Dollar bills ya’ll

2015 here we come!

In the lead up to the New Year I’m going to put together a few items to keep in mind as we head into 2015. This could act as a resource for those who don’t have marketing departments. The little engines that could. The solopreneurs. The business owner who does everything. Even the most recent MBA grad who learned a bunch of useless information in University. This is real life, this is real dollars, and this is how we do it.

The first thing I want you to focus on in the New Year is PROFIT! It’s the most important thing for any / all businesses. You need to have some sort of cash flow to keep your business alive, and food on your table. If you’re launching a business, startup, whatever in 2015 every decision you make should be focused on profit aka how will this decision make me money? And you need to think about it in the short-term, and the long-term. Business is a marathon my friends, but it doesn’t hurt to get off to a quick start.

1) Don’t wait until your product / service is perfect. Pushing back your launch could bury you in debt. Too many people wait for everything to be perfect. Open your doors, test things out, and see which items, services, etc… are pulling in the highest margin. Those are your winners. Dump the losers, and see how you can milk the winners while keeping your standards, and values in line. Don’t cut costs for the sake of cutting costs, but ensure you know your margins.

For me – I’ve figured out a formula for what I need to do to make a profit for my service:

40 – 50 calls, emails, social media connections, asking for referrals, business drop ins, etc… per day = 3 face-to-face meetings booked every day = 1 sale per week.

Not the greatest of close ratios at this point, but I’m improving on that. I understand what it takes for me to make a profit, and I’m tweaking it from there. I’m trying different approaches, different emails, different phone calls, different ways I present myself…and you should do the same. Never stop testing what’s working, and what’s not working (if that makes any sense).

2) When you start making more, and more profits, you can start funnelling that back into the business aka MARKETING! Please have a marketing budget for 2015, please have a marketing budget for 2015, please have a marketing budget for 2015.

If you don’t, you will fail. Okay, maybe you won’t, but the odds are stacked against you.

This week – you’ll receive more info from me on how to market in 2015. The first step is to focus on PROFIT. Print off a sheet of paper with the word, “PROFIT” in bold letters, and tack it somewhere or set a reminder in your phone every single day to see where you’re at when it comes to your bottom line. Is everything you’re doing focused on that number? It should be, and when I say profit, I don’t mean cutting costs. In most cases, one way to ensure your profits go down is to cut costs. I’ll explain more later on this week. Till then…

Love you,

Jordan ‘The Guy with the Bow Tie’ Rycroft