The New Success Metrics for 2022!
Gosh… we're so close to the end of the year that honestly felt like the longest year ever (at least it did for me).
I know I am ready for a big break because I keep doing silly, mindless things, like leaving my keys in the car and walking away.
I have the keyless button start kind of car; you just need the keys to be in the car somewhere. Usually, the key fob thingy is hooked to my wallet, but I detached it the other day when using a Valet.
I stuck the key in its little key slot in the dashboard and forgot it was there. So I got out of the car and just went about my business with the key right in the car.
That's bad, but then I left my garage door up with my keys right inside the door next to my wallet over the weekend. I mean… asking for trouble or what?
I am so dang lucky that nothing was stolen, not even the pressure cleaner that was right in front of the door. Anyone could have just walked a few steps up the driveway and helped themselves. Even luckier I wasn't murdered in my sleep…there is a chainsaw right in the garage. So they would not have even needed to lug their own murder weapons.
So, this will be the second last podcast/blog for the first season of the Profit Lovers. While I would love to promise you weekly episodes next year, my team and I have decided to embrace that we are all inconsistently consistent, sometimes consistently inconsistent. So, I feel like 2022 will be about accepting what is and making it work for me.
Success metrics for women + in business have been pretty much the same as men, yet our needs, desires, and wants are very different. Women's lifestyles are different, our responsibilities are different, and our values are different.
As my team and I work on tightening up the Profit Lovers brand messaging significantly for 2022, I have been having discussions with clients and members about what success means to them.
One interesting thing is I often get messages from clients and members telling me about big financial successes, huge launches, or massive milestones hit, but they don't want to celebrate those wins publicly.
I also, coincidently, don't enjoy publicity celebrating my successes. I don't need the celebration of others, yet I love celebrating others. My Profit Lovers, well… they also tend to be on the more introverted side and they don't want the attention.
That makes it difficult for me to promote the outcomes of my coaching or Members Club; when you look at other successful coaches and online programs, the testimonials are full of I made x amount, or my last launch hit x figure.
Of course, financial improvement is one outcome of coaching or Members Club. I am less excited about people hitting a specific sales gaol and more excited about them increasing profit margins, buying their first homes (If you haven't listened to Julie Murrays episode go and listen to how excited I get when she shares that news), building financial safety nets, investing in shares, learning about cash flow forecasting… they're all life changing successes.
Still, they're not as sexy or as marketable as having multiple six-figure launches, for example.
While it might be sexy to be chasing the multiple 6 or 7 figure sales badge of honour while working from a laptop on a tropical island, the reality will look quite different for most women.
I remember a friend telling me that her husband wanted to take a year sabbatical to live and travel in Europe with her and the kids. He thought this was the best idea ever, as did most of his friends. However, while it sounds exciting, she quickly pointed out that life wouldn't change for her; it would likely become more difficult.
The plan was to home school the kids as they travelled around enjoying French chateaus and Swiss chalets. For her, it would be packing and unpacking, making sure the kids were doing school work, cleaning the chateau, grocery shopping and cooking meals, laundry and bath time and all the things she did at home. For him, it was this big adventure; for her it was moving her existing life to another location where she wouldn't have any family support.
No doubt people would have envied their trip, thought that they had reached a pinnacle of success and been green with envy. But, for her, it would have been exhausting and overwhelming.
It might look like having a big team and seven-figure years or seven-figure launches are the pinnacles of business success, and yes, people will be impressed, but that might be the same business, same life, considerable burdens just like the French chateau. Having a big team is my worst nightmare right now; maybe that will change in the future…I doubt it, though.. I like simplicity.
All of these thoughts about what the Profit Lovers will stand for in 2022 and beyond had me thinking about success metrics and what makes sense for a business to create businesses for women that will financially secure their futures while still being liveable and loveable.
The sales figure success metrics, while still crucial because sales create profit, are not the only or most important metric to focus on.
Let me give you some un-sexy because you know we are all about embracing unsexy stuff here at the Profit Lovers, success metrics that make a lot of sense for the ultimate goal that the Profit Lovers has.
Women and financial security
These success metrics are perfect if you don't want to be celebrating making a specific amount in sales, or you're shy talking about money or, like me… don't think it's anyone's business.
Listen, I grew up in a house where I had to hide my money. I mean, my mum taught us to literally hide our money because my father took it. He took everything; you would come home one day and not have a computer or tv because he needed money.
He took our piggy banks as kids; he emptied my bank account savings for my first car. My mum hid money in the pockets of her clothes in the cupboard so that he wouldn't find it. So for me, financial security means not sharing what I have.
Here are some fresh new success metrics for 2022!
Hitting profit goals
First understanding your profit margins, then working to actively increase the amount you get to keep of each sale, is a fantastic metric of success. Profit goals are vital if you want to avoid vanity metrics of sales goals with no substance. I know many businesses are turning over millions that make next to nothing in profit.
Here is a huge tip and one of the new Profit Lovers 2020 mantras; sales don't change your life; profit does. A multi-million dollar business is worth very little to you or anyone looking to invest or buy without profit.
Growing your business bank account balance
Growing your business bank account to an amount where you can plan forward, you have enough to cover the next three months of expenses in advance gives you so many choices in your business.
If you're always making sales today to pay yesterdays bills or scrambling to stop your account from hitting zero, you're at the mercy of the next customer or client that comes your way. You won't be able to say no; you end up working with people you know are the wrong fit or holding panic sales, discounting your offerings or over-servicing.
If you get a life curveball, you will likely need to juggle business and whatever else is happening instead of saying, no, right now, my family needs me, or I need time. I have spoken before about the power of profit to give you time and presence when you need it.
Growing your personal savings account balance
Knowing you're going to be okay in an emergency is so empowering.
Here are some scary stats for you, one fifth of households has less than $1000 in savings. Nearly a quarter of Aussie households could only survive one month without an income, and 11 per cent would last just two weeks if we consider the number of single mums and the fact that women earn so much less than men that the success metric of your emergency fund becomes even more valuable.
Beyond your emergency fund, growing your savings every week even if you're only putting a small amount away is a huge win.
Investing in shares or property
A big goal of mine over the past couple of years was to learn about buying and selling shares, and mid next year, I am planning to purchase a small property that will become my retirement savings. That first purchase of shares was huge for me. No one in my family ever owned shares.
That was rich people talk!
So I started super small by using an app that rounds up all your transactions to the nearest dollar and puts the round-up amount in an investment account, it took 2 years to get to $2k, but when I did, I took that money out and chose some shares to invest in on my own.
My new success metric is to make $1000 per week from shares, and the more profit I make, the more I can afford to invest, the faster I get to that goal.
Listen, it's not everyone's bag of chips, but your financial success doesn't need to come just from the business you have today. The business you have today could be providing the income you need to create multiple income sources.
Setting up a retirement plan
In quite a few of my client feedback surveys, I love that one of the top wins listed is putting money away into superannuation or a retirement fund. I love that clients have prioritised their financial future safety. It's never the first thing we focus on unless the business has the capacity, but it's part of the cash flow planning. We create a goal that includes regular contributions as a standard practice.
Paying off a mortgage, credit card or other debt
A massive success metric for me was being debt-free, I had so much debt after my mum died. I had been throwing every treatment and drug available to treat her aggressive breast cancer onto credit cards. I had a car loan, and I had personal loans.. I hated it.
Cutting up every card and closing down all accounts was one thing but my gosh, paying all of that debt off.
Being debt free! That is a reason to celebrate!
Planning for tax bills
Here's a weird one I often celebrate with clients, and honestly, I have never thought much about this until I was writing today's episode. We celebrate tax bills because there is already money set aside to cover them when those bills arrive. That is a success metric that most people never thought they would be throwing a celebration for, but it does show true financial control and planning.
There are so many more we could talk about; taking your family on an adventure, buying a piano for the kids, being able to cover that massive bill for braces without having to dig out the credit card… they're all success metrics that matter and deserve to be celebrated.
They're true life-changing metrics. So having a 7 figure launch is great and so worth celebrating but....
It is not the only time you deserve to be celebrated for your business success or validated as a business owner.
Ready to create your own success metrics in 2022?
The Plan + Track is finally here, if you're after the freebie version head to www.theprofitlovers.com/planandtrack, if you're really serious about going for the big wins next year and creating life changing profit then skip the free version and go straight for the Plan + Track Ultimate. You will find it at www.theprofitlovers.com/ptu2022.
The Plan + Track has had a major makeover and so far the feedback has been amazing.
I have the beta version to Prue from Creative Family Historian to take for a test run and let me just read out her feedback for you: Melanie, I love the new P&T so much.
You've created a fantastic user experience. With all of the warnings, and the formulas, this is the most incredible tool. You've made it so simple and easy for anyone to plan for their business, even if they only do it 90-days at a time.
It's been amazing for someone like me who likes to overfill everything. I have never felt so calm and in control after planning what the next phase of my business will look like. Having the tabs for the quarters is genius. This evolution of the P&T is incredible. Now, where can I buy my "I 
the Plan & Track" mug or t-shirt?
Check out some of the stories I mentioned in today's episode below!
How many Aussies have less than $1000 in savings
Want to listen to The Profit Lovers Podcast with Julie Murray from Sounds Like This?