Hey Friend!
Want to make more profit in your business this year? Waiting for more income to come flooding in? I can help you do that by following my P.L.A.N. for Profit framework. I’m excited to dive into this with you as we prepare our hearts, our minds, and our business for this year. Having a plan is crucial as an entrepreneur, but following my P.L.A.N. for Profit framework is going to get you to grow your business so much more. Want to see for yourself? Let’s go.
Important Numbers To Consider:
1. Revenue
When we think about profit we want to consider two important numbers. We have top-of-line sales, which is what you actually sell in your business. This is called revenue. Some examples are selling an online course or a coaching package. To say it simply, it’s the selling of a product and this is what you are marketing. Sales are what bring more income into your business.
2. Expenses
The next thing listed on your profit loss statement is your expenses. This includes all the things your business needs to run and operate. Some examples are:
- Podcast host
- Software
- Team expenses
- Paying taxes
All the money that comes out of the business is the expenses.
3. Profit
What is left after you deduct expenses from revenue is the profit. This is a simple way of explaining profit, but of course, there is more to it than that. Today we are going to focus on profit in your online business. When we think about scaling we have to consider profitability.
It’s one thing to hit $100,000 in your business, but it’s quite another thing to hit $100,000 and spend $90,000 and only come out with $10,000. I am consistently looking at not only top-line revenue but also profitability. Let’s dive deep into my P.L.A.N. for Profit framework that you can implement and take to the bank!
P- Product
The first letter in my Profitability framework is P – Product. It’s important when we think of profitability that we consider the type of product that we are selling. When I was a network marketer back in my early entrepreneurship days, I was working for someone else — an affiliate for someone else’s product. I only earned 20-30% commission and of course, I will come out with a very low profit margin.
If I get started in the lipstick business, for example, I spend $500 to get started in the business, I sell 50 lipsticks for $10 each, but I only make 10% commission, that’s $500 x 10% = $50 only. Even though you say you sold 50 lipsticks at $10 each and made that much in sales, we have to consider profitability and in this example, it’s really low. People in the online space like to flash around a lot of big numbers but at the end of the day, how much are you actually making, not just how many are you selling? There’s a big difference and only profit is what’s going to keep your business thriving.
Coaching = High Profitability
Profitability is key. That’s why I am such a huge advocate of starting with coaching offers to monetize your podcast in the early stages. It’s the best way to have more income with low overhead in the early stages of podcasting. Your product is your time and that’s going to give you a huge profit margin. When you bring in the sales, you can put all that money back into your bank account.
Zoom software can be free in the initial stages. You might have a small investment for Calendly and setting up your contract, but the overhead is so low for a coaching business. Another great option for your online business to increase your profit is an online course or a group coaching program. When deciding which offer is best, consider which option will help you grow the most and make the biggest profit.
It’s hard to market and make a profit when you sell someone else’s products at 20% commission. You have to have a bigger audience to reach your income goals and it’s harder to scale that type of business. If you need help with the P portion of this framework, which is Product, come and join us inside Podcast to Profit (P2P), my six-month group mastermind where I help you optimize your product. Plus we dive into my SEO training, create a coaching offer for you, build a course together, and create a live launch strategy that works and brings in the sales. You come out with a high-yielding product that you can leverage.
And that leads to our next tip!
L – Leverage
When you think of profitability you want to consider L – Leverage. Always consider leveraging something that is actually working already in your business. A mistake that I often see people making is creating a second offer after their first offer sold a few spots.
This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when creating your first offer. What you should do is leverage and double down on what you already have — your first offer.
Double down on the thing that is already working and leverage that.
You may be wondering how you leverage what is already working.
- You can automate
- Do a launch of this one offer
- Capture every single step in your launch, rinse and repeat
Do what works, and then keep doing it again and again. The goal is to get 1% better every time you try to sell this one offer.
Consider all the different ways of marketing this one offer
Once you have this one product that sells, consider the 10 different methods of marketing this product and sell it in various ways. You can market your product on:
- The podcast
- Within your email CTA
- YouTube Channel
- Facebook community
- Blog
You want to leverage all the different places where you show up in your business so you can boost that one product that has a high-profit margin.
A – Analyze
We constantly need to A – Analyze our business. Maybe you do this in a mastermind or in some other way of self-reflection. No matter how or where you are, you, as a business owner, need to consistently grow, learn and take part in personal development. Follow that up with a deep analysis of your business.
Sometimes, we trend away from our ideal listener, and it’s hard to know that we are doing that if we don’t look at the numbers — if we don’t analyze our business.
That happened to me back in 2019 when I had to rebrand the show. I was close to the half-million dollar revenue mark. And without realizing it, I started to speak to my audience as if they were in my shoes, but they weren’t. I was actually speaking to people who were starting a business and trying to get to their first $100,000. These people were in the first 1-5 years of business. I needed to check myself and go back to speak to those who are just starting, not those who were already making half-a-million. And the only way that I realized this was by analyzing the data.
I realized my podcast downloads were stagnant for 3+ months and my messaging was off. I needed to do more market research and hear from my people again and then I needed to speak in their language. Using their words and phrases (and not my own) in all areas of my business will help bring in more income.
Bridging the Gap
It’s important to consistently bridge the gap between where you have grown and where you still serve your people. It’s a misconception that your audience grows as fast as you do or that everyone is on the same wavelength that you are in. That’s not necessarily true. While some people grow with me quickly, others do not. I was consistently bringing in a bunch of new people who are at the beginner level. I have to be careful to not grow away from the marketing and messaging that I know works for my brand and my podcast. Make sure to analyze so you don’t grow too quickly away from your avatar and your brand.
Podcast Host Analytics
Be sure to analyze often. One of my favorite places to analyze is inside my podcast dashboard. I teach you how to do this inside Podcast Pro University. I also have a podcast workshop Podcast for Growth, that teaches you why podcasting is a great way to start an online business. Once you have that podcast launched, take time to dive deep into the analytics because it shows you what keywords are popular and what episodes people are listening to the most. We can analyze all these stats inside the podcast host dashboard.
Facebook Community and Email List Analytics
You need to analyze your community, whether that’s inside Facebook or somewhere else. Take the time to do market research inside your Facebook community or within your email marketing. These are two great opportunities to do a quick poll of your audience and ask them:
- What was your favorite content this year?
- The number one problem you are struggling with right now?
- What would life be like if you didn’t have that problem?
- Your biggest goal for this year is?
These types of questions get people talking to you. You can analyze their words and the content they provide in their answers. When we are on point with the messaging, our offer will sell and then we can leverage that in a better way.
N – Nurture
Lastly, when it comes to The P.L.A.N. for Profit Framework, we want to consider N – Nurture. It’s important to note that not everyone converts the first time they meet you. Sometimes they want to date you. In other words, they want to make sure you are right for them. They want to get to know you through your email list, listen to your show, and get to know you more over a certain period of time. It depends on the type of buyer they are. What’s important is to know that I cannot control when someone buys, and neither can you. I can only control how I pour into them and encourage them to ultimately buy because I believe that my offers are the answers to their prayer.
Many people come to me asking for help with starting a podcast or are unclear with their calling. I have an answer for that. Podcast Pro University and Clarify Your Calling. Others want my help when it comes to making money and having more income from their podcast because they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know how to make a course and do a live launch. I have a course for that. It’s called P2P.
Is Your Offer Solving Their Problem?
I truly believe in my heart that my offer is solving their problem. And you have to believe it too when it comes to selling your offer. It’s a mindset that you have, a belief that your offer is the solution to their problem. Then you have to nurture them until they buy.
It’s ok if someone listens to your podcast for 10 years and never buys. They might buy at the 10-year mark. You will never know. But always be there for them.
It doesn’t matter when, it matters how you show up.
- Be consistent
- Stay disciplined
- Always show up
- Pour out your all
- Reach out
- Email them
- Post in the community
- Loving on them… no matter what!
And never get mad when people don’t buy. I have an open-arm policy; we invite, we don’t push, we nurture, we love, and that in turn creates great conversion. The best place to hang out with me and be nurtured by me and my team is in my community, stefcommunity.com.
How To Nurture Your Audience
There are so many fun ways you can nurture your audience:
- Customer engagement in your groups
- Feedback questions
- Polls in your emails
- Loyalty programs
- Mompreneur of the month
- Prizes for people who are highly engaging in the group
Nurturing your audience in this way will help create a lot of profitability.
When a customer eventually converts and decides to buy from you, there is typically a 40-50% conversion rate from one course to the next.
Your profit does depend on loving people so well that when they are ready for more, they turn to you. Once they are in, they want to re-up when their program expires and join in on the next offer you have.
Use this P.L.A.N. for Profit framework to help you get really clear on your goals and the things you actually need to focus on over the next 12 months to bring in more income into your online business consistently. I want to leave you with one question to ponder over. What does success look like for you? How do you want to make an impact on this world? What are you afraid of? Rebuke it, push through it and come out with brave action so you can grow into what God has for you.
I pray this blesses you!
Xo,
Stef
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Before you go, be sure to watch the free workshop!
Thisfree workshopis for you if you want to grow an online business in less time.
It will teach you how to explode your audience without the social media hustle, make consistent sales using a podcast, and plan, record, and launch a podcast with ease!
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