How To Figure Out What You’ll Make Next Year

Have you begun planning out your business strategy for next year?

And as part of your strategy, have you set a goal of what you want to make next year?

This is a discussion I’ve been having with many of my VIP clients lately.  We’ve not only talked about how much they want to make, we’ve broken down the numbers to ensure they know how many clients they’ll need in order to accomplish their goals.

It’s been interesting to note, many people are hesitant to break down the numbers. I start the process by asking these 3 questions:

“How much do you want to make next year?”

“What’s your average sale price per client?”

“Are you planning to raise your prices in 2016?”

Most haven’t thought through these 3 basic questions yet. Have you?

The first one might seem simple to answer and yet many people act like if they give too high of a number they’re being unrealistic or feel guilty.  There’s no shame in wanting to be financially compensated for your hard work. Are you giving your clients something of value? Are their lives improved as result of working with you? Do your clients have nice things to say about their experience of working with you? If you answered “Yes” to these last 3 questions, you are making a difference in the world. Congrats! Now answer this question honestly: How much do you want to make next year?

The second question can stump people, “What's your average sale price per client?” I find most business owners don’t actually know the answer to this question. Sometimes it easier to start by using the answer to question #1 and breaking it down into bite size pieces.

Here’s an example of how to do this:

Let’s say your business is a service based business and you want to do $100,000 in sales next year. Your Signature Program (what most clients purchase) is $1000.

Breakdown: 100,000/1000 = 100 clients needed

Clients per month: 100/12 = 8.3 (Round up and say 9 clients per month)

Clients per week: 100/52 – 1.9 (Round up to 2 clients per week)

Maybe initially you question how in the world you’ll find 100 clients next year. However, when you break it down per week, 2 clients per week might feel more realistic. This is why I suggest you break down your numbers into bite size pieces.

Three months ago during a coaching call, I worked through this process with a client who wanted to make $150,000 next year in her business. Once we ran a few scenarios, the most conservative outcome put her at over $180,000. It was a big eye opener for her. Because she hadn’t taken the time to break down her numbers, she’d created this big scary and super hard to attain impression in her head. By breaking it down into smaller bite size pieces, she was able to see how quickly she could make this happen. She recently shared how she’s made more money in the last 3 months than all of last year.

Your Savvy Sales Tip this week: Break down your big goal into smaller (bite size) pieces. By looking at it on a per week basis, it will keep you focused and moving in the right direction.

If for instance, you miss a weekly goal, you can easily make it up the next week or in the next 2 weeks. The purpose is to stay on top of it and track it.

For those wanting to know more about raising your prices, stay tuned.  I’ll be sending out a Savvy Sale Tip in a future post on this topic.

Wishing you a prosperous and happy new year!

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