This is the blog for service-based business owners who want to build a real business around their expertise. I'm Tee, a business consultant with 15 years of full-time self-employment, 500+ clients, and consulting credits with Google, Under Armour, and the United States Postal Service. Everything on this blog comes from real experience running real service-based businesses with real clients. If you run a service-based business or you're thinking about starting one, you're in the right place.
Who this blog is for
This blog is for service-based business owners and service providers. Coaches, consultants, designers, marketers, cleaners, photographers, virtual assistants, project managers, bookkeepers, stylists, event planners. If you provide a service to clients and you want to build a real business around it, I'm writing for you.
I work with people at every stage. Some are trying to figure out what to offer and how to get their first client. Some are already booked but drowning in client work with no systems in place. Others have been at this for years and the revenue still doesn't match the effort. I've been in all of those places myself and I've helped hundreds of people work through each one.
What you'll find here
I write about the stuff that actually moves the needle in a service-based business. Everything is organized into four categories so you can find what you need fast.
Sales & marketing
This is where I spend most of my time, and it's where I think most service-based business owners need to spend more of theirs.
Getting clients, keeping clients, building an audience, creating content that actually converts, follow-up systems, sales calls, all of it. If your business has a revenue problem, it's almost always a sales and marketing problem. I have strong opinions about this and I share them freely.
Read the full Sales & Marketing guide →
Systems & operations
The behind-the-scenes of a service-based business that nobody talks about enough. Client onboarding, project management, automations, SOPs, boundaries, scope creep, how to structure your client experience so you can actually scale.
I built an agency that runs at 80% profit margins and systems are the reason why.
Read the full Systems & Operations guide →
Starting your business
If you're in the "I want to do this but I have no idea where to start" phase, this section is for you. I break down how to figure out your niche, build your first offer, set up your first funnel, and get to your first client.
I believe in building the plane on the way down, so everything here is designed to get you moving, not keep you planning forever.
Read the full Starting Your Business guide →
Growing & scaling
For the business owners who are already working with clients but need to grow. Hiring, pricing strategy, offer structure, how to transition from doing all the work yourself to actually leading a business.
This is the section where I talk about becoming the conductor of your business instead of the person playing every instrument.
Read the full Growing & Scaling guide →
How I think about business
I've been doing this for a long time and I've developed some strong perspectives. You'll notice a few themes that come up over and over on this blog.
Sales and marketing come first. Before your offers are perfect. Before your website is done. You need to be able to get clients in the door consistently and everything else is secondary until that's working. I've seen people spend two years building out their backend without ever marketing themselves once. That's a hobby.
Systems are what separate service providers from service-based business owners. There's a version of this work where you do everything yourself forever and burn out. And there's a version where you build the operations, document your processes, and eventually step into a leadership role in your own business. I teach the second one.
You build as you go. I don't believe in having everything figured out before you start. I believe in getting your first client, learning from that experience, fixing what broke, and improving for the next one. Your systems should be built around real clients, not hypothetical ones.
Delivery is the secret to wealth.
Marketing gets clients in the door. A beautiful client experience is what keeps them coming back and referring everyone they know. Both matter. But if I had to pick which one builds long-term revenue, it's delivery every time.
What this blog won't be
I won't be posting generic tips you can find on any other business blog. Everything here comes from my actual experience running actual service-based businesses with actual clients. I've been broke on food stamps and raised a kid as a widow. I've signed clients at every price point from $500 to $25,000. When I share something here, it's because I've done it or I've helped a client do it.
I also won't be giving advice that sounds good but falls apart in practice. The service-based business world has a lot of recycled tips that work great for product businesses and terribly for us. We carry double the responsibility because we have to run our business AND deliver results for our clients. That changes everything. The advice here accounts for that.
Now go explore
This blog exists because the business advice out there wasn't built for us. Service providers carry double the responsibility and we need strategies that account for that. Everything I publish here comes from 15 years of actually doing this work with real clients paying real money.
Start with whichever category matches where you are right now. Read the pillar guide. Grab the free Resource Library. And if you want to talk it through live, come to Friday Sips on a Friday night. I'm there every week.