(with data—not funny business)

Intro

You know what’s interesting?

Owning a business is a lot like dancing ballet. There are like 144 things you’re supposed to do at the same time. You constantly feel like you’re messing up, and you’re always reminded to *breathe!* and *smile!* and *have fun!*

As a fellow ballet dancing owner, what if I told you it’s entirely possible to have more money to spend in your business, without signing another client or making any new offers?

There’s making more, and then there’s having more and there’s a chest thumping silverback gorilla sized gulf between the two.

My Story

Boy have I learned the hard way that there’s a difference! See, I was generating revenue, but not keeping it because of how much I was spending on tech platforms, service fees, memberships, and other overhead costs. And once I did one of the exercises I’m about to share with you, I realized how much money was being wasted on stuff that was making me $0 and not being used. My mouth hit the floor!

I realized I don’t just want to make money, I want to have money to spend and invest in what will multiply my revenue, not waste it. I’m going to show you how I freed up roughly 17% of my operating costs in one afternoon – for free!!!

But first, some basic perspective shifting is in order:

There are 3 big ways to have more money to spend in your business: 

• Door #1: Earning more by selling more→ tired & burned out

• Door #2: Saving more by not spending → way harder to scale

• Door #3: Having more by optimizing your profits & redirecting your spending from money wasters, to money multipliers. → working smarter, not harder

My friend, we are opening Door #3 today—hold on to your coffee cup, she’s a potent one!

Redirecting Your Spending

Redirecting your spending is a free and insanely powerful way to free up funds that are doing nothing for your business, and redirect them into doing more of what’s working (or even trying something new!)

What you’ll get: A clear picture of where your money is being spent vs. made. Are the two aligned, or totally mismatched?

Time needed: 1-2 hours

Materials needed: some paper, access to your books (or however you track spending)

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* if the process I listed below is TLDR, you’re in for a serious treat – I offer a free pre-recorded workshop (with a snazzy workbook!) where we do this work together – and I’ll even show you how this flow looks for my own business and how I use it. One afternoon freed up enough funds for me to invest in growing the channels that are bringing revenue and I’m already having a banner year so far (January 😄)

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Redirect Your Spending Process:

1. List out all of the ways people find your business + work
2. List out everything you offer that people can buy (use categories if your catalog is big)
3. Match how people find you – to how you make money
4. Write down how much you’re spending for each box in how people find you, as well as what you’re offering.
5. Make note of where you’re spending – without any sales << this is a candidate for elimination
6. Make note of where you’re spending with not many sales << this is a candidate for possible negotiation, and at the very least – researching a cheaper way to accomplish this
7. Make note of where you’re spending & making money << this is a candidate for where to invest any freed up funds – into growing this pipeline!

Optimizing Your Profits

Optimizing your profits is one of the most valuable ways to spend your time as an owner. When you optimize your profits, it means you’re maximizing every single dollar that comes through the door – and that will pay off huge as you grow over time!

What you’ll get: A clear picture of how much you’re making vs keeping on sales

Time needed: depends on business and level of organization

Materials needed: access to your books (or however you track spending)

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*If you’re interested in understanding your profits and the process below makes your eyes glaze over and fall asleep, I can run a profitability analysis for you, so you can focus on doing stuff you actually like.

Click the button below to get a free Work Smarter Data Assessment

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Optimize Your Profits Process:

1. You’ll probably want to start with a small and contained profit model to reduce complexity – one product for the last month (once you have a working model, you can expand it)
2. Choose one product to optimize
3. List out all of the components to creating the product/service & costs for each component
4. List out all of the different ways you sell this? What levels/price points are there? List out the prices charged for each method of fulfillment/level
5. Now Subtract the cost from the revenue (this is your baseline profit) <<< note* this is a very simplified version of this that won’t contain all of the costs, but rather a working number for you to understand, evaluate, and optimize over time. 
6. Now is time to optimize:
   1. What costs are you paying that can be negotiated or eiliminated to ensure you keep more of what you make?
   2. Are your prices that you’re charging keeping up with costs? Are they sustainable, or is it time to change your pricing?
   3. If you can’t change costs and you’re at a price ceiling – can you change the way the product is fulfilled? Can you create a different version that you can charge a different price for because it’s more valuable? Here’s where you can get really creative!

Knowledge is power, and when you have clarity around what you’re making vs keeping – you’ll be ready to change up your pricing structure, because you have the numbers (and confidence!) to clearly understand where things aren’t aligned in your business model.

Why not start today? Invest in keeping more of what you make – so you can grow without burning out.