There’s no doubt it has been a strange and challenging year. Some of us have had to press “reset” when it comes to our original 2020 financial goals, while others have thrived beyond their expectations. No matter your experience, you want to take full advantage of the months ahead to maximize your revenue.
If your company generates revenue Monday to Friday with a holiday at Thanksgiving and a break at Christmas, you have about 74 days left in 2020. Alternatively, if your company has the ability to generate daily revenue with online products and services, then you have about 109 days left in the year.
I encourage you to do a wee bit of basic math to help you take full advantage of these days. Take the time right now to crunch a few easy numbers and create a realistic plan to reach your current 2020 financial goals.
What are the “few” numbers you need to crunch? And how will they help you meet your goals?
Here’s the information you want to gather:
1. How much revenue have you generated (and invoiced) up to August 31?
2. Subtract this number from the revenue you want to generate this year.
3. How many individual clients have you invoiced so far this year?
4. Take this client number (your answer to question #3) and divide it into your invoiced revenue as of August 31 (the answer from question #1). This is your current average worth of one client.
5. Divide this average worth (your answer to question #4) into the amount of revenue you still want to generate this year (the answer from question #2) and this is, roughly, the number of clients you need to close – and invoice – before December 31.
Let’s use some easy round numbers as an example:
- So far this year you’ve billed $200,000
- You set a goal for the year of $350,000, so you still have to bill another $150,000 in the next (74 or 109) days.
- Let’s say that your $200,000 represents 20 individual clients.
- $200,000 divided by 20 = $10,000 is your average worth of one client
- $150,000 divided by $10,000 = 15 … the number of average clients you need to close and invoice in the next (74 or 109) days
I love working with this basic math! These numbers are all logical and true. They don’t carry any emotion, only facts – facts you can work with to make a substantial difference in how your business is growing and what actions you will take between now and December 31.
In fact, it’s incredibly valuable to crunch a few more numbers, such as:
- How many potential clients have you spoken with or met so far this year?
- How many have accepted a proposal or participated in a demonstration or agreed to a discovery meeting?
- How many of these have become clients?
With these metrics, you can make a solid plan for the coming days, weeks, months. How much time do you need to spend prospecting? How many proposals/demos/meetings do you need to book? What marketing do you need to have in place to support your efforts?
Take the time now and map this out for yourself in small tasks that you can do each day. Despite the challenges, we still want to make this year a financial success. And we can each and every 74 or 109 days!