Ep 76: How I Made an Extra £70K a month in just 7 Weeks

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Dawn:

Welcome to episode 76 of Dawn of a New Era, where I’m going to be sharing how I added a whopping 70K in recurring revenue in just seven weeks. Crazy, I know. And I, even myself, and honestly, this was something that I didn’t think we would hit. So if you’re sitting there thinking, “Oh my goodness, really?” Honestly, I promise, promise, promise that this is how it happened, I was as amazed and shocked as perhaps you are. But what I found is something really quite interesting because I was looking to switch out some of the work that I was doing on client contracts. Some of the contracts I’d had for maybe eight, nine years, some of the work I wasn’t feeling energetically was as much aligned anymore. And from a growth point of view, I just felt, actually, if we switched out what we were doing with them, and revised the type of work, then we would start getting various better results.

The Marketing Money Map

So I wanted to think, “Well, okay, now is the opportunity. Now I’ve decided I’m going to change my business model a little bit. How am I going to really ramp up my recurring revenue?” And the target, to be honest, was more 90 days, more a 12 weeks. And even that I thought was quite hard to replace recurring revenue, and certainly at the level of £70,000 additional, each and every month. Now, I teach a process called the Marketing Money Map, and I share this on our Marketing Mentorship Program. It’s a program that energetically I love, so it made sense that if I was switching things up, that I wanted to add more clients, work with more people, and really utilize the group for growth, but also to build as many different clients in, and have as many different cohorts, that would really help my clients flourish. So everything seemed like all roads were pointing to the mentorship program.

Look at the base foundation of your business

And marketing is my passion, I talk about my motivation and mindset, but the Money Map really draws into the models, the marketing and the money. So using this same process, this is how I added 70K in recurring in seven weeks. Because I look at what is the base foundation of any business. And what happens so often is that business owners, entrepreneurs, so full of inspiration and their innovators, that they’re full of ideas. Now, I always say to clients to draw everything back, make it simple and use the foundations first. Get those laid, get those solid, get them running, so that you can get to these consistent cash flow months where revenue is coming in consistently at the target, each and every month, without fail. Okay. So really hone in, be laser-focused on how is that going to happen? Use anything that comes into your mind and pop it in another list. Now, I call these the bricks. These are the things that can come after the foundational layer.

What is the one product or service that we could use to get consistent cash flow?

These are the things that we can build upon once we’ve got the business running. Once it’s sustainable, once it’s profitable, and once we’re taking out the money that we absolutely deserve. As business owners, we need to earn what we’re worth. When we started our business, freedom, flexibility, financial security, these were all goals, I’m sure, they certainly were for me. And how could we then use our own minds, our own growth, to build on those layers? So we skim everything back. We look at what is the one thing that’s really going to move the needle in the business? What is the one proposition, product or service that we could perhaps use to get this consistent cash flow? So normally, this is a recurring, okay. So if you can get something, and this could even be payment plans, it could be subscriptions, it could be retainers, however your business works, it’s drilling your main efforts into this foundational layer. The bit that can really change things up.

Now, for me, this was the Marketing Mentorship Program. Now, I charge a monthly fee, it’s a 12-month program. It’s high value, high results, but also it’s this recurring revenue. So I thought, “Well, okay, great. We’ll start moving our efforts, putting our marketing and our motivation into just one thing.” Now, I know that there’s certain activities that I would class in marketing as maintenance, and ones that I would look at that fill the pipeline. Now, every client that I’ve ever met, it generally is not a problem with their product, the proposition. There could be messaging issues, but generally, it’s all around marketing. It’s the fact that they’re spending time, money, and effort pushing cash into something that is not bringing in consistent, frequent leads, that are then, in turn, turning into profitable customers.

So if they’re spending time on social media, the connections aren’t making that transition and becoming clients, if they are doing social media and maybe SEO and writing blogs and increasing traffic. See, the thing is, it’s when you look at goals and you look at goals for your business, many of you may think, “Right, I want more traffic, and I want more followers. I want more leads,” but really, the heart of the matter is, you want more customers. If cash is king and you are looking to grow your business through sales revenue, you need to be looking at the activities that will push that in. Now, unfortunately, things like web traffic, or blogging, or doing your social media, don’t always translate quickly into cash. These are what I would call the bricks, that once you’ve got the foundation layer on, you start to push through. Now, that’s not to say that you’re not doing any social media.

We’re looking to shorten the sales cycle

You’re just maybe putting your efforts or your focus into specific actions in social media, things that are geared to get leads in. And ways that you can move that lead, not just maybe through free lead magnets or longer nurture series, but something that’s going to be a bit more instant. So what we’re looking to do here is shorten the sales cycle, we’re looking to drive customer action quickly, and get cash into the business. Now, makes sense, doesn’t it? But it’s so easy to get caught up in spending all our focus on the maintenance marketing, and trying to put brakes on before the foundation, or layers are there.

You need to get clear on your certainty numbers

Believe you me, and if this is true to your business, it is much easier to enter each month, knowing that your certainty number means that you are paying all the bills, you are covering all the costs of the business, you’re paying yourself, and ultimately, any new cash coming into the business is just profit. Certainty numbers are something I would urge you to get clear on. Knowing exactly what that number is, and how many of your products and services would it take to get to that point, so that you knew consistently every month that you had that cash flow coming in. Now, I’m breaking it down into a very simplistic way, but honestly, it is fairly straightforward once you get your head around it and you start to think about, okay, if I was selling something at £27 pounds versus £997, and it was even on a recurring, it’s going to be very difficult to get to a certain number.

So our Marketing Mentorship, let’s say, for argument’s sake, £1,000 a month, okay? That means that with 10 people, okay, you’ve got £10,000 coming in each and every month, for 12 months. So you can start to see the differences here. Okay. Even when I do retainer work. Okay, so I have my group coaching program, which is my mentorship, but I also do one-to-one coaching and mentoring programs too. So let’s say, I add in another 10 clients, okay, at £1,500, £2000. Okay. Well, again, they’re on a three or a six or 12-month contract, let’s say, for argument’s sake. That starts to build this cash layer. So what I’m saying is, is that there’s a few things I want you to focus on.

Looking at what your certainty number is, and then looking at your actual business model, your products, your services, your actual proposition, what you are selling, and how many clients you would need because it is really tough, really tough to go into a month and think, “Right, I’ve got to find 10 new clients, first of all, to pay the bills. Then I’ve got to find another 10 clients to pay myself,” or to pay your team. You need to get to a point where you have this foundation layer of business where it’s recurring. And it’s not instant as in quick. But I managed to get to 70K in seven weeks, I have done this for many clients since. And the exciting thing is, is that everything changes. You imagine stepping into that, knowing that you have your certainty number covered and every new client that month is profit. That is a gamechanger, that brings you back to the feeling, the purpose of why you started your business in the first place.

Focus on the marketing

Financial security, freedom, flexibility, being able to walk out the door and spend time with the people that are important to you, spending time doing things that are important to you, things that enrich your life, okay. This is about balance. And if you get this right, if you can really understand your numbers, and you can understand how many clients you would need, and you start to then focus on the marketing that moves the needle. Well, let’s say you’ve got your model sorted, you know that you’ve got a couple of things that you can do, be it group or one-to-one, that are recurring. Okay. So you start to bring those in slowly. Even only two, three clients a month, that’s a big difference. Okay. So this doesn’t have to be massive numbers, and this is what I love about it. It can feel totally achievable because the next bit you’ve got to focus on is the marketing.

Now, if you spend all your time doing things that don’t directly bring leads in fast, okay, then maybe you need to switch those out, and think of those as your bricks. Remember, the foundation layer are things that move the needle quickly. So for me, it’s all about emulating what’s working now through my online marketing. So I know if I can host an event face to face, that’s a really high converting medium for me. I know if I have a meeting with someone, then that’s, again, a really high converting way of getting leads into my business and converting, okay. So how do I do this online? Well, one of the great things is, is I do a weekly roundtable, I do a monthly masterclass. So this monthly workshop attracts a fair number of people. Again, my round table is invite only, so it’s small numbers. But it’s really, really important for my business. These are the two activities that, each and every day, me and all of my team focus on. Not numbers, we focus on just those targets.

So not the financials, but how many people have we got in the masterclass? How many people are coming to the roundtable? And what is the call to action for those two things? It is a call. Because I know that me and my team, once we jump on a call, after those people have been on a masterclass, or they’ve been on a roundtable, they’ve seen the demo, they’ve had a deep dive conversations, that these people can understand what I can bring and my businesses can bring to them. So it’s a really good way of obviously warming up your leads, showing them how amazing you are, or the expert you are in your field, and then getting them onto a call. And again, you don’t need massive numbers. You don’t need hundreds of calls. You’re not going to be selling on a masterclass, you’re not going to be selling on a roundtable, but you’re going to get them on a call.

Now, these people who do the call, they, in turn, will be filling in an application. So they’ve gone through a lot of hurdles. They’re very warm and very receptive because by the time they got on the call, they pretty much know what they want to do. And you’ve done all the things in terms of positioning, the pricing of your products and services. So affordability and price, isn’t even a discussion. So these become a really great way of qualifying and converting your client base. So my summary to today’s podcast, my wish is two things for you. If you get your certainty number right, and you really match your proposition to it, then there’s a big difference can be made, because we know how many of these recurring items we can sell. Now, the reason I go for recurring is it’s much nicer to walk into the month, as I say, with that money coming in. And then, of course, you can have individual products.

You can have indeed lower ticket items, but they are the bricks that go on the foundations. Okay. And then in the marketing side of things, choose the activities that are currently generating leads, that are currently driving new clients into your business and do more of that. And ditch the other things for now. And only move past into doing more marketing, using other ways of reaching your ideal audience, once you’ve got that foundation there, once you’ve got this consistent, monthly revenue going through. Now, I would absolutely love to find out more about you, so please hop on social media, tell me about your businesses, tell me if you go through and try anything you hear in my podcasts. Now, on all of my websites, dawnmcgruer.com, digitalandsocialmediaacademy.com, there are an abundance, honestly, of free resources.

Things that can really help you scale and grow your business and even start a new business. Now, if you want to come and talk to me, and you want to find out more about how we can work together, by all means, this is the magic of online marketing, because you can be listening to this at any time. If you go into any of my sites, you can book a call with me direct, and talk to me about your strategy because where I come into play, yes, I work in online marketing, yes, I am known for digital marketing, but the ethos of everything I do is I’m a business strategist. What I’m aiming to do for mine, my client’s businesses is, to scale and grow them.

But remember, bring it back to the purpose, why we started our businesses in the first place. Remember that each and every day, the financial security, the freedom, the flexibility, the joy of our lives. We only live once, so it’s an important time to take a step back and think, is my business working for me in a way that lights me up? A way that is easy and it flows and brings me joy each and every day? And if it is great, let’s do more of it. But if it isn’t, let’s switch things up and step into the next 30 days in a whole new way. So I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and I will catch up with you on the next one. But don’t forget, follow me and check out all the free resources on our site.

Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era Podcast, and for your free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit, and success, and join our community, go to dawnmcgruer.com.