In today’s episode we dive into this letter from a listener:

I'm an artist and graphic designer and I run a one-woman creative studio. Like Jen, I'm very intentional about not hiring staff. If/when I get to a certain stage I would like to hire a VA or studio manager, but for now it's just me. I've raised my rates over the last year, and I have a steady stream of work coming in, which is great and I'm very grateful for it. However being a service-based business, especially a one-woman show, there is a very clear cap on how much I'm able to earn providing services. I plan to keep raising my rates gradually, and I'm slowly starting to gain slightly higher-paying clients and am, getting better at saying no to low-paying jobs. But this feels like quite a slow strategy, at least just now when it's still just me. I also plan to set some time aside this year to make stock (vectors, illustrations and textures) to hopefully set up some passive income streams, although I know this can be tricky to get going.

Do you have any ideas, strategies or suggestions for expanding income potential for a service-based business? There are three reasons I'm asking this:   

1. I'd love to have more ease and breathing room around money. At the moment I'm able to pay my way each month but I still feel a lot of anxiety around my finances.

2. It's my partner and my 10th anniversary next year and I want to treat him to an amazing holiday as a surprise. We joked about going to the Maldives, but I would LOVE if that could become a reality!   

3. I want to help my parents, who after working hard their whole lives are still paying off their mortgage and aren't able to retire yet. I would love, love, LOVE to be able to help them pay off the mortgage so they can finally retire and enjoy life.

Any advice you can give would be massively appreciated!

- Laura

In today’s episode we share our own experiences of expanding our income streams in our business, why it’s also often impactful to prioritise simplifying our client business too, and our encouragement for creating 1-to-many income streams in your business in a way that works best for you.

* Letters From A Hopeful Creative Substack

* Submit your letter

* More from Sara

* Sara’s Substack

* More from Jen

* Jen’s Substack

* Get Jen’s Deep Dive Kit

And our first monthly private behind the scenes episode is now live if you’d love to become a paying subscriber. Join us this way!

Letters From A Hopeful Creative is produced by Sonics Podcasts

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lettersfromahopefulcreative.com