My 2011 By the Numbers (kinda-sorta)/ Why You Don’t Need Big Bucks to Get Referrals / How One Person Can Change Your Biz Landscape
Last year, I gave you this. This year, I give you this:
I hesitated putting this out there (hence the January 12th post), but something pulled me towards it. There was so much of it that was eye-opening for me, and when something’s eye-opening for me, then I automatically think of you kids. While I was uncomfortable posting it with the numbers exposed, it feels good to have ‘em blurred but still show you (a) how my revenue streams play out and (b) how much of my money comes from personalized coaching! When I saw that about $10K of my entire “salary” was from non-coaching streams….I might’ve hyperventilated a bit. I already knew I was cutting my client sessions from a 30-40/mo to 10-ish a month (as it stands, I’ll be doing 10-20/mo ’til May at the earliest), and my brain started reeling. How can I cut my coaching by more than half and still meet my financial goals for 2012 (yes, I have a number in mind that’s about 35% higher than what I made in 2011)?! Thankfully, the newfound hippy-dippy in me starting breathing regularly again when I placed trust in raising my rates and prepping for my Clubhouse (opening on Tue the 17th!). I started thinking about the time I’d have to write – blog posts, workbooks, book proposals, books – and do virtual workshops and, well, anything I fancy with the extra “whitespace” I have by not coaching 30-ish hours a week. The opportunity I have to bump up the money I make from my “extras” (as I sometimes see ‘em) is pretty infinite, and I’m actually really excited to take on that challenge and see what happens (while still taking Care).
Last April I signed up for Freckle. Even though I don’t bill my clients hourly, I took them up on a free 30-day trial to see where my time was going. Of course, it totally hooked me, and I’ve been using Freckle incessantly ever since. When the end of the year hit, I ran a report for the entire year, around both my projects and my tags. As you can see, the projects (above) are broader (although I have ‘em by private client, I placed ‘em all together for these purposes) while the tags themselves are more specific. At least I can see that I’m spending more time consistently servicing my biggest moneymaker: my coaching clients! I spent about 611 hours on their work – the sessions themselves, set-up and follow-up – but then it was interesting to see that social media is my #2 time-taker. Blogging, tweeting, newslettering and Facebooking took 144-ish hours, and I get paid nada con nada for that! Yes, I know it’s where/how I find a lot of clients, but….it seems excessive/unsmart in some way. It’s something I don’t wanna ramp down this year, but something I wanna do smarter.
I made this brand-new last month, going over all my numbers from 2010 and makin’ a handy-dandy at-a-glance chart to see what I could, um, see. And as you can probably, uh, see – August is consistently my killer month! It also made me realize that, even though I can see how much money is coming in each month and I categorize it out, I don’t track my purchases month-by-month….so I’m not sure what I do in August that I don’t do otherwise! I do know that it’s usually the start of my fall Operations!…but other than that, I’m not sure what I’m selling more of or what magic fairy visits my PayPal account each August. While I take a Business Building Day each month to count my moolah and figure out client averages and demographics and whatnot, I just added a whole slew of stuff to my Magic Formula Google Doc (which is where the Magic lives) to include stuff like how many Operations! applications came in that month and how many Running Over Resolution Roadblocks sold and how many people switched from Team Coolness to Team Badass (which’ll make sense on Tuesday when you get to know aaaaaaaaall about the amazeballsness of my Clubhouse!). While it looks real laborious at first site, I know my main platforms (Batchbook, Outright and PayPal) will make running reports and gettin’ info easy-breezy. And see those extra lines up there at the top? I’m reachin’, baby, I’m reachin’!
Aaaaaaaaand here’s where my where-my-clients-and-consultation-call-people-come-from stands! I was actually super surprised to see that my PR efforts – namely being a guest (on blogs, telesummits, e-courses, etc) and giving interviews – has gone the farthest (big fat note for those who think they can’t launch a biz without shelling out the big bucks: all those PR opps I got myself and didn’t pay a cent for). I love seeing that my personal connections are a close second, namely friends, colleagues, and other people who tell people ’bout me via word-of-mouth. The Blog category that came in third was for those that said they read about me on someone’s blog, and that could probably be under the same category as Social Media, but I separated it out (Social Media being Twitter and Facebook for me). Again, free referrals! I wanna disclose that if ya look at my referrals by the specific – as in “NameOfPersonHere” or “NameOfWebsiteHere” – I got the most from general web searches (which floors me), followed by Etsy, and then – ready for this? – Alexandra Franzen. Seriously, work with one big-time rock-star who people love and respect, and you’ll be set for life. (THANK YOU ALEXANDRA!)
What did ya learn from my numbers/lessons? What are you gonna do differently with your biz now? Let me know what you’re taking away and what you’re taking action on in the comments below! Hey, I’ve spent 4 hours on this post because I had to run lots of the numbers and kept getting more and more ideas for my monthly Business Building Day – and I hope it’s done the same for you!
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Tags: Kick in the Knickers, Michelle's Memoirs, Powerful Productivity
January 12th, 2012 at 7:56 am
Oh wow, seeing the detail of records you have puts me to shame… eek… I have no issues doing my taxes each year with ease… but the level of detail that you have for actually evaluating the business and what's worth it or not, etc… that's power there. I'm definitely wanting to find a way to track in a manner – not just for tax purposes – but for useful moving forward purposes, if that makes sense. Thanks so much for sharing a peek into your business process – propssss!
January 12th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Thank you for sharing this Michelle! It takes guts to be this transparent and open–and it is so helpful and interesting to me. By the by, Alexandra Franzen provided the final push I needed to hire you. I had read about you before (thanks Google search!) on your site, but when I did a little info interviewing with her, she mentioned you and that was what sealed the deal. Here's to an awesome 35% more 2012! You totally deserve it.
January 12th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Bah! I love this stuff. Thanks for sharing, Michelle.
January 12th, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Oh, Michelle, this could not have come at a better time for me since one of my big goals for January is to set myself up with some systems to get a good handle on 2012 — I wanna be this on top of things this time next year! (or next month…)
Thanks for the push!
January 12th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
I'm so honored to be your #1 referral bunny of 2011!
Do I get a t-shirt with your face on it, in a giant glow-in-the-dark heart? Just kidding. I think.
You deserve all the attention, and so much mo'!
xoxo.
:: A
January 12th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
This is fantastic – what I love is the simplicity of your graphs. They don't need to be fancy-pancy to help you see patterns and GROWTH! I just did my 2011 numbers after avoiding them for a few weeks, and I was pleasantly surprised! It's a nice reality check to realize 'yepp. I am making it work.' What type of work did you do with Alexandra? I've been considering working with her – in what way did you partner with her?
January 12th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
I love these posts Michelle. Thank you so much for sharing your business in this way – I think it's really valuable.
January 12th, 2012 at 7:14 pm
super affirming and very timely! I know that word-o-mouth is the main source of my referrals, and that I'm reluctant to spend time, energy and $ on "traditional marketing." This vision for tracking and supporting what does work (like getting myself out there with the other cool kids!) is EXACTLY where I want and need to be…and now: to document that in 2012!
January 12th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
This is so great to have someone willing to put all their stats and scheming out there! The world of solopreneurship can sometimes seem a little mystical so posts like these that create a little clarity are super special!
January 13th, 2012 at 1:04 am
This is amazing Michelle! But wow, did it teach me that I am NOT a numbers person even more than I knew…I can barely digest all your stats and keep engaged. That's a great tidbit for me to keep in mind if I decide to start my own venture again. Thanks!!
January 13th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
[...] in my blog-reading tracks this afternoon on Alexandra Franzen’s recent post (discovered via Michelle yesterday). They are great ways for me to refocus when the costs for incorporating Jess LC, paying [...]
January 15th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Ohmygosh, this is sooooo not meant to make anyone feel bad….I just really love numbers/averages/figures/charts/pies/graphs when it comes to my business!
And yes, while the numbers are there for the tax man, everything else is there for me. It's actually easier to ignore it, but then it's harder to see what's working and build on it, and that's what we life coaches live for 
January 15th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Ohmygosh, I don't think I knew that! Alexandra is just the amazingest, and I'm so super lucky to have her in my corner. I'm so glad she brought up together, Lauren!
January 15th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Ha! My pleasure, Laura!
January 15th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
Of course, dah-ling! And you know you can pick my brain whenever you damn want.
January 15th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
I think it's the opposite. I need a glow-in-the-dark tee with *your* face on it! That would be adorbs (even if a bit scary).
You = the best. Thank you, thank you, thank you, my dear!
January 15th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
"I just did my 2011 numbers after avoiding them for a few weeks, and I was pleasantly surprised!" I feel that way more often that not! And seriously, when you're looking at numbers in business, I feel like it's never a boring/hair-pulling chore, because I'm sooooooo curious to see how well that month worked for me (or not)!
Alexandra was a coaching client of mine back in Jan of 2010. We worked together for 12 sessions, and the rest is history
January 15th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Thanks for comments like this, Kari! Makes the sharing very worthwhile.
January 15th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Ooh, but I really like that you *know* word-of-mouth is best for you, ripelife – so instead of spending the time/energy/$ on ads or whatnot, it would probably make more sense for ya to focus on how to spread the word quicker/easier….there are so many ways to entice your former/current clients!
January 15th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Oh, yay! I also do an I Quit My Day Job video update once a month-ish, so hopefully those are helpful, too! You can find 'em all here: http://whenigrowupcoach.com/tag/i-quit-my-day-job…
January 15th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Absolutely, Addie! That's why delegation was invented
Although I have to say there's great power in knowing where your money/people are coming from. Maybe you can get someone else to run the numbers for ya and give ya a short report with the findings! Ooh, whadda great business idea for someone….
January 17th, 2012 at 9:20 am
You make me want to make charts for MY business, too! I love that they're color-coded (obviously!)– thanks for sharing this, my friend!! Oh, and you'll totally hit your 2012 $$ goal, I have no doubt in my mind.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
So, I don't know if this is something you'd be interested in doing, but I would la-la-looooove to see a post about the PR type things you do! Most of the information I see on "guesting" places is geared towards the making-money-blogging niche, which is really easy to find places to guest for…but I have a harder time finding places that seem aligned with me and likely to, you know, actually want me to guest there
January 19th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Your charts would be the purdiest!
January 19th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Ooh, thanks for the suggestion, Michelle! It’s on like Donkey Kong. Expect the post within the next 2 weeks.