[00:00–01:30] Busy is not the same as growing.
[01:30–04:18] Full calendars expose capacity limits and growth choices.
[04:18–06:30] Build a more strategic, connected offer stack.
[06:30–08:39] Create real value without chasing passive-income trends.
[08:39–10:30] Refine or retire offers, then step back for perspective.
[10:30–12:42] Focus on profit, client journey, and leadership.
[12:42–End] Shape growth around ambition, systems, and lifestyle.
Hello, my beautiful, awesome human, and a very warm welcome back to another episode of the Hayley Osborne Show. I am Hayley. For those of you that are new here, I am your business strategist. I am the founder of this business and three other businesses. I’m a mum of three small humans, and I’m someone who is really passionate about helping health brands to build businesses that they are genuinely proud of, that you are genuinely proud of. And today, I’ve got a question for you.
I’m just going to jump straight into it, and it’s one that I think that every business owner should be asking themselves regularly, and that is: Is your business actually growing? Okay, or are you just getting busier? Okay, because there’s a difference. Actually, I’m not going to get straight into it because I want to talk about Halloween. It was the weekend just gone, and yes, I’m recording this podcast the day before it comes out, which is fine because you know it’ll get done. And we all dressed up as a family, and it was so good.
Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. We jumped around to grandparents’ houses and all of our siblings’ houses, and the kids got completely loaded. And now I have lollies coming out of my ears, and I don’t want to eat them, and I can’t anyway because I’m still. This is the last week of the detox that I’ve been on, my gut health detox. So if you’ve been following along and if you’ve been looking at my recipes on Instagram or my stories, it’s the Sarah Di Lorenzo four week gut repair plan. It’s actually a whole book and it’s very educational.
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. Is the weekend was so fun. It was Halloween, and we fully got into it. I might share some photos on socials of my costume. I won’t spoil it here because I want to share it there. So if you don’t follow me on Instagram or Facebook, go over and like have a look and give me a follow, and yeah, see what we’ve been doing.
But where was I? Oh, yeah, that’s right. Let’s get back into the podcast episode. But I like to just share little bits of my life on here too. So what we’re talking about today, business is growing, okay, or are you getting busier? So I wanted to say that’s right.
There’s a difference, okay, and it’s huge. It’s a massive difference, and I see lots of health professionals who are completely booked out, and I get it. That’s a really great place to be. Except, you know, your calendars are full. You got clients back to back. You know, you’re answering emails between appointments.
You’re, you know, not fitting in lunch, and you then therefore, you know, what’s left is marketing into trying to squeeze it into whatever time is left. And I think from the outside, everything looks pretty bloody fantastic. You know, you’ve got a lot of clients. There’s plenty happening. Your business is busy, and when you start asking a few questions, a different picture can emerge. And this is something that I see that comes out of a lot of my VIP days with clients.
You know, let’s have a look. How much profit is your business making? How much time does do you actually have? Okay, and could your business grow without you taking on more appointments? Um, and what happens if you want to take a month off to go to Europe for summer? Okay, what happens if you want to have another baby?
No, I’m not having any more babies. Or you know, you know, reduce the hours that you’re spending in clinic and simply spending more time exercising or going for walks or whatever, whatever. Suddenly, being booked out tells us a different story. Okay, being busy is not a business model. Now, don’t get me wrong. Like having a full calendar is such a fantastic thing, and it means that people want you, and that’s awesome.
But demand is good. But what happens when you reach capacity? Okay, then you know. Let’s imagine that you’re seeing clients five days a week. Your calendar’s full, and you decide you want to increase your revenue by 30%. What are your options?
All right, you could work longer hours. Fine. You could add another day if even that’s possible. You could increase your prices, or you could hire another practitioner, okay? Or you could start looking at your business model and asking how might you create value in different ways, all right? And that’s the conversation I want more health professionals specifically to be having because if you’re not a health professional and you’re listening to this, you know that there are other options to scale your business aside from booking out your calendar, because if the only way your business can earn money for you is if for you to personally work more hours, then you’ve got a ceiling.
All right, and at some point you’re going to hit it. Okay, so what are you actually selling? Okay, so one of the first things I look at when I start to think more strategically about a business is its offer structure. Okay, what are we actually selling? Who are we selling it to? What is the price?
Okay, and how much does it cost for you to deliver it? And what happens after somebody buys? Because I think it’s amazing how many businesses have you know never properly stepped back and looked at this, okay. And you, I think. Well, I see you know a lot of businesses accumulating services over time. Okay, it’s kind of a reactive rather than proactive approach, and that’s fine.
Okay, you’ve got a package there. You consult here, a workshop over there, a program you’ve been thinking about launching here, but there’s no real architecture connecting everything. How, when, what, price is it commercially driven? What does that look like? And that’s the strategy behind it, right? And I think sometimes business owners and businesses have grown around, you know, what the other knows how to deliver, okay, rather than around what could create the strongest customer experience and the most sustainable business that is commercially driven for a profit, okay.
And sustainable being you’re making a profit. Your lifestyle is grand, okay. And you know, let’s use a health example because I love that. Perhaps you are a nutrition professional who works one-on-one with clients, and you love that work. And I don’t think you should necessarily stop doing that work, but maybe you’re answering the same foundation and like the foundation questions every single appointment. Okay, maybe there’s a client or clients out there who need more ongoing support between consultations.
All right, there’s food for thought, and you know maybe there’s an opportunity to create some kind of structured program around a particular transformation, and that transformation is is but born from a problem that you continuously have to solve. Okay, so maybe you could support workplaces. Maybe there’s a group of people who would benefit from education before they’re ready for individual treatment. Okay, these possibilities are worth exploring. These are just examples from me. Now they’re not going to be right for every business.
Okay, and that’s the important part. All right, strategy is about making the right choices for your expertise, your audience, the capacity that you have. Okay, if you’ve got small children, school children, like what does that look like? No children. Okay, you want to go to Europe every summer, and what is the business that you actually want? And you can have it, but what you need to do is sit down, take a Periscope view.
Okay, move outside your business for a while and work on your business rather than in your business. Okay, the goal here is to create more value, and I want to be really clear about something: is when I talk about growing beyond your hours, I don’t mean turning every business into an online course business. Okay, I don’t think every practitioner needs a membership. I don’t think everybody should launch a group program, and I certainly don’t think that you should build five new offers simply because somebody on Instagram told you that passive income was the answer. I’m not talking about that. Okay, what I do think is that we need to get much better at understanding the value that we create and what that looks like for our business, and how that value then can translate and be delivered sustainably.
When I say sustainably, I mean for you, your individual needs. Okay, so it might be improving your offers that you already have. It might be refining your pricing. It might mean building a stronger referral network. Whatever that looks like for you, it might mean hiring. It sometimes might mean hiring somebody.
Okay, sometimes it means a signature program or a workshop or a long-term client relationship and commitment. And sometimes it might have the con mean you having the confidence to stop offering something that no longer makes commercial sense. I had that a couple of years ago. I stopped offering something because it no longer made commercial sense for me, and that’s hard, especially when you’ve put so much time and effort into something to close it down with clients inside. It’s hard, but if it no longer makes sense to you and you know that you can’t push it any further, okay, that’s business leadership, and you can only figure out the answers to those questions when you step back and look at your business as a whole. And I often, what I know, and I found through working with my clients, is that when you are so close to your business, you can’t see it anymore, and it takes someone outside looking in to go, “Oh, hey, have you thought about this?” And that’s that light bulb moment.
And oh my goodness, I’ve had a few over the years that I’ve had that business, and they’re pretty awesome. And then that trajectory forward. Once you hit that point of like, aha, it’s fast, okay. But you can’t get to that point unless you take a step back and have a look in. Okay, and it’s really exciting when you start looking at your business through that lens. All right, let’s talk about money because I really think we need to get more comfortable talking about revenue and profit and the health of your business from a financial perspective.
Because I know that you care deeply about the people that you serve, and you still want to make excellent money. Okay, you can be passionate about improving people’s lives, making the community better, and still build a highly profitable company. You are not here for a haircut, all right? And those things can coexist. Okay, in fact, I would argue that financially healthy businesses gives you more options. Okay, to invest in your team, like to have a better client experience as people come through your business, what does the front look?
What does the end look like? Front end, back end, you know the funnel. How do they how do they move through your business? More money means more opportunities to develop new services and make it better. Okay, and support your own family. Think about that.
Okay, from a place of strength rather than from a place of pressure and financial pressure. Okay, revenue alone doesn’t tell us everything. We’re talking about profit. If you’re generating more money while your expenses, like the amount of hours that you work and the stress, is getting bigger and growing even faster, then we actually need to have a look at what’s happening here. So, I want you to have a think about the numbers behind your business. Which services generate generate?
No, Hayley, talk properly. Generate the strongest profit margins. Okay. Which ones require most of your time? Where do your best clients come from? Okay.
And what is the value to you of a client that has an ongoing relationship with you, okay. And where are people dropping out of that journey, okay? Which parts of the business are there? Are you losing people, okay? Because those little leaky holes need to be plugged before you go off looking for more clients, okay. The next stage of growth often happens when you can figure out what you can do better that you’re already doing, okay.
The next thing is I want to talk about the version of you right now because the future version of your business needs the future you, okay. And that comes back to leadership because I think when you start asking these questions, something shifts, okay. You begin to move from the person who delivers everything to the person who designs how the business operates. Doesn’t that sound nice? And you start thinking more about capacity, profits, and the customer experience is everything. I know I keep going back to that, but it’s true.
How you positioning yourself, what revenue streams are working, systems, processes. and the role that you actually want to play in the business, and I think this is I think about this so much in my business. I’ve got three small kids. I have massive ambitions. I love my work. I want to continue building something I’m incredibly proud of. But I also want a life that has room for my family, movement, travel experiences, and all the things that make life really bloody good.
All right. So when I think about growth, I’m thinking about more than a revenue target. Okay. I’m thinking about what that growth requires from me. Okay. And what do I want to be known for?
What do I want to spend my time doing? Because if something is going to require so much of my energy, and I know that it’s going to give me a little return, I’m not going to do it. I’m just not okay. So what needs to change as your business evolves? And I want more health professionals to give themselves permission to be able to think this way. So here’s a question I’m going to leave you with because I love a leave with question, and I’ve been doing that every episode lately.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but if you wanted to increase your revenue over the next 12 months, what would actually need to change? Okay, and if you’re a health business or not, okay, what would need to change? And I want you to challenge yourself and think beyond seeing more clients. Okay, offers maybe they need to change your pricing. Might need to change needs your attention. Better systems.
Okay, processes. Do you need to attract a different type of client? Okay, do you need to become more visible in a particular market? Okay, is that through referrals? It could be. Do you think that you need to start leading your business differently?
Because growth, I think, should be something that you can design with intention. I know that’s what I do, and I think you know, I see a lot because I work with so many businesses that the best businesses create room for people, leading them to grow as well. Okay, celebrate the full calendar. You know, celebrate the demand and the incredible work you’re doing, and then ask yourself what you’re building beyond that calendar. Okay, because being fully booked is a milestone, but then what? After you reach that milestone.
Stone at the top of the mountain. You’re going to come back down and figure out what next, okay? And I think building a business that can keep growing in a sustainable way, sustainable meaning that suits you, your lifestyle, something that you can actually sustain. It’s a whole different achievement. That’s it, guys. I’ll see you next time.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. If it’s resonated with you, jump in my DMs. Let’s chat about working together to help you to be able to grow sustainably and challenge your way of thinking so that 2027 is full throttle for you with a strategy that will guide you through the year so that you can keep doing the amazing work that you love. That’s all for me, guys. See you next week. Bye.
Here’s how you can work with me:
Social Media Strategy
Get this sorted and **It will take your business to the next level!!**. From not knowing “what, how, where & when” to post, to fully UNDERSTANDING how to move forward transforming your social media profile into a $$ making machine. BOOK 15 min to Chat with me about this can help you HERE.
Marketing Strategy
This is clarity CENTRAL and will give you the clarity on where to focus your businesses marketing, EXACTLTY what to do, your next steps, and provide you with the confidence to move forward in your business without the overwhelm. You will receive a personalised BIBLE just for you to constantly refer to every. single. day! BOOK 15 min to Chat with me about this can help you HERE.
One-on-one Coaching
Have me, your marketing growth strategist in your pocket & brain to cover ALL marketing aspects of your business. This is personalised, fabulous and high achieving. For those who are SERIOUSLY LOOKING to SMASH IT! BOOK 15 min to Chat with me about this can help you HERE.
VIP Day
Full in person day for you and your team. This is the CREAM of the CREAM. Time to propel your business with a solid plan. Gain clarity, streamline your systems, strategic direction and boost growth with our exclusive VIP intensive day for business owners, teams and entrepreneurs. A condensed day focusing on your growth. Enjoy a luxury experience with stunning food and drinks while up levelling yourself and your business. This is where the magic happens, and you step into the next level version of yourself. BOOK 15 min to Chat with me about this can help you HERE.
