Ep 82: How to Achieve Consistent Cash Months

Ep 82: How to Achieve Consistent Cash Months

In this week’s episode, I am going to cover the most asked question by any business owner, how do you achieve consistent cash months? This has been the biggest transformation for my business and will be for any business. 

When I first started my business when I was only 21 years old, I was in the feast and famine cycle which is incredibly stressful. There was a lot of pressure to find new clients in order to pay myself, pay the bills and become a sustainable business.

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Here are the highlights from this episode:

(05:47) Marketing, motivation and mindset

(07:24) I’ve got a 90-day plan

(09:20) Visibility

(10:35) The model

(14:55) Make sure you are spending your time and money on the right things

Check out all episodes here

 

Welcome to Dawn of a New Era, a business and marketing podcast with a difference, ranking in the top 5% globally for people who want to start, scale and grow their own business. Dawn McGruer shares tips to improve marketing, motivation and mindset, as well as our own real life challenges and experiences as an entrepreneur.

 

Guests include some of the world’s most inspiring leaders too. So if you are an aspiring, established or serial entrepreneur, this is your go-to podcast to fast track results and rise to meet today’s challenges and master the art of online influence and business success, and avoid common pitfalls along the way. Never miss an episode and subscribe and listen at dawnmcgruer.com.

Dawn:

Welcome to Dawn of a New Era with myself, Dawn McGruer, digital marketing strategist, author, and trainer. Now in this podcast we’re going to cover the most asked question in history by any business owner. I must be asked this question literally millions of times in a year and it’s the heart of everything, because it is the biggest transformation of any business. Now, what is this episode about? It’s going to cover how to achieve consistent cash months.

 

Now, what do I mean by consistent cash months? Now, if I go back to let’s say when I was 21 starting my first business. I can tell you I did not have consistent cash months and where was I at? I was in this cycle and the cycle was very much the feast and the famine. And yes, I would have some success. Yes, I would get some clients. Yes, I’d get paid some good money. But on the other hand, I literally was going through these awful cycles like so stressful, so much effort and pain going into these months knowing that I had to find new clients because I needed to get cash in to pay myself, to pay bills, to survive and to be a sustainable business.

 

This was the whole cycle and it just felt like the more effort I put in, the more burnt out I got, the more stuck I felt. I was overwhelmed. I just felt like literally I was failing and it was a horrible, horrible time because I knew I could do really well. I knew what I was doing for my clients was amazing. And if you can relate to this and you have been through it, you know what it’s like. There is no bigger stress than money. It’s so heartbreaking when you know that you are amazing at what you do and that the results that you get, be it through your product or service or whatever, is fantastic, but how do you build that bridge? How do you get out of that place?

 

Because once you’re stuck and I can tell you that there was times where I just thought I would just pack it all in, and I would just get a job, it’s hard to get out of being stuck. If you feel under pressure, what happens is you start to make decisions that are more emotional, less objective and less rational. You operate from a zone within that is not the best decision-making process because you’re making more rash decisions because you’re just thinking like, “Okay, well, how do I get out of this? If I try this, if I do this, the more I put in, the more effort I do,” and then in turn, you just get more and more tired.

 

And I’ve met so many business owners even in the past week who have come to me and said, “Dawn, I just literally do not know what to do.” I start to talk to them about strategy. I start to talk to them about where they’re feeling. And it comes down to the three core things, like marketing, yeah, they need help with. They want to spend less time, money, effort on the marketing like most people do, and get even better results. So you want to feel like the effort you’re putting in is absolutely having impact, so each ounce of effort is like driving a result, boosting your business forward.

Marketing, motivation and mindset

Now, the other side, which is the most important, is the motivation and mindset, because what happens is mindset blockers start to build. You start to feel that your confidence is dropping because you start to feel that you are a failure you start to feel. These are all things that you’re feeling. They’re not truth. They’re just where you’re at, at that precise moment. Do you know what is magical is that small, steady tweaks, small steady steps like drive this big momentum of change. And even within seven days, I know that a client can be operating from a different place within. And it just takes sometimes unraveling some of that mess, that jumble in your mind, talking it through and getting clarity.

 

Now, I studied business performance right back at the beginning of my career. And I go back to this all of the time, because as a business performance coach, I am geared at making sure that each of my clients is building a business that they want, that is aligned to their dreams and goals, because quite honestly or quite often, this is not the truth. Because I see people who are running a business but their heart’s not in it because it’s not really what they enjoy.

 

And you might think, “Well, you’re stuck doing it.” You’re not. You can change direction. You can navigate out of this. I’ve had to do it several times in my career, but when you start to chart out the business, the heart of the matter is getting consistent cash months, and it’s about having three things in place. Yes, the marketing, the motivation, and the mindset. But as part of this strategy, you need to make sure that, yes, the marketing is absolutely driving you towards each goal and it’s aligned to the right objective. But the right objective, it’s following the right things that are going to actually achieve what your dreams and goals are.

 

Let’s say that you wanted to have more time, you set your business up. It was a big thing for me to not be in that corporate grind, to be able to have space, to have feeling, just look at my diary and know that it’s my choice to do what I want, and to really design my day. That has been the biggest, biggest success in my life over everything. And then that in turn gives me this feeling of space and flexibility so that I can change things up. I get bored quite quickly and the thought of having something in my diary all the time makes me feel a little bit kind of tied so I can change things, I can move things, and I am in full control of my destiny.

 

And if I don’t like my week, it’s my fault, so I start to declutter, I start to delegate, I start to move my life and my business into a world of design. Now, that sounds great, but when you’re in a position of stuck and you aren’t generating the cash, you’re not getting the clients, then cash flow is going to be tight. So you might think, “Well, I don’t have that luxury, Dawn, to change my diary.” The weird thing is, is that when you start to change that, you start to change your mindset, your motivation changes, everything changes.

I’ve got a 90-day plan

And for me if I know that I’ve got a 90-day plan in place and I’ve got a strategy, I feel like I’ve got this certainty. I feel like I’ve got this guiding star. And this is what I always say to my clients that I am for them. I’m like the guiding star. I’m like the support system, the ecosystem that kind of makes things flow. And it’s true because when I’ve hired coaches in the past, that’s what I needed. If I’m stuck in a state of kind of like flux and I just don’t know what to do, sometimes when I talk it out and I start to think about things, I start to actually feel better. I feel like because I’m taking action, I’m in control. Does that make sense?

 

For me, if you think about getting your plan in place, one of the biggest things you can do is get it all documented. Start to think about the things you’re doing. As I go into this next quarter, I am so excited because, number one, I am doing a three-day free training, my CEO Success Bootcamp where basically if you join that, you’ve got midday, every day for three days, 60 minutes is all I’m asking of your time, and you’ll walk away with a 90-day plan to absolutely nail the last quarter.

 

This is about getting more clients, but really freeing up the time, and getting control of your life, and business, and growing a business, and scaling a business that aligns to what you want is authentic to you, and ultimately gives you what you wanted as an entrepreneur anyway. If you’re a coach, you’re a consultant, you’re a business owner, come and join. Just go and visit dawnmcgruer.com. You will see the link on there and sign up. Now, if you are listening to this past September 2022, go to the website. There are loads of free masterclasses and resources and things you can join.

Visibility

So let me go back to consistent cash months. How did I get from feast and famine to consistent cash months? And I’ll tell you exactly what I did. I started to look, number one, at my visibility. I started to really hone in on who could see me, what was my outgoing marketing? What was my incoming marketing? What I mean by this is what was working for me while I slept, how were people finding me, and what was I having to do myself? Could I automate some of it? Could I really look at my customer journey, get my understanding of my ideal client nailed so much that my messaging, everything I was doing every time I showed up was just building this resignation, building this relationship with my audience so that people start to come to me automatically?

 

It was about clarity, it was about really honing in on who I was, what I did, what were the outcomes and who it’s for, and really understanding that piece. And that is something that if you can just get onto a piece of paper and you go back every time you maybe do an email, a social media post, a blog, and try and think about the purpose, the message, the story tell that you are giving so that whoever’s reading it feels like this is for me. This is exactly what I need and start to gear it.

The model

So marketing and having that positioning is a big piece. The model is probably the biggest piece that changed my world into consistent cash months, because I was on this one-to-one model. I still love one-to-one, yeah, but I have one-to-many as well. I do group coaching. I do one-to-one coaching. I have training courses. I have qualifications. I started to build a mix that was a way I could work, looking at my working days and the times I had available what I could do. So I focused on one thing at a time.

 

I looked at one-to-one, then I’ve started working on one-to-many. I started then thinking about courses and programs and things like that. Now, I started things like the bootcamp, the CEO Success Bootcamp, because it’s an amazing way for me to connect with my audience. And I know that one of the biggest pain points is that they need to create a plan and this might be you listening to this podcast. And most people once they have the action steps of the strategy in place, they can go and implement, and they can see success quite quickly. So there’ll be a certain amount of people who will come and do that, then some people will join my four-week live program, which is my CEO Strategy School.

 

Now, I don’t mind if people don’t join that, because I know I’ve given so much value in that free session, those three things that people will know what I do, how I can help, and how I’ve helped them, most importantly. Then a percentage of people go on to join and then people will then come on to our new coaching certification, which is going to be an absolute game changer for us as a business to be able to offer something.

 

For many years since 2005, we’ve had an academy, we are Chartered Institute of Marketing accredited. All of our courses are CPD accredited, continuous professional development, and it’s level six. People go to Westminster, they wear a cap and gowns, they graduate with the CIM diploma in professional digital marketing. And the next step for them if they want to is to get master’s. So we’ve always given our heart to giving people the skills.

 

So where my model came into play is that I focused on purely empowering my clients to scale their businesses through the power of online marketing and social media. That was the thing I did, the transition using courses, using qualifications, using marketing mentorship programs, working with clients one-to-one. And the end result was always to make sure they’re either accelerating their career, growing and scaling their businesses. But it was a very cohesive model because everything was adapted and tweaked for whoever was doing it.

 

If you were a team or an individual, or you were a freelancer or a coach, a consultant, a course creator, there was something in the mix for the people that I was working with. And I was very clear on what product and service matched the needs of my ideal client. And again, as the business grew, I started to see the consistent cash months come into pay because my model and my pricing was aligned. I have always marketed my high-ticket items and spent all my time and effort on money on those. And anyone who’s not ready to do those, they don’t feel like they’re missing out. Why? Because I’ve created other items in the mix that are the vehicle, the accelerated, the route to get to that piece.

 

And for me, it’s always been like the aspirational kind of point where people say, “Dawn, there’s one day, I’m going to join your marketing mentorship program so I’m going to start off here. I’m going to do this course.” Do they feel less valued? Of course they don’t. They feel absolutely held and supported because they know what I do. They know I spend time marketing here, but I’ve not left a gap. I’ve given them this roadmap to success, this seven-step route to get to this point.

Make sure you are spending your time and money on the right things

So people can start off with three things. They can do podcasts, they can do books, they can do bundles, and start with lower cost items to really start working on their business. But they’re not going to get any less success. They’re just in a different part of their journey. And this is why it’s so important that when you build your business and you want to get to consistent cash months, make sure you are spending your time and money on the right things. And if you have lots of different things, that’s fine. You can sell those in the nurture emails. You can sell those in the journey when people come into your world. You can use free things like masterclasses or it could be a free guide.

 

All of those things will give people the roadmap, the path. And this is something that I have spent a lot of time creating because I wanted to make sure that I understood my customer journey so well that when people met me, they understood, “Dawn, yeah, absolutely digital marketing is her thing. She works with businesses to scale them and to grow them. And this is all done through empowering people through either courses, qualifications, or mentoring, and three things.”

 

If you go onto dawnmcgruer.com, you will see that we have a little area that says Work with Me and we’ve charted the different things, always three. If you go to my academy, digitalandsocialmediaacademy.com, same thing. On the homepage tells you that we do certification, qualification mentoring. So it’s a very consistent and cohesive way, but people can see exactly what they get, they can see the roadmap. And when people start to work with me then, I put my time and effort on the higher scale, but also the recurring revenue item. So that means that when I walk into a month, I know what my forecast of cash is. So this becomes an easier way of working.

 

So I really hope this podcast has kind of charted out a little bit more about consistent cash months. I would love for you to come and join me. Remember, come to dawnmcgruer.com. If it is September 2022 when you’re listening to this, come and join the CEO Success Bootcamp, the 6th to 8th of September, it’s free to join, three days, 60-minute strategy sessions to absolutely nail your night to day plan.

 

And if you’re listening afterwards, there are loads of free resources on my website. So just head on over to dawnmcgruer.com and I guarantee there’s always going to be a free guide, free masterclass, or other ways you can really upscale your business so that you can have the business that you dreamt of. So see you on the next podcast and don’t forget to come and follow me, dawnmcgruer.com.

 

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.

 

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Dawn McGruer's Marketing * Motivation * Mindset Group

Speaker. Author. Podcaster. Strategist.

Multi-award-winning speaker, strategist & best-selling author of Dynamic Digital Marketing - Helping to inspire entrepreneurs to rise to meet today’s challenges and be powerfully present to shine online.

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