Welcome to the Scaling Success Stories series!
If you’re new to this series, I ask online entrepreneurs questions regarding growing and scaling their business.
This is the series description:
You can get your fill of online business tips by reading the other interviews on the Scaling Success Stories page.
Interview with Kelan and Brittany Kline from The Savvy Couple
It was my pleasure interviewing Kelan and Brittany Kline of The Savvy Couple, a popular personal finance blog that teaches people how to budget their money, organize their lives, and unlock their freedom. They were lovers in high school and now their profitable blog generates over $10,000 per month in revenue.
Check out what Kelan and Brittany had to say to my questions!
Any mention of “I” refers to Kelan Kline. He answered the questions on behalf of the couple.
1. Why did you start an online business and how does your passion still drive your business’ growth today?
Before we made the jump to start our online business, I was going on my 5th or 6th job after graduating from college. I was so sick of working for other people and not having control over my life.
I was in the process of starting a home inspection business. I had gone back to school to get licensed, purchased equipment, and even got liability insurance.
At the same time, we started our online business, The Savvy Couple, together as a side hustle. We were always talking about budgeting, saving money, and everything personal finance so starting a personal finance blog was a natural fit.
We quickly realized that making money online was not this fantasy that everyone thinks it is.
It took us almost nine months to see any income, but the moment we received our first payment I was hooked.
I told Brittany I was yet again making another pivot in life and going all in on our blog. I knew that an online business would provide me the ultimate freedom my heart was after.
We now help families from all over the world find their freedom in life. We do this by teaching our readers how to budget their money, making money online, pay off debt, and save like crazy.
Finding our freedom through our online business has completely changed our lives. Knowing that we have the platform to help others do the same motivates us every single day.
2. At what point did you realize that your business was “taking off” and that you could really make money from it?
I love this question because our answer is always completely different from everyone else.
We knew our blog was “taking off” when we earned our first $50. Seriously, we felt like we hit the lottery.
It was at that moment, after nine months of grinding trying to put all the pieces together that I knew that we could make this happen.
Before I quit my job, we planned on no income coming in from the blog for at least six months.
We saved up a nice nest egg to not have to stress about the money. Luckily, within two months, I was able to find remote freelance work, teach English online, and earn some money from our blog to replace my income.
From there we continued to grow our business to the point where we are now making over $10,000 per month. It is an incredible blessing that we are extremely grateful for.
3. At what point did you realize you were living the life you wanted to?
It took me a little bit, honestly.
As an entrepreneur, we are always very hungry for the next thing.
Sometimes, it can be hard to take a second, slow down, and appreciate how far you have actually come.
It struck me the most when I took a nap with our baby girl and woke up to over $500 in commission.
4. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing is trusting the people you hire to run your business the way you would. How did you overcome this and where did you find the right freelancers and employees to help you grow your business?
When we first started searching for freelancers we had three requirements:
- They had their own blog
- They knew who we were and were “fans”
- They were willing to work on a trial period at first
We were lucky enough to find someone local, which is a HUGE plus. We meet about once a month, which is incredible.
5. A common myth is that as you grow and scale your business, you have to sell your soul to make money, especially when you venture into paid advertising. How do you debunk this myth in your business?
I think there is some truth to this and something to be aware of.
Once your business has a good foundation to build off of, specifically, a good sales funnel, you can start throwing paid advertising at it.
I think, as a business owner, you can start to see traffic/readers as a dollar sign instead of actual human beings.
Maintaining that empathy is a must.
6. Why do you think most people fail to grow their businesses and what advice would you offer them to keep pushing, despite all the setbacks?
I think the biggest thing that causes failure is comparing yourself to others.
You need to realize you are on your own journey and things will happen when they are supposed to. Just keep your nose to the grindstone and continue to take action every day.
I don’t recommend this for everyone, but it also helped us a ton by not really having a plan B.
I knew that no matter what I was going to make our business a success, I had no other option. Sounds weird to think of it like that, but the pressure helped me continue to take action and move in the right direction when things got hard.
Editor’s note: Carly Campbell echoed the sentiment of really focusing in on what is getting you traction in your business.
7. How important has niching down been (no matter how hard it hurts) to your business’ growth and profitability?
We have actually taken the opposite approach.
We started very niche and slowly expanded as we grew.
We know our avatar good enough that we can serve ALL of their needs instead of just a few. We try to find solutions to all of their biggest problems and be that “one-stop shop” they have always wanted.
8. What do you attribute your success to and how do you explain it? Do you think the same strategies will help you reach your next monetization goals? Why or why not?
The biggest attribute that has helped us find success is not being afraid of failure.
Going out trying new things and pivoting when needed.
I think the biggest thing that keeps people from succeeding is being scared of failure.
As long as you learn from your mistakes, there is no such thing as failure.
9. To scale, you really need to have a systemized business. What steps have you taken to build those systems and how do you optimize them?
This was tough for us at first, but having systems for everything you do in your business is a must when it comes to scaling.
We started using Trello and then switched to Asana. They are both awesome project management software programs.
We started to track every single task we completed for our business.
From there we prioritized them.
We made a system for anything that did not directly need our input.
We would make a video using Loom going through the task and explaining everything we were doing. Then, we would hand it off to our VA to make a checklist anyone could follow after watching the video.
Start systematizing now.
It is the only way you will free up the time to focus on the high ROI tasks in your business.
10. If you could speak face-to-face with yourself when you first started your business, what pearls of wisdom would you impart?
Email marketing works; don’t neglect your email list!
About Kelan and Brittany Kline
Kelan and Brittany successfully paid off $25,000 worth of debt in only 5 months using income generated from their blog. They now help families organize their finances, take control of their lives, and most importantly, find their freedom!
Head over to their blog, The Savvy Couple, and learn how to budget, make money online, and how to save money like crazy.
Interested in Learning From Kelan and Brittany?
The Savvy Couple’s flagship course, Bloggers’ Secrets, teaches you how to the proven strategies you need to turn your struggling blog into a life-changing profitable business.
It’s designed for people who…
- Started blogging a few months ago and are completely lost in the process
- Get frustrated at their lack of traffic and growth
- Don’t know what to sell or how to sell it
- Hear words like affiliate marketing, email marketing, sponsored posts, and even sales funnels, but who have no idea what those mean or how to get started using them
- Are sick of working a 9-5 job
- Are desperate of starting to make money online so they can financially contribute to their family
If this sounds like you, then Bloggers’ Secrets might be the course you’re looking for!
The best part of this course is the expert sessions.
That’s right…
In addition to learning from Kelan and Brittany, you also get to learn from several blogging and business experts, including:
- Sarah Titus
- Suzi Whitford
- Eric Nisall
- Amira Law
- Bobby Hoyt and Mike Yanda
- Alexis Schroeder
- Mike Pearson
- Drew DuBoff (I teach freelancing!)
It’s possible to make thousands of dollars per month passively on your site on autopilot.
And, Kelan and Brittany took a lot of time to teach you how to do just that!
Purchase Bloggers’ Secrets Today!
Conclusion
Thanks for participating in my series, Kelan and Brittany!
As you can tell, it’s NOT EASY growing and scaling an online business, but there are some things you can do to aid you in the process.
Inspired by Kelan and Brittany Kline?
Now, it’s your turn!
I assembled the Scaling Blueprint to show you how to…
- Outsource Effectively
- Systemize Your Business
- Shatter Your Revenue Goals
After working with six-figure and seven-figure clients, I know the difference between how they function.
Let me help you start scaling successfully.
Cheers to future success!
