Are you ready to talk about money shifts? Because I sure am.
I am back to talk about hitting the elusive “10 million dollars in revenue” mark, and what changes I had to make, to get there.
While reading this Forbes article a few years back, I read that only 2% of women-owned businesses surpass the $1 million mark. This statistic is one of the reasons that I do what I do, and why it's so important for me to come on here and share my experiences in business growth and financial success. I feel determined to help increase the amount of female-founded businesses to break the $1 million in revenue mark.
Let's start with shift #1...
Become familiar with your money story and work through it.
A money story is a personal narrative about money. It makes up your beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about money – and affects your financial behaviors. - Women With Money
What you heard growing up actually plays a huge part of the narrative that you tell yourself around money.
Did you hear your parents fighting about money? Were your parents/guardians in constant fear about not having enough money, or making ends meet? Did your parents say passing comments like “Oh that person must be made of money” or “oh must be nice to be rich”?
These comments shaped your money story, and unless you’ve gone in and done the work to revise that story, it might be holding you back.
I didn’t know I had a money story until I was confronted by it. I was sitting in a boardroom in a fancy California yacht club with 5 other men who were extremely successful. I was standing on the terrace looking at the massive yachts and I said, “I wonder what they do for a living, they must be so wealthy.”
Michael, who was standing beside me said, they are no different than you, they put their pants on one leg at time. Do you see them as different from you? Do you believe that you can have this too?
When he asked that last question, I felt like I could burst into tears. I didn’t because I was in a room full of men. I didn’t at the time. I did not believe that I could be that rich and frankly until I was confronted with it, I was still aiming too small.
Think of how you conduct yourself on a daily basis now. Do you procrastinate? Do you avoid following up with potential clients? Do you talk potential clients out of the sale? This shift-- addressing your money story will be the most important thing you can ever do for your business and your life.
Shift # 2: Know your numbers with precision
I’m going to let you off the hook here by sharing an embarrassing fact with you. I didn’t track anything in my business for years. I didn’t have fancy spreadsheets or a pristinely organized Quickbooks account. I had a bank account that had money in it. If there was money in it, I was doing good.
But here’s the truth. That is a really stressful way to run and grow a business. So even if you’re just starting out, don’t make the same mistakes I did.
When you have data, months or better yet, years worth of data, you can see patterns, you’ll know that January is a slow month so when you only make half the sales you won’t panic. When you track and have metrics you’ll be able to plan for slow months by increasing monthly revenue goals in other months so that overall you hit your annual goal.
Tracking your business metrics gives you confidence and security when it comes to making growth-based decisions in your business. When you have historical data, you’re able to use that to predict with a degree of certainty.
Let me take a pause here for a minute because tracking your numbers requires you to face your own efforts-- and your money story. If you are not tracking your numbers maybe it’s because you think you don’t have to or because you’re not good at spreadsheets or math or it’s boring or whatever… What is the reason you’re not tracking?
When we work with clients in Freedom Mastermind and they’re all at the multi 6 or 7 figure mark and they aren’t tracking we can’t effectively guide them. Tying this back to my money story, if I never knew if I made profit then I would never be any different than anyone else. See how this all works? First, I asked Laura Wood, who is our chief revenue officer to share what she tracks, and then I’ll bring in Christine, who is the CFO to share what she tracks and how it all ties together.
I can promise you this, the only reason you’re not tracking consistently is because of your money story… it’s not because you don’t know how. If you can do basic math, then you can track.
Ok, moving on.
Shift # 3: Plan for revenue
When I first started planning content, it was ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ because I didn’t know any better.
What does it mean to plan for revenue?
In order to plan for revenue you need to have set monthly and quarterly revenue targets. You need to know what your monthly rev goal is, how many clients you need to enrol, how many calls you need booked or the number for whatever sales process you have.
If you don’t have your monthly target’s how are you deciding what promotions to run or what offers to make?
Our content isn’t random. It’s all intended to support our audience and bring them to a higher level of awareness.
Each month, when we plan out our content, we start with the marketing campaigns that support our sales goals. What are we going to do to ensure that we hit our monthly targets? What content can we create that provides value, that supports our audience’s journey and moves them to the next stage in the committed client pipeline. Because I believe that it’s my job to bring you to a level of readiness where you want to work with us, then I don’t need to sell you.
When we made this switch, from randomly creating content to getting very intentional about it, our content started to work for us, even if it didn’t get engagement, the focus of the content and the consistency of the messaging, the repetition of seeing the offer, it works.
When you plan for revenue you can create links between your content and hitting your goals. You’ll start to see patterns of what content works best to bring your audience to a higher level of readiness so they take the next step.
Shift # 4: Clean up your backend
You’re having guests over but your house is a freaking mess. There’s clutter everywhere. Socks all over the place. Mail in the weirdest places and you frantically run around the house and shove shit in drawers, throw it in closets, hide it under the bed. But if heaven forbid someone opened the closet door you’d be mortified.
Ya, is that how your business is looking right now? That’s how mine was for a long time. It was like I had this dirty little secret that I was hiding. It made me feel like a fraud. Like who am I to be giving all of this business advice when my house is a mess.
Cleaning up your backend looks very similar to cleaning out a house, one room, one drawer at a time. Does this stay, do we need it or can it go?
Your business has departments whether you recognize them as such or not. You have a marketing department, sales department, customer service department, client services department, finance and administration departments.
Cleaning up the backend means working through each department and creating systems and processes to be followed so that as you grow you update the systems and processes.
Cleaning up your back end means thinking through what happens, what is the journey in every area of your business. Yes, that sounds overwhelming, but if you take it one system at a time, then it’s not.
If your current container is about to burst, then you need to clean up your backend before you grow otherwise your container will explode and you won’t be able to repair it.
Growing quickly comes with a cost too… constantly needing to repair the business systems, processes and team.
And this brings me to my last big shift and boy oh boy was this a bigggg one.
Shift # 5 is everything… Invest in team growth.
Let me just say that I would not be where I am today if I didn’t have this team of unicorns supporting the vision and the growth of the company. At the time of recording this, I have 33 full-time team members and a couple of freelance contractors that we regularly do work with.
YOUR job is to be the visionary, to market, sell and serve. That’s your job. Anything over and above that is someone else’s job and it’s your responsibility not to become the bottleneck in your business.
When you’re growing, over the 6-figure mark, your biggest investment will be in your team. As it should be because they are the ones who are going to help you get to where you want to be.
Get yourself to 6-figures first and then start asking the question, how do I build a team that can get the company ahead?
Invest in the people who will help you actualize your vision and you’ll see how much faster you can grow.
Ok, those were the 5 big shifts that helped me get to 10 million in revenue,
Shift # 1: Become familiar with your money story and work through it
Shift # 2: Know your numbers with precision
Shift # 3: Plan for revenue
Shift # 4: Clean up your backend
Shift # 5: Invest in team growth.
If you are sub $100,000 and you want to hit 6-figures, within the next 12 months, then I encourage you to book a fast track mentorship call with us and ask how we can support you. There are two ways to work with me, so make sure you share where you are now and what your goals are. You can go to thewbh.com/fasttrack to book your mentorship call.
As always thank you for listening and if you received value from this or any other podcast please get over to Itunes and leave a 5-star review. I really do appreciate it. When you do leave a review, make sure you send me a DM on Instagram to let me know so I can personally thank you. Ok, that’s all… see you in the next one.
Things We Mention In This Episode:
- Forbes Article by Eilene Zimmerman
- Women With Money written by Jean Chatzky
- L & L Morning Show episode where we talk about money and energy.
- Energy units
- Become familiar with your money story and work through it
- Freedom Mastermind
- What to track if you're business is making under $100,000
- What to track if you’re running a webinar
- What to track while running ads
- What to track if you're business is making between $100,000 and $1 million
- Planning for revenue
- Setting targets
- Cleaning up your business backend
- Investing in team growth
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Let’s Keep The Conversation Going…
Do you feel like you are stuck with a particular business idea, or are you fluid as things change? Have you been through a personal transformation that affected your business? I would love to hear all about it and I’m sure others would too. Comment below and share your story or visit me on Instagram which is currently my favourite way to connect.
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