Where do you want to grow?

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Business planning by the numbers

Monetizing any business can be difficult especially when you don't feel like you know how to get there.

A decent way to figure things out is to start with numbers.  How much do you want to make from your business in a single calendar year?

In the planning stage it matters less what the actually goal number is but more importantly that you have one to serve as a starting 
point -- this can always be adjusted based on actual performance.

Simply having a desired annual revenue goal will offer an aim for your business efforts.

If you know the amount you want to make, figuring out how your business can actually get you there is made a bit easier.

To come up with a desired annual income, you might just take your living expenses and add a bit extra for starters.

Reaching smaller milestones over time = larger goals met

Once you have a desired annual income goal, think about the nature of what you do and how you make money.  In other words, where does income for your business actually come from, and on average how much do you charge clients when you sell something?

Having a larger annual income dollar amount in mind may seem overwhelming when you think about how you might actually reach it.

You'll want to chunk things down into smaller milestones that you can more reasonably reach throughout the year.

I'm in a good spot personally because I have a mainstay full-time marketing gig that covers most of my major expenses, so as I do this exercise I keep in mind that I can start slow because I'm not fully relying on my own business' income to live off of.  You may not have that luxury.  But don't get discouraged.  That just means this exercise is even more important to help keep you focus on what you need to achieve.

My own business as an example

For example in my business I'm trying to gain subscribers to my blog and websites, provide them useful information that they want and eventually have my subscribers purchase products and services from me.

So as I start chunking down how I might reach a particular income goal I might use some -- at least initially -- guesstimated data (I'll have to track my progress to see if my theories panned out over time and refine my approach).

My thought is that one quarter of my subscribers are likely to purchase something from me for an average of $10 within a calendar year.

As I've only recently begun my consolidated blogging effort on NickVenturella.com I'm starting somewhat fresh with my revenue goals.

Here are the milestones I'm aiming at:

Number of subscribers and sales...

• Of 100 subscribers, 25 spend $10 = $250
• Of 1000 subscribers, 250 spend $10 = $2,500
• Of 10000 subscribers, 2500 spend $10 = $25,000
• Of 100,000 subscribers, 25000 spend $10 = $250,000

With the above numbers, if I want to make $250,000 in one year I'll need to have about 100,000 subscribers.

Realistically, I think I can potentially end this year between 3000 and 5000 subscribers, which based on the above numbers would yield between $7,500 and $12,500.

Play with the numbers and find the ones that fit you

This is just one example.  You can play with the numbers to build scenarios of what this might look like for your specific situation.  However, the idea is to break down what may seem like an impossible goal into smaller more attainable ones.

Be reasonable and realistic about the goals you think you can reach, but balance it with the right amount of aggressive drive to push yourself slightly beyond what you think you can reach.


Posted by: Nick Venturella