Episode 8 Transcript

Heather:

So guys, about a year ago, I was on a call and I was thinking about joining a mastermind group. Do you know what that is? Probably most of you do. If you're listening to this, you probably do. It's basically a group of people where you brainstorm ideas, you hold each other accountable, tends to happen in a sort of business environment where you meet with other business owners, but it can happen really anywhere in your life. So I was thinking about joining this mastermind group. So I have a company here in Australia called website love. And we build websites, do social media marketing, and in a very specific way, right? So we focus on conversion rate optimization, which is how do you get more leads and sales coming in from your business online? But as a business owner, it can be kind of lonely. And I was looking around thinking it might be nice to hang out in a mastermind group with other agency owners. And there's a group in the States, most of their members are in the States. So I was on the call and typical, you know, sales call process. This way it was an application process because they're very particular on who they let into the group, filled out the application, got on the call and they started asking me questions or he started asking me questions and asked me questions about, you know, the revenue in my business, my conversion rates, how long it took to close a lead, process like all these things that I suddenly was sitting there going oh no the very numbers I look at for my clients for their digital marketing are not that clear for me and my business I don't know if that sounds familiar to any of you if you might ever be guilty of you know being slack in your business It seems to be kind of a thing for most of us in business, but certainly was in my business. So after that call, I was thinking about the old adage, what you focus on grows, right? And I realized that I wasn't focusing clearly on all these metrics that would be quite important for me to know in my own business. So it was time for me to build out my own dashboards or reports. call them dashboards and to start looking at my own financial intelligence in my business and I know that's kind of like a wanky word financial intelligence but it's true right I mean you hear about emotional intelligence right you like to be around people that are secure emotionally that are mature that don't bring drama in you know that doesn't need to be there the same thing goes with financial intelligence in your business if you're building a business and be intelligent about what's going on and know how to read them. So I was thinking about this and I thought okay well yes I need to focus on this and needless to say I did make it into that mastermind group. I was still a part of it I love it and because of that group I've actually developed a lot of new systems in my business which are great. So yes I did get did get accepted in there for the couple the one of you that's listening right now going whoa So what am I building or what have I built in my business? So when we think of metrics or dashboards, it's basically the numbers that are important to you and your business for you to pay attention to. And they're quite similar for all of us really. Number one for me is a marketing dashboard. So that's where I can see where my traffic is coming in and the conversions I am getting and the cost per acquisition. And this, I mean, there's companies dashboards where they pull in data from all these different areas into something that you can read. But for me to be honest I just have a Google Drive that's what I work on in my business. I think I spoke about that in episode two or three about the systems I use. But I have an area called reporting and I have a Google Sheet that has this information in it. So in my marketing dashboard I look at you know if I'm spending money on ads how much am I spending how much does it database of that, how many people sign up for a sales call of that, how many people convert etc etc. So I'm keeping an eye on that. So I built that out. I'm actually, it's kind of a work in progress. So I'm building that as I go. Dashboard number two is for my sales process, my sales pipeline. So again, you could use a CRM system for this or, and I do have a CRM system where I have some of that information in it. But for me, just right And basically that's my pipeline. So I can see exactly from marketing into sales. So I have my marketing dashboard and then the second they convert into a sales call, they enter into the sales spreadsheet. And from there, they now are we track somebody to say, okay, they booked in the initial call, when did it happen? Notes on what happened on that? Did they book in the second call? What happened on that, etc. And then every single month I have a close rate percentage. So how many the booked call is actually closed to become a client. So it's really simple but it's really easy to use and we color code it based on where people are in the pipeline. Again is there a right or wrong to this? No I think the thing is so many of us don't do this because we feel like it is too far out of our hands or it's too techie or it's just like you get these reports from the random companies that like analyze your website for SEO and it's a 30 page report and you think tabbed spreadsheet to read my data. This is not how it works. And then my third spreadsheet is sort of my expense spreadsheet. So yes, I use Xero in our business, our accounting system, and you can run reports in there, but for me, through this mastermind group actually, one of the guys, and he has a really big agency, he says, oh, look, this is what I do. I have this expense spreadsheet, and it's just an easy way on where you're spending on subscriptions and software and contractors and all the different people in your business. So I have these three little spreadsheets and they're nothing crazy but I can very easily go in at any time and see what's happening and again it's always a work in progress but at least I have it now and at least I can see it in my business and it's quite kind of fun kind of eye-opening to have this stuff. So the thing is for you guys is I'd recommend that if you then you want to revisit it. Is it something that you actually understand? Are you seeing the numbers that make sense that actually help you make decisions in your business? If you don't have reporting just start just put up a spreadsheet do a Google Sheet an Excel spreadsheet wherever you can do that that's gonna be easy for you and start to pull in the numbers. How many people are visiting your website or you know visiting you theoretically if you're want to monitor the numbers. How many people are visiting you? How many people take action? How much does it cost you to get them to take action? And then what happens from there? And you'll start to really be able to focus on the things that are going to matter in your business. So think about that for a moment. What do you want to grow? Is it something in your business? Is it your and attention into those things that you want to grow. By the way you guys I do cover a bit of a system on how to live life with more ease in episode 4 so if you want to check that out it's a bit about time management and also if you want to brush up on your financial intelligence I have two amazing guests coming up so there's two coming up ahead next few episodes or so and very specifically talk a little bit more about numbers and the importance of understanding that in your business. But I suppose in this episode, I just wanna leave you with what you focus on grows. So pay attention to the things that you want more of in your business. If it is leads, then perhaps you should start monitoring and measuring them better. And like I said at the start, I do this for clients. So a little shameless plug, if you ever do need help with your marketing, please feel free to reach out to me. There's information there. Actually that page currently sits on my business website, websitelove.com.au. So you just click up in the menu and you'll be able to contact me. If you're interested in improving your marketing and building out some of these dashboards and understanding how to read the data, just reach out to me. I'm there to support you guys. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. It's been a pleasure hanging out with you. And here's to your week ahead. Make sure you take some time for yourself and separate yourself from the overwhelm and the hustle if that's currently what you're feeling and going through. Thanks to you guys I'll see you in the next episode.