My 3 Step Success Plan

Welcome to episode 113 with myself, Dawn McGruer, the business growth coach. And in this extra special podcast episode today, I'm going to be sharing something that I have never shared before, and this is my three simple step success plan. And this is really special because I do this all of the time, and I carry this plan with me every single day. And I use cards.

Some of you may have heard my podcast before talking about how I like to plan, how I don't use notebooks, and if I do put anything in a notebook, I take it out and I try and implement that learning, that thought into something, and then I rip the pages out and throw them away so that all my notebooks are blank and that everything is in place. Now, this is key to the three simple step plan because first of all, when I planned out my new year, my 2024, I start around about September the year before, and I write out my plan. And I carry this with me on a piece of card, as I say, each and every day. And, you know, once it gets to a point where it needs revamping or it needs to be adapted dynamically because things have evolved, and this could be things that I've added to or changed or switched up because I've actually hit that goal already.

So how does it look, and how on earth can you create a whole business plan in three simple steps? Well, the problem is with business plans is a lot of people will talk about what they want to do, and they get really excited, and then they get buried in the weeds. They go away and start working on things, and there's a delay in implementation. And sometimes the implementation never, ever occurs because the plan is so grand and so big that clarity is kind of lost.

Now, what that means is, is that when confusion sets in, it becomes unclear how you're going to look at achieving that specific dream or hit that money goal or whatever it is you're trying to achieve. So we have to break it down, and we have to make it so clear, so simple that we have Almost this kind of like vision in our head every waking moment of what we're doing, how we're doing it, why we're doing it, of course, and so that it feels that we're stepping, you know, one stage closer each and every day to actually hitting that target. Now, what happens, and I see this so many times, people host big planning days, they go and set themselves planning weeks, and they get so into their head, into all of the things that they want to do, and they start brain dumping. Now, I would absolutely encourage to do that, but I would brain dump and put it aside, because with your business plan, there's always an overarching goal.

There's always something that is the facilitator to the growth, and then the other things can happen after that. Now, what I mean here is, is with your business plan, we look at the foundation. We look at what is the absolute biggest thing that needs to happen. That's almost like the catalyst or the foundation to the building of the business and the brand that allows the other things and the opportunities that we want to do, that we brain dumped on the other piece of paper, to happen.

So we have to be clear that not every opportunity is for right now. And the great thing is, is if you brain dump it, you save it, you know you're in control, you know it can happen at some time in the future. But what we want to do here is, with the three-step simple plan, is really look at what is going to be the big overarching success that is going to take you to that next level. So I always think about the bigger goal, and when I was doing mine for this year, I started to think about kind of the monetary goal.

And business is not all about money, but let's be absolutely frank and honest here that when people say, Let's not talk about money. We are running a business that has to have profit, right? So it has to feature somewhere in that conversation. It's not about being crass.

It's not about posting on social media, but it's about being clear about your numbers and actually knowing that if you're running a business, not a charity, that it has to make a profit to be sustainable, to be successful, and to be, obviously, this next level of growth or business that facilitates you achieving why you became an entrepreneur, why you started your business. Because we need money to take us to those next levels. Now, what I'm saying here is, is that your money goal will be specific and relative to you. And this is not about big figures.

If you want to make £100, £1,000, £100,000, £100 million, become a billionaire, trillionaire, whatever, it doesn't matter, right? Your number is your number. So no one's saying that you have to build this huge six, seven, eight, nine-figure business, okay, that we see this all around the world. Your business is at a stage where it is right now.

Everyone started at ground zero. Everyone started earning absolutely zip. We've all been there, right? Well, then we have to get our first client.

Then we have to get our three clients or our next five clients, okay? Everyone started at that place. So wherever you are in your journey, set your money goal accordingly to what is actually achievable. So if you're just starting your business, don't get drawn into all of this social media hype.

Do what you want to do and set a goal that feels completely right in your head and in your heart. Success comes from the soul, and we have to feel truly aligned to what we're doing. So when I set my big goal, it doesn't have to be that it's a big figure, okay? I set whatever my big goal is, and I go for my audacious goal.

Yeah, I push the boundaries slightly, but it has to feel that it's doable. And how do I know that? Well, the bit that people start to do is plan. They get into this 12-month business plan, and they start to write so much detail.

And then you're 12 pages on, and who the hell knows what's happening, how it's happening, or when it's happening? It has become so complex that it's become a beast. It becomes to a point where it is untacklable. So what happens is, is that when we see something, it becomes very hard if it's in this huge document to kind of take that vision and make it reality.

So what we need to do, if you love doing big plans, that's great, okay? Whatever floats your boat. But for me, I like to work in a more dynamic, fluid way where we are closer to the goal. Everything feels more simple, more in flow, and more achievable.

And then we build on those foundations, okay? So we have one big kind of opportunities, everything that would delight us on one piece of paper, and then we focus on the three-step plan. So have a think about how this works for you. And my big goal I start off with is what I want to do for the year.

Now, I probably would start off with a monetary goal, first of all, to kind of think, right, okay, what do I need to do to kind of hit that next level of success? And that's all coming from what I want to do in my life, you know, what I want to do in terms of travel, if I want to spend money on something, if I wanted to invest in something, okay? I have to come from an honest point where, you know, I need money to do certain things, okay? So the bigger goal will be a breakdown of everything that you know you want in your business, you want in your life, and you want to pull together.

So if you think about it, if there's lots of different things, you kind of look at your 12 months and think, right, okay, I want to do this, this, and this. You cost everything out. We have to come at it from a maths point of view because that's how the world goes round, and we have to get into the devil in the detail. So what I do is— I look at my big goal, and then I start to break it down per month over the 12 months.

That's like step two. And once I've kind of got a chart here, I've got this big figure at the top, I've got a kind of a monthly, then I break it down into like weekly, daily, hourly. I start thinking about all of my product stack, my services, everything that I do, and then how that breaks down. So the devil really is in the detail here, because I need to know exactly what the costs are for my business, to know what profit margin I need to hit.

Having a revenue figure is not good enough, because this is where people find it really difficult to scale, because you can earn money, but if you're spending lots of money and your profit is really squeezed, then you'll probably get to a point in your business where you're not being able to take the money out that you really, really want to do. So as a business owner, one of the things we want to be able to do is maybe take dividends. We want to maybe take more money out each month, or increase the salary, or whatever we're taking. We want to have that ability.

So profit margin is key. So in the devil in the detail, I break down, obviously, the revenue, but I also break down the costs, and then I start to work out what kind of profit margin that would give me. Now, for my business, a service-based business, I want to work about 80%, and, you know, a good business would be working at 40%. 80% on service-based is really achievable because you're not having to invest in things like products or fulfillment and things like that.

So I go for an 80%, and I start to see how my figures balance. And this is the key here. The third part is how I'm going to do it. You know, is it actually achievable?

I would say out of every 10 business plans I look at, nine...

Actually are unachievable. And the sad thing is, is that having a plan and just writing it down doesn't make it happen. You have to have something that is truly, you know, easy and, you know, in your mind that you know that you can actually achieve. So when we look at how to do that, I know that if I've done all my calculations, that I've got an easy amount of clients, for instance, so it could be for an entire year, I might take on eight one-to-ones.

I might take on an additional one or two on top of that if I felt that that worked out okay. But I might start at the figure of eight, and over a year that doesn't feel too hard. But the thing is here is you have to work out when you're going to take these people in. Now I tend to, at the beginning of the year, take on a number of clients.

New Year is always a big time for me in terms of people really keen to kind of get that next level of success and get their business scaling. So I would take on a percentage of clients, look at how many I've got, and then I would always try and keep to whatever the figure I kept to. So if I'd worked with a client for 12 months and they came off, I'd go, right, I've got a space to fill. So I wouldn't be looking to fill all eight at one time.

I would break it into different periods of time of the year. And then I would look at what I wanted to do maybe for recurring revenue. So I always work with people for a year. It's always the way that works.

So if I brought in people in my masterminds, I have lots of different mastermind groups. Some are virtual, some meet up, and we go on retreats. I have a maximum amount of people I can have, so I would work out exactly where everyone's dates were for expiry, see who's going to be renewing, and then I would set a target there. Now the key here is, is that when I look at my growth, the fastest way to scale your business is recurring revenue.

And if I look to maybe add in another sort of Let's say another group that came into my 100K challenge every month, that might only be three or four clients. That seems really achievable over a period of months. I might even decide, like, you know, I would double that if I felt it was achievable. But for me, I always like to work with small numbers of clients.

I like to work deeply with clients as an extension of the business, almost like a virtual business partner. So even if someone's working with me one-to-one or a mastermind, they're getting the absolute best of me for a period of time because the process that we take people through has to come in a sequence for scaling, and there is a specific strategy for each person. We break that down into 90-day cycles, and then obviously after a year, if people choose to stay on, they can. Now, when I think about recurring for shorter periods of time, so if someone did a 90-day challenge with me, so if they did the 100K in 90 days, then I can work out how many clients I can take, how many groups I can give my best to during that period of time.

And these people I might take in on a monthly basis, whereas in the one-to-ones, it might be every quarter. You know, I take on a couple of clients here and there. So it feels very light. And if I thought to myself, right, okay, I might take on, let's say, you know, six 100K clients a month, and that's maybe two groups, and I might take on, you know, between six to eight or maybe 10 growth coaching clients who are doing the certification, which again is a 12-week, so 90-day cycle.

It feels quite light. So really, I always like to operate around about sort of thinking, well, you know, if I brought on eight new clients a month for me, established business owner, that feels quite easy. That's two a week. That means that, you know, generally how we're going to be recruiting people into the business in terms of getting to know them, people will probably have maybe see me on social media, they might see adverts, and generally all of them will be going through some sort of process whereby they'll find out more about what I do, could be through a video or sales pages, and we use that marketing funnel to nurture and build the relationship, and then.

Calls get booked in and let's say, you know, I did five calls a week. It's very easy to think, could I convert two clients? Absolutely. You know, we have a really high close rate.

So I know in my mind that my plan feels safe and it feels in control and it feels certain, and I know that I absolutely smash it. So you have to think about, you know, it's not just the numbers, it's how that's made up. You know, how many clients can you easily get on board? Because what we want to do here is spend less time, money and effort on our marketing.

We want to make sure that we can absolutely, you know, get the right level of clients on board, that it feels easy, that we don't have to spend a fortune doing it, and that, you know, if you were bringing on a couple of clients every week and let's say some were recurring and they were for shorter intervals and some were for longer intervals, then your business would scale quite nicely. So if you think about the three-step plan and you want to make this simple for yourself, I want you to write down everything you want to do on a piece of paper and then sit down and do your three steps. Bigger goal. Break down the bigger goal into literally from, you know, monthly to daily to hourly, so you know exactly how that works.

How many clients you need to get on board each and every day or week or month and so on. Work out what the costs are for the business if you brought in that revenue. What is the profit margin? And then last but not least, what has been or will be the way that you actually convert clients?

So if you're using social media as a platform, what has been the biggest way that facilitates a connection becoming a paying customer? If there is a video that you particularly, you know, know that is performing so well that they watch a masterclass or some sort of video sales letter that tells them about your product or service and then they go on to book a call, then what is that process? So once we've got those three things nailed, then that's your plan. Plan.

But last but not least, I would urge you to make it simple, okay? Make it feel light, and then you start to feel excited about it. But carry it with you every day. Look at it every day before you start.

This is literally everything. It's the start of everything you do every day. You know, when you look at this, it's like every single action, every point of effort, every amount of money that you invest in your business is all about achieving this, okay? So everything goes into this three-step success plan, and it becomes very difficult to fail.

And you can pad this out, and you can get into more detail, okay, and start breaking it down and putting it into things like Trello boards and things like that, and actioning it once you've got it clear. That's fine. But even if you are someone who likes to write a huge big marketing plan, please break it down into the three simple steps, because the thing is, is our mind doesn't have the capacity to remember everything in that detail. And as soon as we hit overwhelm, what happens?

We hit confusion, and then we stop, okay? And then that's going to stop the process of growing, but it's also going to make you feel uncertain, so you're going to go back to the safe place. You're not going to try anything new, or you might just stay stagnant. So when you see sometimes that maybe your business hasn't moved or hasn't grown, it's because maybe that we've hit a point of fear or confusion.

So I hope this podcast helped, and good luck, and let me know how you get on. 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.