Peak & Trough Income Months
Peak and trough income months are pretty common as a business owner.
In fact, I don't know any business owner who hasn't ever found themselves in a cash crunch. All it takes is for one thing in your personal life to intensify and you drop the social media, take too long to get back to a prospective client and you stop showing up.
Consistent - or growing - income is where most of us want to be, all the time.
Then your nervous system can calm down, you can stay on track with your goals and not have to hustle for clients or launch new ideas to plug the income gap.
So how can we safeguard against low income months?
So how do you remove low income months from your business?
Here are some of my learnings from being a long standing business owner:
Get specific about the kind of client you want to work with and focus all of your marketing and sales efforts here. Make it clear, concise and tangible. Once you're known, you'll easily be referrable, which is the best form of marketing.
Look around at your competition - who in your area already offers this? How can you make yourself different to stand out? Or if the answer is no-one, then make sure you connect with other counsellors or therapists in the area and tell them what kind of clients you work with so that the next time they are asked for that specific client group, they immediately think of you.
Ensure your business model gives you a good balance of client delivery and marketing. If it doesn't, what can you change? Can you find an extra hour each week to focus on the marketing side of your business? Do you know what kind of marketing makes the difference in your business? Otherwise you'll get stuck in the peak and trough income cycle.
Have more conversations. Conversations lead to clients. Run workshops. Collaborate with others. What else can you be offering?
Master ONE marketing channel. Any more from the outset and you'll dilute yourself or you won't show up as it will seem too daunting a task.
Know your numbers. How many clients you need to hit your income goals. Your conversion rate of connection calls > clients. How many contacts you need to remain at client capacity. Where the majority of clients find you. Knowing your key metrics allows you to focus your attention and efforts on your clients, instead of where the next client might be coming from.
I'm curious... which one do you most need to work on?
Much love,
Jill x
p.s. if you need help in any of these areas take a look at my programme where I help qualified counsellors and therapists start and grow their private practice here
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