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Today’s talking points:

Winging it in your business will only get you so far.

I’m sharing exactly why you need a strategy and plan to sustainably scale your business and achieve the freedom and flexibility you desire.

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If I asked you: are you winging it in your business - what would you say?

Boss - if that hit you hard, you are going to want to read this…

80% of small business owners find that inconsistent cash flow is the biggest problem in their business.

And guess what the antidote is?

Having a solid plan.

Together, we are going to figure out what kind of plan you need to get in place in your business. Right now.

Let’s dive in.

Firstly, you are not alone

If you're someone struggling with inconsistent clients, sales, and cash flow in your business, know that you're not alone. It's the biggest challenge most business owners face, with 80% of small businesses saying that inconsistent cash flow is their biggest problem. Many believe that if they had more consistent cash flow, everything else would work itself out, providing the freedom and flexibility they're hoping for.

However, many businesses make the mistake of focusing solely on generating more revenue to gain control of their business. Research overwhelmingly shows that when companies solely focus on cash flow, they struggle to grow or they implode on themselves as they can’t keep up with the growth. Instead, a real plan for predictable profits is needed, not just a one-time cash infusion.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good little cash infusion, however, if that’s all we focus on we don’t solve the problem long-term.

Instead, we want to focus on getting more control over our business. When we have more control and are more clear about what moves the needle in marketing, sales, customer delivery, and our day-to-day operations and when we have the systems and strategy and team to support it, that's when the revenue comes more easily.

When you have that level of control in your business, then you find true freedom.

I find that the word control is something that people might have mixed feelings about, so I really want to clarify what I mean by this.

When you have control over your business, you can predict with pretty good certainty what will happen when you implement your plan. It means when you sit down to plan, you know exactly how many people need to see the sales page, or book a call with you, in order to get the number of clients that you’re looking for.

This might not feel possible right now, but it really is possible. When you start building out a plan like this, when you start tracking your metrics, when you really start to understand the ins and outs of your business, things become more predictable. And when things become more predictable it becomes so much easier to know which dial to turn to grow your income and get more clients.

A clear marketing plan

You might be wondering what you need to have in place in order to have this higher level of control.

Well, there are a few different components which I’ll run through in this blog.

One of the most important ones is you need to have a clear marketing plan.

This is more than posting five times a week on Instagram and sending out a weekly newsletter. That's just a checklist and doesn't encompass the strategy of your plan. It doesn't answer important questions such as:

Who is your audience?
What is their next step?
What message needs to be conveyed?
Where are they in their customer journey?
How are you preparing them to determine whether your offer is suitable?

You must have that level of clarity in your marketing plan. You need to know your audience, what product, program, or service you're offering, and the promise of that product, program, or service. You need to understand the process you're taking people through, how you're positioning your offer to make it stand out, and how you're pricing it.

Then, you can focus on promoting it, attracting people to it, engaging with them, and nurturing them.

revenue plan

The second thing we need is a clear revenue plan.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is not planning when they'll promote specific offers or create promotions for different times of the year. They end up starting from scratch each month, with no cash flow, and or clear plan.

Some people call this yearly planning a launch calendar, where you create a 12-month calendar that outlines when you'll promote your program or service. You could have specific months where you'll open the doors to a program, and for each month, you can have a different strategy for promoting it. You could also have smaller offers that you promote during the other months. The key is to plan out when you'll promote, what you'll promote, and how you'll promote it.

It’s worth noting here that if your clients or your potential clients are just hearing the same words over again, at some point, they become desensitised to it, and it fades into the background. So it is important to create these little campaigns that help people see why now is the time for them to work with you.

So that is another key component of what we need to put in place for more predictable profits. We need a clear revenue and sales plan that outlines what you'll promote when you'll promote it, and how you'll promote it and you’ll need to have different topics or incentives for each promotion. Having this clear plan will make it easier for you to show up and make sales.

Repeat sales

Another important part of revenue planning is thinking about repeat sales.

It’s seven times easier to keep a client than to get a new client - don’t ever forget that.

So how are you retaining people? How are you getting people to come back to you? Are you making client-only offers? Are they able to renew your product programme or service? Is there a next-level offer they could have? For example, I have a couple of offers that are only available to past or current clients.

This is how you build a client base. When you have a solid client base of people who come back to you again and again. That means you don't have to spend as much time on attraction marketing.

You don't have to have a massive audience, you just need an audience of dedicated, committed repeat clients and a plan for how you're going to retain them and keep them coming back.

tracking metrics

There's another thing you need to keep in mind besides your marketing and revenue plans, and that's tracking your metrics.

When you know your numbers, you can predict what will happen when you make changes and put your plan into action. For example, if you know that half the people who have a call with you become clients, you can plan to book more calls to get more clients. Or if your email click-through rate is low, you can make changes like using a button instead of a link to increase it. When you have this level of control over your sales and marketing, you can make your business more predictable and profitable.

Let me give you an example from my business. I made a reel that got three times more views than usual, so as a result I tried making more reels like that and they got a lot of views too. I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't tracked my metrics and looked for patterns.

Your operations and your team

Another component is your operations and team (If you don't have a team, don't stop listening as this will be relevant to you in different ways).

Many people miss the importance of operations and team management. It's easy to focus on marketing and sales and forget how your team and back-end operations run. Remember, your business is a system. There comes a point where your team becomes critical to your success, especially when you are in growth mode.

You don't have to wait until you hit six figures to make this happen. I have two private clients who have recently hired VAs, and it has already changed everything for them. Many business owners who lack a clear operational strategy or clarity on how their team works together can face chaos, especially if they lose a team member. It's essential to have clarity on how your team and different departments in your business work together.

This may feel uncomfortable for natural creatives, especially those who have come from a corporate environment where they had meetings with managers and were micromanaged. Many business owners may think that they don't want a team because they don't want to micromanage anyone or have meetings, but some level of that is necessary. We need to define what that team and operations plan will look like.

For example, in my business, I am committed to having a team of people who are very driven and self-directed. Once they know their role and have specific SOPs, they are responsible for, they know what matters to the business, what its goals are, and what they need to be doing when they show up to work. This, to me, is a game-changer.

My business is also about strategy, culture, values, and mission. My team members understand my mission, vision, brand, and strategy, and those are things I don't take lightly. I spend a lot of time making sure that my values are dispersed throughout every part of my business, including how I hire, take care of my clients, and do my marketing. My team knows what needs to be done because my values, mission, and vision are explicit and clear.

My podcast editor and VA, for example, are both mothers who prioritise life before business. They know that if something comes up in their life, we'll sort it out between us. It's all about communication, and everything runs smoothly. How amazing is that?

I share all my plans with my team every quarter or every month, and we make sure everything is aligned. As you grow your business and step into the role of CEO, your ideas, and strategies need to be shared with your team.

This is how you create more control in your business. I know it may sound counterintuitive for me to say more control after I just talked about how these systems allow us to not have to micromanage people, but it truly does free up so much time. When your team are clear on their responsibilities, there is no confusion, it’s smooth sailing.

let’s recap

I hope this was helpful to you!

The foundation covered here will help you sustainably scale your business and ultimately achieve the freedom and flexibility you desire. It all starts with gaining more control over your business and not just winging it because if you continue to wing it, you'll always struggle with inconsistent clients, sales, and cash flow.