People in the same profession often earn vastly different amounts, like accountants charging $20 an hour versus $200 an hour, or illustrators at $8 an hour compared to $150 an hour. The key difference lies in high income skills solving big problems for clients who can afford premium solutions. This approach scales earnings by targeting high-value issues tied to time, money, and energy.
Scale of Problems
Problems range from small annoyances to big issues that disrupt life, like causing sleepless nights at 3 a.m. Solving small problems generates small value, especially for clients with limited disposable income, leading to low pay. High income skills solving big problems create substantial value for affluent clients eager to invest, resulting in higher rates.
Criteria for Big Problems
Evaluate problems based on their impact on three resources: time, money, and energy—the bigger the drain, the greater the problem. Consider proximity to core desires, like big dreams, and how much the person hates handling it themselves. Scarcity of the skill also matters, as rare expertise reduces competition and elevates value.
Focus on Business Owners
Business owners face numerous challenges and possess the funds to solve them effectively. Their problems cluster into five main buckets, where high income skills solving big problems ensure steady demand and high pay. Targeting these clients positions skills for maximum earning potential.
Traffic Problem
Business owners juggle many roles, often neglecting consistent traffic strategies, leading to erratic platforms, no conversion plans, and stalled sales. Without traffic, revenue halts entirely. Skills like social media management, ads management, and YouTube strategy address this when executed strategically.
Social Media Management
Task-focused social media managers handle basics without holistic strategy, lacking creativity or alignment with funnels, products, customers, or industries, yielding poor results. High-value versions clarify customer problems, manage full workflows, capture attention, stay current on trends, conduct audience research, and tie efforts to business goals.
Ads Management
Basic ads managers run campaigns for clicks without funnel integration or meaningful ROI metrics. Effective ones build goal-aligned ad funnels, prioritize key metrics, perform A/B testing, track conversions, and adapt to platform changes.
YouTube Strategy
Underperforming YouTube strategists suggest generic thumbnails, copy-paste titles or hooks, ignore audience context, and lack creativity. Top performers study current trends deeply, apply storytelling, tension, psychology, curiosity, and tailor strategies contextually for authentic audience connections.
Conversion Problem
Traffic arrives but fails to convert into sales, as seen with creators gaining millions of views yet seeing no backend revenue. Copywriting and web development shine here when solving high income skills solving big problems in persuasion and functionality.
Copywriting
General content writers produce without niche focus, audience context, or strategic psychology, often using AI lazily. Strategic copywriters specialize, grasp buyer stages, adapt to brand voice, research markets, A/B test, and optimize for returns.
Web Development
Aesthetic-only drag-and-drop sites ignore functionality or goals. High-impact developers craft lead-generating sites with customer and market intent, emphasizing thoughtful, creative strategies.
Delivery Problem
Customers acquire but satisfaction wanes, hurting retention and lifetime value. Program managers excel by enhancing products and journeys over constant acquisition.
Program Management
Admin-heavy managers handle scheduling without systems or outcomes. Valuable ones prioritize satisfaction, design delighting journeys, build result-highlighting systems, preempt issues, and fix drains on time, energy, or profit.
Energy Problem
Solo business owners hit limits on time and energy, needing support, systems, and delegation. Digital business managers thrive by reclaiming owners’ lives.
Digital Business Management
Task-based virtual assistants manage emails without strategy. Strategic managers grasp needs and lifestyles, drive plans, spot bottlenecks, unblock teams, and take full ownership so projects complete independently, freeing owners for vacations and growth.
Clarity Problem
Owners battle confusion, burnout, decisions, and unclear paths, needing expert guidance. Business coaching provides direction when results-oriented.
Business Coaching
Generic coaches offer opinion-based advice without context, data, or accountability. Effective coaches use proven frameworks, understand goals, create plans, pinpoint bottlenecks, focus efforts, hold accountable, track progress, and adapt support.
Conclusion
Earning high revolves around high income skills solving big problems for business owners, deeply grasping their challenges, and delivering real impact on outcomes. Shift focus from job titles to problem scale, client fit, and strategic execution for sustainable high rates.