The Only Thing That Matters In Your Business

Welcome to episode 86 of Dawn of a New Era with myself, Dawn McGruer, the business growth coach helping CEOs to scale and grow. Now, this is a super exciting episode because it's pretty controversial, and I have named this one, The Only Thing That Matters in Your Business. So the one thing that matters, and this is something that I talk about literally most of my day, is that we really need to stop getting distracted because There is so much that you could do as a business owner, as a marketer. Anybody working in business has probably fallen into the trap of just writing huge to-do lists.

Now, there's always a new idea. There's always something super exciting that catches your attention that you think, yeah, we can jump on the next big thing, or we can go and do this, this and this. Why don't we try this? But you know what?

You have to rein it in, because you have to focus on the things that move the needle in your business. And, you know, I see a lot of people, whether they come on, you know, courses with me, they attend masterclasses, or I'm working with them either in a mentorship or one-to-one, that say to me, Dawn, I've got so much to do. I've literally got all of this that I'm going to get in place. I'm going to start focusing on my SEO.

I'm going to do my email marketing. I'm going to do my social media, and the list goes on and on and on. And even to the point where I've had conversations where people are kind of, you know, deliberating over things on the website as much as fonts, right the way through to people who are thinking about, right, I'm going to create this lead magnet and this lead magnet, and we're going to have all these free resources. But in actual fact, two things I want to discuss happen.

We become very busy creating behind the scenes, and I've always said that marketing is only marketing when a customer can see it. So often we get caught up in the creation behind the scenes, and we forget about the all-important visibility, getting ourselves in front of our ideal clients, looking at reaching our target audience, attracting them, nurturing them, and converting. At the end of the day, there are certain activities that shorten the sales cycle. There are certain activities that have a sales— first mentality.

And there's certain activities that are very much kind of process driven. So we have to think about where we are in the stage of our journey. So if you're at a point where you're maybe in feast or famine, or cash is king, where you really need to be focusing on growing and scaling your business, getting more cash in so that you have really good high income, consistent cash months, then your focus does not need to be on the small scattergun things, because these are hugely distracting, but they're also, they take a lot of time. You know, you're not going to be able to sit down and go, Right, today I'm going to do my SEO.

I'm going to get my business, you know, for every single keyword on page one, on position one on Google. It doesn't happen. It's a slower game. Again, if you create a lead magnet, and only today I had this conversation with one of my clients, that if you are looking to list build, this is not a fast game.

You know, someone who signs up for a lead magnet is simply expressing that they're interested in the topic that you've created. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are ready to buy or inquire. So we have to switch it up and think about all of the things that we can do that are going to actually impact in the growth of our business through attracting and converting more customers, and literally sidestep everything else that's not serving us to grow to that point. Because believe you me, if you're already in this position and you have consistent high income months, then you can be more creative, because you're not having to spend all of your time focusing on pulling cash flow in to run the business.

You already know that perhaps next month and for the next 12 months on, you have a steady flow of amazing income that's coming in guaranteed whether you lift a finger or not. Okay, so you've already sold perhaps recurring income. You could have, you know, recurring payment plans. You could have different revenue streams coming in.

Whatever you have done, you would know that every month, what figure you're walking into that month knowing that it pays all your bills, and it pays you, it pays your team, and you now have profit. And anything above that is growth. So we have to be laser focused on the things that service. And generally these are client-focused things whereby how do we increase the average order value for our customer, purchase frequency?

Can we upsell? Can we cross-sell? How can we get our amazing customers who On average, spend about 30% more with us, really working more within the business, you know, and developing those relationships, adding value and, you know, helping them with whatever you do through products or services. And then the second thing is, is that you have to focus on the activities that are going to shorten the sales cycle.

And this is if you are looking to pull cash in. What would be better? Well, it would not be better to be doing things like a free lead magnet. It would absolutely be better to think about the intent and purchase of that person.

So where are they in their journey? Well, if they're proactively looking for something, the difference would be if they signed up for a free guide about a particular topic, that's them just saying, Yeah, I'm interested in this topic, versus, let's say, a good example is something that we do in the academy. So for Business Consort Academy, we do digital marketing courses and qualifications. Now, anybody who is looking at, obviously, you know, developing their digital skills, etc.

, is an ideal client for us. So how do we market to them, but make sure that we're getting hold of the people who have got purchase intent, who are actually really thinking about doing something right now, rather than maybe just giving them a free digital marketing guide? Well, the key here is, is that we created an amazing little taster session. We call it our discovery and taster session, so that people can kind of experience what the qualification is all about, how it's going to help them, you know, get a pay rise, a promotion, could be a new job, it could boost their earning potential.

So it takes them through how getting a qualification in digital marketing can revolutionise and accelerate their career or boost their business. So you can start to see that the intent is different, because if someone knows that they're going— Going on a short masterclass that's going to tell them all of the amazing benefits about getting a qualification, they've already got some form of interest there. So we've got a more qualified lead. So hopefully that makes sense.

So the one thing you need to do in business, quite honestly, is focus on things like the client, your amazing customers, having a sales-first mentality, sideswiping all of the things on your to-do list that don't serve you, that don't move the needle in your business. The easiest way to do this is to start thinking about the cash, the money. You know, really know your figures, know exactly what it is you need to earn, and work it back. You know, the strange thing is, is that I meet a lot of clients who have amazing products and services, they either don't have enough clients or the business model is not achievable.

And what I mean here is, is that they either need to attract too many clients that's unfeasible in a month, and they're never going to hit that target because the sheer effort, money, and volume of resources that needs to go into it is just not right, okay? So they would never be in a profitable situation. It could be that people are putting money into ads for things like a free lead magnet, like a free guide, where the purchase intent's not there. So they're rattling through cash, but they're not seeing any reward.

So there's lots of different things, and if you start to understand where your business is coming from right now and where your most qualified leads are coming from, you start to see, ah, I will remove all of these things out of my to-do list that don't help me get more of these amazing leads, these amazing customers. So think about what's working for you right now and feel free to Depart or declutter from the distractions, the things that don't serve you. And you'll realize quite quickly that if you get the proposition and the messaging right, that's half the battle. Now, one last point on the model, and this is something really fundamental.

When we think about numbers, it's often the part in business where people are not so motivated. It's the grey area. But as long as we know how much we need to earn, how much we want to take out of the business, if you own the business, okay, to pay yourself, and at what point you hit profit after you've obviously attracted your...

Customers and obviously done the delivery, and whatever you do be a product or service, okay? That's half the battle. But the other thing is that time and time again, and this is something that you may not have thought of, and it's easy to neglect, is that you have to think about, does your model actually work? So when you think about when you sell something versus, you know, that is sales revenue that could be coming in over 12 months or something, what is the actual cash into the business for that month?

Because that's the key part. So recently I met a client, and they had a really great business model, brilliant product, and the service they were offering was absolutely, you know, clear, the messaging was good, and they were getting people signing up. But where the business wasn't working is it kept falling over on cash flow because they were going through this feast and famine. Why?

Well, they'd spread out the monthly payments over 12 months, which meant that on the day of sale, they were like, Oh my goodness, you know, I've just made £12,000. But that sales revenue is split over the year. They weren't seeing that cash into the business for that month. So they needed to get a lot of customers on those payment plans over the 12 months.

Now, by making one small tweak and reducing it to a six-month payment plan, they doubled their revenue that was cash in to the business, okay? So try and think about if there's something that's not working or something that's bottlenecking or you're in this cash flow problem, try and look at what the costs are. Try and identify, you know, would something that, you know, a little change in the business model really push things forward? So my advice is focus on the one thing in business that matters.

And to be honest with you, that is getting money in, getting to a point that you have consistent high-income cash months. That means you have the space for creativity. You have the space to step out and do different things, but not working on things that are behind the, you know, the scenes that maybe are taking too long. You know, you think of revamping your website.

You can get your business to a point of sale by just doing some tweaks on the website and maybe coming back to that later. You know, I know people who don't have more than one sales page, never mind whole websites. I even know people who have never created sales pages, and they're just selling through direct messages. So all of these things are possible, but you have to think what's right for your business.

And this is about you. What has worked in the past? Where did you get your leads from? How can you do more of those activities?

And how can you declutter your day or perhaps delegate activities that are not actually pushing money in there? So you have to think about, are you showing up as a brand, as a business, you know, or a personal brand in a way that your customers and potential clients can see you? So one last thing, you'll hear me talk about this a lot in my podcast, but it's the easiest way of remembering the things to focus on. These are always consistency, and this is consistency in your marketing, your visibility, and the way that you're showing up, and the way that you're marketing to attract.

You know, so consistency in your processes, and that could be automating some of your marketing, consistently being visible and getting brand awareness. This could be using ads, looking at clients and having a sales-first mentality, and focusing on how many clients you need. Is it feasible? What's worked for you in the past?

What are the great lead generators in your business, and how can you shorten the sales cycle by focusing on the intent to purchase and not spending lots of time, effort, and money on things that are the slower build that actually could be elongating your sales cycle? Imagine if someone's got lots of free resources, someone's plowing through, absorbing all of these, whereby if you simplify the process and gate some of that content, then they have no other option other than to start working with you. So different things for different businesses. There is no one-size-fits-all, but the last and final one is obviously the cash, and looking at your numbers, knowing them inside out, making sure that your pricing and your structure and your payment plans and your business model actually work, and that, you know, you are actually running something that is bringing cash in that can be profitable and sustainable.

So I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and I cannot wait to find out more. So come and join me. You can join me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, you name it, I'm on all the social platforms. I'd love to find out more.

I like to connect with people who listen to my podcast because these are the things that matter in my business: the people who are in my audience, my subscribers, and my amazing clients too. So have a fabulous week, and make sure that you don't forget to subscribe to Dawn of a New Era so that you get notified of upcoming episodes.