Using The Build, Buy, Borrow Framework To Grow Your Online Coaching Business

I’m a big fan of simple.

The fact is growing an online business can be simple. Rather, it’s simple conceptually. But that doesn’t mean growing an online business is easy, or fast, for that matter. When we understand what facilitates growth, we simplify our journey to achieve it.

Today we’re going to explore a framework we can use to simplify growing an online business.

Understanding 3 Fundamental Ways Businesses Grow.

The 'Build, Borrow or Buy' framework was a strategy developed by Laurence Capron and Will Mitchell to optimize business growth.

(Large) organizations often use this framework for resource and team management. As they grow it helps them determine if they should ‘build’ internally, ‘buy’ externally, or ‘borrow’ through partnering.

Here’s an example:

Imagine an advertising agency that runs Facebook ads but wants to expand to offer creative (design) services.

Build: They could ‘Build’ an internal creative team through hiring and training new employees to offer this service.

Buy: They could ‘Buy’ or acquire an existing company instead of building and developing their own team.

Borrow: They could ‘Borrow’ the expertise of other companies through strategic alliances or partnerships.

You may begin realizing how often this happens…

In 2006 Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. Acquisition falls into the ‘Buy’ bucket. They could have ‘Built’ YouTube internally (or a team to build it).

And many companies outsource their call centers. This falls into the ‘Borrow’ bucket. They could have ‘Built’ an internal call center, or ‘Bought’ a call center, but instead they ‘Borrow’ by partnering with an existing call center to provide that service.

While we’re not Google or AT&T…

We can apply this framework to grow our online coaching business.

Applying the Build, Buy, Borrow Framework To An Online Coaching Business.

Instead of acquiring businesses, we can apply this to our core growth levels.

Let’s think in terms of Audience growth, lead generation, and client acquisition for this article.

(However, the more you think of this framework the more you will discover the use cases)

Let’s walk through how we can implement this for audience growth…

‘Building’ An Audience For Your Online Coaching Business.

These are activities that take your time.

Applying ‘Build’ to audience growth and lead generation may look like:

• Posting to social media (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.)

• Podcasting.

• YouTube.

• Blogging.

Those are often the most traditional activities we think of and are often referred to as “Organic” content creation within digital marketing.

When we think of lead generation and client acquisition we can add others such as Email Marketing, Facebook Groups/Communities, etc.

Now, it’s important to note that all of these are online activities. But we should never dismiss the power of offline marketing.

For example, last week I generated a lead through a conversation at my co-working space. This had nothing to do with the content I posted on social media and would be classified as ‘offline’.

Here are some offline examples:

• Attending events and meetups.

• Putting on (in-person) workshops.

• Posting flyers at your local coffee shop.

• Joining a networking group(s).

There is a different energy with in-person interactions and some of the strongest business relationships I have today started, or were strengthened, through in-person interaction.

‘Buying’ Your Way To Audience Growth.

Think ads.

• Facebook ads.

• Instagram ads.

• TikTok ads.

• LinkedIn ads.

• Google ads.

• Etc.

We can ‘buy’ our way to growth through paid advertising.

Instead of ‘building’ our audience and getting attention through posting content, we can plug some $$ into the social media machine and instantly get in front of people.

Again, there are both online and offline advertising activities which I will expand on later.

‘Borrowing’ Your Way To Attention And Lead Generation.

This is the most overlooked way to grow.

Most people gravitate towards social media (build) or ads (buy).

It might be time to tap into the power of partnerships and strategic alliances. This allows you to ‘borrow’ or tap into the power of someone else’s authority and audience.

In the simplest terms, instead of building or buying attention, you plug yourself into someone else’s.

Here are a few ideas:

• Joint lives on Facebook or Instagram.

• Guest podcasting.

• Guest blogging.

• Speaking in/running workshops for people’s Facebook groups/communities.

• Speaking at someone’s event.

• Swaps (Ex: you promote someone or their lead magnet in exchange for them promoting you/yours)

This can also expand into the offline realm as well.

When my wife and I owned our gym we partnered with local businesses.

We put on events and workshops at Lululemon (that they promoted), I wrote for local fitness magazines, and we partnered with local physiotherapy clinics that referred us clients. 

This got us exposure through the network and authority of others.

(Before the pandemic we were planning to grow by putting on local workshops and partnering with local organizations while traveling the US — The pandemic stopped this)

And These Buckets Can Overlap With One Another As Well…

It’s not always one or the other.

For example, many people pay to be guests on someone’s podcast.

This is BUY meets BORROW since they are paying to get in front of someone else’s podcast audience.

Another example would be if you were to sponsor a newsletter or do “influencer” marketing. This is common with DTC (direct-to-consumer) products where they pay creators to post and promote their products – tapping into their audience.

Don’t Overlook Offline Opportunities.

As online business owners, we often forget there is an offline world.

And that million and billion-dollar businesses have been created there.

Every stage, build, buy, and borrow can be executed both online and offline. While many focus online there are opportunities to be had offline.

Here are a few contrasting examples to get your juices flowing.

Build:

Online: Posting to social media.
Offline: Attending meetups and events and building a referral network.

Buy:

Online: Running Facebook ads.
Offline: Sponsoring a local event.

Borrow:

Online: Running a workshop for someone’s community.
Offline: Running an in-person workshop for a local business.

The opportunities are only limited by your creativity.

Simplify Your Business By Applying This Framework.

Like I opened with, business can be simple.

All of the marketing activities we do to grow our business can fall into one of these categories (sometimes two) without us realizing it.

But when we understand the growth categories…

We can apply intention to our efforts. Identify how we want to grow. Assess what we’ve been doing, what’s work, and most importantly what opportunities we have yet to tap into.

As you look to scale this year, use this to expand your awareness around growing your business.

Hope this helps.

Landon