But back in 2011, when I launched my business on the heels of the great recession, I thought it would be easy to run a business and get new clients while also serving those clients.
Oh, how mistaken I was.
I quickly saw how much time, energy and effort it took to run a service-based business.
I realized as long as I was “trading hours for dollars,” and had to hustle to get new clients in the door each and every month (while serving the ones I already had!), I would always feel like I was treading water in my business.
It seemed I was constantly struggling to land new clients, then I had to turn around and spend even more time keeping those clients happy. And while I was serving clients, I needed to also be going out and getting new clients.
It was a never-ending rollercoaster.
You ever experience that?
I spent more wasted hours in one on one “discovery calls” with prospective clients and “get to know you” coffees with other service professionals than I care to admit. And most of the time those meetings led to ZERO new clients and ZERO new referrals.
I felt “stuck,” and not sure how to break through.
I wanted a smarter, more leveraged, more intelligent way of attracting high quality clients, charging premium prices, and getting paid even when I’m not in the office.
And I wanted to make this happen even though I felt like I had no time to make it happen.
Maybe you can relate to this?
The bottom line was I knew I needed to make a change in my business so it wasn’t 100% dependent on me being at the center all the time. I wanted to be able to take a vacation without stressing out about all the clients who might abandon me while I was gone, or the leads I would miss while I was away.
Finally, after years and years of trying just about everything, I figured out how to add new revenue streams, diversify my income sources, and scale up my business so I was (finally) no longer trading hours for dollars.
By 2015, it was like I had flipped a switch. I was able to step back from the day-to-day of working “in” my law practice and build a business that generated more revenue, paid me even when I was sleeping (I know, crazy, right?), and allowed me to scale it up.
I’ve even been profiled on page 2 of the bestselling book Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark (Harvard Business Review Press), who mentioned my story as an inspiration for why she shifted away from trading hours for dollars, after I told her I had made $30K one month through my email list.
I co-founded Rise25 with my business partner Dr. Jeremy Weisz, because he and I know exactly what it is like to spend your entire week “trading hours for dollars.”When Jeremy and I connected, I realized we really had a lot in common, even though I was a lawyer and he was a chiropractor.
Like me, Jeremy realized quickly he wanted to diversify his revenue sources so he wasn’t always stuck working and so he didn’t feel married to his business.
The first Rise25 retreat was held in March 2015. Shortly after that, we did another retreat. And another. And another.
And along the way, we realized we were on a mission.
TO HELP MORE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ENTREPRENEURS TO SCALE UP THEIR BUSINESSES BEFORE THEY BURN OUT, SO THEY CAN DO LESS “TRADING HOURS FOR DOLLARS,” DIVERSIFY THEIR REVENUES, AND DO MORE OF WHAT THEY LOVE.
But we also realized not everyone can travel to a live retreat, and if we wanted to help more people, we needed to meet them where they’re at.
John Corcoran is a recovering attorney, a writer, father, and a former Clinton White House Writer and Speechwriter to a Governor of California. Throughout his career, John has worked in Hollywood, the heart of Silicon Valley, and ran his own boutique law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area catering to small business owners and entrepreneurs. He has written for Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Lifehacker, and many more publications and blogs. He is also the creator of the Smart Business Revolution blog and podcast.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz is a seasoned entrepreneur who owns and runs a chiropractic & massage facility in downtown Chicago, is the founder of a nutritional supplement business, and also created the #1 chiropractic jobs website. He is a seasoned podcaster who has interviewed 400+ entrepreneurs, including the founders or CEOs of Atari, Mattel, Einstein Bagels, and more. He has also served as an advisor and producer to the groundbreaking Mixergy business podcast.
I got huge ROI off our initial conversation. My email blast on the rack protectors we talked about officially went out and I have a verbal order for $25k.
The event itself was fantastic. Everyone was super happy and got everything they needed. We had $65,500 in sales... and after deducting expenses and splitting the profit with my partner, I made about $22k.