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Got Your 2020 Money Plan?

Your Money Plan is important.

But if you're a small business owner, it's likely you don't have it.

As the end of the year approaches, coaches start talking about planning out the next twelve months. Smart business owners take them up on this offer... and yet if I had to put a number to it I'll bet about 5% actually do the work.

The rest sit back.

They have various reasons for doing so.

After all, the holidays are coming up. They can do the work in January. (But of course they never will.)

Or they get trapped in The How: HOW will this money come in? A revenue plan is just fantasy, as far as they're concerned.

Those are two of the big reasons small business owners do nothing. They continue to drift.

money plan puzzle revenue plan business owner planning decision making choices

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

Why Create Your Money Plan

I've seen a lot of people and companies drift.

Some are comfortable.

Some are so uncomfortable they can't imagine how figuring out a money plan will help.

Yet that's the truth: having a revenue plan will help.

It tells you all sorts of things, if you do the work.

Your Money Plan tells you how much you want and need to earn.

It tells you what the minimum price is that you should go to work for.

From that, it tells you the minimum size of problem you should be looking to solve.

It tells you who you should be looking for as a target customer.

It tells you how fast you need to be working.

It gives you all sorts of incredibly valuable information about how your business needs to be set up and run...if you want it to be successful.

So why do so many business owners shrug this planning off?

Why do they believe it's "not for them"?

Two Reasons People Struggle With Their Money Plan

The truth is in two parts.

First, nobody has ever told them about the key factors I just listed for you. The business owners therefore believe this kind of planning is a boring accounting exercise: and who wants to do that besides the accountants?

Second, deep down, they don't believe they're really in control. They think, if they're winning, "I got lucky." That their customers are the result of chance. That it won't last.

And in a weird way, they're right about the second part.

If you don't continually create the outcome you desire, things will fall apart.

But you do have control.

You can control who you speak with...and who you don't.

You can control what size of problem you choose to work on solving.

You can control your activity level and involvement in phases like prospecting, selling and fulfilling orders.

You can control a lot.

Probably a whole lot more than you thought.

So if you're content to stick it out in the comfort zone, abdicate responsibility for the outcome and tell yourself the lie that, "It's all luck"... you're on your own.

But if you're excited about the idea of getting your Money Plan together—and perhaps changing your business much for the better—then we should speak.

>> Jason Kanigan is a business strategist. Book a time with him to speak about your situation...and get some serious answers...by clicking here. <<

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How Do I Get More Clients?

A very nice and well-meaning web designer just asked in an expert platform I'm a member of...how do I get more clients?

My response:

You have four jobs to do.

1. Attract/identify leads.

2. Qualify those leads.

3. Convert the qualified leads.

and

4. Fulfill the orders.

Do you have a system for each of these?

4. can lead into 1. with referrals.

Prospecting to Answer 'How Do I Get More Clients'

how do I get more clients - landing big fish

You want as pre-qualified a lead as you can get.

Qualifying is filtering. In or Out, doesn't matter which.

Do you know your numbers?

How many qualified leads do you need to know you'll get a project? This is different for every person or business. For me, I need a very small number of qualified leads to make a sale. For you, it might be different.

How many unqualified leads do you need to get one good qualified lead?

Back out into the activities you need to be doing every day. I'll bet (no offense; so are 99.9% of other people) you're sitting there and hoping stuff will come your way. Maybe spending 30 minutes a day looking for new work. Well that is not enough. Needs to be 70% or more of your time spent prospecting! Guaranteed that your prospecting activity, like everyone else's--mine included--is too low.

How Do I Get More Clients By Filling My Funnel?

Fill your funnel.

Unqualified leads >>> Qualified leads >>> Sales.

Work back from the end result.

How much money do you want to make in a month?

How many sales does that mean you need to make?

How many qualified leads does that mean you need?

And how many unqualified leads does that require you to get?

Now you can see how many conversations you need to be having...you can break this down to every week or every day.

In my business, for instance, and remember my numbers will be different--perhaps VERY different--from yours, I need 1 sale a week.

To get that 1 sale, I need 4 qualified leads to ensure I get that sale. Could be 1 in 2 but let's say 1 in 4 to be safe.

Now the funny bit about my business: while conversion for me is easy, finding qualified leads is hard. There are many tire-kickers and broke people who want my help, but are not mentally or financially in the position to afford it. So I need MANY unqualified leads to get one good one!

Again, your business could be different. So let's say I need 20 unqualified leads to get 1 qualified lead.

This means my revenue plan for the month looks like:
20 x 16 = 320 unqualified leads >>> 4 x 4 = 16 qualified leads >>> 4 sales

320 unqualified leads!

If I sit around, hoping passive marketing does the job, will I ever get there?!

No!

I need to plan out my activities based on:

- Video marketing (Youtube)
- Facebook marketing
- Forum marketing
- Prospecting calls

- Referrals (these are great; the way I set it up, 2 referrals virtually guarantee 1 sale; so these 2 referrals take the place of 80(!) unqualified leads, which I can now subtract from my total)
- Talks to audiences
- Webinars

and whatever other efforts of your marketing plan that you decide to run.

Do You Have An Activity Level That Answers How Do I Get More Clients

The point here is: do you have a plan? Until now, I doubt it.

Almost nobody does.

And do you have a high-enough activity level to support your money target?

Most people do not.

Whether they're a corporate salesperson or an independent business owner...they simply don't have a prospecting activity level that supports their money target.

And then they wonder why they didn't succeed. They were beaten before they began, and terrifyingly they had no idea.

>> Jason Kanigan is a business strategist concentrating on sales and conversion. Book a call with Jason to get a personalized prospecting plan. <<