“Raise your hand if you want to double your income in 12 months.” I’ve never had a workshop where people haven’t raised their hands to that question. Never. This question always gets a room full of hands in the air. “How about setting your yearly goal as doubling this year’s revenue?” Now, this question gets less enthusiasm, much less conviction and commitment.
Here is a vulgar short-cut: When it comes to doubling income, women solopreneurs and micro-business owners tend to have the desire – but they don’t have the conviction or commitment to make it happen.
Since December 2019 I have run several planning workshops. I have had the privilege of entering the dreams and wishes of dozens of women entrepreneurs. I heard dozens of visions and goals for 2021… dozens of fears and challenges… and dozens of possibilities.
A planning workshop isn’t a place to cheer-up, motivate, inflate the ego and make people feel like they are invincible… until the adrenaline goes down and they feel overwhelmed and crap again.
A planning workshop is a place to make an actionable, applicable plan to reach your goals.
My role in a business planning workshop is pretty boring: I’m the voice of “Action”.
[Please note that I haven’t said “reason” … nothing is reasonable in entrepreneurship. If we were reasonable people, we would have a reasonable job which pays a reasonable salary for a reasonable amount of work we provide every single month.]
I don’t judge the “reasonability” of wishes and goals. Do you want to 10X your company? AWEsome! I am all in! Let’s do it. Now tell me how you are planning to do it. Yup, that’s when I become the most annoying person in the room.
The interesting thing is, when I run workshops with women entrepreneurs, I don’t really get to be the annoying person that much… I don’t see that many crazy dreams, BHGs (big hairy goals), scary stuff that would take us out of our comfort zone… Most of the time, it’s pretty reasonable and actionable dreams that we try to plan to achieve.
Is that a good thing? I’m not sure.
I’ve coached hundreds of women business owners and what I can say for sure is that women tend to set their goals according to what’s feasible, what they can achieve… it is almost as if the plan comes before the goals…
So, where does that leave us? Greater rates of achievement sure, but maybe more conservative goals, and smaller growth rates.
Now I am asking you if you want to double your income in 12 months? If the sound of this question excites you as much as scares you read on:
Doubling your income is not an unrealistic goal. It’s actually pretty realistic, especially in solopreneurship or micro-business ownership, where the baseline is a pretty manageable amount… So the question is, what stands between you now and you with double the money?
Here are 5 steps to transform your business and double your income as a female solopreneur or micro-business owner:
Step 1 – The change starts within you
Yes… as with every single change that you need to bring into your life, the first step is to understand what needs to change within yourself to get there. Mindset or skillset or both?
In general, the mindset blockages manifest themselves as follows: “I can’t charge more; I don’t need to earn millions; I built this business to have flexibility, I don’t want to work day and night to earn more,” If any of these sound familiar, it means you have to work on your relationship with money and what it means to you to earn and deserve more.
If you feel like you are lacking knowledge or know-how around how to sell, how to market, how to manage your finances, how to grow your team, it means you are lacking a skill set (which is easily acquirable).
Finally, sometimes mindset blockages are powered by lack of skill set… So, you need to assess if you are dealing with both scenarios.
Step 2 – Change your business focus
As I mentioned above, one of the main characteristics of female entrepreneurs is to focus on what is achievable instead of what must be done to achieve the goal.
Focusing on what is achievable hampers what is possible. And I am telling you, doubling your income is possible! Let’s look into what must be done to get there instead of what you can do as a one-woman band 😉
Step 3 – Transform your marketing and sales into a well-oiled system
It’s simple. To double your income, you need to double your sales, double your price or you need to increase both by 50%. In any of these scenarios, doubling your income as a solopreneur or micro-business owner is 80% marketing and sales effort!
You need to convince yourself that you deserve more for what you offer, or you need to convince more people that they need to buy from you. So, your marketing and sales should be done strategically and systematically: Test, Track, Measure.
I know it sounds like hard work, especially when you also need to manage your existing clients and all the other business stuff. BUT, once you set up your systems and plan properly, this will become easier and easier.
One top tip is to focus your efforts on what works, and ditch all the vanity channels and measures.
Step 4: Expand and activate your network, strengthen your connections
There are studies showing that the average person knows around 600 people… Let’s work on the basis that this is true, and that each of the 600 people that you know also knows 600 people. Even allowing for some overlap your immediate network can exceed 300,000 people! This is the proof of the fact that as a solopreneur or micro-business owner, you can definitely double your income.
You wouldn’t believe it but my grandmother’s neighbour’s daughter-in-law became a client of mine just because I once brought my lemon drizzle cake to her home while her daughter-in-law happened to be there…
So, make an effort to meet new people (network) or activate your existing network.
Step 5: Revise your money habits
Doubling your income will require more cash investment into your marketing, and your team (accountant, VA, social media manager, etc.). Therefore, you will need to increase your cash reserves. Check out my blog post on how to manage your money efficiently to increase your profit.
So, tell me: what’s holding you back from doubling your income? Your mindset, your focus, your marketing, your network (or lack of it) or your financial management? Whatever your challenge, with focus, conviction and commitment you can overcome it and you can double, or even triple, or even quadruple your income.
