Ep127: 4 Lessons From Pivoting My Niche (After Spending $6K To Get My First Client)

Ep127: 4 Lessons From Pivoting My Niche (After Spending $6K To Get My First Client)

Three months ago I walked away from coaching personal trainers and pivoted to working with higher level business owners doing $250k to $2 million a year. It was not smooth. I spent about $6k on ads before I landed a single client on the new offer. Most people would have quit way before that. In this episode I break down the four biggest lessons from making the switch, and how each one applies whether you're pivoting your niche or just trying to build a business that runs without you. Here's what I cover: -Blind faith and why I kept going when the numbers looked ugly. A brand new pixel, a heap of ad testing, $6k spent before client one, then another $4k that brought in four to five clients. The return worked out. But only because I didn't quit at the point most people do. -Know your numbers and do your KPIs every week. When you know your numbers you make decisions on logic, not emotion. I can now predict what the next 6 to 12 months looks like because I know what it costs to book a call, my show up rate, my close rate, and my cost per client. That's peace of mind, not guesswork. -Document everything as you go. Don't block out a whole day to build systems. Just record yourself on Loom while you do the task, then turn it into an SOP with AI. Most business owners with a team have no documentation, so the team keeps coming back to them with the same questions all day. -Niche by the problem, not the industry. Instead of picking one industry, I niched on a problem: founders working 50 to 60 hour weeks who want 20 hours a week back, then want to scale the business without them. You can niche by problem, age, gender, or industry, the point is to pick a specific problem you solve. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro and why I pivoted my niche 01:59 Lesson 1: Blind faith ($6k before my first client) 04:34 Lesson 2: Know your numbers, do your KPIs 05:58 Lesson 3: Document everything as you go 07:45 Lesson 4: Niche by the problem, not the industry 09:16 Recap of the four lessons If you're a business owner doing $250k to $2m a year, working too many hours, and you want to get your time back and scale without being the bottleneck, book a free Leverage Audit with me. Link's in the description. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back - https://leveragedceo.com.au/optin

Ep126: Key Person Risk - The Silent Killer in Your Business

If your business falls apart when one person leaves, you've got key person risk. And it's more common than you think. In this episode, Matt breaks down what key person risk actually is, why most founders don't see it until it's too late, and what to do about it. Here's what gets covered: What key person risk is and how it quietly builds up in your business until someone quits or goes on leave and everything lands back on you. Real examples from an allied health practice, a property styling business and a cafe, all dealing with the same problem in different ways. Why it's not a people problem. It's a systems problem. And how to start fixing it by documenting roles so the business doesn't depend on any one person. The order to fire yourself from roles, starting with admin, then delivery, and why sales and marketing should be the last thing you hand off. If your team can't run without you, this one's worth a listen. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back - https://leveragedceo.com.au/optin

Ep125: The Hidden 20 Hours You're Losing to Admin

You're probably working 50 to 60 hours a week. But here's the thing, around 20 of those hours are going straight to admin. In this episode, Matt breaks down exactly where that time is disappearing and what to do about it. Here's what's covered: The real cost of doing your own admin. At $100 an hour, 20 hours a week is $100k a year in lost time. Most founders have no idea. Real business examples. A studio owner with disconnected free software, an NDIS provider doing everything manually, and a franchise broker wasting hours on emails from people who were never serious buyers. The automate, delegate, delete framework. A simple way to figure out what to hand off, what to systemise, and what to cut completely. Why a VA might be the easiest win. For $4 to $6 an hour, most of the basic stuff on your plate can be handled by someone else today. If you're drowning in tasks that have nothing to do with actually growing your business, this one's worth a listen. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back - https://leveragedceo.com.au/optin

Ep124: How I'd Find 20 Hours In Your Week

Most business owners doing $500k+ aren't short on revenue. They're short on time. Working 50-60 hour weeks, answering Slack messages all day, double-checking the team's work, chasing data across six different softwares that don't talk to each other. In this episode I break down the exact process I'd run on your business to get 20 hours a week back: eliminate, delegate, automate. In that order. Most people get it backwards and end up automating chaos. I also cover the donkeys, horses and stallions framework for figuring out which team members are costing you hours, why you should hand over outcomes instead of tasks, and how I took a full month off my own business with a newborn at home and nothing broke. What's covered: 0:00 – Why 20 hours a week back isn't an exaggeration 2:00 – Where the hours actually hide (it's the invisible stuff) 4:30 – Donkeys, horses and stallions: which team have you got? 6:30 – Eliminate first: the tasks nobody should be doing 7:30 – Delegate: hand over outcomes, not tasks 8:40 – Automate last: AI agents, reporting, systems that talk 10:00 – Done-for-you vs being taught how (why busy founders never implement) 11:30 – What would you actually do with the extra time? Connect: Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattgdart [https://instagram.com/mattgdart] TikTok: @mattgdart Find out how to get 20 hours/week back - https://leveragedceo.com.au/optin [https://leveragedceo.com.au/optin]

Ep123: Fire Yourself - Your Team Can't Grow Until You Get Out of Their Way

You've got a team. But they're still coming to you for everything. Every decision, every question, every "just checking in." You built a team and somehow ended up with more on your plate, not less. That's not a team problem. That's a you problem. In this episode I break down why business owners stay stuck in the middle of their own team, the difference between donkeys, horses and stallions, and what it actually looks like to hand over responsibility and get out of the way for good. In this episode: * The donkey, horse and stallion framework — and why you need to fire the donkeys * Why getting out of the way isn't lazy, it's literally your job at this level * How to set up your team so they run on KPIs and stop relying on you to function Find out how to get 20 hours/week back - https://leveragedceo.com.au/optin