When I was studying for my MBA, my most challenging class was statistics. And even though I managed an A- in the class, it took every one of the few analytical brain cells I had to do so.
So imagine my pleasant surprise when I sat down to analyze the statistics of my business over the last 12 months and found myself engrossed, fascinated, excited and practically dancing for joy. Armed with this critical data, now I know exactly where to spend my time and efforts going forward to receive the highest and best rate of return!
I ran a total of about 10 reports, but let me share some of what I learned specifically from my shopping cart's reports:
Shopping Cart Stats
The shopping cart system I use (1ShoppingCart) has the ability to run sales reports in a variety of ways. Below are four of the reports I ran, what my results were, and how you can apply the results to your business:
a. My Monthly Sales Totals…
…showed me how many sales I made each month, and from that information, I discovered that my best month financially was this past January, followed by March.
I reviewed my marketing and sales activities (in other words, the offers I made) for that month, and what I found was this:
In January, I launched my Platinum Coaching program, which generated $43,450 in sales.
In March, I offered my 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success Take Action Group 10-week coaching program, which is one of my bestselling programs.
Both of these programs have higher price points, so if you've already developed some products or programs at the lower-priced end of your marketing and product funnel, consider adding a more comprehensive program at a higher price to your offerings to in^crease your bottom line.
b. My Sales by Ad Campaign…
… showed me which special offers were the ones you were most interested in taking advantage of. Now I know which offers to consider repeating, or offering on another product or program in the future.
This is something you can do as well. Guessing if a special campaign you ran worked well or not doesn't make good business sense. Tracking actual numbers does, however, and it's super-simple to do in 1ShoppingCart.
c. My Sales by Clients/Customers…
… showed me who my top clients/customers are, what they've bought, and how much they've invested in my offerings. And since I know that one of the most effective ways to grow a business is to make additional offers to those who have already bought from me, you can bet that not only will I do that, but I'll do it in a way that makes them feel special – because they are to me – by offering them special access or discounts or additional benefits as my way of thanking them for their continued business and loyalty.
If you track this information, you can do the same and increase your sales and your customer loyalty at the same time.
d. My "Where did you hear about us" Report…
… showed me that even though I thought that some of my online networking efforts weren't really paying off, mainly because I didn't think I was focusing enough time on them, I was wrong. It seems even the small amount I had been doing was making an impact.
So now I know the top three places to really focus those efforts going forward. If you've found online networking to be a struggle for you, tracking this information makes what can seem like an overwhelming marketing activity (some lists are SO active) into an extremely managable and once-again enjoyable one.
I gleaned all of this information from just four reports from my shopping cart. And this doesn't include the reports I ran from my email list service (Aweber) or from my web stats (Google Analytics).
Measuring the results of your business activities is critical to your success, and anyone can do it (it's really one of those "if I can, anyone can" kind of things). I really want to encourage you to take a look at where you've been over the past 6-12 months, analyze that data, and make some strategic decisions about where you want to focus your efforts going forward to get where you want to be.
Before my business evolved into what it is now, I was trading my time for money, dollars for hours. As a website designer and developer, I charged by the hour. As a writer/editor, I charged by the hour. As a public relations and marketing consultant, I charged by the hour.
Do you see the problem here?
There are only so many hours in the day, right? And if I wanted to pay the rent, I needed the majority of them to be billable hours, which left little to no time for marketing. As you can imagine, without the time to market my business, I struggled to get clients.
But I don't struggle anymore, and here's why: it's called leverged income – multiple streams of leveraged income – that enables me to work with much fewer (but more of my ideal) clients one-on-one, and gives me much more time for marketing and growing my business with a lot less effort.
Okay, so what exactly can YOU do to step struggling, to stop trading time for money, so you can actually work less and make more?
Here are three quick tips Im delighted to share with you:
(For even more details on how I broke the 6-figure mark while only working about 8 hours a week this past year, leaving me plenty of time to spend with my preschooler, her baby brother, and my husband, join me for a FREE one-time-only teleseminar Tuesday, February 17th. Register here:
http://www.clientabundance.com/tagpreviewcall.htm)
(more…)
Me: I'm done…. (to hubby after arriving home from Ali Brown's Online Success Blueprint Workshop)
Him: With what? (read: uh-oh…)
Me: I'm done with thinking, playing, being small. I know I've been saying this for awhile, but it really became clear to me at the workshop – I'm so done with the piddly stuff. No more…
…and on (and on..) the conversation went. Here are three of the main shifts in my thinking (and feeling and being) I've made from my experience at the workshop.
1. I'm not a joiner…
That may surprise you, if you know me at all. I love people, I love being a part of 'stuff', and my daughter definitely has my 'I'm afraid I'm going to miss something…' gene… 😉
And I don't know if it's the fact that I've literally left my house on only 3 occasions in the last three years (while I focus on tending to two little ones) – and thus 'it's the hermit life for me' has become innate, but it became very clear to me how much an individual I am at this event – in a good way. Meaning that I've become very comfortable and confident in my own skin, in who I am as a person, both personally and professionally, without even realizing it.
Mindshift: My success is not based on the 5 people I surround myself with. It's based on me.
That being said…
2. I'm not a competitor…
If you've been reading this ezine for awhile, you may have read my 'Turn Your Competitors into Collaborators' article (maybe even more than once, as I keep reprinting it due to the amount of positive responses it always receives).
So, although this wasn't necessarily a new 'a-ha' for me, being at this event and meeting so many success-driven AND purposeful business owners validated my belief in abundance, that there is more than enough for everyone – and then some.
Here's something that Ali said that summed up how I feel very succinctly:
Mindshift: I don't compete. I don't compare. I just am.
Yup. Take that one to heart, please – it's incredibly freeing.
3. I'm not your average mompreneur
Ok, this one wasn't a huge relevation, but what was was that I got to meet a bunch of other 'not your average mompreneurs' at Ali's event, like Alexis Martin Neely, Sheri McConnell, MaryPat Kavanagh, Sarah Robinson, Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, and several others. (Google these amazing women to find out what they're up to…)
I'm grateful to be in such amazing company, and to know that this special group of women I've had a passion for supporting when I first started out in 2004 with www.EntreMoms.com is finally coming into its own. Amen!
Mindshift: I'm not the only one who is building an empire while raising a family.
So what do these mean? For me, it means that the vision I had for my business when I started out was too small. It means that there's an opportunity for me to make a much bigger impact that I ever conceived possible before. It means that I'll be making bigger and better decisions about 'what next' going forward.
It means I'm done playing small. What about you?
Every once in a while, something comes along that "changes the game"…
It’s rare, but it does happen.
Well, one such item recently came across my desk, and I suddenly realized, "Wow this is unprecedented. This is new. This is groundbreaking."
What is it?
It’s a brand new book (and teleseminar series…more on that in a
moment) by my friend and colleague, Dr. Larina Kase, called…
The Confident Leader: How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional
http://www.confidentleaderbook.com/alicia
The Confident Leader combines cutting-edge research and on-the-ground experience to give you a formula for…
…consistently and reliably breaking through your comfort zone — at will.
Larina has actually "cracked the code" to breaking through your comfort zone, predictably and with scientific precision, and backs that statement up with over 10 years of research (she’s a Doctor of Psychology and served as a clinical faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania).
Countless clients of hers are breaking through to new levels of achievement that they previously considered impossible.
Youll also find interviews with business leaders such as Seth Godin, Tim Sanders, Joe Vitale, and 7 additionally incredible authors and experts.
She’s also a giver. So today, when you pick up your copy of The Confident Leader, she’ll be giving you access to:
1. An unprecedented LIVE 11-part Confident Leadership Telesummit with world-class experts in business, self-development, and leadership.
2. A selection of exclusive bonus gifts that Larina hand-picked herself from highly qualified and respected experts (definitely not the typical overload of bonuses no single human being could ever actually utilize 🙂
I’m happy to say that I’m one of the bonus contributors. It’s wonderful to participate in promoting such an important and groundbreaking book.
This is truly too remarkable a book (and overall offer) to miss:
http://www.confidentleaderbook.com/alicia
You’ll be very, very glad you did (and a better, more confident leader because of it). I know I’ll be implementing Larina’s formula to elevate my status to being an exceptional leader in my market. How about doing the same in yours?
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