How to Increase Your Revenue with an Actionable Plan
How to Increase Your Revenue with an Actionable Plan
We are going to reverse engineer your dream income with a straightforward, actionable plan.
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This guide includes:
How to plan your business
How to set up your marketing
How to build your website
And more!
All in a simple goal-oriented format.
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You have just started a business. Maybe you’ve made your first few sales but are having trouble reaching the revenue goals outlined on your business vision board. Well, I have a solution for that! I will show you how to increase revenue by making a simple, actionable plan. We will work backwards from the number you want and find the actions you need to take to get it.
I was there once too. I had just launched Absolutely Studying and was still consulting in the healthcare sector. I knew I wanted to be able to take my business full-time, but the process seemed so overwhelming.
There was so much to balance, so many tasks. Would I be able to do it all?
I was terrified that the answer would be no. I would have to hire a team I couldn’t afford or scale back my ambitions. Neither of these was an option I was crazy about.
One day I sat down and decided to get it all out. I stared at my goal and worked backwards. I outlined the progress I wanted to make each year and what it would take to achieve that goal. I made it thorough. It was so detailed that I could not possibly get lost in confusion.
Once I did this, it all became so clear to me. I knew exactly what I needed to do to get the outcome I wanted. From there, nothing could stop me!
In this guide, I will show you how you can do the same. We will create a plan for you to hit those goals on your business vision board, so dream big!
Go ahead, let your imagination run wild! I know it will be hard work but don’t worry. I will be right here with you.
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What is reverse engineering revenue, and why does it matter?
To reverse engineer your revenue, you choose how much you want to make within a specific period, then work backwards to create a plan to achieve your goal. It’s that simple!
This is important because it gives you clearly defined targets to complete your goal of making X dollars in a year. We will be able to create objectives to meet every month, but we will also be able to break those goals down into tasks to tackle each day to hit our numbers. This will increase revenue and help us create the framework to gradually manage the growth.
Without clearly defined targets, you will often chase your tail. Hoping to make as much money as possible in a given month will lead to unclear objectives without an action plan. This is unsustainable.
This is the first in a series of articles that use a simple spreadsheet to create a blueprint to elevate your business to the next level. Unfortunately, there is just too much information to squish into one article. If you are not looking to white-knuckle the messy math yourself, consider picking up my digital course. It has full access to templates and a plug-and-play spreadsheet that will do your calculations.
Now, let’s get started!
How to reverse engineer your revenue step-by-step.
This article will walk you through the exact process I made to create my initial plan. I guide you step-by-step so you can create your own profitable action plan. If you have trouble, please feel free to email me. I would love to help.
Get clear on how much you want to make.
This step is critical. Beyond the obvious reasons, this step will dictate how many strategies you need to implement and what you will do. By how much exactly do you want to increase revenue? Or do you have a magic number you have always wanted to hit?
Aim for something comfortable, something attainable. I have many coaches and consultants setting these numbers at a million dollars. That is a fantastic dream, but plenty of us are nowhere near it. For most, this is still a pipe dream.
When I first did this exercise, I set my goal at $50,000 for my first business year. But I vowed to add a zero to that every year after.
For this example, I am going to continue using this number. However, if you are ready, add some zero’s to that baby and let’s get started!
Your turn to take action:
Write down your revenue goal at the top a piece of paper.
What are you making in your business now?
We want to get an accurate starting point for your progress. If you are already making $5,000 a month, starting with a $500 projection is useless. The same goes in reverse. Go through your accounts and get an accurate idea of how much you are making on average.
We want to scale from this point. We don’t want to go backwards.
Your turn to take action:
Calculate the average amount of money you have made from your business in the last 3 months and write it down.
List out your income.
Now, I want you to list all of your revenue sources. Even the ones you plan on launching in the future. List them all out with the monthly amount you are making from them.
If you are short on revenue streams, check out this 20 online business ideas article. You want to make sure to diversify how you make your money, just in case one of your sources of income is compromised. We also want to be able to promote and launch new products throughout the year.
Only list a monthly income besides the item if you are currently receiving a regular check. At this point, we are merely making a comprehensive list of where the money could come from. We will create projections later on in the process.
Your turn to take action:
List your income streams on a separate sheet of paper and add them up. Don’t worry if you have ideas or products and services, you have not launched yet. They will come into play later.
List out your expenses.
You have to spend money to make money. Gather together all of your expenses, both household and business. Don’t forget the tiny amounts you pay for your website, social media schedulers, etc.
These expenses add up, and you don’t want to be caught off guard once we have figured all of the numbers out.
As you compile all of the amounts you pay out, they will add up. You might even be shocked by the number. This may be a good time to cancel services you are not using. However, I want to caution you about cancelling valuable services just to save a dollar.
Think about it this way: you will spend either time or money to build and scale your business. You will choose different solutions to solve various problems, but you will always choose between the two.
Let’s take social media, for example. You will either spend the time to grow organically, approach new followers or build relationships with them. Send messages and build your following. Or, you will use ads to reach a broader audience. Neither solution is wrong. It’s just whatever works best for you.
Some people have several hours a day to spend on social media and enjoy these tasks. Some don’t. These others may prefer to just pay for ads and focus their energy elsewhere.
Your turn to take action:
List out all of your expenses in a separate list below your income. If you have any considerable costs on the horizon, you can also add them. Total them all up.
What is the minimum amount you need to make?
This is going to help us out two-fold.
We know where to set our starting target and when you will become profitable that month.
You know when you can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Entrepreneurship is hard and scary. Especially if you don’t have a 9 to 5 to fall back on, if you know that you need $2000 to survive, you can let some pressure off as soon as you make $2050.
It also gives us a starting point for month one. You will probably want to set your limit there or as close as possible. But more on that later.
Your turn to take action:
Now that you know your expenses, calculate the minimum amount of money you need to bring home each month. This should be enough to cover your costs and a reasonable amount for your spending habits.
Now we have a starting point.
At this point, you should have everything you need to set your quarters and break down your goals.
Goal setting is crucial to being successful. Over the rest of this series of articles, we will set goals and break them down into manageable steps.
We will eventually break these goals down so tiny that you will do something every day to achieve them.
Your turn to take action:
There is going to be a lot of math ahead. If math is not your thing, I also have a digital course that will guide you through, complete with spreadsheets and templates.
INCREASE YOUR REVENUE WITH A MANAGEABLE ACTION PLAN
Reverse engineer your dream income with a straightforward, actionable plan.
Set your quarters.
I set my quarters from January to December, but you don’t have to. Pick any day that you want. You might want to start today or at the beginning of next month. Pick a day, and that is when you will implement your plan.
From there, you need to divide the year into quarters. Each quarter will have three months—no lending months to other quarters. I’m watching you!
Your turn to take action:
Create a list of your Quarters with the months listed beneath them like this:
Example:
Quarter 1:
a. January
b. February
c. March
And so on…
Once you have broken up your entire year, you can move on to the next step.
Set your goal for month one.
Now is the time to set a number for your first month. What is that number going to be? This may or may not be the month you begin to increase your revenue. Maybe you will give yourself a grace month to implement the strategy.
You can use anything you want to help you make the decision. You may want to set it at nothing to get a handle on the operations standpoint. This decision is entirely personal.
If you have been in business for a couple of months, you may want to set it to the minimum we figured out earlier when calculating how much you need to live.
No matter what you decide, pick a number and stick to it. We have more work to do.
Your turn to take action:
Write down your revenue goal for the first month of Quarter 1 next to it on your list.
Example:
Quarter 1:
d. January: $2000
e. February:
f. March:
Set your goal for month two.
Ideally, when you set your goal for the second month, you want your revenue to increase. Use whatever marker you want to add to your plan.
Your turn to take action:
Write down your goal for month 2 next to it.
Example:
1. Quarter 1:
2. January: $2000
3. February: $3000
4. March:
Set your goal for month three.
Repeat the same process for month 3. Make sure to increase your goal proportionally.
Your turn to take action:
Write down your goal for month 3 next to it:
Example:
Quarter 1:
1. January: $2000
2. February: $3000
3. March: $4000
Calculate the total for your first quarter.
Now that you have set your income for the first 3 months, you can calculate the total amount you will earn in Quarter 1. This number may seem small compared to your actual goal for the year, but this is how we start.
Your turn to take action:
Add up your goals for the first three months and write the total next to Quarter 1 on your sheet.
Example:
Quarter 1: $9,000
1. January: $2,000
2. February: $3,000
3. March:$4,000
Calculate your second quarter.
We are working with entire quarters now. Increase your expected revenue for the second quarter. You will want to increase it by at least 50%+ to maintain the growth you cultivated in the first quarter. Or, choose a new monthly average and multiply it by 3.
Which you choose is dependent on how you want to grow. If you are a solopreneur, you might be concerned about all the tasks you have to master to hit these targets. Don’t worry. We will create strategies and systems to master them. Right now, what we need to focus on is metrics.
At this time, we will only break down the quarter’s goal, not the quarter’s individual months. This is because the growth tactics assigned to each quarter will be different, as will promotions and launches.
But more on that later.
Your turn to take action:
Write down your goal for the second quarter. You can increase your first-quarter goal by a percentage or an average number, whatever feels right to you.
Example:
$9,000 x 1.5 = $13,500
This would mean you want an overall increase of 50% in the second quarter from the $9,000 goal set in Q1.
OR
$6,000 x 3 = $18,000
This would give you an average of $6,000 for each of the 3 months in the second quarter. You can more closely distribute the actual amounts when planning your quarter.
Calculate your third quarter.
Now we repeat this number for the third quarter. I like subtracting my goals for the first two quarters from the goal for the year. This gives me a better idea of how much I have to kick it in gear to hit my targets.
If you want to divide the balance between the third and fourth quarters, you can. Or Increase your goal for the third quarter proportionally.
Your turn to take action:
Add up the goals for Quarters 1 and 2, then subtract them from your total year-end revenue goal.
Example:
$9,000 + $13,500 = $22,500 made in Q1 and Q2
$50,000 - $22,500 = $27,500. This is the amount needed to hit my revenue goal for the year.
In the above example, we are $27,000 away from our goal. From here, you can simply split the difference in half or choose some other metric to split the difference.
$27,000 / 2 = $13,750 is what you would assign to Quarter 3
Calculate your fourth quarter.
We have only one quarter left. Add whatever remaining revenue you want to make under the fourth-quarter sales cell.
Your turn to take action:
Write down the remaining total next to Quarter 4.
Redistribute revenue as needed.
You may find that one or more of your quarters is unbalanced. Take this time to adjust the income goals between the quarters so that they build into one another.
The quarters do not necessarily have to grow gradually larger. You may have a big product or course launch planned at some point this year. That quarter will obviously account for a revenue jump. Take plans like this into account when you redistribute your revenue. There may be some anxiety about how much growth there is between some of the quarters. That’s okay.
These leaps are going to keep you growing and scaling within your business. You want to keep raising the bar to have something new to reach for every month.
Once you feel the growth between each quarter is manageable, you are ready to create a plan to reach those targets.
Your turn to take action:
Balance the revenue between each quarter until you are at numbers you are comfortable with.
Take the next step!
There is still much work here to be done. We need an actionable framework to get the money that you want. This is where the work begins. We are going to need to create strategies to hit those targets.
Every business, regardless of its size, goes through a basic rotation to grow. How you implement this plan is limited only by your imagination.
I will be tackling the planning of each quarter in separate articles. This is because each quarter will be dedicated to a different growth strategy. In this way, you can take my system and implement them with your own creative twist.
Once you break up your revenue goals using this simple method, you will see how you can make any amount of money you choose just by creating targets and working the process.
As we continue with this strategy, I will show you how it becomes easier than ever to create a plan to reach that monthly revenue goal once it has been set.
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Business is just a numbers game. It always has been. Once you figure out your numbers, the rest will fall into place. This strategy will help you create a solid plan to increase revenue while implementing actionable steps to hit your targets.
In our Facebook group, The Passion Project, we hold regular strategy sessions to help you implement your business’s best strategy. Sit in on a workshop and create your framework in real-time.
I want to be transparent so that there are no misunderstandings. As an affiliate, I may earn a small commission from any products linked in this post. This is not a sponsored post, and I was not asked to recommend these products. These are products that I genuinely love and wanted to share with my audience.