Do you have a plan to reach your revenue and profit goals?

plan-goals

John Nieuwenburg

John Nieuwenburg has been a professional business coach since 2004. Prior to becoming a coach, he held executive positions with Tip Top Tailors and BC Liquor Stores. In 2019, MacKay CEO Forums awarded him with Canada’s CEO Trusted Advisor Award in the Small Business category. Since becoming a coach, John has worked with over 350 clients, taking them through a systematic process that helps them feel organized, confident and in control of their businesses.

Launching a business, working hard, and retiring early – it’s a dream for many. 

Yet lately, hitting big profit goals might seem harder than ever. Whether you simply want to provide a good life for your family or reach that magical million-dollar milestone, running a business in 2022 is no small feat.    

Even in the best of times, when the economy is strong and business is booming, everyone still needs to have a plan in place for how they are going to reach their revenue and profit goals.

Essentially, we need to understand the relationship between 3 things:

  • Revenue
  • Profit
  • Tactics

If you have been feeling directionless when it comes to profit planning, buckle up!

This blog was written specifically for entrepreneurs like you.  

Where do you fall on a scale of 1-5? Be honest.

First, let’s take a moment to assess where you fall on a scale of 1 to 5 when it comes to your revenue and profit planning. Look at the graphic below. Think about where your business is on the scale.

Are you closer to Level 5, or are you sitting at Level 1?

At the end of the day, nobody is going to make improvements for you.

Until you are honest about how in control you are of monthly budgets, sales estimates, forecasted revenue, expenses, etc. you won’t be able to make sound financial decisions about the future.

To be totally clear: there’s no shame in identifying with Levels 1, 2, or 3.

Actually, these spots are where a business coach can offer industry specific advice to move you up the scale quickly and effectively.

“Give ordinary people the right tools, and they will design and build the most extraordinary things.” – Neil Gershenfeld

Now, if you’ve been following my blog for some time, then you may be familiar with the fact that I am a huge believer in “teaching a man to fish.”

That’s why I created a spreadsheet tool that will help you create a Revenue & Profit Plan to move your business up the scale towards level 5, where you will truly understand how much you need to bring in in order to take home your desired net profits at the end of the month.

Using this spreadsheet, I will walk you through how to:

  • Reverse-engineer the revenue you need
  • Funnel to the volume of leads required to convert into paying customers
  • Figure out the number of transactions and customers needed to hit profit goals

This spreadsheet makes simple work of questions that can seem daunting and complicated.

Click here to get your copy of the spreadsheet: Downloads

Next, let’s get tactical

To continue moving up that scale towards Level 5 where you have an aggressive, measurable plan in place to reach your target goals, you need to lay out tactics.

These can include:

  • Advertising
  • Networking / forming strategic alliances
  • Developing a solid referral program
  • Offering incentives for return customers
  • Better utilization of social media
  • Creating lead magnets
  • Building a strong email marketing list

As you can no doubt see, the possibilities are vast. I suggest choosing ten. Each will contribute about 10% of what you need to do in order to hit your targets.

And remember…any strategy has a cost. So, when you think about this you need to be careful to strike a balance between the cost and the reward. Create a blend where you are spending some time, some money; executing some hunting strategies (things like pay-per-click advertising) and some farming strategies (think more along the lines of email marketing to your existing database).

My spreadsheet tool walks you through this process as well.

Endless possibilities to reach revenue and profit goals

The Revenue & Profit Plan and Tactical Marketing Plan spreadsheet is meant to be a live tool. Keep updating and tweaking the figures as you go. In the beginning, it may feel like you’re pulling numbers out of thin air – that’s fine! No two businesses will be exactly alike.

What matters most is that you start with numbers that feel reasonable to you and your business, and then adjust as you go once you start to see and analyze your real time data.

Hopefully, your eyes are opening to the endless possibilities!

If you’d like some help seeing them…book a 15-minute consultation call here: 15-minute consultation call

The Ultimate Guide to Scaling Your Business

w5 what does it mean to scale your business

How to grow your business without sacrificing time freedom

This post is part of my Ultimate Guide to Scaling Your Business. Visit the guide homepage to get my best advice and coaching exercises to help you:

  • Develop systems and processes to free up your time
  • Hire and manage a great team to run your business (mostly) without you
  • Make the mindset changes that enable you to grow your business bigger - faster than you dreamed possible