July 2020 Profit Report: Up 40% in Revenue, Down $100k in Expenses
Episode 464: Show Notes
Let’s get into our July 2020 profit report! This year has just been super satisfying. Around fall last year we had decided and declared out loud to you that we were on this mission to get to 30% recurring profit each month, and at the time it felt like climbing a mountain. We were just really struggling and had spent all this time and money trying to figure out who makes up our team, what our products are, and how we are selling them, but something about this year just really clicked for us!
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We started sharing our profit reports last fall with this goal to hold ourselves accountable. We know you guys like to hear behind the scenes. We also restructured how we did our profit reports. We don’t do it like how a lot of others do it where we don’t share our actual numbers – not that we don’t want to, but we honestly think they are distracting and put you in a space of ‘comparisonitis’, and no-one needs to suffer from that. So we wanted to showcase more of the percentages, breakdowns of our expenses, our profits, and just big picture decisions that we make every month in order to reach our goals.
Clearing the Noise, Setting Attainable Goals, and Doubling Down on Them
It was last year around fall that we decided to start doing these profit reports, mostly to keep ourselves accountable to our goals. When we made this decision, it was also a time where we really made some big changes in the way we ran our business, where we shifted from having sexy, unattainable goals that made us feel anxious to rather focusing on slow, consistent growth. We let go of a lot of unnecessary things and everything feels so much better now. We know that right now, all have a lot on our plates, and we heard an analogy that captures this idea of focusing on what really matters while dropping what doesn’t, and the peace of mind that can come as a result. It goes like this: “There are so many balls in the air for every single one of us. Your job is to identify which of those balls are glass and which are plastic, and you have to let some of those plastic ones fall to the ground.” This is really what we chose to do in our business and we are seeing so many positive effects as a result. Ironically, we often get messages where people ask us why we are so productive. The truth is we have a million ideas a day and have to say no to a lot of them, so we just want to tell you that it is OK to say no to some of your ideas so you can hone in on what matters and make those projects work extra well.
Metrics for The Creative Template Shop and How We Market It
Let’s talk about how well the Creative Template Shop has been doing and how we have been promoting it. The shop made up 49% of our business in July and our biggest growth month yet was in July too. A big part of why this happened is because we aligned our actions with our goals. We have been averaging around 100 members per month and want to share how we are achieving this. Something that has been annoying us is when people compare one product to another as a way of selling their service, or when people tear other businesses down to make their own one look good. What your customer feels about your product will serve you better than anything you can say yourself! The best way of selling your product is by showcasing success stories about it. This was a big strategy we have been using to market the Creative Template Shop and the more we do it the more growth we see (the opposite is true too). If you haven’t heard the episode with Shunta Grant you should check it out because of the launch strategy she shares there. Our launch strategy took its inspiration from there and we want to say that you don’t need a big, fancy launch for your product to be a success. All ours involved was social media, emails, and then a webinar! Our webinar was one of the cheapest ones we ever offered and we had some crazy tech issues but all round it went well! We also have been treating our shop more like a SaaS product than a membership which has required a new way of marketing including educating our customers about how it works!
Our Report Regarding Strategy Academy, Trello, and Affiliate Marketing
As a big surprise to us, Strategy Academy just blew up in July despite us not paying attention to it at all. It hit 34% this month! While we were so focused on making the shop a success, Strategy Academy was just like, “Hey, OK, you want to focus on the shop, well I’m just going to do well all by myself then!” We really are like mothers to our three projects. Trello has just been doing well from day one, and the shop is our teeny little baby! Strategy Academy was like the middle child who just wanted some attention and got As for all their school tests. But let us be clear, we won’t pick out our favorite of the three. All mothers have their favorite but that doesn’t mean they love the others any less. So, if you haven’t checked out Strategy Academy, it’s basically a complete A-Z of how to build your business up from scratch, and you can find it here! As for Trello, it accounted for 12% for this month. We don’t have much else to say about it because we are always harping on about it – other than it continues to be significant. Regarding affiliate payouts, we always get big quarterly payouts so July was a good month. While we were focusing a lot on the shop, we also poured into our sponsorships. Dubsado had a birthday sale and we had a goal and whipped it! Affiliates are always exciting but scary because you’re not in control but Dubsado has been such an amazing partner to us, so to help them celebrate their birthday felt great.
July’s Expenses for Goods Sold, Contractors, and Payroll
As far as cost of goods sold for July, we are on target. Our goal was to keep this under 30%, and we hit 27%. Most of that was taken up by advertising which occupied 23.5%. These percentages seem small because while we actually grew our spend for July, we made more! This was technically a launch month though; it is OK to spend more on launches. Our spend has been consistent since the beginning of the year and now our sales are becoming consistent too which feels great, because things were up and down during the launches. Now we are seeing a gradual uptick in MRR and so we are playing around with what it looks like to scale ads. For contractors, our goal is to stay under 20% and we are at 12.5% so we are golden. Last year this would have sparked us to start hiring but now we are just going to let things simmer. If something can’t prove it will generate immediate ROI right now we are not interested. Hiring more people would just be more plastic balls! For payroll, we are on 11% but Emylee will be getting a raise soon! We have been conservative with how we pay ourselves for a business so big, but our salaries still have always been top priority to us, and we aren’t ashamed to admit it.
Focus, Delegation, and Our Amazing Profits For July!
Bearing in mind that our goal was to see a 30% monthly profit this year, in July we saw a 47% profit margin! How amazing is that? When COVID started, we had a tight month, but every month this year has been profitable for us, and the average monthly profit for the year so far is 36%! Now if this didn’t all sound amazing already, wait till you hear the kicker. This time last year we were in a pickle. We had solid revenue but solid expenses too. But we decided to compare our revenue from this month to that of last year this time, and the metrics show that we are up over 40% in comparison. To top it all off, we have dropped our expenses by over a hundred thousand dollars! It all goes back to what we were saying earlier – all this is because we sharpened our focus and dropped all the plastic balls, and now we are seeing the results of those decisions. We stopped comparing ourselves to others and believe we have come up with a truly unique product in the form of the shop. What’s more, we hardly feel like we work. While we know that the narrative of wealth accumulation while not working can be toxic, what we want to share is that if you can have more focus on the things that really matter, you will naturally need to do less. A big secret to this is learning how to delegate. On one of Abagail and Emylee’s Zoom calls, Emylee suggested to Abagail that she needs to learn how to delegate better. While having control can feel safe, delegating is so important for clearing your mind to focus on what really matters, and you will also end up working far less. Abagail got so much better at doing this, and we have hired a rockstar team to handle things we were both doing previously. Thanks for tuning in again and we hope you got some golden nuggets of wisdom from our profit report about how focus can help your business grow and make your life so much easier at the same time!
Quote This
The truth is we have a million ideas a day and have to say no to a lot of them, so it is OK to say no to some of your ideas so you can hone in on what matters and make those projects work extra well.
Highlights
Clearing the Noise, Setting Attainable Goals, and Doubling Down on Them. [0:05:20.1]
Metrics for The Creative Template Shop and How We Market It. [0:13:46.1]
Our Report Regarding Strategy Academy, Trello, and Affiliate Marketing. [0:27:05.1]
July’s Expenses for Goods Sold, Contractors, and Payroll. [0:35:54.1]
Focus, Delegation, and Our Amazing Profits For July! [0:40:37.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Profit, Focus, Delegation, Revenue, Expenses, Marketing, Success stories, Trello for Business, Strategy Academy, Creative Template Shop
