This week, Troy is tired. He has been up all night with his baby…. but the show must go on. In this episode, the guys are talking about the three core projects that you need in your business to achieve financial security and they'll talk about a tool that can help you get there.
Watch the Video
What's Happening Here?
At the 1.20 minute mark, the guys bring us the latest news with a game of “What's Happening Here” where Simon shows us a picture of a news story and Troy needs to guess what the story is.
Word on the Street
At the 11-minute mark, Simon hits the streets to ask people about freelancing.
It seems most people aren’t happy to pay up front for work that hasn’t yet been done. A good takeaway from this is that it's about the credibility and trust that you build with the client before you undertake the work. Whilst you have to work in a way that suits you, you also need to think about it from a client’s perspective – what can you do to make them feel secure about the transaction? Online reviews are a really important component to building this trust as well.
The Golden Nugget
At the 15.30 minute mark, we talk about achieving financial security within your WordPress business.
Every month we publish an epic blog which is about the topic of the month. This month’s topic is profit and our epic blog is all about achieving financial security.
Imagine a world where you had the security of knowing you were financially covered before you even begin work.
Think about this for a minute… what work would you do and what sort of clients would you take on if you didn’t have to worry about having financial security? It’s a really interesting thought, isn't it… what would that look like and what would it change in your current business? Are there any clients that you would let go of if you didn’t need that money?
According to AND CO, only 23% of the surveyed freelancers reported improved financial stability since launching their own professional endeavours. This is a sad state of affairs for freelancers.
Financial security is largely about recurring revenue. If you have this, then you can start to pick and choose who you work with. Here’s a bit of Troy philosophy for you:
If it’s not fun, it’s not getting done
Three Projects to Secure Your Finances
According to Simon, there are three core projects that you need to be working on to secure your finances:
- Have a profitable product. The difference between a product and a service is that a service is bespoke where you’re responding to client demands all the time. Whereas a product is predictable – the client knows what is included and excluded, you know how to sell it, profit is built in, the client knows what they’re getting and you can teach and delegate team members how to deliver that product. If you want to know how to turn your service into a product, then check out this previous episode of Silence is Golden.
- Recurring revenue. Care plans are vital – this is your baseline. And we aren’t talking about maintenance. No one wants to pay for that – we are talking about all of the extra value adds. Check out this previous episode for ideas on how you can do this.
- Digital dashboards. We recently ran a webinar with Bianca Kennedy where we talked about the importance of knowing your numbers and having complete visibility of what’s happening in your business so you can make better business decisions. As we mentioned in last week's episode, Klipfolio is a great tool to use for this. We are currently using this with our Maverick's club members. We are putting their business in front of them in a visual dashboard for radical transparency and accountability. It shows what you want to achieve and whether you are on track.
Tool of the Week
At the 21.32 minute mark, we talk about the tool of the week – Xero.
Xero
Financial software may not be exciting but in order to run a business, you need to know what your profit and loss are.
Xero makes reconciliation and the invoicing process much quicker. So if you’re not using an online accounting system, Xero is awesome and easy to use.
Wrap Up
Don't forget! Join the FREE Digital Mavericks Facebook Group to see exclusive live videos, frameworks and guides on how to scale your digital business. It’s time to step up and become a Digital Maverick! Request to join here.
Also, be sure to get on a workshop and take your business to the next level. In this free workshop, you'll learn how to start attracting better clients, avoid scope creep and add a steady stream of recurring revenue to your business. Get Instant Access here.
