Today we are discussing an interesting question from our facebook group. This question is from Pardeep. He asks why we moved from done for you to done with you? He thinks it looks like a step back because it seems like we are trading time for money, which is inherently not scalable?

The questions this made us think of is how scalable is a productized service, and what does productized actually mean? So, we asked the expert on this subject, Brian Casel to join the show and chat with us. Besides scaling with teams, new product developments and offerings are another path to grow and scale. A productized service can also be used for branding and to establish cash flow and will better position a founder to launch an additional product.

Topics discussed include:

  • There is no one size fits all answer. Every entrepreneur has their own motivations.
  • A productized service can be a means to an end or a bridge from freelancing to a business that can scale
  • Even if it is delivered manually, the founder isn’t delivering the service and it can be scaled out with a team
  • Using a standardized process is what allows a productized business to streamline the processes and businesses
  • What is scaling? How big do you want the business to be? Who is doing what you are doing at a large scale?
  • A productized service can be a way to establish your business and your brand
  • This is what we solve and who we solve it for
  • Have a focus instead of working for anyone and everyone like a freelancer may do
  • A productized service is the path of least resistance and it is scalable to a certain point
  • Everyone has their own definition of what scaling means, but it can be leveraged later
  • Productized businesses is an easy way to start, there may be a point where it is not scalable anymore
  • Is increasing the team when the business increases really scaling?
  • Brian does believe that productized businesses can scale. It is more of a question of what growing means to you.
  • Adding more passive products is another scaling option, having the productized service can get a founder in the position to start that product
  • Take it one level at a time and level up from there
  • All of the learning from a productized service can go into the new product because of scaling up at a certain level
  • Team and revenue can be scaled, how to scale profitability
  • Gary Vaynerchuk wants a large company and large scale because they can impact such a large audience
  • Under the productized umbrella there are a lot of different models – support for a tool lends itself to challenges
  • Boundaries need to be defined for some of these options and requests
  • Not everyone is a perfect fit for a particular productized service
  • Technically, you are still selling time for money, just not the founders time, the founder needs to focus on building value and a better team
  • Brian sends questionnaires to clients before creating technical articles, this is a system he put in place to make the research process easier for the writers and to avoid rewrite requests
  • To scale for profit is to secure larger contracts, offering less expensive products in the beginning also gives you time to create the processes before scaling and increasing products and prices

Resources Mentioned:

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