Are you responsible for meeting a revenue goal this year? Well, depending on your vacation plans for the rest of this summer, and allowing for Thanksgiving and Christmas, you have about 100 days left in 2019 to reach that goal. I’m not saying this to increase your stress level but rather to encourage you to do a wee bit of basic math to help you take full advantage of these 100 days. By taking time right now to crunch a few numbers and make a realistic plan, you can reach – and even exceed – your revenue expectations.
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 July 31?
2. Subtract this number from the revenue you want to generate this year. Whatever the answer, you have approximately 100 days left to make it happen. (I’m not including the last week of December.)
3. How many individual clients have you invoiced so far this year?
4. Take the number of clients (your answer to question #3) and divide it into your invoiced revenue as of July 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 – in the next 100 days.
Let’s use some easy round numbers as an example:
- So far this year you’ve billed $60,000
- You set a goal for the year of $100,000, so you still have to bill another $40,000 in the next 100 days.
- Let’s say that your $60,000 represents 20 individual clients.
- $60,000 divided by 20 = $3,000 is your average worth of one client
- $40,000 divided by $3,000 = 13.33 – the number of average clients you need to close and invoice in the next 100 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 … Christmas!
In fact, it’s incredibly valuable to track even 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?
These are the metrics you need to reach – and exceed – your revenue goals. Without them, you can create a “revenue gap” – a space where, because you’ve been focusing on current client work, you haven’t generated any new revenue opportunities. Yikes! We’ll investigate this in more detail in future posts this summer so you can truly maximize your success before we say “hello” to 2020.