🔥 How to Scale to $1M Months – The 4-Step Framework 🔥
Jake Setterlun breaks down how he scaled seven businesses to seven and eight figures using a four-step framework: niche discovery through direct conversations, a visual sales presentation he calls the silent method, three core hires to handle operations, and a client-acquisition engine combining organic content, paid ads, and cold outreach.
Chapters
How's it going everybody? First off, I want to introduce myself. My name is Jake Setterlun. I am currently 28 years old and I have been in the entrepreneurship online space for almost 10 years now. I have taken 7 different businesses from 0 to 7 and 8 figures, topping out at $1 million a month. And I am super excited that you clicked on this video because I want to show you my 4-step framework on how we've literally from scratch— this is something that I've learned over the last 10 years— how to take businesses literally from $0 with no money in your bank account being able to scale with paid ads, bring on team members, and hit million-dollar months. So don't click off this video. Again, we're going to get into chapter 1, which is what to do when you're just starting from scratch, and then we'll build and build and build until we hit chapter 4, which is scaling to those million-dollar months. So stay tuned. Let's jump into it. So chapter number 1 of how to start and scale an online business from 0 to 8 figures is going to be understanding who your audience is and who your niche is. So I recommend nowadays— back in my day, We didn't have ChatGPT, but now it's super simple. You can literally go on ChatGPT and just start asking it questions. I recommend everybody that I coach and teach that when you're working with somebody or you're picking an audience to work with, that you have some type of a story that you can relate to. So when I first got started, I was actually working with golf courses. I was a longtime golfer. So for me, it was a super natural progression for me to be like, okay, hey, golf courses, you know, I have this experience. I know I can speak about the business, I can speak about the game. Why don't I do your marketing? And the way that we literally got started was sending out mailers, the old school way. We would cold call, we would spend mailers. We didn't have money to spend on ads. We didn't really know about ads back in the day. So we knew how to speak to golf courses. We knew that we could get in contact with them cold calling and using mailers. And then from there it was, you know, what are we going to offer this golf course? So we started off, we realized that their social media marketing sucked. So it was golf courses, we're going to do your social media posting. Now that's how we started. And that's how I recommend everybody start is come up with an audience and just start talking to them, see what they want, see what they need, and just do a little bit of a background research on how are they running their business, how do they operate, how do their clients come through the door. After that, you can really understand what each specific audience needs. It's not always going to be marketing, you know. Thankfully I got into that space, it's something that I've been able to excel at, but a lot of companies might not need marketing. They might need coaching, they might need backend automation help. So the online space is endless on what you can do as far as providing education Knowledge, services, et cetera. But you're never gonna understand what your specific audience needs unless you're having conversations with them. Once you have conversations, you can really understand and start to build a strong offer. So, you know, we got into the golf course space. We realized very quickly that number one, these golf courses need a lot. They need ads, they need social media, but they didn't wanna pay for it. And, and they're kind of like restaurants where they don't have the biggest profit margins. So we actually got outta that space. I ended up partnering with another individual, somebody that I would go on to scale all my businesses with. on a partnership level, and he had a background in real estate. And we realized very quickly at this time, real estate agents, they love buying marketing, they love buying something new, but they are just sick of leads. And again, you know, I had developed my skills as an advertiser. I had met this individual that had background real estate experience. So we were able to take an offer to them that said, hey, we'll do your marketing, we'll do your advertising, but we're also going to place a setter in your business that'll call and qualify those leads for you. And that became our winning blue ocean offer because it was a pain point that, you know, they knew they needed leads, but they were sick of just calling all these lead lists and everything like that. So it's like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna put somebody in your business that's literally going to take the lead to an appointment, and then all you have to do is show up for those appointments. And that offer took us again to our first 7 figures. It took us to our first 8 figures. But we would have never realized that that was a pain point. I can't ask ChatGPT, you know, maybe ChatGPT might get lucky and spit out that as one you know, kind of pain point that a real estate agent might have. But, you know, again, you're never gonna confirm that that's something they're willing to buy unless you are literally just having more conversations with those type of individuals. So after you have your winning offer, the fun part starts, which is scaling. Let's hop into chapter 2. So chapter 2 came very quickly after chapter 1, which is finding your offer, finding something that people are willing to buy, and that is scaling with sales. So once you get in, you have a really good offer. It's putting together a reputable and credible and scalable sales method that's going to allow you to bring in more customers on repeat. So for us, we had never been Zoom people. We always did all of our phone sales over the phone, hence the cold calling, hence just booking meetings. And we had ended up putting together what we call the silent method, which we teach on inside of our community. But basically it's a way to sell without selling. So we basically put a sales page together that showed everything in terms of what we're gonna do, what we're gonna deliver on. Because you have to think, everybody else is out there either trying to sell people over the phone, they're sending these big proposals, they're not really showing what they're doing from a service perspective. Even a lot of times from a course perspective. I've gotten on the phone with people that just aren't even showing anything in terms of them trying to sell me a course or a mentorship program. They're literally just talking to me. Props to them if they can sell that. That wasn't us. We wanted to show off our product. So we put a sales presentation together that was basically, hey, Mr. Prospect, this is exactly what we're gonna do for you. And from there, we were able to say, you know, is this something that, you know, you'd like? Is this something that you want to buy? Okay, awesome. Let's get to the price. Price makes sense. And boom, now we had our first client. Boom, now we had our second client. Boom, now we had our third client. So it came very fast once we had something that it was like, okay, we have an offer. We're able to show off exactly what this offer is going to do for your business. And then now your sales become repeatable because now it's how many people can I talk to, how many sales pitches can I make, how many people can I close. And it's very simple. So once you have that, once you have a replicatable, a credible, a well-thought-out sales presentation and pitch, it comes down to how many calls am I taking. And that's when you can start your paid ads because then you take your offer, you put it in some Canva templates, you run that traffic to a lead form and then to a calendar And then, you know, again, you're booking out all of these sales calls. Hopefully you're pitching, hopefully you're closing, and that's when you can start to bring in a closer, show them exactly what you're doing, and they can start selling whatever you're selling. Again, the exact same way that you are with the presentation and with that repeatable sales process. So that's how you scale sales. Let's jump into scaling out your backend with systems and operations. So scaling out your backend, believe it or not, some people would say it's harder. For me, I came from an operations and engineering background. Before I got started in all of this, I was actually in school for engineering. So it's always something that I've been passionate about, all those, you know, automations, operations, way things work together. So for me, building out our backend was very easy. Now, some people like that stuff. Some people like the sales aspect. And I do again teach inside of my community how to find the right partner if you are a specific type of avatar. So I highly suggest everybody check that out. But in terms of scaling the backend, there's really 3 key hires that you need to make. Number one is going to be a customer support representative. You might have heard the term CSM be used previously. A lot of companies in the online space use that— client success manager. And basically what that is, is that's the first interaction of your client meeting your backend team. So that could be through an onboarding, it could be through a welcome email. All of those different, you know, flows and processes and client success systems that you have set up are going to make sure that When that client comes on board, number one, you're understanding why they came on board, what they're going to need from your team, and what you need to do to make sure that they're actually adapting and using whatever they're buying from you, whether it's a course, whether it's a service, whatever it might be. You need to make sure that they're interacting because that's how they're going to stick on and continue to pay you month over month, or just not charge back the amount that they paid for the course or the product and reduce the turn. So you have your CSM, That is again one of the 3 big key backend hires. And I do suggest before we get into the other 2 that every single hire that you make, that first hire needs to be somebody that you could see in a management position. You might overpay a little bit. Again, don't be afraid of hiring, you know, in the US. Don't be afraid of hiring overseas. Every business is a little bit different, but that person, it needs to have the expectation that they are going to be the manager. They're going to come in, they're going to learn everything, and then from there they can go out and hire other people for you and you don't have to do all of the hiring and that kind of stuff. So the next key hire in your business is going to be somebody for fulfillment. So if you're doing marketing, it's going to be the advertiser, the media buyer, the graphic designer making the actual images, the videos, whatever that might be. It's going to be your fulfillment person. So again, that is somebody that you want to hire with the expectation that they can come in and they're going to be able to handle 20, 30, 100 clients, whatever you end up scaling to. They are going to be that person, and then you want to build a team out around that individual. We made the mistake in the beginning. It was one of our biggest failures. We were doing million-dollar months, literally scaled and crashed down to $30,000 to $40,000 a month. I talk about this a lot, but it was because we had an outsourced fulfillment team. And when your fulfillment is outsourced, you— there is no quality control. You don't know what's going on. And at the end of the day, that person doing your client's work is working for another business, not your own. So they're not going to be as dedicated as somebody working for for you might be. So make sure that you hire a fulfillment person. Again, it could be in the US, it could be Canada. Again, it could be overseas— Philippines. Great, great individuals all over this world. And again, whatever specific industry that you're in, you're gonna have a little bit different of an avatar. If, you know, the client's paying you a little bit more and you need them to really understand specific types of culture, you might want to hire in the US. You might want to hire from your specific country. Again, if it's not something where they're super client-facing, it's not super you know, impactful on them needing to know, and you just have a, you know, built-out framework templates on how to get your client what they need, then that might be somebody that you can hire overseas, hire in another country, and save a little bit on your margins. So that second person is somebody for fulfillment, somebody that's doing the actual work, the service. Maybe it could be, you know, somebody— if you sell a course— that is a community manager, somebody that is doing and helping you Service your clients. Now lastly, the 3rd team member. Now this is somebody that you probably want to hire last out of the first 2. Again, you need a CSM to communicate, do your support. You need your fulfillment. That could even be one person when you're just starting out. But this 3rd person, it's somebody that makes your life a lot better. It's going to help you grow tremendously. It's something that I waited way too many years to hire, and that's an executive assistant or an EA. And when somebody thinks like, oh, like that's a luxury, that's It's not something that I need because that's something that I thought for a long time. Like, I don't need an assistant. Like, I'm not going to waste money on that. And I'm telling you, you can literally hire some of the best assistants for $400, $500, $600 a month, and they are going to basically manage your team. They're going to hop on meetings with you. They're going to hold your team members accountable. They're going to answer your emails. They're going to make your life so much easier because at the end of the day, you got in business to grow businesses, to scale, to sell, to develop new products, whatever it might be. And you're not going to be able to work on your business if you're working in the business. So you hire that EA, they're going to take over a lot of the day-to-day. It doesn't mean that you're not involved. Again, at the end of the day, you're still the owner or the co-owner, but they're going to basically make sure that what you talk about on meetings is actually getting put into place, because then you can focus on developing new systems. Again, maybe it's making a new hire, developing a new part of your business, whatever it might be, you're going to be able to focus on that while your business runs itself, which is how it should be as a business owner. So that is how I look at scaling the backend. So those are the 3 hires that I like to make in any new business that is in scaling mode, trying to build out their backend and automate their processes, their systems, and their team. All right, let's talk about chapter 4, the last chapter, and that is going to be scaling your client acquisition. So this is a super broad topic. This really applies to everything. You could look at this in the beginning. I'm sure if you're at this point, you've already started doing some advertising. You have some kind of client acquisition, some kind of lead gen, some way that you're doing your prospecting is already automated and scaled. But the key is scaling this side of the business because that is really what's left to get you from doing $20,000 $50,000, $100,000, $1 million a month is, can I book more appointments? Can it be profitable? And that's pretty much it. Because if you can book more appointments that are profitable and close at a very similar rate as the other ways that you're doing your prospecting, you can just continue to grow your team, continue to hire more salespeople, continue to build out your backend, you know. And as long as you're retaining your clients, you know, they're not doing chargebacks, you're not breaking anything inside of your business— by the way, things are going to break You just deal with it, you move on, and you fix it. But scaling your backend, scaling your client acquisition, is going to be the biggest thing to really focus on and hone in. That's going to take your business from $50,000 a month to $1 million a month. So let's talk about some cold prospecting at scale. Something that we don't do a lot of, but it is definitely very, very important, is going to be your organic marketing. At a specific point in your business, it's going to make sense for double down on organic. Now I come from the business model where we literally, we test, we take some appointments, and then from there we start paid ads because it is the easiest and fastest way for us to book appointments and know if our numbers are gonna be good. But once you max out every single channel, it's not like there's another Facebook you can go to, and there's only so many people in your Facebook pocket if you're running paid ads, right? There's only so many buyers on YouTube, so many buyers on Google. So you need to eventually start some organic because it's gonna bring all those other people that you have that you're not really hitting with paid ads, and they're gonna start to indoctrinate them into what you do, what you can do for that specific type of individual. And they're not gonna convert right away, but when they do and when they come through your funnel, they're gonna be like, I've been following you for 6 months, I've consumed all your content, I've implemented X, Y, and Z that you've talked about in your organic. Like, I don't care what your price is, I don't care what you're doing, I'm gonna buy from you. So definitely, definitely, definitely doing organic. Number 2, I talk about it a lot, is paid ads. Paid ads is the number 1 best way to scale, specifically with call funnels. Again, if you don't know really about how to do paid ads, how to run call funnels, we talk a lot about this inside of our school community. So I highly suggest that you join up and learn a little bit about how we're able to literally book calls for as little little as $15, $20 a call that are closing at 30, 40% rate. Literally ridiculous what you can do with paid ads. But Facebook, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, all of these platforms— Instagram kind of goes along with Facebook— but all of these platforms are going to be literally a goldmine if you can crack the code on each one, how to book appointments there. They are a goldmine for your business because it turns into a numbers game. And it's the best part about business. If you remember playing those business games as a kid, lemonade stand, whatever, it was always, if I put something in, you know, $1,000, $2,000, I'm gonna get $5,000 back. And that's exactly what paid ads is. I can run Facebook ads, and if I'm dialed in, I can put $1,000 in and I can make about $6,000 back. I have 6x ROI or ROAS, and I'm paying anywhere from $150 to $200 a sale. Now that's obviously on the low end. We have some offers that paying anywhere from $800 to $1,000 on paid ads, but our LTV for that client, for that customer coming in, is anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000. So for us, it really becomes a numbers game, and how much do we want to make is really going to dictate our pricing. But if our sales is automated, we have a good presentation, all it becomes down to is how many— what's my cost per booking, how many leads am I getting, how many of those people am I talking to, and then out of those, how many does it take for me to actually bring somebody on board. Because at that point, that's when it's scalable. That's when it's fun. Because I can then say, okay, instead of spending $100 a day, I'm gonna spend $1,000, I'm gonna spend $2,000. Now it is not scalable just to the moon. It's not linear. It exponentially goes down over time. So what I'm trying to get at is you can't just spend, you know, go from $1,000 a day to $10,000 a day and expect your lead cost to stay the same. You only have so many people in that bucket, in that buyer's pocket when you're running paid ads. So it is something that, okay, maybe we tapped out Facebook. Our cost per lead, you know, we're okay running at $30 to $40. If we start spending more than that, you know, we can't— we got to stop. So now you go over to a different platform. You try to crack LinkedIn. Great platform if you can figure it out. TikTok, pretty easy to crack. A lot of money to be made on TikTok, especially with call funnels, booked appointments, that kind of stuff. Again, you can get into things like Google, you know, pay-per-click, YouTube. Again, every one of those platforms is going to be a little bit different. We talk a lot about that in the school community, and we teach different strategies for each platform. But if you can crack each one, that's gonna make paid ads again 50, 60, 70% of your client acquisition. I do not recommend ever, you know, running one platform as just 100% of your client acquisition. That is obviously the reason for chapter 4, is diversifying your client acquisition, your prospecting, and where those leads are coming from. But paid ads again being a big pillar in that. And then let's talk about the 3rd pillar in your client acquisition, cold prospecting. It sucks, it's dirty, nobody likes doing it, it's not sexy, but it really does get results. And, and most likely you're gonna have the lowest CPA, cost per acquisition, with cold prospecting that you will on every other platform. It just takes a little bit longer. And let's be honest, it's a little dirty. People are not gonna like you. People are gonna say, hey, fuck off. That's all right. That's what cold prospecting is. Because for, for 5 fuck-offs, you're gonna get 1 appointment. And then that 1 appointment potentially could close, potentially could make you money. But if we look at it like, hey, I want to get 20 fuck-offs because then I can get 4 appointments and I know my close rate's 30%, which means I'm closing 1 of those people. So Cold email, cold LinkedIn DMs, DMing on Instagram. You know, again, if anybody follows you on Instagram, if somebody comments even on your ads, reach out to them, DM them, say, hey, how's it going? I saw you were interested in X, Y, and Z. You can use automations, you can use ManyChat. We have a big strategy on that. I keep mentioning our school group, you're missing out. But you know, again, you could literally use ManyChat to automate that process, let AI take over. Boom, that's booking an appointment. Now that's AI cold. You could do a lot of manual. Sending videos to friends that accept your friend request on Facebook. Send them a video, say, hey, you know, X, Y, and Z, I do this, this, and this for this industry. Obviously make sure you're sending it to your specific audience. Ideally you're requesting, you know, to be friends with 5 to 10, 15 of your ideal customers every day. Send them the video, boom, somebody's gonna book. And again, LinkedIn, same thing. You do your automations, you do your connections, email, cold email, just send that shit out. Don't overthink it. Start sending emails out. And all of these combined, again, it is grimy, it is dirty, it's a lot of messaging, it's a lot of people. You know, you're gonna send messages to people that don't understand why you're reaching out to them. But really, it is, at the end of the day, one of the best ways to supplement ad spend, supplement organic, is your cold outreach. So those are the 3 pillars of your client acquisition. It is organic, it is paid ads, and then it is the opposite of paid ads, which is your cold outbound, your cold prospecting. And at the end of the day, all 3 of those are really gonna be what's important. If you have all 3 of those locked in, every single subcategory inside of those on lock, that's what's gonna help you scale to those million-dollar months. So, so let's wrap up again. We have chapter number 1, which is finding your niche, honing in your offer. Chapter number 2 is automating and perfecting your sales process, making sure that you're not a scumbag, that you're just gets on the phone and tries to pitch somebody. Please, please, please pitch with some kind of visual. Chapter 3, automating your backend. And then chapter 4 is honing in your client acquisition. All 4 of these together are part of our 8-figure framework on how we have been able to take literal $0, zero money in the bank companies to 7 and 8-figure run rates. Now again, I appreciate everybody watching this far. We do have a special offer for you down It is to get into our school community. We are super excited. We're continuously building it out, and we teach a lot of these strategies more in-depth inside of there. We talked a lot about cold. We have specific strategies for cold, for LinkedIn, for email, all that stuff. Everything that we talked about in this video is broken down in that community. But otherwise, hopefully you got something out of this. If you have any questions, leave them down below. Thank you so much.
