How to Choose Your Business Model (plus: does it need to be scalable?)

Serious question: do you actually want and/or need a scalable business model?

Yes, I’m asking you, specifically, not a broad “you” as in “all online entrepreneurs.”

Judging by the sheer number of ads about how to achieve a scalable business model I’ve seen over the last 6 years—build a course, a membership, a high-ticket group program, etc.—it’s easy to think that that’s what everyone “at a certain level” must want. When the truth is, many of the people seeking a “scalable business model” start down that path, some getting further than others, and then realize: the only reason they thought that’s what they wanted was because they had been sold on wanting it. In reality, what they really want is sustainable, reliable revenue that affords them the lifestyle they desire, both at this stage of life, and in the future.

Great news: achieving that doesn’t always require a scalable business model.

Even if it does, there’s still a lot to be said for knowing where your “enough” is and building for that, rather than continuing to build for more, and more, and more only to someday find that you’ve achieved the “wrong” thing. Or rather, that you’ve now spent very likely years climbing the mountain of “more money,” at the expense of climbing the other mountain/s you actually care about climbing and seeing the view from the top. 

I’m a big believer that for most decisions in life, we’re not actually deciding between two (or more) things, we’re choosing between the tradeoffs of those things. That’s definitely true with business models, because there is no “perfect” business model where everything comes up roses 100% of the time. Building any business takes a lot of time, energy, and money, though depending on the business model you’re building, that time, energy, and money will go toward different things. For example, a 1:1 coaching business model might require a lot of time delivering in client sessions, but you know what it requires less of? Time, energy, and money spent on marketing and managing a team. Whereas a course business model gives you a lot of calendar flexibility, without client sessions or sales calls scheduled into your days, but you’re very likely spending an equivalent amount of time, energy, and money on marketing, team, and more.

There are certainly, therefore, business models you will like the tradeoffs of more than others, and what tradeoffs you like, or are willing to put up with, might be different than what I like or am willing to put up with. So let’s talk business models; the pros, the cons, the neutral facts. All so that you can make an informed decision about the business model you actually care to be building (and therefore you can tune out of all of the people selling you things that don’t align with that business model!).

What is a business model?

A business model is essentially how you are structuring the very core of your business to make money. It determines everything from what types of products or services you are selling, how you’ll gain clients/customers, what market you’re intending to reach, and more. Your business model, along with your niche and your goals, define the direction of your business, and thus are absolutely essential pieces of behind-the-scenes information for you, as the founder, to know.

I’ve found that many online business owners struggle to define their business model—or even never really think to define what business model they’re building—which then has lasting, mostly negative, implications across their business. As just one example, I’ve come to believe that most shiny object syndrome comes down to a lack of business model clarity. If you don’t know what you’re building, you don’t know what “supplies” you need to effectively build said thing, so if someone comes along saying, “You need [whatever the latest strategy du jour is]” and has halfway decent logic behind it, it’s easy to hop on the bandwagon, believing you do indeed need whatever it is that they’re selling.

An important note is that your business model likely will not be entirely stagnant throughout your time in business, particularly in the earlier years of building your business while you’re still figuring out exactly what you want to be doing. Even once you’ve landed on what you want to be building business model-wise, there will likely be some adjustments made as you learn through more experiences. Still, the fact that things might change in the future is not a reason to not choose a business model now. It’s only through choosing it and either building it now or building toward it right now that you’re able to ascertain that, “Yes, this is what I wish to be building” and “This is the best model for the work I am desiring to bring to the world.” Plus, again, without it, you don’t have one of the three crucial components of the direction you’re building your business in, and therefore it’s easy to build haphazardly, aimlessly, and/or move in circles for far longer than anyone ever actually needs to. (Guilty!)

Let’s look at the types of business models now. 

The Business Model Spectrum

In the entire business world, there are a LOT of different business models. Retail, franchising, subscription; I could go on. These are popular business models we all interact with across global commerce on a daily basis. Your favorite local shop (retail), the fast food chain that’s just popped up in your town (franchising), where you watch your favorite TV shows or movies (subscription). In the online business world, however, I’ve found that business models tend to exist on a spectrum: from high volume, low touch (HVLT) to low volume, high touch (LVHT) models. 

High volume, low touch (HVLT) business models

On one end of the spectrum are the high volume, low touch business models. These models are where the business owner is primarily selling digital products—courses, memberships, templates, workshops, etc.—where they, themselves, are not as involved in the live delivery of said product (“low touch”). In order to sustain this model, you need a high volume of customers, because your price points are typically much lower than on the other end of the business model spectrum. (Note that “lower” price points are relative. There are definitely courses out there that some people would classify as being “expensive.”)

Examples of high volume, low touch business models

• Membership model
• Course model
• Influencer model
• Subscription model
• SAAS model

Tradeoffs of high volume, low touch business models

You know how some people go around talking about, “it takes 100 clients paying $100 to make $10,000, or 1 client paying $10,000 to reach the same goal”? Many use this to sell the benefit of higher-ticket services, but in fact, both sides are very valid ways to make $10k (or whatever your financial goal is). You just need to know what business model you’re building, and be satisfied with the tradeoffs of that decision.

The people I’ve seen that become most successful in business are the ones who fall in love with running a business, just as much or even more than they love doing the work they started their business to do. While this is true for every business model, it’s especially true when you’re working to build a more ‘scalable’ one (which most high volume, low touch business models are). 

This is because in order to sell enough of your courses, your membership/s, your templates, or whatever it is to financially sustain yourself and your business, you have to become great at all aspects of Demand Generation—marketing, lead generation, and sales—or have the money to outsource it (which is costly, especially if you haven’t ever really done it yourself and therefore don’t really know what you want or need). This is definitely a massive tradeoff to consider when choosing your business model, as business models on the other end of the spectrum tend to require a lot less digital marketing, which is a huge plus for some people!

Of course, one of the big “pro’s” of high volume, low touch business models is that they are largely “infinitely scalable” and therefore you can make a lot of money. However, a very real tradeoff is that the costs tend to be significantly higher than those on the other end of the business model spectrum. You have to pay more for tech (e.g. learning platform), for marketing (e.g. ads, affiliate payouts, etc.), and for a host of contractors and employees (e.g. video editing, customer service, community management, etc.). As you grow bigger, legal costs will particularly increase (e.g. trademark and IP attorney) as will that of financial services (e.g. tax planning).

You therefore tend to take home less of the money your business makes. Where a solopreneur delivering a done-for-you service has relatively little overhead and might take home 70% of their annual revenue (e.g. $90k of $150k annual revenue) after taxes (typically 15-20%) and delivery and operations costs (which would be mostly tech costs, learning/coaching costs, and maybe a contractor here or there), a course creator might only take home 40% of their annual revenue (e.g. $60k of $150k annual revenue) after taxes (in this example, 15%), delivery and operations (25%), and marketing costs (20%). (Note: these are not the categorically “right” percentages to plan for your expenses. Simply used for example sake.)

Because your products are largely pre-made by the time you’re selling them, the primary time you’re doing the actual work you have expertise in is in the making of said product. After that, the vast majority of your time and energy is spent on marketing, managing a team, and other business-y things—not on doing work within your original expertise. If you love coaching clients, let’s say, then this might be a significant (negative) tradeoff for you!

To truly thrive as a high volume, low touch business model, you also have to do a lot of intentional work to ensure an exceptional customer experience, since most of it is automated. You have to be thinking about things like curriculum design, onboarding, offboarding, accountability systems, community management, accessibility, and more to retain customers, and receive rave reviews and referrals which make your demand generation efforts more effective over the long term. 

On the other hand, high volume, low touch models tend to give you relatively more flexibility in your day-to-day hours (e.g. you’re not in coaching sessions all day). And, even though I don’t really believe in this one from an ethical standpoint nor from a longevity of the business standpoint, you technically could deliver a product that is only “okay” rather than being excellent, and still make good enough money for a decently long time period if you have the marketing aspect of your business nailed. (I know, I know, you absolutely don’t want to be “that” type of business owner. I simply bring that last point in because, unfortunately, it’s true, and I want you to see the full picture.)

Low volume, high touch (LVHT) business models

On the other end of the spectrum are the low volume, high touch business models. These are where the business owner is typically selling higher priced services or packages which require more direct interaction between business owner and client (high touch), to a smaller amount of customers (low volume).

Examples of low volume, high touch business models

• Done for you service model
• 1:1 coaching model
• Some group program models
• Consulting model
• Many practitioner models (e.g. an energy healer)

Tradeoffs of low volume, high touch business models

The most cited tradeoff of low volume, high touch business models is that you’ll hit a revenue ceiling. First, because you’re typically the person doing the majority, if not all, of the work. Second, because prices for services and coaching offers, while flexible to a point and with extraordinary market positioning, can only be raised so high. Therefore, you can only make so much money.

Probably the second most cited tradeoff of low volume, high touch business models is that you’ll have a “full calendar.” Typically, you’re actually in client sessions or doing work for clients in addition to handling sales conversations, which leads to a relatively full calendar. Therefore, it often requires a good amount of planning to take an extended holiday or family leave.

On the other hand, for many business models on this end of the spectrum, you could exist primarily on referrals, and not have to do a ton of marketing. As I often remind clients: everything takes time, the only difference is where you’re spending that time. In a low volume, high touch model, that time is going to client delivery. In a high volume, low touch model, that time is going to everything else, and often primarily marketing unless you hire that out. You also get to actually be more directly engaged with clients throughout their journey of transformation, which can be really fulfilling for a lot of business owners. And while you do absolutely need to still be ok with the business aspects of running a business—marketing, customer service, financial planning, team management, project management, etc.—you don’t necessarily need to love running a business as much as you do when you’re building a high volume, low ticket business model.

One of the biggest “positives” for a lot of people who choose to build a low volume, high touch business model is that, because they’re typically selling higher priced (again, relatively) offers, they don’t need a high volume of leads to get “enough” clients. Let’s say your financial goal is to make $150k in revenue per year, and you sell a 6 month package at $5k, that means you only ever need 15 clients at one time (or 30 clients annually). A lot of business models on this end of the spectrum, particularly professional services models (e.g. accountants), also find that, with exceptional customer delivery, clients stay on, sometimes for years. This means that, theoretically, while it might take a year or two to build up a “full” client roster, once it’s full, you’ll have to do even less to continue bringing in new clients. And of course, delivery costs are lower than business models on the opposite end of the spectrum, which means you’re taking home a larger percentage of your revenue each year.

Hybrid business models

Hybrid business models blend aspects of the two ends of the business model spectrum, depending largely on the needs and desires of the founder. 

Examples of hybrid business models

Many business owners are building hybrid models, whether they realize it or not. For example, let’s say you’re a coach who has a 1:1 coaching package, a couple of courses, and a group program. You have a hybrid business model as you are sort of selling mid-volume (e.g. you likely don’t need a ton of customers buying your courses if you’re making your ‘bread and butter’ money through 1:1 and group coaching) and mid-touch. A different example could be an agency model, where you actually have a high(er)-volume, but the work is also high-touch. People who primarily make revenue through speaking might fall into this hybrid category, as they might make the vast majority of their money through paid speaking engagements (which would put them in the low- to mid-volume, since, as you become more established, you can exact higher fees), but perhaps they have courses or virtual workshops that they sell off the back of their speaking engagements (low touch). Some influencers could also fall into this category, as they technically need high volume in terms of audience in order to get low (or mid) volume in terms of brand deals. And actually, the larger their audience (higher volume), the more they can charge for brand deals, so the lower volume of brand deals (their technical customers/clients) they need.

Tradeoffs of hybrid business models

A lot of online business owners have unknowingly been sold on building hybrid business models. They think that in order to be successful running a business, they have to have the membership, the 1:1 offer, the group program, and the course or digital product. Yet it’s often by trying to build this hybrid or “layered” business model, all at the same time, that they end up drastically slowing down their growth.

Let’s look at a classic example: someone who has a done-for-you (DFY) service model which already has a decent number of clients in it, who now thinks they need to build a course in order to grow further. 

• The person interested in a DFY service and the person interested in a course are actually two different audience subgroups, which means the business owner now needs to learn to speak to both of them effectively.
• The marketing for a DFY service is also going to be different from that of a course, as is the sales pathway. The business owner now has to learn and implement an entirely different marketing and demand generation strategy in order to make sales to the course audience, which takes a lot of time and energy (and probably also money).
• Creating a course, and doing it well so that your customers reliably get results, is a vastly different skillset—which the business owner now needs to learn and execute properly.
• Courses require a lot more automation across every aspect of the customer journey, to levels not typically required in done-for-you service delivery. Another new skillset to learn and execute.
• Selling courses comes with a good deal more customer service inquiries, which the business owner will now either need to handle themselves or hire someone else to do.

I could keep going. With each new “layer” you add to your business model, there are an infinite number of new skills that you as the business owner have to develop (or that you have to have the financial capacity to pay someone else to do). Now this DFY service provider who had a system that was already relatively working in terms of attracting and delivering to 1:1 clients is choosing to disrupt that system by adding 1) learning new skills, and 2) implementing those new skills to their plate. Which often, without careful planning, ends up detracting from whatever un/intentional systems they originally had in place, causing their DFY revenue to go down. Often without their course revenue being fully ready to take that place yet, though their costs have already increased from adding this new layer to their business model. This often leads to them feeling like whatever amount of money they were previously making is no longer enough, can create a lot of stress, and you can see, spirals from there.

This is not to say that hybrid business models are ineffectual. They absolutely can and do work. They simply are a lot more complex to build and sustain than a business model that rests more fully on either end of the spectrum.

Choosing your business model

Once again, there is no “right” or “wrong” choice when it comes to your business model. If you want to build a more or less “scalable” business model, awesome! Do it! You do, however, want to make a choice as aware of the tradeoffs of that choice as you can possibly be. When you make that choice, it then helps to clarify what your priorities actually are for the foreseeable future, and diminishes the appeal of distractions.

To go back to that hybrid business model example: maybe you are currently a DFY service provider, and you know that eventually you do want to add a course into your offer suite. Great! But perhaps before you dive into course creation and all the implications of that, look at how you can further systematize your demand generation for your DFY services, so that you don’t “run out of leads/clients” before your course is ready to share responsibility for driving revenue. You also may wish to look at any shifts or changes that need to be made to delivery of your service/s that will equip you with the time and money to invest into building the course, which would typically look like making more money to cover the increased costs of layering in a course model to your business model.

Basically: if you’re going to eventually have a hybrid business model, how can you get the first “layer” really solid and then build yourself a runway that creates the conditions for the next “layer” to be successful?

Or maybe after thinking through your business model and goals (financial and lifestyle goals), you realize that you don’t actually want or need a hybrid business model. If that’s the case, then allow yourself to make that choice and let that be ok!! Then experience the sweet release of all of the expectations other people seem to have about what you “should” be doing in your business, and just let yourself build what you are choosing to build.

In fact, that’s kind of the goal with any business model that you choose—hybrid or not. Make a choice, and then use that choice to inform what steps you need to take (and which you can write off as being a shiny object that’s misaligned with your goals and therefore not worthy of your time or energy). 

This is also where knowing your values-aligned goals is really important, because without that, it’s easy to choose a business model based on what you think you “should” want, rather than what you really do want.

I’ll leave you with a recent client example to illustrate what I mean: a past EXPAND client joined the program after having bought into the messaging that they needed to have a high-ticket DFY service in order to “become a six figure entrepreneur.” However, they hated delivering their high-ticket DFY service, which meant they had a good amount of resistance to taking actions that would generate demand for it. Through our conversations and the work they completed in EXPAND, they realized that, at this stage of their life, they didn’t actually want or need to become a six figure entrepreneur. What they really wanted was to have more time with their kids and bring in enough money to contribute to their family (which, for this business owner, was around $3-5k/mo). This clarity then gave them the freedom to restructure their offer to one they actually wanted to deliver (a VIP day, as well as ongoing maintenance for clients they like working with), refocus their demand generation efforts toward generating referrals, and stop social media marketing altogether. They restructured their thinking to a low volume, high touch business model, found their “enough” number, and then reoriented their business toward those actions they actually need to take to achieve their own goals, rather than to achieve a goal that other people say they “should” strive toward. Maybe in the future this business owner will choose to do things differently in their business, but for now, they’re satisfied with the work-life blend they’re creating. 

If that isn’t Sustainable Success, I don’t know what is.

Work with Me

I’m opening up a 9-month live cohort of EXPAND in 2025, kicking off at the beginning of February. By taking you through everything from choosing your business model to executing your own unique demand generation system, EXPAND equips you with the skills and self-trust to embrace your role as CEO, systematically setting your business up for long-lasting Sustainable Success. (Whatever that means for you.)

Through this comprehensive business training program, you’ll:

• Find your unique path to reach your goals, remaining aligned with your values, priorities, and needs, while confidently tuning out of external pressures and one-size-fits-all strategies.
• Become adept at strategizing, implementing, and refining your approach, allowing you to see a more reliable ROI on your efforts with increasing simplicity.
• Make operating your business day-to-day pleasantly predictable—drastically reducing frenzied decision-making and scattered strategies—thanks to a thoughtfully designed system that brings every part of your business into harmony. (This has the fantastic side effect of highlighting critical ‘gaps’ in your foundations and revealing clear opportunities for growth.)
• Turn your business into one that sustains you financially and fulfills you personally, empowering you to create a life outside of work that is necessary to both your and your business’ long-term thriving.

The live cohort is available by application only. Apply here.

When you join by the end of the year, you’ll save $500 on your total investment, making it $3,800 (equitable installment plan available). 

Ready to pay in full? You’ll also receive a comprehensive Sustainable Success System Audit—where I’ll personally comb through every aspect of your business and give you in-depth recommendations for exactly how to shift or change elements of your business to create more ease, reliability, profitability, and overall sustainable success. You’ll receive both a comprehensive written report as well as an in-depth video where I walk you through my exact recommendations for priorities and next steps.

Here’s what Stephanie, an EFT Practitioner, Trainer, and Human Design Professional, says about the Sustainable Success System Audit I delivered to her earlier this year: 

“I signed up for Carly’s Audit and then followed it with some Voxer work and private sessions. Every aspect of the work we did together not only impressed me, but had a profound effect on the direction of my business. I was feeling confused about strategy, direction and how to pull the parts of my business together. Now I’ve rejigged my business model completely, created two core offers, cleaned up my website and sales process, and more. Working with Carly was wonderful, on every level. From her professionalism in her communications to the insights and experience that she brought to the work. Totally impressed. Her guidance, expertise, feedback and suggestions have been incredibly helpful. I look forward to continuing to work with her and I would highly recommend her to any business owner who sees themselves as a ‘Right Fit Client’ for her!”

EXPAND: the 2025 cohort kicks off with a 2-day virtual retreat where we map out your business model, niche, and goals so that you can stay clear and focused on taking your highest priority action steps every day, week, month, and year. This helps you create a simple and sustainable roadmap not only to achieve your financial goals, but to do so in a way that is aligned with your values and creates plenty of spaciousness for you to live your life well, too.

If you’re ready to become the leader you need to be of your business, with the business-building acumen and embodied self-trust to make conscious, intentional, and strategic decisions for the rest of your time in business, then join me inside EXPAND: the 2025 cohort. Apply now.