Why Boring, Stable, and Consistent is Our 2021 Motto
Episode 498: Show Notes
Are you ready to plan the year ahead? It might be easier to do when you’ve had a great 2020 but, even then, you can plan to stick to the plan! We know we just want more of what we had but we are also keen to try new things too. In 2020, we found the sweet spot of being consistent and boring and realized that they are our middle names. We embrace them, we love them, and this is where we flourish and feel comfortable. While it’s not flashy or sexy and it doesn’t do dances on TikTok, we are 100% okay with that!
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Not all of us dream of making seven figures. For some of us, our businesses are perfect the way they are when they work for us instead of us working for them. In other words, while you might not roll in the dough, if you are satisfied with what your business brings in and it supports you to the extent that it suits your lifestyle, who cares about the rest? It is worth remembering that you risk much more when you try to grow and scale your business aggressively, and many have closed their doors after pursuing exponential growth instead of keeping to the stable and consistent things. We would like to be around, no matter what happens in the world, and we believe that we can do that by doing more of the same-old same-old. This strategy will not get us on Oprah’s couch or anything spectacular like that, and we don’t have $10 million growth plans, but tune in to hear how we are planning to bring boring, stable, and consistent back!
Ask the Question: What Do You Want?
The first thing we did as we started thinking about our plans for 2021, was we asked ourselves: What do we want to do? Where do we want to go? What do we want to do more and less of? Because if you are aiming to build a business that fits you and your lifestyle, you’ve got to start here! You need to assess how your current business is meeting those ideals and fits into how you want to feel about it. What we are asking you to do is to not only look at the results. Think about what felt good to you, what worked well with the life you want to live. What is the point of getting amazing results when you feel anxious and stressed out all the time? If you don’t like how something made you feel, consider how you can get the same results by doing it another way. You need to find out how much revenue each of your products/services brought in and when promotions were most successful. When you know these kinds of numbers, it is far easier to cut what didn’t work or that didn’t make you feel good. Knowing what worked and what didn’t helps you make more strategic decisions going forward. It is also not worth doing something that was fun but didn’t make you any money.
Get Into the Recurring Revenue Game
We have made a decision to have recurring revenue and thus work with the same students, clients, and customers over and over again – and we encourage every business to have at least one stream of recurring revenue, regardless of whether you are a product or service-based business. While this is not passive income, it is easier money when you set it up properly. The mistake many people make is that they create something that requires too much of them, whether that is coaching or offering services, and it is simply not sustainable. When you set up something “passive”, it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours a week, unless it makes up a huge portion of your business.
A Breakdown of Our Three-Star Rating and Pie Chart System
We have a three-star rating system that we use to determine the time and energy we should spend on each of our products. If something is given three stars, we know that we should spend a lot of time on it, since it has the biggest opportunities. If something is given a one-star rating, on the other hand, we know that we can put in very little effort for the product to keep doing well on its own, so it costs little effort. Before the year starts, we know which of our products will get one, two, or three stars, which helps us spend our time appropriately. We also know how much money each product brings in, so we can figure out how much time we need to spend on each to achieve the growth we want. We then develop a pie chart that shows us exactly what portion of our time should go into each product. At the beginning of 2020, our pie was divided into equal parts for all three of our products but, going into 2021, it looks different. We have adjusted our pie slices based on what we learned in 2020. That is not to say we are putting all our eggs in one basket. We are still giving time to those reliable products that do their jobs slow and steady. We gave the Creative Template Shop three stars because it has the most opportunity for growth, is super fun, and brings in the most money. We are aiming for 25% growth in our business overall, and 87% growth in the Shop. For Strategy Academy, we are also aiming for 25% growth and 9% for Trello for Business.
The Idea Generation Phase
After we’ve figured out the ratings and pie chart, we brainstorm and consider literally any idea. We are also a little bit psychic in that we often come up with similar ideas and have the same feelings about things. We chat over Zoom and pitch ideas to each other, asking questions, playing devil’s advocate, and all the rest. Eventually, we land on something we both feel confident about and we expand on it. We don’t come to these meetings with an agenda or preconceived idea either, we come open-minded and truly consider every possible idea. When you come to the table with no intention, you come up with the best ideas, and allow yourself to be inspired by the other person. The idea that we came upon for Q1 of 2021 is a referral program for the Creative Template Shop. While it might sound anticlimactic, hear us out. Technically any member can currently be an affiliate, but it hasn’t been a focus internally. We have some great ideas that will feel more exciting and rewarding, so if you aren’t a member already, you’re going to want to get on board. There are so many money perks coming your way!
How We Came Upon The Referral Program Idea
We both have a list of businesses that we love to be inspired by because of how they operate. We sat down to think about how these businesses manage to grow. In other words, what is fueling their growth that we are not currently doing? Keep in mind, these businesses do not sell the same kind of things we do and they are not in our industry, so there is no competition there. What is important here is to take a pool of diverse companies and look for what they have in common. We discovered that the thing these companies have in common is that they spend more time letting their current clients and customers market their business than they do. This is when the light bulbs started going off. We don’t want to be the only ones talking about our products! Why not get our happy customers to talk about it instead? We want to build something to make that happen. Other marketers want to tell you how to run your business, and it infuriates us! You should decide how you want to do things in a way that feels right for you. Consequently, you must make decisions that will bring you into alignment with your objectives. In coming up with this plan, we got super clear about our values. We like to put family first and have time for ourselves, so the choices we make reflect this. This is what we know we need for our mental health and sanity, so the strategic moves we make serve these goals. A referral program would mean less time spent on our part, so viola! The other thing we wanted to change is for us not to be the focal point of our business. We need this show to run well on its own so that the two of us are not required for the business to be successful.
Upping Your Social Media and Hiring The Help You Need
One of the other areas we need to work on is our social media presence, since we both agree it can be better. We never imagined what a big impact social media would have on our business. When we spent a month in 2020 focusing on a social media campaign, we did super well. It turns out that this month meant more to us than a launch we did with ads and all the bells and whistles. Mind-blowing! Social media, which is fun and free, did more for our business than a launch that cost us money – and this is not what other people are saying – it is what we saw! We have toyed around with the idea of hiring a social media manager for a while but our budget never quite allowed for that. In Q1 of 2021, we are finally taking the leap to hire someone to take care of that for us. As a side note, we also want to hire a personal assistant. It can be hard to balance personal responsibilities and work stuff, so we feel we need someone to take some things off our plate. There are certain tasks that are simply not worth your time, so you shouldn’t be doing them. Plus, you don’t have the skills to rake up the leaves in your front yard in 10 minutes, so it will take you much longer than it would someone who does this every day. Your time (even down-time) is valuable, so don’t waste it doing laundry.
Letting Go of Other People’s Expectations
We are really excited about letting go of what we thought everyone else wanted us or our business to be doing. In 2020, we leaned into what made sense for us instead of doing what others were telling us to do, and we want to keep going on that trajectory. In the past, we were heavily influenced by other businesses and people – to our own detriment. While it is good for us to be influenced when it comes to home decorations and meal plans, we no longer wish to be affected by what everyone else in our space is getting up to, because it lets us lose focus on what is important to us. We recommend that you choose carefully the people you listen to and the courses you sign up for. You don’t need ten courses and ten different people’s opinions, you might just need one or two good programs. So, for 2021, what do you want to feel like in running your business and what do you want to focus on? We want to keep the feeling of light and easy-going, and we want to trust our intuition more since it has served us so well in the past. We want to continue to use data and analytics to drive our decisions while also being as unbiased as possible in doing so. You need a good mix of gut feelings and hard data to ultimately do the best thing for you.
Quote This
The thing that makes us different than so many other marketers out there is that we want a business that fits our life and our lifestyle. And we want that for you, too.
Highlights
Ask the Question: What Do You Want? [0:06:55.1]
Get Into the Recurring Revenue Game. [0:11:50.1]
A Breakdown of Our Three-Star Rating and Pie Chart System. [0:14:47.1]
The Idea Generation Phase. [0:23:21.1]
How We Came Upon The Referral Program Idea. [0:30:12.1]
Pimping Up Your Social Media and Hiring The Help You Need. [0:35:49.1]
Letting Go of Other People’s Expectations. [0:43:40.1]
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
2021, Goals, Recurring revenue, Three-star rating system, Idea generation, Inspiration, Referral program, Social media, Hiring help, Expectations
