Today is a special day, folks. Silence Is Golden has reached its 50th episode!
But you know how it goes. You can take a moment to celebrate those little wins and then you gotta get right back to business. So, take your party hats off and let’s dig into this episode which is all about how to boost profits.
Watch the Video
Is Cost-cutting Always the Solution to Boost Profits?
At 3:40, the guys get straight to the point by answering the following question: How do you boost profits?
When you get right down to it, there’s one solid strategy that will help you run a profitable business:
- Cut overhead costs.
- Sell more s***.
- Do both at the same time.
When your business is new, it’s easier to run lean which is why you might currently be stuck with the scarcity mindset. But don’t be afraid to pivot. Abundance is not a bad thing when you put it to work for your business; find better opportunities and scale at every turn.
Oh and don’t take on jobs that force you to build a website in Magento and then outsource the work to a developer for more money than the client is paying you.
The Golden Nugget
At 11:00, the guys offer up the Golden Nugget.
While it’s great to reduce wherever you can and stop buying shiny new objects that won’t help you run your business, at some point you have to learn how to book better-paying clients.
This can be tough to do if you’ve gotten into the habit of undervaluing the work you do. Or you just didn’t realise there was another way to run a WordPress business without living on slim profit margins.
With our free webinar, though, that will change. You’ll learn how to:
- Attract better clients.
- Work on better projects.
- Get paid higher fees.
Do This If Impostor Syndrome Gets in the Way
Still feeling a twinge of impostor syndrome?
Tune in at the 14:05-mark where Johnny Flash talks about streamlining his business, so he could take home those higher fees.
I know it’s a bit controversial to say this, but you owe it to everyone — yourself, your team and your clients — to be profitable. Stop letting “profit” be the dirty word you avoid bringing into the conversation.
If you aren’t making enough money to pay the bills at home and to reinvest in your business, you’ll never be able to provide the quality of service your clients deserve.
Tool of the Week
At 16:50, we revisit some highlights from Agency Mavericks’s three-day Mavericks mastermind event.
Whether you’re a Maverick, an Elevator or a WordPress consultant trying to do this on your own, you’ve likely wondered at some point how much to charge your clients per hour. And the answer to that is:
Don’t.
Hourly rates are arbitrary numbers that two people agree upon when they don’t agree on the value of the transaction itself. And that’s a terrible way to start working with a client.
To stop doing this, you need to know what costs your business is incurring every day.
Toggl
At 20:05, Toggl is introduced as the Tool of the Week.
As you can see, I’m using this right now to track the time I’m spending on writing this blog post for you.
It’s a simple enough tool really. Simply name the task you’re working on and attach it to one of your projects. This way, you can track the time it takes you and your team members to complete work on a task- and project-level.
In terms of how this plays into the discussion around how to boost profits, well, think about it like this:
You want to charge clients based on value, but you also want to ensure that you’re generating a profit after you’ve paid for related expenses. Toggle won’t help you track indirect expenses such as rent, project management software or internet fees. What it will help you track, however, are the direct fees pertaining to manpower.
Let’s Get Unstuck
At 23:45, Troy and Simon play Good Cop, Bad Cop with a couple of submitted questions from the Facebook group.
At 24:30, the guys suggest that you ask your clients to do it themselves. If they don’t want to or you feel guilty asking them to do it (which you shouldn’t), you can use a tool like Grade.us to help you out.
But as Troy said:
“Stop spending money on f***ing software unless it makes you money.”
Instead, set up a review funnel as Phil Singleton suggests.
At 28:10, Troy reminds all of us that Google search is our best friend.
That said, this is a good reminder that it’s not always easy to take Google’s suggested websites at face-value, especially when it recommends a fairly new tool on the market. That’s why you should have a WordPress community to confirm any doubts or fears you have about using something new.
If you’re not already part of the free FREE Digital Mavericks Facebook Group, this is the perfect place to be when questions and doubts like these arise. Oh, and you also get access to see exclusive content for help with scaling your digital business.
