital products because they compare them to hourly rates. Price based on the value your product delivers, not the time it takes to create.
Failing to validate demand: Before building out a comprehensive course or membership, make sure people actually want it by pre-selling or creating an MVP.
Treating product creation as "someday": The biggest mistake service providers make is treating product creation as something they'll get to when they have time—and that time magically never appears.
Final Thoughts
Creating digital products as a service provider isn't about abandoning your client work. It's about strategically expanding your business model to create more freedom, impact, and security.
This transition doesn't happen overnight. With consistent effort and the framework outlined here, you can successfully build a business that leverages both service and product income streams.
Remember that your deep expertise as a service provider is actually your greatest advantage in the digital product space. You understand your clients' problems intimately, which means you can create products that truly solve their pain points.
The key is to start small, be consistent, and trust the process. By taking these steps, you'll gradually shift from being solely dependent on trading time for money to having scalable, passive income streams that complement your service offerings.
What digital product ideas are you considering for your service-based business? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Pin this and save for later
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Creator's MBA podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desk.
I hope you enjoy our episode today. Welcome back to the show. I'm super excited about today's episode because we are talking about something I hear from service providers all the time, and that is, I want to create digital products, but I just don't know how to balance it with my client work. So if you're a consultant, a coach, a designer, a writer, or any kind of service provider.
Dreaming of having
[00:01:00] more digital product revenue? In your business. This episode is specifically for you. Today I'm gonna walk you through a very practical roadmap for building out your digital product portfolio while still keeping your service clients happy. So let's dive right in.
Let's quickly talk about the why and there are some compelling reasons to add digital products to your service-based business. The first is digital products give you income. Diversification. When your entire income relies on you trading time for money, you are very vulnerable. Once a client drops, there's a hole in your revenue.
Digital products allow you to scale your impact. There's only one of you,
[00:02:00] but your knowledge and expertise can help hundreds or even thousands through the right products. They provide a different entry point for people to work with you. Not everyone can afford your one-on-one services right away, but they might start with a digital product and then upgrade later.
And finally, digital products can actually make your service offerings more valuable by creating a clearer client. Journey when you have both, you can be more selective about which clients you take on for your high touch work. But I know what you're thinking here.
Destini, this all sounds great, but when do I find the time to create products when I am maxed out with clients? So I wanna tackle that next. Here's the truth
[00:03:00] that most people won't tell you. Building a digital product business online, your service business. Is essentially like running two businesses at once, at least in the beginning.
So that doesn't mean that it's impossible but it does mean that you need to be strategic about how you approach it. The biggest mistake that I see service providers make is treating their product creation as something that they will get to when they have the time. And then guess what?
That time magically never appears. Instead, you need to treat your product development as seriously as you treat your client work, and that means dedicated time. Resources and energy. It's not just a side project. It's a
[00:04:00] core part of your evolving business model. So with that mindset established let's get into my step by step framework for making this transition successful.
And the first phase is all about growing your email list, and that's crucial for digital product success, but it's often overlooked by service providers. As a service provider, you've likely relied on word of mouth and client referrals and that's great for services.
But digital products require a different approach. You need a sizable engaged. Email list and you're gonna need it fast. So what I want you to do is start by blocking time on your calendar, at least five hours per week.
[00:05:00] Maybe it's Friday mornings or Wednesday afternoons, whatever works for you.
I want you to treat it like you are meeting with your most important client, because in a way it's kind of like that. Next I want you to create a high value lead magnet that showcases your expertise. This is gonna be something that's quick to consume, that solves a specific problem for your ideal
audience. So some of the things you can think about here are maybe templates, checklist guides, mini trainings, and then I want you to focus on leveraging other people's audiences to grow your list. Rapidly this approach is definitely more effective than trying to build an audience from scratch.
A couple things you can do here. Participate in virtual
[00:06:00] summits as a speaker where you can share your lead magnet As a service provider, you're gonna have a lot of expertise so that's a really good option for you. Another thing you can test out and try is joining relevant. Bundles where your resource is featured alongside other experts.
You can arrange newsletter swaps with complimentary service providers. You can guest on podcast in your niche and you know, have your compellingly magnet offer and offer it at the end of the podcast episode. So all of these strategies help you borrow. Established audiences and convert them into your own email subscribers.
So for service providers like you who might be pivoting to more digital products, that's gonna be one of the fastest ways to. Build your email list. Once you have that, you're
[00:07:00] focused on list building. The next thing that I want you to do is to build out what we call a trip wire funnel. And this is really just a basic funnel that's gonna help you to start monetizing your new email subscribers.
So this is how it's set up. You're gonna have your lead magnet, which is free. Then you're gonna have a low cost trip wire type offer, anywhere from like seven to maybe 97. Then you're gonna have an. Order bump on the checkout page. So that's a complimentary small offer that's added at checkout, and then you might have one to two strategically chosen.
Upsells your trip wire product is gonna be some type of irresistible, low risk offer that solves a specific pain point. In most cases. A mini course works perfectly here. It's substantial enough to provide
[00:08:00] real value, but small enough to create relatively quickly. So that's where I want you to start.
And then in phase three, step three here, you're probably looking at months four to five the first couple months have been focused on list building and setting up this trip wire type sales funnel. Then you are ready for what I would call an m. VPA minimum viable product for your signature offer.
Sometimes I refer to it as signature offer. Sometimes I refer to it as your. Perfect offer, this is pulling together a higher priced offer that's going to fuel your entire digital product growth flywheel. A lot of service providers might have more like a done. With you type offer here.
So it has
[00:09:00] some digital products in it. You might have weekly Zoom meetings but it's kind of a stepping point into, a course versus you actually doing the work for them. So I love these type of offers because you don't have to build everything up front. You can just do the weekly Zoom sessions, and that helps you build your content out.
After running your signature offer with your first cohort, in the next phase, it is time to refine your program and scale your marketing efforts. In this stage, you're gonna be gathering feedback from your initial students. What did they love? Where did they get? Stuck what results did they achieve?
And you're gonna use this feedback to improve your program for the next cohort. You're gonna document and systematize your delivery process. So are there any templates
[00:10:00] you need to create? SOPs, standard operating procedures. Where can you automate kind of looking at everything and figuring out what could you do there?
So those are the steps that I would suggest that somebody who wants to switch over from a full service based business and diversify into the digital product portfolio. That is how I would suggest that you start now let's talk a little bit about time management, because balancing service delivery and product creation is challenging.
The first thing you can do is batch similar tasks together, so you can have specific days for your client calls. Versus your deep work on your products. The other thing you consider doing is have like a client day model where you only take client meetings on certain days of the
[00:11:00] week, leaving you free for other work like product development and internal work
third, you can build systems and templates for everything in your business. The more you systemize these routine tasks, the more bandwidth you're gonna have for other growth activities. As your digital product revenue grows. You can consider gradually reducing your client load. For instance, you might take on 10% fewer clients each quarter replacing that income with the digital product revenue.
So let's talk about some mistakes to. Avoid, and I think a lot of us are gonna be able to relate to these. The first one is perfectionism. Your digital products don't need to be polished as your one-on-one work. I want you to know that done is absolutely better than perfect, especially for your early products.
Another
[00:12:00] pitfall is under. Pricing. So many service providers dramatically undervalue their digital products 'cause they're comparing them to the price of their hourly rate. But really what I want you to do is price 'em based on the value your product actually delivers. To your customer. The third mistake is failing to leverage your existing client work.
I want you to look for ways to create products based on the work you're already doing. Can you create a template from that custom strategy you just developed? Could you record yourself? Solving a common client problem and then turn that into a tutorial. Many people create products without validating demand first.
Before you build out a comprehensive course or a membership, make sure that people actually want it by pre-selling it or
[00:13:00] creating a minimum viable product version we talked about earlier,
the first thing, like I said, creating digital products as a service provider, isn't about abandoning your client work? I know that a lot of you want to keep that client work. It is about strategically expanding your business model to create more freedom, impact.
And security. But here's the thing. This transition does not happen overnight. With consistent effort and the framework that we talked about today, you can successfully build a business that leverages both service and product. Income streams, remember that your deep expertise as a service provider is actually your greatest advantage in this digital product space.
You understand your client's problems.
[00:14:00] Intimately, which means that you can create products that truly solve their pain points. Now, before I sign off, I'd love to hear what digital product ideas you are considering for your service-based business. Drop me a message, reply back to my newsletter if you're already on it.
If you found this episode helpful, please share it with another service provider who's looking to diversify their income. I would really appreciate it. Until next time, keep taking those small, consistent steps towards building your digital product business. You have got this, my friend. Bye for now.
Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.