Why We Got into Business
I got into business because I didn’t want to go back to work after having my son. I wanted to have freedom and flexibility AND the ability to make money from the comfort of my own home. While it was possible for us to sustain our little family on one income (my husband’s), it was much more comfortable when I was also drawing a salary.
I’m guessing that you, too, want to enjoy the flexibility of being able to run your own business and also want to make money from the comfort of your own home as you run and grow your business. And I bet you are ready to contribute consistently to your family. What would that give you?
When we have money, we can:
Pay off debt
Build our savings
Purchase a home with more green space
Pay for vacations
Pay for small, fun, everyday luxuries
Go to Target guilt free
Upgrade things in our lives that we’ve been settling on
Imagine for a moment that if you could have more money coming into your personal and family budget. What would you do with it? What would be different about your life?
You’re actually much closer to achieving your dream of more money than you probably give yourself credit for. Instead of talking about a huge influx of cash that comes from something like a one-off launch, we’re talking today about creating a plan for consistent, recurring, and “less hustling” money into your business and ultimately into your own pocket!
The 5 Steps to Making Consistent Money
ONE. Understand what you want more for. How much $ do you need to get the more?
Many people say that they want “more” money to feel more comfortable. They want “more” in order to truly have freedom and flexibility. They say they want “more” so they can spend more time with their family and not worry about finances so much.
The only problem with that is that the “more” is an unspecified amount, making it incredibly difficult to attain. It’s hard to make a plan for a number that’s unclear. And as long as the number is ambiguous, you’ll feel like it’s going to be darn near impossible to attain. So let’s put a number to your “more” life.
In our Signature Program, Dreamy Client Magnet, one of the exercises we do is to imagine our Rich Life, dreaming up our ideal, upgraded, beautiful version of our lives.
ACTION STEP: Take a second to brainstorm what your Rich Life would look like. Where do you live? What do you do every day? What are the things you have? How do you spend your time? What’s different from the life you’re living now?
Now, tally all of those things up and determine, how much money would you need to make that life a reality? Is it $5,000 per month? Is it $150,000 a year? Name your number!
TWO. Shift your focus from one-off projects to recurring revenue.
Let me give you an example: Instead of solely focusing on signing a website design client, you can shift your focus to offering a more comprehensive package of web design, and after the site launches, you can choose to offer retainer web updates (like plug-in refreshes) and design on web related collateral. Think of what value you can offer longer term to a client and shift your focus from a one-off project (even if it’s high ticket items), to creating a plan for longer-term success.
What happens when you create this shift is that with a number of these retainer/recurring plan clients or incoming revenue, you’re able to focus on how you can improve your services or work on other projects instead of always hustling to acquire more clients.
THREE. Create or package a recurring revenue offer. Not a Passive Income Plan.
Now that we’ve established why you should think about a recurring offer, let’s think of some ways you can make that a reality for your current business. In all honesty, it’s not a huge stretch to create a slightly different offer than what you might be offering already. In fact, it might just be a slightly modified version of what you have.
So think first about your dreamy client. What does she/he need? What does it look like to offer them something in addition to what they are already naturally asking for? What would make the service that you have extra sparkly?
FOUR. Get visible and personally invite people into your offer.
We think that we MUST have a big, fancy-schmancy launch in order to “launch” something that helps us become profitable. FALSE. FALSE. FALSE! Some of my more successful offers have been sold by having a private conversation, followed up by an email, and a link to purchase. It can truly be that kind of simple.
Depending on your level of comfort, I’m suggesting that you take steps to 1) Get visible so people see you and your expertise, and 2) Invite people who are engaged into a conversation with you that leads to a sales conversation.
Some visibility ideas for you: Committing to post every day on a social media platform (my favorites are Instagram Stories and Facebook Groups) and getting active. I’d recommend showing off a combination of your personality and relatability as well as your expertise and things that people probably don’t know or don’t think about when it comes to your field. Post consistently, ask questions, be engaging and you’ll start to see a response!
Once you start getting people engaged, dive deeper into a conversation. I recommend having a Social Glue Coffee Chat with somebody to get to know them as people or you can slide into their DMs and start understanding what’s going on in their world. Truly, a sale starts from a place of personal curiosity rather than “selling the thing”.
But it can’t end there! You HAVE to practice making the offer to your interested people. When you sell, it can feel like you’re solving the other person’s problem, like you’re truly able to give them something that they need!
FIVE. Start paying yourself a consistent salary, even if it’s small.
After you have those contracts signed and sales procured, you’re seeing cash roll into your bank account (HOOOORAY!!), and it’s not just once, but it’s a recurring, consistent flow of money. You’ve done it! You can choose to dial up or dial down the number of clients you want in this capacity, but you have successfully set your business up for success to have recurring revenue coming in.
Which leads me to my biggest happy dance for you. You can pay yourself. Maybe you’ve been paying yourself or you have in the past. But because of the peaks and valleys (or shall we say feast and famine modes) in your business, you’ve stopped paying yourself or skipped months at a time. NO MORE, my friend! You’re on your path to paying yourself a salary!
So start small in a way that feels doable every month. Depending on your business structure, you might have to do it differently but as an LLC, I can take owner draws from my business account and do a direct deposit into my personal bank account once a month as a recurring draw. And I suggest the same for you.
Maybe you start at $500 and work your way up to the $10,000 you want to be paying yourself each month. Regardless, it all starts now and making sure you’re setting up paying yourself your salary for SHOWING UP for your business. You should be so proud!
Here’s to more freedom and flexibility. Here’s to more ideal days. Here’s to not having to hustle to get a project every single time you need to pay yourself. This system will allow you to depend on your business to provide. I’m all about that and I’m guessing you are too!
Getting clarity on what money you need now and how to start paying yourself is part of the work of being a business owner who has a goal to contribute consistently to her family budget. We have a 3 step (and simple process) to help you look at your numbers so you can determine how much money you’ll need to bring in to Survive and Thrive! Grab your workbook here!
