July: My Worst Month Ever…

My worst month EVER might be slightly dramatic but most certainly my worst month in the past 3 years just happened. July was sloppy, lazy, unfocused and a just a bit blah… kind of like a couple of my ex-boyfriends.

Let’s talk about what I didn’t do that created a month worth crying about, a month only a stiff Gin and a harsh (self) talking to could remedy.

Marketing funnels? What marketing funnels?

It was like I never knew they existed. I did nothing to fill my marketing funnels with new leads. I had no ads running, I wasn’t promoting anything and I didn’t offer anything. Nothingness.
It was pure laziness and complacency that had me running a business with zero marketing. I have worked really hard to create funnels that work, funnels that take potential customers through a series of steps to turn them into paying customers. I didn’t use those funnels.. at all…

No content prepared

Usually I have a stash of content scheduled (newsletters, blogs, social media) so I can keep ahead of myself. I like to have a little buffer of “stuff” prepared so if I get busy or I am just not feeling it I can whip out a little something-something I prepared earlier.
In July I a) wasn’t feeling it and b) didn’t have a stash. The result was radio silence from The Profit Lovers HQ. Bad. Very bad.

No pre-sold coaching

I only take 2 clients at a time now, so booking out the spots happens fast. I didn’t do anything to fill July back in May and June so I sat around staring at the wall instead. By the time I realised I had missed my coaching target it was too late to turn it around.
You can blame that error on poor planning back in May and June.

I tracked sales daily, kind of….

Even though I was tracking my sales daily the crap numbers just were not registering. I don’t know if I thought it would magically change or I was wasn’t paying attention? The later I think.
I use daily sales tracking as the number one key performance indicator (or progress indicator) in my business. If sales aren’t coming in regularly I know one of my moving parts isn’t moving. I always talk about business being a set of turning wheels, it really is that simple.

Very few sales on the tracker should have moved me to search for the wheel that wasn’t turning (umm… that would be the non-existent marketing funnel wheel…). I ate cookies and watched Dr Phil instead.

Goodbye subscribers

My database numbers (yes, you should be tracking the number of people you have on your database/list) fell for the first time too. I lost a lot of subscribers (which happens every month) but I didn’t replace them and add a newbies to make sure the list was growing.
A list of loyal subscribers is one of the most valuable marketing and sales tools your business can have. I have survived horrible months by doing nothing more than sending out a sales campaign to my list.

A well prepped campaign (I just duplicate now as I already have sequences that work) takes about 2 hours to set up and test. It is not usual for a campaign to bring in $4k to $8k. I can’t do that everything month, you would all unsubscribe due to boredom. I can do it when I know I need to boost sales.

This is why an ever growing list is important. In 12 months I expect one campaign to bring in $8k to $12k, in 24 months… $16k to $20K… This will only happen if I am focused on constant list building.

Sloth-like productivity

I moved at a speed not dissimilar to a sloth. With little focus and intention on anything I was suppose to be doing, I wasted an entire month. I don’t remember looking at my Perfect Week Schedule once, or opening my task tracker more than a couple of times. I dropped my kitchen timer (I use it when my productivity sucks) behind a bookshelf and couldn’t be bothered moving the shelf to pick it up. The bookshelf is on industrial castors. It literally rolls around with almost zero effort. Ziggy could push it.
Knowing what I can acheive in a month vs what I did achieve was an eye-opener. I am going to talk about this during my Facebook Live Video at 11am today (Tuesday 15th of August).

August = Triple sales in 3 days

I tripled my July sales in the first three day of August. How? I pulled out all the tools I have that I know work! I followed up leads, I started ads (to be fair I did this in the last few days of July when the reality of eating 2 minute noodles kicked in). I retrieved the kitchen timer from behind the bookcase, I reassessed all August targets and stuck my Perfect Week Schedule to the wall. I also sent out a series of sales email (as I mentioned above) and have been not just tracking my daily income, but actually paying attention to the numbers and adjusting my funnel as necessary.
Anyone can turn a bad month around if you have your basic plans in place:

• Sales targets
• Perfect Week Schedule
• Marketing funnels (that you already know work)
• Sales emails to send to a growing database (that you already know convert)

At first I was super embarrassed and wasn’t going to tell anyone about July, but the power lies in the ability to turn it around fast, not in the failure. So I will choose to celebrate my ability to steer my business pack to profitable, not my sucky mont