September 16, 2025 • 21 mins
Tired of tracking numbers that never translate to action? Frustrated by repeating the same mistakes in your business month after month? It's time to transform how you approach your monthly business review.
A powerful monthly review isn't about creating pretty charts or judging your performance—it's about building a business intelligence system that reveals patterns and informs smarter decisions. Many entrepreneurs fall into two traps: meticulously tracking everything but acting on nothing, or avoiding numbers altogether while wondering why they keep hitting the same walls.
In this value-packed episode, we dive into the four questions that will revolutionize your monthly review process: What's working (and why)? What's genuinely not working? What has changed in your business or market? And based on these insights, what should you focus on next? Through real-world examples, we explore how understanding the complete picture—not just isolated metrics—leads to sustainable growth. Like the business owner who mistakenly doubled down on social content when it was actually her email follow-up driving sales, missing the why behind our successes can lead us astray.
We also break down which metrics truly matter for service-based entrepreneurs. From leading indicators that predict future performance to operational metrics revealing your business's efficiency, you'll learn to focus on the vital few measurements that actually move the needle. And don't forget the personal metrics—because what's the point of growing a business that leaves you burnt out and miserable?
The monthly review process I outline takes just 90 uninterrupted minutes but yields incredible clarity. You'll discover how to translate numbers into actionable insights by examining your calendar, client feedback, and personal energy levels. Most importantly, you'll learn to implement changes through a simple framework: one thing to start, one thing to stop, and one thing to do differently.
Remember, every minute you continue in a direction that isn't working costs you money, time, and peace of mind. Success follows speed, and as a small business owner, you control that speed. Ready to build a business that works for your life instead of running it? Start with a monthly review that actually matters.
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hi there, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, jen Cody.
Thank you so much for beinghere for episode 104.
I want to talk to you guystoday about decision making,
which is something we cover alot on here, and making
decisions as a business owner isdaunting, is important, because
(00:35):
one wrong decision can reallyhave serious consequences on us
and our businesses.
So I want to speak to you aboutsomething that seems to happen
a lot.
You know, the end of the monthkind of comes, and maybe you're
looking at your numbers.
Maybe you feel good about them,you feel bad about them.
Either way, you make a mentalnote to yourself that, oh, I'm
(00:56):
going to do better next month,or oh, I did a little better
than I thought, and then youdive right back into whatever
chaos is normally your dailyroutine, right, and some of us
operate in a very different way.
We create elaboratespreadsheets, we are tracking
everything.
Maybe we're even spending agood amount of time analyzing
(01:17):
the data, but then we don'tactually change anything based
on what it is that we've learned.
So what I want to do today istalk to you about how to do a
monthly review that will improveyour business, and I'm not
talking about just trackingnumbers, but how do you use
those numbers to make smarterdecisions going forward?
And I'm going to start withjust talking about what a lot of
(01:40):
people get wrong when it comesto this type of a review.
Maybe you are trackingeverything and acting on nothing
, or you're tracking on nothingand wondering why you keep
making the same mistakes.
And the point of a monthlyreview is not to judge yourself,
it's not to create charts, it'snot to check off a box.
It's actually to identify thepatterns that can inform the
(02:03):
decisions that you need to bemaking in a better way.
So I want you to think of it asyour business intelligence
system, not your report card.
It's not something that tellsyou where you've been.
It's something that's going totell you where you're going.
So I'm going to give you fourquestions.
These are four questions thatmatter, so go ahead and write
them down.
(02:23):
The first one is what's working?
And I want you to be reallyintentional when you answer this
question, because we're notjust talking about what made
money, but what about?
What is generating results?
What should be continued?
What should we double down on?
What do we need to expand?
Is it that your emailnewsletter had the best
engagement that you've ever seen.
(02:44):
Is it that clients from aparticular referral are
consistently the ones that youlove working with?
And maybe you launched a newservice and that seems to be
booking really really well?
The key here is not to identifyjust what worked, but why did it
work?
Was it the timing?
Was it the messaging?
Was it the audience that youreached?
(03:05):
Because what worked withoutunderstanding the why behind it
isn't going to help you actuallyrepeat that behavior.
I worked with someone who had areally really high revenue month
and she noticed that itcoincided with launching
specific type of content on hersocial media.
But when she tried to repeat itthe next month, nothing
(03:26):
actually happened.
So what we found?
When we looked back and did alittle audit on the situation,
it turned out that the contentwasn't really the factor.
What really was working wasthat she had been more
consistent with her emails thatmonth and following up to people
.
The social media content gotattention, but the emails is
where that converted to sales.
(03:47):
So when she didn't understandthe complete system, she was
optimizing just one part of thatengine, right, so she was
doubling down on the socialmedia content, thinking this is
the answer.
This is what made all thedifference last month.
But since she didn't alsodouble down on that email follow
up, everything fell flat andshe really wasted a lot of time
(04:09):
and energy.
So when you ask yourself what'sworking, be sure to see that
through to its naturalconclusion, which is the why is
it working?
The next question is what's notworking, and I mean really not
working.
What is consuming all of yourresources and not generating
results?
This is not about gettingthings perfect.
(04:31):
It's about making sure yourresources are allocated
correctly.
A lot of us are spending a lotof time on a social media
platform, and maybe what happensif that is sending zero traffic
to your website.
Maybe you're offering a newservice and that attracts people
(04:52):
that are just kind of testingit out instead of being serious
buyers.
Right, we call that kind oflike the Groupon syndrome.
Maybe you're networking atevents, but those events are not
really serving up your idealclients to you.
So I want you to get honestabout what's not working,
because when you think aboutsunk costs, that fallacy is real
.
Just because you've investedtime or money into something
(05:13):
does not mean you should keepinvesting more time and more
money.
We have to figure out if thattime and money is actually
converting to dollars in ourbusiness.
Okay, the third question whathas changed?
And here's the question that alot of people skip, because it's
often the most important one,but we're not thinking about
this.
(05:33):
What assumptions did you havethat have maybe been proven to
not be right?
They're incorrect.
What are some new opportunitiesthat maybe emerged?
What shifted in your market?
What shifted in your businessthat maybe requires a different
approach?
We want to look at all of thesethings, because sometimes it's
easy to assume that our clientsneed a particular solution
(05:55):
because we believe in thatsolution, but if you are
consistently hearing requestsfor something else, you're
marketing the wrong thing.
If you are working with aparticular marketing channel,
like a Facebook ad or a Googlead, or now Reddit ads are really
big too Maybe that marketingchannel worked six months ago,
but now the results aredifferent, and you know what.
(06:17):
Let's go in the positive too.
Maybe you've developedcapabilities and honed in on
some new skills, learned somenew things, and that opens up
new responsibilities.
This question is so importantbecause change is not always
obvious.
Sometimes change is gradual.
Sometimes it's hiding in thecustomer feedback, it's hiding
(06:37):
in the patterns that you haven'tbeen paying attention to.
So it's really important thatwe don't skip this question.
I'm telling you, it is veryoften the most important
question you can ask about yourbusiness.
Okay, fourth question what'snext, based on what you've
learned going through thosefirst three questions, what
should you be focusing on in thenext 90 days?
(06:59):
Not everything, but what arethe most important things that
are going to move your businessforward?
This is where a lot of peoplego wrong, because they're
identifying 15 things that needtheir attention and they try to
tackle all of them at once.
I'm here to tell you,sustainable progress comes from
focusing on the few key things,the few areas, and making real
(07:22):
progress there, rather thanspreading ourselves really thin
and trying to put our attentionacross everything at one time.
Okay, so you have your fourquestions.
Now I want to talk about whatare you actually going to track?
Because you don't need tomeasure everything.
It's really difficult whenwe're talking about metrics, as
a business owner, to look at ametric in our business and
(07:45):
actually voice out loud that wedon't think it's important
because we don't want to negateanything right?
We're so focused on ourbusiness doing well and our
success and the success of ourclients, that we want to measure
everything, but we don't needto.
What you do need to do ismeasure the right things.
So these are just going to be avital few things three to five
(08:08):
metrics that are going to tellyou whether your business is
healthy and whether yourbusiness is growing.
So, if you're a service-basedentrepreneur, you these are
going to include things like themetrics that actually predict
your future performance.
How many leads do you have?
Are those leads qualified?
What are the conversations thatyou're having with those leads?
(08:28):
Are you growing your email list?
What's the engagement like onyour content?
These are the things that aregoing to tell you what's coming
before you actually see theresult in your revenue.
So that would be like a leadingindicator, not an actual metric
of revenue, because revenuemetrics they're not just total
revenue, but we want to look atrevenue per client, revenue per
(08:50):
service line, monthly recurringrevenue, if that's something
that's applicable in yourbusiness.
This is what's going to tellyou about the health and
sustainability of the businessmodel that you're working with,
because if your revenue metricsare tanking, there's some work
to be done.
Right, we need to audit,evaluate and pivot when
necessary.
Now let's talk about operations,because operational metrics can
(09:13):
be a little bit confusing.
We sometimes don't know wherewe're supposed to focus, and I'm
going to tell you right now.
The ones that you don't want tolet go are client satisfaction
scores.
What are your reviews like?
Are you even asking for reviews?
Reviews on everything?
Reviews on your services,reviews on your communication?
If you're working with a team,even what is their review of
(09:38):
your leadership?
But let's talk first about justclient satisfaction.
Then we want to talk aboutlength of time right to complete
a project.
How long is it taking you toget from point A to fulfillment,
to the full circle, in theproject that you're working on?
And then, what are your profitmargins like All of these things
(10:00):
?
Client satisfaction, how longit takes for you to complete a
project and what your profitmargin is these are going to
tell you about the efficiencyand scalability of your business
and your operations in thatbusiness.
If your operations are notscalable and they are not
efficient, you are dead in thewater.
You're never going to grow.
(10:23):
Now I want you to look atpersonal metrics, because this
is all about not losingourselves while we're building
these businesses, right?
So how many hours are youworking per week.
What's your stress level at?
On a 1 to 10 or 0 to 10?
How's your work-life balancesatisfaction?
What is the point of any ofthis if you are growing a
(10:45):
business that makes youmiserable?
So when you are looking at themetrics in your business, do not
negate the personal metrics,because how would it feel if you
looked at your revenue and itwas just growing month after
month after month?
And then you looked at yourrevenue and it was just growing
month after month after month?
And then you looked at yourpersonal metrics and saw that
(11:07):
your stress was through the roof.
You had no work-life balanceand you're working 85 hours a
week.
Is that truly a successfulbusiness?
Not in my book.
That's not a business I want torun.
So I want you to track thesemonthly and you're going to look
for trends.
You don't want to just look atthe end of the month and see
where you are, like a snapshot.
You actually want to look attrends.
(11:28):
One month of lower revenue istotally fine, normal fluctuation
, but if there's three months oflowering revenue or three
months of declining engagement,that's a pattern and that
requires your attention.
So now you know what you'regoing to be reviewing the
questions you need to askyourself.
(11:49):
But let's talk about the actualreview process.
What I want you to do is take90 minutes at the end of each
month.
Do not try to squeeze this intothe gaps between other work
you're doing.
This requires focus time.
It's strategic work.
It requires all of yourattention.
Block 90 minutes and it has tobe 90 minutes that you know you
(12:13):
are going to be uninterrupted,totally uninterrupted.
If that means you need to warnyour family, you need to go
somewhere else, you need to sitin your car, somewhere where you
know nobody's going to bother.
You make sure you do whateverit takes to get this 90 minutes
uninterrupted focus time.
And you'll start with yournumbers.
(12:34):
But you're not going to stopthere.
The numbers are going to tellyou what happened, but they
don't tell you why it happenedand they don't tell you what to
do about it.
So they do tell a story, but wewant to know what to do with
that story.
So look at your calendar fromthe past month.
What did you actually spendtime on?
How does that compare with whatyou really wanted to be
spending your time on, and wheredid any time go that you didn't
(12:57):
expect that got taken up.
So really audit the time thatyou put into everything.
Then look at your clientinteractions.
Do you notice any patternsthere?
What's the feedback that you'reconstantly receiving from the
clients?
Are you getting, like I saidearlier?
Are you getting, good reviews?
Are you getting mixed reviews?
(13:17):
What are the problems thatclients are asking you to solve
that you're not solving?
Here's something this is a placethat a lot of people get hung
up, because we all think that weknow what our clients want,
because it's what we would want,but as you grow and as you
scale and you grow your audience, they are going to be looking
(13:38):
for other things.
So what are the problems thatthey're asking you to solve that
you're not solving?
Is it time to pivot and offersomething new?
Now check in with your energy.
Right, this is the personalaudit.
Check in your energy levels.
What is the work you did thatreally energized you?
What is the work that you didthat totally drained you and
(13:58):
what would you do more of?
Is there anything you wouldeliminate completely if you
could?
And sometimes there is, but wecan't right, and that has to be
okay also.
Okay now, most important partyou're going to make changes,
the first step in making changesis deciding that you're going
to make changes.
(14:19):
So that's the first part ofthis process Decide, yes, I am
going to pivot and make thechanges.
Which changes am I going tomake?
Okay, well, based on yourreview, identify three things
what's one thing you can startdoing, one thing you can stop
doing, and one thing you'regoing to do differently.
(14:39):
One thing to start doing, onething to stop doing, one thing
to do differently.
Okay, so let's talk about whatyou're going to start doing.
Maybe you discovered that peoplewho find you through a specific
referral right, those are thebest fits.
So how can you implement asystemic referral process with
(14:59):
that person Systematic, notsystemic?
How can you do that?
Right, like, you need to beable to double down on that
process.
If I have another business thatalways is sending me people and
referring people to me, andevery single one of them is a
home run and we just vibe andconnect and I'm able to help
them and we really connect in ameaningful way, I want to know
(15:23):
how I can get more of that.
How can me and this otherbusiness double down on that?
Okay, what are you going tostop doing?
Let's go back to the networkingevents that we spoke about
earlier.
Maybe you realize that thenetworking events you're going
to, maybe they're consumingthree, four, five hours a month,
but none of them have given youa single qualified lead in I
(15:46):
don't know six months.
Well, why would you continue todo that?
Right, we need to do thingsthat are actually going to send
people our way.
And then what would you dodifferently?
What's your follow-up process?
If it is working but it couldbe more efficient, how do you do
that?
Can you create some templates?
Can you automate some parts ofit, delegate some parts of it?
(16:08):
Three changes start, stop anddo differently.
That's it.
Implementation beats analysis,every single time, I promise,
because the entrepreneurs whoare going to grow, it's not the
ones with the biggestspreadsheets, they're not the
ones tracking the most metrics,they don't have fancy dashboards
(16:29):
.
They are just asking the rightquestions.
They're honestly assessing theanswers that they come up with
and then they're changing theirbehavior based on what they've
learned.
Your business it is talking toyou every single day.
It is constantly giving youinformation.
The monthly review is howyou're going to listen to that
(16:49):
information, hear what it'stelling you and respond
intelligently.
There are so many businessowners that are really, really
busy working in their businessand they just never step back to
work on their business.
Right, there's a big differencebetween working in your
business and working on yourbusiness.
The monthly review is youropportunity to be strategic and
(17:14):
not reactive.
This is really important workand not everybody takes the time
to make it happen, so I hopethat you are able to carve out
the time that you need.
That's really what this isabout, because when you think
about, well, I don't have thetime to do this, what is the
cost of not doing this work?
(17:34):
I just hung up with a coachingcall not even a half hour ago,
and the person that I wascoaching not even a half hour
ago, and the person that I wascoaching was speaking about not
really making changes whenthings aren't working in her
business.
So we had a whole conversationabout what is the cost of that
happening.
(17:56):
We think that it means thatthere may be something wrong
with us if we switch directionand we constantly tell ourselves
I don't want to reinvent thewheel.
I don't want to reinvent thewheel.
I don't want to look like Ican't make up my mind.
I don't want to keep shiftingdirection.
Yes, I understand.
And successful businesses pivot.
(18:16):
Successful businesses havespeed behind them.
When something is not working,they switch direction and they
see what is going to work.
Because every minute that youallow yourself and your business
to continue going in adirection that is not working,
it is costing you money, it iscosting you revenue, it's
(18:37):
costing you sleep time.
Right, you're waking up in themiddle of the night in a sweat
because your business is notmaking money and you can't
figure out what it is, becauseyou're just waiting for the
systems that you do have inplace or for the you know, the
referrals that you have.
Whatever it is, you're notlistening to the information
(18:57):
that that is telling you, thatyour business is telling you
about that.
You think you're just waitingfor it to catch on.
You think that if it's a socialmedia thing, you're just
waiting for it to catch on.
You're just waiting for thatone post that's going to go
viral.
No, you need to focus on thethings that are actually
bringing revenue into yourbusiness.
(19:20):
I have a social media account.
It doesn't have a ton of peopleon it.
It doesn't get a ton ofengagement.
I enjoy it.
I enjoy putting my message outthere.
I certainly can't rely on it tobring me clients.
So that is not where I focus.
I focus on the relationshipsthat I have that do bring more
business into my world, becausethat is what is going to sustain
(19:42):
my business.
And that's what gives me joy isworking with people and helping
people and helping them reachtheir next revenue level,
helping them go from strugglingbusiness owner to really
successful entrepreneurs and theCEOs that they are born to be.
But I couldn't do that if Ididn't listen to the fact that,
(20:03):
oh, my Instagram gets a coupleof likes and a couple of shares.
That's not where I need to befocused.
It's so important to be honestwith ourselves about stuff like
that.
So if you're sitting there rightnow listening to this and
thinking, oh wow, jen, you mightbe in my head because I keep
waiting for this new program tojust take off, or I keep waiting
for this new program to justtake off, or I keep waiting for
(20:24):
these new referrals to justclick with me.
That is not going to work.
It's just not how it happens.
Success follows speed and, as asmall business owner, you're in
charge of the speed of yourbusiness.
It's not going to just pick upand make these changes on its
own.
So I encourage you to reallytake this seriously and do this
(20:46):
monthly review okay.
Thank you so much for spendingtime with me today.
I hope that this was valuablefor you.
Take this information.
Go out there, create your dayin the best way possible.
Build the business that youknow is going to work for your
life and not run your life.
It is so worth it and I can'twait to see your success.
Until next time, take care ofyourself, take care of each
(21:12):
other, and I will see you nextweek.
Thanks again.
Hi there, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, jen Cody.
Thank you so much for beinghere for episode 104.
I want to talk to you guystoday about decision making,
which is something we cover alot on here, and making
decisions as a business owner isdaunting, is important, because
(00:35):
one wrong decision can reallyhave serious consequences on us
and our businesses.
So I want to speak to you aboutsomething that seems to happen
a lot.
You know, the end of the monthkind of comes, and maybe you're
looking at your numbers.
Maybe you feel good about them,you feel bad about them.
Either way, you make a mentalnote to yourself that, oh, I'm
(00:56):
going to do better next month,or oh, I did a little better
than I thought, and then youdive right back into whatever
chaos is normally your dailyroutine, right, and some of us
operate in a very different way.
We create elaboratespreadsheets, we are tracking
everything.
Maybe we're even spending agood amount of time analyzing
(01:17):
the data, but then we don'tactually change anything based
on what it is that we've learned.
So what I want to do today istalk to you about how to do a
monthly review that will improveyour business, and I'm not
talking about just trackingnumbers, but how do you use
those numbers to make smarterdecisions going forward?
And I'm going to start withjust talking about what a lot of
(01:40):
people get wrong when it comesto this type of a review.
Maybe you are trackingeverything and acting on nothing
, or you're tracking on nothingand wondering why you keep
making the same mistakes.
And the point of a monthlyreview is not to judge yourself,
it's not to create charts, it'snot to check off a box.
It's actually to identify thepatterns that can inform the
(02:03):
decisions that you need to bemaking in a better way.
So I want you to think of it asyour business intelligence
system, not your report card.
It's not something that tellsyou where you've been.
It's something that's going totell you where you're going.
So I'm going to give you fourquestions.
These are four questions thatmatter, so go ahead and write
them down.
(02:23):
The first one is what's working?
And I want you to be reallyintentional when you answer this
question, because we're notjust talking about what made
money, but what about?
What is generating results?
What should be continued?
What should we double down on?
What do we need to expand?
Is it that your emailnewsletter had the best
engagement that you've ever seen.
(02:44):
Is it that clients from aparticular referral are
consistently the ones that youlove working with?
And maybe you launched a newservice and that seems to be
booking really really well?
The key here is not to identifyjust what worked, but why did it
work?
Was it the timing?
Was it the messaging?
Was it the audience that youreached?
(03:05):
Because what worked withoutunderstanding the why behind it
isn't going to help you actuallyrepeat that behavior.
I worked with someone who had areally really high revenue month
and she noticed that itcoincided with launching
specific type of content on hersocial media.
But when she tried to repeat itthe next month, nothing
(03:26):
actually happened.
So what we found?
When we looked back and did alittle audit on the situation,
it turned out that the contentwasn't really the factor.
What really was working wasthat she had been more
consistent with her emails thatmonth and following up to people
.
The social media content gotattention, but the emails is
where that converted to sales.
(03:47):
So when she didn't understandthe complete system, she was
optimizing just one part of thatengine, right, so she was
doubling down on the socialmedia content, thinking this is
the answer.
This is what made all thedifference last month.
But since she didn't alsodouble down on that email follow
up, everything fell flat andshe really wasted a lot of time
(04:09):
and energy.
So when you ask yourself what'sworking, be sure to see that
through to its naturalconclusion, which is the why is
it working?
The next question is what's notworking, and I mean really not
working.
What is consuming all of yourresources and not generating
results?
This is not about gettingthings perfect.
(04:31):
It's about making sure yourresources are allocated
correctly.
A lot of us are spending a lotof time on a social media
platform, and maybe what happensif that is sending zero traffic
to your website.
Maybe you're offering a newservice and that attracts people
(04:52):
that are just kind of testingit out instead of being serious
buyers.
Right, we call that kind oflike the Groupon syndrome.
Maybe you're networking atevents, but those events are not
really serving up your idealclients to you.
So I want you to get honestabout what's not working,
because when you think aboutsunk costs, that fallacy is real
.
Just because you've investedtime or money into something
(05:13):
does not mean you should keepinvesting more time and more
money.
We have to figure out if thattime and money is actually
converting to dollars in ourbusiness.
Okay, the third question whathas changed?
And here's the question that alot of people skip, because it's
often the most important one,but we're not thinking about
this.
(05:33):
What assumptions did you havethat have maybe been proven to
not be right?
They're incorrect.
What are some new opportunitiesthat maybe emerged?
What shifted in your market?
What shifted in your businessthat maybe requires a different
approach?
We want to look at all of thesethings, because sometimes it's
easy to assume that our clientsneed a particular solution
(05:55):
because we believe in thatsolution, but if you are
consistently hearing requestsfor something else, you're
marketing the wrong thing.
If you are working with aparticular marketing channel,
like a Facebook ad or a Googlead, or now Reddit ads are really
big too Maybe that marketingchannel worked six months ago,
but now the results aredifferent, and you know what.
(06:17):
Let's go in the positive too.
Maybe you've developedcapabilities and honed in on
some new skills, learned somenew things, and that opens up
new responsibilities.
This question is so importantbecause change is not always
obvious.
Sometimes change is gradual.
Sometimes it's hiding in thecustomer feedback, it's hiding
(06:37):
in the patterns that you haven'tbeen paying attention to.
So it's really important thatwe don't skip this question.
I'm telling you, it is veryoften the most important
question you can ask about yourbusiness.
Okay, fourth question what'snext, based on what you've
learned going through thosefirst three questions, what
should you be focusing on in thenext 90 days?
(06:59):
Not everything, but what arethe most important things that
are going to move your businessforward?
This is where a lot of peoplego wrong, because they're
identifying 15 things that needtheir attention and they try to
tackle all of them at once.
I'm here to tell you,sustainable progress comes from
focusing on the few key things,the few areas, and making real
(07:22):
progress there, rather thanspreading ourselves really thin
and trying to put our attentionacross everything at one time.
Okay, so you have your fourquestions.
Now I want to talk about whatare you actually going to track?
Because you don't need tomeasure everything.
It's really difficult whenwe're talking about metrics, as
a business owner, to look at ametric in our business and
(07:45):
actually voice out loud that wedon't think it's important
because we don't want to negateanything right?
We're so focused on ourbusiness doing well and our
success and the success of ourclients, that we want to measure
everything, but we don't needto.
What you do need to do ismeasure the right things.
So these are just going to be avital few things three to five
(08:08):
metrics that are going to tellyou whether your business is
healthy and whether yourbusiness is growing.
So, if you're a service-basedentrepreneur, you these are
going to include things like themetrics that actually predict
your future performance.
How many leads do you have?
Are those leads qualified?
What are the conversations thatyou're having with those leads?
(08:28):
Are you growing your email list?
What's the engagement like onyour content?
These are the things that aregoing to tell you what's coming
before you actually see theresult in your revenue.
So that would be like a leadingindicator, not an actual metric
of revenue, because revenuemetrics they're not just total
revenue, but we want to look atrevenue per client, revenue per
(08:50):
service line, monthly recurringrevenue, if that's something
that's applicable in yourbusiness.
This is what's going to tellyou about the health and
sustainability of the businessmodel that you're working with,
because if your revenue metricsare tanking, there's some work
to be done.
Right, we need to audit,evaluate and pivot when
necessary.
Now let's talk about operations,because operational metrics can
(09:13):
be a little bit confusing.
We sometimes don't know wherewe're supposed to focus, and I'm
going to tell you right now.
The ones that you don't want tolet go are client satisfaction
scores.
What are your reviews like?
Are you even asking for reviews?
Reviews on everything?
Reviews on your services,reviews on your communication?
If you're working with a team,even what is their review of
(09:38):
your leadership?
But let's talk first about justclient satisfaction.
Then we want to talk aboutlength of time right to complete
a project.
How long is it taking you toget from point A to fulfillment,
to the full circle, in theproject that you're working on?
And then, what are your profitmargins like All of these things
(10:00):
?
Client satisfaction, how longit takes for you to complete a
project and what your profitmargin is these are going to
tell you about the efficiencyand scalability of your business
and your operations in thatbusiness.
If your operations are notscalable and they are not
efficient, you are dead in thewater.
You're never going to grow.
(10:23):
Now I want you to look atpersonal metrics, because this
is all about not losingourselves while we're building
these businesses, right?
So how many hours are youworking per week.
What's your stress level at?
On a 1 to 10 or 0 to 10?
How's your work-life balancesatisfaction?
What is the point of any ofthis if you are growing a
(10:45):
business that makes youmiserable?
So when you are looking at themetrics in your business, do not
negate the personal metrics,because how would it feel if you
looked at your revenue and itwas just growing month after
month after month?
And then you looked at yourrevenue and it was just growing
month after month after month?
And then you looked at yourpersonal metrics and saw that
(11:07):
your stress was through the roof.
You had no work-life balanceand you're working 85 hours a
week.
Is that truly a successfulbusiness?
Not in my book.
That's not a business I want torun.
So I want you to track thesemonthly and you're going to look
for trends.
You don't want to just look atthe end of the month and see
where you are, like a snapshot.
You actually want to look attrends.
(11:28):
One month of lower revenue istotally fine, normal fluctuation
, but if there's three months oflowering revenue or three
months of declining engagement,that's a pattern and that
requires your attention.
So now you know what you'regoing to be reviewing the
questions you need to askyourself.
(11:49):
But let's talk about the actualreview process.
What I want you to do is take90 minutes at the end of each
month.
Do not try to squeeze this intothe gaps between other work
you're doing.
This requires focus time.
It's strategic work.
It requires all of yourattention.
Block 90 minutes and it has tobe 90 minutes that you know you
(12:13):
are going to be uninterrupted,totally uninterrupted.
If that means you need to warnyour family, you need to go
somewhere else, you need to sitin your car, somewhere where you
know nobody's going to bother.
You make sure you do whateverit takes to get this 90 minutes
uninterrupted focus time.
And you'll start with yournumbers.
(12:34):
But you're not going to stopthere.
The numbers are going to tellyou what happened, but they
don't tell you why it happenedand they don't tell you what to
do about it.
So they do tell a story, but wewant to know what to do with
that story.
So look at your calendar fromthe past month.
What did you actually spendtime on?
How does that compare with whatyou really wanted to be
spending your time on, and wheredid any time go that you didn't
(12:57):
expect that got taken up.
So really audit the time thatyou put into everything.
Then look at your clientinteractions.
Do you notice any patternsthere?
What's the feedback that you'reconstantly receiving from the
clients?
Are you getting, like I saidearlier?
Are you getting, good reviews?
Are you getting mixed reviews?
(13:17):
What are the problems thatclients are asking you to solve
that you're not solving?
Here's something this is a placethat a lot of people get hung
up, because we all think that weknow what our clients want,
because it's what we would want,but as you grow and as you
scale and you grow your audience, they are going to be looking
(13:38):
for other things.
So what are the problems thatthey're asking you to solve that
you're not solving?
Is it time to pivot and offersomething new?
Now check in with your energy.
Right, this is the personalaudit.
Check in your energy levels.
What is the work you did thatreally energized you?
What is the work that you didthat totally drained you and
(13:58):
what would you do more of?
Is there anything you wouldeliminate completely if you
could?
And sometimes there is, but wecan't right, and that has to be
okay also.
Okay now, most important partyou're going to make changes,
the first step in making changesis deciding that you're going
to make changes.
(14:19):
So that's the first part ofthis process Decide, yes, I am
going to pivot and make thechanges.
Which changes am I going tomake?
Okay, well, based on yourreview, identify three things
what's one thing you can startdoing, one thing you can stop
doing, and one thing you'regoing to do differently.
(14:39):
One thing to start doing, onething to stop doing, one thing
to do differently.
Okay, so let's talk about whatyou're going to start doing.
Maybe you discovered that peoplewho find you through a specific
referral right, those are thebest fits.
So how can you implement asystemic referral process with
(14:59):
that person Systematic, notsystemic?
How can you do that?
Right, like, you need to beable to double down on that
process.
If I have another business thatalways is sending me people and
referring people to me, andevery single one of them is a
home run and we just vibe andconnect and I'm able to help
them and we really connect in ameaningful way, I want to know
(15:23):
how I can get more of that.
How can me and this otherbusiness double down on that?
Okay, what are you going tostop doing?
Let's go back to the networkingevents that we spoke about
earlier.
Maybe you realize that thenetworking events you're going
to, maybe they're consumingthree, four, five hours a month,
but none of them have given youa single qualified lead in I
(15:46):
don't know six months.
Well, why would you continue todo that?
Right, we need to do thingsthat are actually going to send
people our way.
And then what would you dodifferently?
What's your follow-up process?
If it is working but it couldbe more efficient, how do you do
that?
Can you create some templates?
Can you automate some parts ofit, delegate some parts of it?
(16:08):
Three changes start, stop anddo differently.
That's it.
Implementation beats analysis,every single time, I promise,
because the entrepreneurs whoare going to grow, it's not the
ones with the biggestspreadsheets, they're not the
ones tracking the most metrics,they don't have fancy dashboards
(16:29):
.
They are just asking the rightquestions.
They're honestly assessing theanswers that they come up with
and then they're changing theirbehavior based on what they've
learned.
Your business it is talking toyou every single day.
It is constantly giving youinformation.
The monthly review is howyou're going to listen to that
(16:49):
information, hear what it'stelling you and respond
intelligently.
There are so many businessowners that are really, really
busy working in their businessand they just never step back to
work on their business.
Right, there's a big differencebetween working in your
business and working on yourbusiness.
The monthly review is youropportunity to be strategic and
(17:14):
not reactive.
This is really important workand not everybody takes the time
to make it happen, so I hopethat you are able to carve out
the time that you need.
That's really what this isabout, because when you think
about, well, I don't have thetime to do this, what is the
cost of not doing this work?
(17:34):
I just hung up with a coachingcall not even a half hour ago,
and the person that I wascoaching not even a half hour
ago, and the person that I wascoaching was speaking about not
really making changes whenthings aren't working in her
business.
So we had a whole conversationabout what is the cost of that
happening.
(17:56):
We think that it means thatthere may be something wrong
with us if we switch directionand we constantly tell ourselves
I don't want to reinvent thewheel.
I don't want to reinvent thewheel.
I don't want to look like Ican't make up my mind.
I don't want to keep shiftingdirection.
Yes, I understand.
And successful businesses pivot.
(18:16):
Successful businesses havespeed behind them.
When something is not working,they switch direction and they
see what is going to work.
Because every minute that youallow yourself and your business
to continue going in adirection that is not working,
it is costing you money, it iscosting you revenue, it's
(18:37):
costing you sleep time.
Right, you're waking up in themiddle of the night in a sweat
because your business is notmaking money and you can't
figure out what it is, becauseyou're just waiting for the
systems that you do have inplace or for the you know, the
referrals that you have.
Whatever it is, you're notlistening to the information
(18:57):
that that is telling you, thatyour business is telling you
about that.
You think you're just waitingfor it to catch on.
You think that if it's a socialmedia thing, you're just
waiting for it to catch on.
You're just waiting for thatone post that's going to go
viral.
No, you need to focus on thethings that are actually
bringing revenue into yourbusiness.
(19:20):
I have a social media account.
It doesn't have a ton of peopleon it.
It doesn't get a ton ofengagement.
I enjoy it.
I enjoy putting my message outthere.
I certainly can't rely on it tobring me clients.
So that is not where I focus.
I focus on the relationshipsthat I have that do bring more
business into my world, becausethat is what is going to sustain
(19:42):
my business.
And that's what gives me joy isworking with people and helping
people and helping them reachtheir next revenue level,
helping them go from strugglingbusiness owner to really
successful entrepreneurs and theCEOs that they are born to be.
But I couldn't do that if Ididn't listen to the fact that,
(20:03):
oh, my Instagram gets a coupleof likes and a couple of shares.
That's not where I need to befocused.
It's so important to be honestwith ourselves about stuff like
that.
So if you're sitting there rightnow listening to this and
thinking, oh wow, jen, you mightbe in my head because I keep
waiting for this new program tojust take off, or I keep waiting
for this new program to justtake off, or I keep waiting for
(20:24):
these new referrals to justclick with me.
That is not going to work.
It's just not how it happens.
Success follows speed and, as asmall business owner, you're in
charge of the speed of yourbusiness.
It's not going to just pick upand make these changes on its
own.
So I encourage you to reallytake this seriously and do this
(20:46):
monthly review okay.
Thank you so much for spendingtime with me today.
I hope that this was valuablefor you.
Take this information.
Go out there, create your dayin the best way possible.
Build the business that youknow is going to work for your
life and not run your life.
It is so worth it and I can'twait to see your success.
Until next time, take care ofyourself, take care of each
(21:12):
other, and I will see you nextweek.
Thanks again.
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