How my clients are having record profit months in a tough market

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about how some small businesses are really struggling. And I don’t want to take away from that because absolutely it has been a tough year for some. And at the same time, some business owners are absolutely thriving, including a few of my very own clients.

In fact, in the last few months, a couple of my clients have celebrated their biggest ever months in business, both sales and profit wise. And so I’ve been celebrating loudly and proudly with them because honestly, there’s nothing better than seeing someone who’s been doing the work, making the tough decisions, leaning into the numbers, finally seeing that translate into real results.

And I’ve been celebrating loudly and proudly with them because there’s nothing better than seeing someone who’s been doing the work, making the tough decisions, seeing that translate into real results. So in today’s episode of the podcast, I’m taking you behind the scenes and sharing specifically how they have been able to create an upward trajectory in a tough market.

All right, let’s dive on in.

Welcome to the Intentional Money Show, where we talk business growth, profitability, mindset, and building a wildly successful creative or digital business without sacrificing your life in the process. I’m Clare Wood, business profit coach, speaker, author, and unapologetic believer that you can build wealth and freedom doing work you genuinely love.

Each week on the podcast, we dive into the strategies and honest conversations that will help you scale sustainably, increase your profit, and build a business that actually feels good to run. Let’s grow your profit.

Before I start today’s episode, I want to acknowledge something really important. I don’t want to take all the credit for my clients’ success. I love being a support system. I love being the strategist in their corner and cheering them on and keeping them accountable.

I love helping them see what they can’t see for themselves. But the credit truly lies with the people who are doing the hard work, who are making the tough decisions, and who are taking action and investing in themself even when it feels uncomfortable.

So the obvious first tough decision that a lot of my clients have made is investing in a mentor. Not just the money side of it, but it’s a big thing to open yourself and your business up and say, “I need help.” It’s really vulnerable to let someone actually see your numbers and bring them into the decision-making and let them see the things that maybe you feel a little bit unsure about or even a bit embarrassed about.

And of course, like I said earlier, there’s obviously the actual physical investment of money too. Making a decision to spend money and work with a strategist or a coach can feel like a really big deal.

I know it’s not always easy to make a decision like that, especially, perhaps you’ve invested in a coach or a program before and it didn’t work out. So I think the first thing to acknowledge and celebrate is that, that in and of itself, working with a mentor is a big, brave decision.

And I don’t take lightly the trust that my clients have placed in me when they say, “Okay, Clare, let’s do this.”

So let’s start talking about what exactly they’ve done. One of the things that I do different to a lot of the coaches and mentors out there is that being a CPA, I’m very numbers led. So one of the first things that we do is we actually dive into their finances. We really pull back the curtains on what’s going on with their business finances and we are basing their growth strategy around what is actually going on. We are very metric focused. ‘Cause a lot of times people think, “I just need to be going viral on Instagram,” or, “I need a new p- marketing platform,” or, “I need to work harder.”

but what I believe a really strong starting point is have a look at what the numbers are showing us and use this information to drive your decision-making. Because your numbers tell a story. They tell you which offers are profitable, which clients are profitable, what services are sucking the life out of you, and where the biggest opportunities are sitting.

So when you start making decisions from a place a very rational numbers based place, you suddenly realise that you can make a lot more strategic decisions.

So let’s dive on in and talk about some of the specific strategies that they’ve been employing to be hitting these biggest months ever. One of the things I’ve been talking about a bit on the podcast lately is empowering my clients to step into the CEO role. And this means being brutally honest about how much time you’re actually spending working on the business.

Working out how you can be acting as a CEO, as a leader. Because so many business owners are, technically the CEO, but their calendar is telling a very different story. They might be the admin person, the client delivery person, the marketing person, the ops person, the bookkeeper, and on top of that, they are the cleaner at home, doing the school runs, being the primary caregiver, and the person who is counted on for a lot of things. So if you wanna find out more about how to create a bit more balance in your household go and listen to some of my recent episodes of the podcast because I’ve spoken a bit about this.

Because here’s the thing, if you wanna be up-leveling your results, you need to have the capacity to act as the leader of the business. So this is often a two-pronged approach, so investing in support around the house, absolutely, and secondly, investing in help in the business. Because you need to have the support, and structures, and people around you to really help you execute on your plans.

‘Cause you can have the best strategy in the world, but if you don’t have the capacity to implement it, it’s not going to work. So this is something we absolutely need to know, because otherwise I’m just giving my clients more things to do and they’re like, “I don’t have the freaking time to do this.”

Another thing that’s really essential for shifting how you are currently functioning is accountability. ‘Cause a lot of times we know the things we should be doing. Let’s be honest, most business owners are certainly not short of ideas. We’ve got plenty of great ideas, but knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things.

And this is why having high touch point accountability really helps you to take those steps forward. With my clients I’m not just saying, “How are you going?” I’m like, “Okay, what’s holding you back? Why hasn’t that been done yet? How can I support you?” Making sure that when life gets busy, they aren’t forgetting about the actual actions that they wanted to take in their business.

So far we’ve spoken about being numbers led, creating capacity, and having accountability. The actual strategies.

One of the big things that I then do with my clients to boost their profitability is to get rid of misaligned clients and misaligned offers There’s a saying called the Pareto Principle, which is called the 80/20 rule which basically means that 80% of your results come from 20% of your clients or activities.

And it’s something that we forget in business a lot of the time We can spend so much time, energy, and effort on our low profit clients or our low profit offers.

You know what I’m talking about. There’ll be some clients with you who seem to consume a lot of your energy. They push the boundaries, they ask for a lot, they’re draining, and they really leave you thinking, “Oh my gosh, why did I start this business in the first place?” And because I’m objective, I don’t know these people, I can really help my clients to see this from an outside lens.

You can say, okay, yes, they’re paying you a lot of money, but how much of your time and energy are they making? Is this client actually profitable? Is this offer actually profitable? Let’s dive on into the numbers and see what the numbers are telling us. Sometimes growth isn’t about adding more. It’s letting go of the things that are weighing the business down.

So it might mean getting rid of your shitty clients. It might mean getting rid of offers that aren’t really profitable, including tightening your boundaries. Might mean saying no to work that, yes, technically you could do, but you shouldn’t be doing that sort of work anymore.

And then from there you have that capacity, that C word again, to double down on customer service and on intentionally targeting the right kind of clients. The kind of clients who are profitable, aligned, respectful, and genuinely value what you do. What this means is that you are making more money without more effort.

And one of the strategies that we’ve been employing is intentionally targeting dream clients. And literally doing reach outs. Also getting a lot tighter with the marketing funnel because a lot of times as we’re in that scaling stage we can get a little bit sloppy, not following up on leads, not following through on inquiries and just hoping that people land in the inbox.

Your sales process needs to be really tight and making sure that you really are getting a clear yes or no from your clients. Your sales process needs to be really tight and ensuring that you are following up until there is a clear no or yes from potential leads. Remember, a lot of times these people have actually reached out to you and for some reason we don’t actually go through the whole process and follow them up.

Because sometimes businesses don’t need more leads. They need to stop leaking the leads they already have. The other thing that we do is we look for opportunities to upsell to our existing clients. If someone’s already working with you, loves working with you, is getting re- great results, maybe there’s some more services that you can sell into them.

Maybe there’s a higher ticket offer. Maybe there’s an add-on or a bonus. Again, this is true profit potential.  Another area in which a lot of business owners are leaving money on

the table is around their messaging. And I’m one of those hands-on mentors. I really am diving into the actual copy and the messaging with my clients. I wanna be having a look at who their dream client is, what their pain points are, what their pleasure points are, and whether the copy is speaking to one specific person.

Because generic copy doesn’t convert you want your copy to speak specifically to that one dream client so that they are nodding along saying yes, I need this thing.”

And this level of specificity really does make such a difference, especially in a tough market. Because if people are being a little bit more considered with their spending, your messaging needs to make the value obvious. It needs to speak directly to what they are experiencing, and it needs to show them why your business matters now and why they need to pick you.

Something I’ve noticed a lot of times is that people are talking about the inclusions. You get this and this, but forgetting to talk to the transformation. I’ve also noticed a bit with copy that business owners when they’re selling, they’re saying, “I do this and I do this.”

another thing to refine your copy is to review it and see are you using the word you. You don’t want to see I on my website. You want to see you. You’re talking to your client’s lived experience because when you shift that and people feel, “Wow, they’re talking to me,” that’s when the right people start paying attention.

Now, I need to close out by saying a very important thing. Hitting your biggest ever sales month doesn’t mean anything unless it’s converting to profit. The clients that I’ve been talking to you about, they’re not just having their biggest sales month, they’re having their actual biggest profit months.

And that matters because if you are growing fast but you’re hemorrhaging money as fast as you’re earning it, you are not gonna feel any wealthier. You can have a huge revenue month and still feel stretched money-wise, there’s nothing left at the end of it. And honestly, that’s not the vibe. So part of the work has to be staying in the boring nitty-gritty of numbers, making sure that your costs aren’t blowing out at the same ratio that sales are growing, looking at your margins, making sure that you are looking at your team costs, and making sure that those extra sales are actually converting to the bottom line.

Because ultimately, the reason we’re all in business is for profit. Profit is what pays you properly, and it allows you to make the decisions to give you more financial freedom. And this is why I’m so passionate about helping my clients make more money, like more money they can actually keep. And another thing that I wanna close out with, I wanna talk about celebration.

Something I really encourage people to do when they hit a new milestone, a new metric when they’re making more money, is to actually celebrate and say, “Wow.” Because what I find with my beautiful high achievers, like yourself probably if you’re listening to this podcast, is that you hit a goal, and then you immediately move the goalpost.

You’re not pausing to celebrate. You’re just going, “Okay, cool. What’s next?” And ambition is fabulous. I love that. But you also need to actually allow yourself to enjoy the thing you’ve worked so hard for. And I’m celebrating right along with you. I love to see people succeeding. So when you do hit that big milestone, come up with some sort of celebration.

Buy yourself a gift. Book a night away. Even just sit down and say, “Wow, this is something really cool that I’ve achieved.”

If you’re listening along to this and thinking, “I’m ready to dive on in and actually have a look at what’s really going on with my numbers because I want to be hitting my biggest ever month and I want someone to help me on that journey,” please reach out to me. I have got a link in the show notes for today’s episode and I can share a little bit about what it looks like for me to do some business advisory work with you.

I truly hope this episode’s inspired you to get out there, chase your biggest ever month, and not just the biggest ever sales month but your biggest profit month.

Because growth actually changes how both business and your life feels. Thank you so much for listening. I always appreciate you being here, and I look forward to chatting to you again next week on The Intentional Money Show. Just one final thing. If you do enjoy listening to me each week, I’d be so grateful for a review on Apple Podcasts.

So please pop on over, leave me a review. I really appreciate you.

And one final thing, if you do love listening to the Intentional Money Show, I’d be so grateful if you can leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. So pop on over, leave me a review, and I’ll be popping in here again next week. Have a good one.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the Intentional Money Show. If you’re ready for more profit, come find me on Instagram at clare_wood_coach. Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast, and I’ll chat to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio