Go from side-hustle to 6-figure income with these 5 levers

The biggest leap for early solopreneurs is making enough money to break through the $100K ceiling. Here are the 5 levers you need to control to get there.

Recent stats show that over 70 million people work independently in the USA. Of these, less than 10% make more than $100,000 annually.

What’s the secret of those who crack the $100K barrier?

It’s a tricky path to navigate, especially for those new to entrepreneurship. Here’s how to do it.

Learn to soar with these 5 growth levers

In engaging with thousands of solopreneurs over the past three decades, I’ve identified 5 levers you need to control to make the leap from part-time struggle to solid business growth.

To better understand its power, picture it this way. Imagine a pilot in an airplane cockpit using five levers that control different aspects of the plane's performance. Each lever adjusts a critical component like speed, altitude, navigation, balance, and engine power.

In the same way, these 5 levers can guide you in fine-tuning your solo business performance.

Why these 5?

Now, you might be wondering how I’ve narrowed it to these 5 areas.

It’s because I’ve bumped up against them in my own solo business, and seen them so often in the solopreneurs I’ve worked with over the years.

Yes, there are other areas, to be sure. But these are the 5 that keep popping up, again and again.

Before we dive in, a sideline note: Below, I refer to your company’s “product,” which encompasses both the products and/or services you may offer. Even though a company selling products can differ from one selling services, for our purposes here, I call them all products.

To get the most out of this, take a moment to review and reflect on these 5 levers and the related questions. Consider where you rank now, and how you might fine-tune your side hustle or early venture to get closer to breaking through that $100K barrier.

Lever 1: Clarity

This first lever focuses on how clear you are about what you offer. This means how precisely you can define your target market and how well your product or service addresses this audience's specific needs and problems. Begin by answering these questions:

• Can you clearly articulate what your business stands for and what unique value it offers?

• How well do you understand your ideal customer’s pain points and aspirations?

• How does your business differentiate itself from competitors in your niche?

Lever 2: Desirability

Now, the second lever concerns the unique value your product offers and its demand in the marketplace. Here, you consider how your product stands out in solving customer problems or enhancing their lives compared to competitors. Think about the answers to these questions:

• Do you understand what makes your product a compelling must-buy for your target audience?

• Can you identify emotional or psychological factors that drive your customers to choose your offering over others?

• Is your market big enough, and are there enough potential customers to meet your financial goals?

Lever 3: Visibility

This third lever registers how widely known you and your product are in the marketplace. It looks at how you increase your company’s visibility and reach new customers and markets. To understand this better, answer these questions:

• Besides your current customers, who else knows about your product, and how are they discovering you?

• How are you leveraging customer testimonials or success stories to build trust and enhance awareness of your offering(s)?

• How are you measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts?

Lever 4: Affordability

With this lever, we look at balancing competitive pricing with profitability. First, you need to examine how to establish your pricing. Then, you need to align your pricing structure with customer perceptions of value. These next three questions will help you get clear on this:

• What major costs are involved in providing your product, and how do they influence your pricing?

• How do customers perceive the value they receive from your product relative to its price, and are there ways to enhance this perceived value?

• How does your pricing strategy align with your financial goals?

Lever 5: Scalability

This lever is about the future. It focuses on your plans to grow your business, including creating systems, managing financial resources, and refining your business to respond to market changes. Let these final three questions guide you:

• Do you have systems in place to streamline your operations so you can focus on what you do best?

• How might you diversify your revenue and create additional income streams?

• What changes will you need to make in running your business to reach your $100K target?

Each lever controls an essential element

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. There’s so much here! Can I ever master all of these?

Take heart. Many solopreneurs have crossed the $100K boundary without having all of these areas perfected.

But each of them is important. Because to create a viable solo business, you need:

A product with clearly defined value (#1) offered to a hungry audience (#2) who finds you credible and trustworthy (#3). It has to be priced so that customers will buy and you will make a profit (#4), all while keeping your business growing (#5).

Believe me, I know what it feels like to work so hard and feel stuck, like you’re swimming upstream against a strong current. I’ve been there.

But what I didn’t have those many years ago, when I started out, was someone to say: Hey, take a look at these five areas. Chances are, you’re missing something or you need to strengthen this area.

It’s about skill-building

Now here comes the good part.

If you think back to the first time you learned a skill or sport, chances are you faced frustrations then, too. But once someone showed you how or gave you a few pointers, you could adjust and improve.

It’s the same here. You’re working hard and you’re understandably frustrated. But now you know where to look to improve.

So take some time to review your current solo business and see what levers are in line and which need fine-tuning.

The payoff is that small adjustments can create a big impact.

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Thanks for being a reader and joining me on this Working Solo journey!

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