As a business owner, it’s imperative to your success that you know (1) how your business grows and are (2) monitoring your finances. Even if you have support around these areas such as a marketing assistant doing your advertising and an accountant handling your books, you still need to keep your finger on the pulse when it comes down to these important areas.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
The two most important business dates *every* business needs
What to do inside these business dates, even as a one-man-band
How you can use these ‘dates’ to create what you want i.e. better cash flow + more leads
Creating what you want comes down to the attention you give it, even and especially when things aren’t ideal. This episode is another actionable example of what to do to help you achieve your business goals.
As a business owner, it’s imperative to your success that you know (1) how your business grows and are (2) monitoring your finances. Even if you have support around these areas such as a marketing assistant doing your advertising and an accountant handling your books, you still need to keep your finger on the pulse when it comes down to these important areas.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
The two most important business dates *every* business needs
What to do inside these business dates, even as a one-man-band
How you can use these ‘dates’ to create what you want i.e. better cash flow + more leads
Creating what you want comes down to the attention you give it, even and especially when things aren’t ideal. This episode is another actionable example of what to do to help you achieve your business goals.
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
Shannon Stone:
H ey guys. Welcome to the podcast. Really excited to jump into this episode.
Shannon Stone:
Today we are talking about the two business dates you need in your business every single week, especially talking to the business owner. The two dates are a finance date and a sales and marketing date, and I believe these are the two most important areas that any business owner needs to have their finger on the pulse about. Even if they're not the one to implement these things, even if they're not the one doing the books and sending the invoices, you need to have your finger on the pulse when it comes to these. It doesn't matter who you are, what level you're at, how busy you are, you need to know these things. Number one how does your business grow? That is, your sales and your marketing. That is something that I believe everyone needs to know. Even if you have an agency, even if you have a team who does your marketing or a marketing assistant, you need to know how does your business actually get clients, how does your business actually make sales? Because when you are informed about that, you can make better decisions around who it is you need to hire, where you should be investing your time, your money, everything when it comes to your business. So that's on the sales and marketing side, and we'll go through what to cover in that date.
Shannon Stone:
And then the second half is the finance date. So it's so important to know where your business sits financially. So how much you're making, what's coming in, what's going out. We don't have to be too complicated, but keeping your finger on the pulse when it comes to this is so important. I don't understand Well, I kind of do understand why people don't want to look at it, because it's just easier to ignore it. But when you get a little bit more empowered around it, you can make again, better decisions around your business. You will also know where it is. You need to be spending more time in your business, especially if things are not perfect, if you're not earning what you want to be earning. This is even more important for you to be having this weekly finance date. So we'll go through both these two dates that I suggest and recommend that you have in your business.
Shannon Stone:
We'll start with the finance date. Having this in your calendar on a repeat basis every single week is what you need to do. So you need to add this into your calendar and I would set aside an hour every single week and the first time you do this it's going to take longer. You might even set. It depends where your finances are at, depends where your goals are at, depends how much you pay attention to this already, but maybe you might need a couple of hours to set this up to begin with, because what you need to do is to work out where you are currently at right now and what is it that you want. So what do you want and where are you right now? So you need to know those two things.
Shannon Stone:
So, when it comes to your finances, it's like you need to do a lay of the land and really what I and, honestly, this is something I did as well. I wasn't always doing these weekly dates in my business and I remember one day my brother called me and I never really take personal calls during the day but I did this happen to this one time and I answered and I was like A little bit short on the phone. I was like, sorry, I'm in my finance date and he's like, but it's just you and your business. Why would you be, you know, like on a finance date with yourself? And it's for the very reason it's like this is still your business. It doesn't matter if it's just you or you've got one or two team members or you're subcontracting or outsourcing certain things. Whatever, it doesn't matter how many people in your business. You still need to be focusing on this.
Shannon Stone:
So when you first do this finance date, you do need to do a lay of the land and figure out where are you currently at at the moment. What does it look like? The good, the bad and the ugly, because, if we know it, the financial side of a business can be the good, the bad and the ugly. You might have outstanding invoices, you may not even have an accounting software and if you do, maybe it's not up to date. Maybe you don't know how to update, like whatever the things. Maybe you've got to get on top of your taxes, like it doesn't matter how bad it might be looking, you've actually just got to look at it and you need to set this time and say you know what? I'm going to see the lay of the land, I'm going to figure out where am I at right now. Because I'm going to start to get clear, because when we can look at things, we can start to do things about it.
Shannon Stone:
So in this finance date, to begin with, when you first start doing it, you have to look and see where you are right now. Then, where is it that you want to be? And this can look like a lot of things. When it comes to the financial side, this can be your revenue goals. This could be. Maybe you might do something like profit first and you want to implement that in your business. Maybe you want to be paying yourself a certain wage. So what are all the things when it comes to your finances that you actually want? And I would be. And part of this you might say I need to tidy up my accounting software, I need to get a new accountant, so add in there everything that you want to do as your target. So where are you right now and where do you want to be as far as your finances go? And it doesn't matter how good, bad and ugly it might be. Let's just get it down there on paper, because your next step every single week when you have this finance date, is to start to close the gap, start to improve the things that need improving, whatever way it looks like for you.
Shannon Stone:
So when you first start doing this finance date, it's going to be a little bit messy and it's going to feel like a project and it's not going to feel perfect at all. So that'll be the first half to the finance date Just kind of really getting started with it, seeing where you're currently at and what you need to start doing. Then, on a consistent basis, when you have your weekly finance date, there'll be a regular things that you need to do. It might be paying invoices. It might be checking that your clients have paid all your invoices. It might be sending off your invoices, which is not my favorite thing to suggest around sending off your invoices weekly. I would send it off in your sales process. Maybe it's when the client says yes, or when you've completed the job, or it's 50% at the front, 50% at the back, whatever it is. But to do it once a week can cause a little bit of chaos for people. I think it should be more tied to the work that you're actually doing.
Shannon Stone:
But you can come to a conclusion about what makes sense for you. There Are there any kind of financial follow-ups you need to be doing. So you will have some regular financial tasks that you would do in this finance date every single week, and then there will be those other maybe clean up activities that you are chipping away at every single week. So maybe it is tidying up your accounting system, Maybe it is finding an accountant, one of the things that I would do. I haven't done this for quite a while, but it would be a great one to start doing. But in my one hour finance date I would do the same thing. Here's where I'm at, here's where I want to be. And now here's the things I need to start to chip away at, as well as the regular weekly activities. Make sure all the invoices are paid. Make sure I never really have a problem with clients running late. But that would be on payments, but that would be a great time to check on that, making sure I'm reconciling anything in QuickBooks. But the other thing I would also do is read a financial book, and this would be something like Profit First or the Millionaire Mind or Rich Dad, poor Dad, so some kind of financial book to equip myself with more financial literacy, like I think this is one area where more of us could learn so much more about.
Shannon Stone:
But what makes sense for you as far as a business and as far as your business goes? So if you have this weekly financial date where you're looking at these important things but you're also making progress towards how you would like it to be, this is the only way it happens. You're not going to have a million dollar business by not looking at your financials. Even if you were a unicorn, I don't think it would happen that way. So, whatever it is that you want, you start to create it by having these dates in your schedule every single week, and the financial one is one of the big ones. So that's the first one to add into your calendar Anything, and you know my rule anything that goes into a calendar, we follow it like a mofo. We treat it as if there's a person on the other line of that, even if it's just you in your business, and especially if things are not perfect, because this is the only way for you to start to make progress towards how you want it to be.
Shannon Stone:
Now, even if you are earning minimal in your business, you're like it doesn't even make sense or matter for me to spend any time on this financial stuff at the moment. Well, I think if we want certain things, if you want to be earning certain things, we have to start acting like it right now. We need to start to put the right systems in place to facilitate that happening, and this is one of them. This will help you to see this is actually what you're earning. It's less than what you actually want to be earning, but we have been looking at where it is that you want to go and we're starting to close the gap, and even just by reading some of the right books in that financial date that you have every single week. It's going to help you to develop that momentum, help you to move forward, especially in this really important area of your business.
Shannon Stone:
Okay, and the second date that you should have in my professional opinion, if I do say is a sales and marketing date in your calendar every single week, and both of these dates are one hour going into your calendar and we approach it in a very similar way. Notice it that you want when is it that you're at, and then we close the gap. So a sales and marketing date. You could actually do this two ways. Most of my clients will do it these two ways. So they will set a monthly revenue goal. So you might have a monthly sales and marketing date that you set every single month where you're like okay, this is what I want to be earning this month. For some businesses it's the exact same amount every single month, but just to have that reset every month of this is what we want to be earning. And then also, you want to have a weekly sales and marketing date as well. It's almost exact same method goes.
Shannon Stone:
So what is it that you want? Say you want to be earning $30,000 for the month. Then where are you at right now? Maybe you've got some regular clients already on for the month, maybe you've got some retainer clients already on. So what are you left with? What's the gap that you need to be closing? And then that'll bring you to well.
Shannon Stone:
What is it that you need to be doing in order to close the gap, to facilitate the rest of the sales you're looking at? Maybe for some, it's just your regular marketing activity that you'll keep up with, and so you just want to make sure. How is that going? Are people booking calls? Are you getting your emails out and all those kind of things? Or if you're getting to the end of the month and you're not really getting, you're not seeing yourself hitting that financial goal or that revenue goal for the month, maybe you need to get radical. Maybe you need to roll out the fierce action towards sales idea and you need to really go for it as far as sales for a short sprint in time. So your weekly sales and marketing date helps you to stay on track with your monthly end. It always comes back to your annual revenue goals as well. So when you do this daily, when you look at things, you can do things about it, and even just by looking at it, you get the awareness that you know what we are doing really good this month. You know we're making really good paces towards our goals.
Shannon Stone:
One little hack that I would always love to do is set a monthly revenue goal and then just go for it in the first week of the month. Like, imagine if you set the goal and then you achieve it straight out of the gate first week of the month and then you just set, you don't have to keep worrying as much about your sales and marketing activity. You would obviously keep up your regular and consistent marketing activity, but at least you know the sales are done. If you go for it all in the first month and you get it locked in, depending on how you run your business and your services and your packages and all those kind of things If you can just go for it the first week of the month straight out of the gate, you achieve your monthly revenue goal, then you just have to focus on delivering to your clients, then how good is that. So with this sales and marketing date, you would have two of them. You would at least have a monthly setting date or a goal that you do set, and then, second, you have that weekly review and very similar to the finance date. What is it that you want? Where are you at? And start to close the gap on that.
Shannon Stone:
So the final thing I will say to this and we've already really touched on it. You need to do these two things, these two dates, especially when things aren't perfect. It's because you do these dates that business will become what you want it to be. So is there ever a perfect business? Like behind the scenes, like no, not really. And so it always comes about by putting intentional focus on the areas that are going to help to get you there. So I say finance, I say sales and marketing. They're the two most important areas in your business. But if there's other really important areas in your business as well, then maybe you've got like an impact or a philanthropy type thing that you really want to focus on. Add that as a regular date to your business as well and use the same type of methodology when are you at right now, where do you want to be, and start to close the gap, and every single week it's in your calendar as a regular thing that you do, and you show up like a mofo, like there's someone there on the other line to hold you accountable to that, and that is how you achieve what you actually want to achieve.
Shannon Stone:
So the action steps for this episode today is number one schedule these two dates in your calendar and have them repeated each week. So when you add it in, make sure they do repeat every single week, so you're not always having to re-add it in every single week and you can structure that however you want to. Maybe you do finances every single Friday and you do marketing every single Monday, like whatever works for you, or they're both on the same day totally up to you. The second action step that I have for you is look at the finances. So, on the finance side, what do you want, where you're at? Create a plan to close the gap. On the sales side, the third action step we want to do the exact same thing. What do you want, where you're at? Create a plan to close the gap.
Shannon Stone:
The fourth and final action step is, if you don't know what you need to be doing when it comes to the implementation of whether it was sorting out your accounting system or implementing QuickBooks, or you don't really know how to work on your marketing or your sales, talk to someone to help you and let that still do your dates in your calendar, because you are the business owner and this is your business. No one's going to come in with a cape and save you in all these different areas, but they can help you within these areas and so you can add into those dates. I need to book a call with this person, or I need to find an accountant, I need to find marketing person, whoever it might be. But the fourth action step is to talk to someone, because sometimes it's not what we need to do, it's who do we need to talk to in order to help us. So that's what I have for you today.
Shannon Stone:
I hope you found this useful. Definitely, share it with a friend in business who would find benefit in it, and if you need any help, especially when it comes to the sales and marketing stuff, feel free to reach out. Happy to chat and see how I can help you. But I'd love to see these in your calendar. These are in my calendar. They are also in my client's calendar in the way of our sessions that we do together, because we always focus on particularly the sales, the marketing and how are they progressing towards their revenue goals.
Shannon Stone:
So hopefully you found this useful. I hope you have an amazing day and we'll talk again soon. Hey, thanks for listening. If you found this episode useful, I'd love for you to send it to a friend. The best podcast I have found have all been recommended to me. If you can spread the word by sharing this episode, I can spend more time helping you by creating episodes just like this one. Send it text it, tell somebody about it, whatever you need to do. The more you spread the word, the more I can focus on creating needle-moving episodes to help you and your friends.