TRANSCRIPT: 

00:04

Hello, welcome to the sales show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your sales and business strategist. I'm a mom, a wife, and a multi-business owner myself. With over 15 years of experience in sales and business, I have worked with startups all the way through to multimillion-dollar companies. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love helping service-based businesses make an income as well as an impact. Let's jump into talking about all things sales and business.

Hello, and welcome back to the sales show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your host and today we're going to be talking about how you can smooth out the highs and the lows of cash flow in your business. I recently ran a VIP day with one of my clients and her biggest challenge that she was having was around how do we manage your cash flow throughout the year, she was having big launches at certain times during the year, but then she found cash flow was really tight outside of those launches. And so I said to her, I have the perfect tool for you. And so this is what I took her through. So today, I want to not only help you boost your income, I want you to have a significant impact on your business overall. And so today we're going to delve into a topic because I know that you didn't start your business for financial stress, right? No one did. No one starts a business thinking I want to work more hours for less income. Like that's just rubbish. One of the many reasons we start a business is for financial reasons and for the flexibility side of it. 

01:32

So if you are wanting to strive for more financial success within your business, and you want to manage and increase your income streams, then this episode is for you. We often find ourselves as business owners, especially women in the whirlwind of the day to day tasks, and it's really, really easy to lose sight of our overall financial and sales strategies. So today, I want to introduce you to a game-changing concept that I use with all my clients we talk about in her sales club, and it's called the cash calendar. 

02:06

Now this tool is designed to bring you clarity to is designed to bring you clarity to your income as well as helping you create a solid strategy that transforms your cash flow. So grab a piece of paper and a pen. And let's dive in First things first, why is it essential for women in business to look at their product suite and their income streams? The reason why I believe it is is so that we take the pressure off we take that are we going to get there are we going to hit our goals. And so having a product suite and different income streams not only adds stability to your business, but it also provides a strategy to you for more control over your finances within your business. I like to think of it more as a roadmap to get to your financial goals of your business so that you're not just waiting for the end of the quarter or the end of the month or the end of the year to think holy cow, have I made enough money? Or did I hit the targets that I want to hear? So I truly believe that the cash calendar is one of the most magical tools that you can implement into your business. But let me start off by telling you more about this tool, and why I've developed it over the years. So the cash calendar is a document that lays out certain periods of time throughout your business. So whether that's three months, six months, or 12 months, it doesn't really matter. 

03:24

The idea of it is that it has that layout and that those set periods for you to allocate how you're going to do what you're going to do. And it also has a few categories on it. So one of them would be your promotion. So what are you promoting? What are you selling? What is it that is going to be generating cash within your business for that period of time, then we have whatever options or freebies that you may be using to sell this product or service, we then want to look at your marketing strategy to sell it, and what assets you may need to generate that cash from that product or service. So if we look at it this way, you decide for the month of March that you're going to sell your online course. And that may be mid-March or towards the start of March. And so you want to be clear on what your options are, what your freebies are, what your marketing strategies are, and all the assets that lead to your online course so that every money-generating activity that you were doing, and your marketing focuses for that period of time all lead to your online course this is what's going to be generating the cash for you in that set period of time, right. 

04:32

So we then may also look at a case so you've got a down-sell that may happen towards the end of your launch or at the end of your launch. So what you don't want to do is go okay, I'm launching at the start of March. And your launch may either go really really well fantastic, or it may not hit the mark that you were expecting it to. So we want to find other ways that we can give you cash injections throughout so we may be looking at a down sell that may happen after you've promoted your course once the door have closed, you may want to look at a cheaper option for people to work with you. So if your courses, I don't know, $1,000, maybe you've got an option for $500 or $200, something that will allow people to go, Oh, that wasn't right for me. But here's another great option. And that means it's a win-win for both people write for the business, as well as your ideal clients. So you would then have the date that that dip-down sale kicks in any bonuses or freebies around it, if you have any, and then how will you market it out? What sort of channels will you use to sell it and what assets do you need to create to be able to sell it? So what you want to do is then go through the whole year and map out what you're going to sell and when and how you're going to sell it, how you're going to get it across how you're going to market it, maybe your social media channels that you want to be across what freebies and opt-ins you're going to use and any assets that you need for it. So that way, you are really clear on what the money-generating activities are happening throughout your whole year. And you don't just leave your financial success to winging it or two really big launches that you may have, or you know, the time that you've got availability within your business. 

06:10

What I've seen happen for service-based businesses, which I always find really interesting is when they do a whole heap of money-generating activity, and then they've got a whole heap of clients coming in, and they spend all their time servicing them. And once they're finished servicing their clients, and that cash comes in, then they've got to start again, from scratch with that marketing. They're like, Okay, now I've got time to take on new clients, where if you had your cash calendar set out, clearly, if you know that you're going to do a drive a really hard marketing drive to get new clients through the door, what else can you do to generate cash while you were servicing those clients, so maybe you can sell some digital products, maybe you've got an online course, maybe you can bring in team members or other offers that you can give to your ideal clients to say, here's some other things that we can do if you a can't work with me one on one financially, or be if I don't have the availability at the moment. 

07:05

So now that we are clear on our cash calendar, and how it can bring clarity to our income and help you create that solid strategy that transforms your cash flow, let me give you a few tips around this. So first of all, you need to actually outline your cash calendar surprise, once you've actually outlined your cash calendar, you then want to implement it into your business. So what I tend to do is I tend to grab my remarkable tablet, or a piece of paper, or a diary, or whatever it is for you and your business. And I write down all the months of the year. And in those months of the year, I then fill in the bigger rocks. So there'll be the launches of her sales club, they will be any events or anything along those lines that I'm running, and I will pop them along throughout the year, I will then find what else in my product suite can I sell outside of those set periods of time. And then once I've done that, I then plugged my marketing, my social media, and all my activities into that cash calendar.

08:04

 So it's all supported. It's not just when you're launching or offering a certain product or service, it's about having that financial focus throughout the year. And creating a cash calendar allows you to outline what you're selling, when you're selling, and how you're going to sell it. It also allows your business to have a compass and to provide direction for your income-generating activities. So it's not like you get to the end of one month and you think holy cow, what am I going to sell for the next month, or I'll just wait until I open the doors to my next course in a couple of months time. And then I'll get another cash flow injection, or you putting a whole heap of stuff out on social media and thinking, Oh, I hope someone buys so that you know, I can pay the bills for the next week or two weeks or month or whatever that is for you. So it really gives you that direction of how you're going to be generating income throughout that whole year. 

08:56

My second tip would be don't put all your eggs in one basket. So you want to make sure that you're diversifying your income streams and your offerings to not just reduce your risk of low cash flow months or weeks. But you also want to make sure that you're touching different price points for your ideal clients, depending on where they're at. You want to maintain a steady cash flow, and not just leave all the income to be generated from one source. So one product or one service. I know for me, I got to a stage in my business a few years ago where there was only a certain amount of VIP clients that I could take on there was only a certain amount of clients that I could set up their sales strategies and their sales processes and go through their marketing and their messaging and all that sort of stuff. And I remember saying to one of my mentors at the time, I don't know how to transition this I don't know how to necessarily turn off the VIP client so I've got time to focus on other income generating streams, you know, to take the load off and she said to me, you need to diversify too. Take the pressure off, even if that means taking on one less VIP client a month or a quarter, then it allowed me to have time to create those other income streams to create that steady cash flow, and not just leave all the income on my VIP services. 

10:16

So that's been really, really beneficial. So that would be my advice to you as well. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, make sure you've got a couple of different things that you can offer. And I think it's also really important to understand how you can sell things that don't necessarily require your time and energy so that you're not swapping time and energy for money. We want to find ways that we can increase your income without increasing your amount of workload. My tip number three for you is to align your offering and sales with seasonal trends. So that means if there's holidays, or events or industry-specific peak times capitalize on those periods, or capitalize on those events, to maximize your sales potential. This can be as easy as things like end-of-financial-year sales, Black Friday offers new year new me type stuff, depending on what it is that you sell will depend on what events are important to you throughout the year and your industry and things like that. But when I send out my cash calendar, I also plug in those main events or main industry events that happen throughout that time. 

11:21

So I can then work my offerings and my services based around that, for example, a lot of the time in Black Friday sales, as a business owner myself, if there's software that I'm looking at, I will do my best to wait for Black Friday sales to kick in, because I can save a whole heap more money that way. And so if people like I really want to work with her, but she's just a little bit out of my budget, and the financial year sales or Black Friday offers can really benefit both you as well as your clients. And I think the other thing to realize is that if you're offering things like enter financial sales or black Friday offers, it doesn't mean that I'm saying to you to drop your price at that time, maybe you create a special bundle or a special offer, or a certain suite of products or services that are only for that sale. So for me, I don't reduce my prices for my VIP offers. I put a lot of time and energy into setting up people sales strategies, sales processes, looking at their messaging, and their marketing and all that sort of stuff. I don't drop my pants on that sort of stuff. But for example, if I've got an online course, or if I've got a digital product or something like that, I can bundle things up and create that once-off offer that only kicks in once a year or twice a year depending on which event you want to work with. So you can have a whole heap of different offers related to those events. Tip number four stagger your product launches and promotions.

12:45

 Now this may seem pretty freakin obvious. However, not everyone does it. So what I see happen is people are constantly bombarding people with four or five different offers at a time, you want to be really clear on when you're going to launch certain products or services. And let your audience know that you don't just want to keep launching the same thing over and over and over and over again to the point where your audiences have heard it all before you want to stagger things out, you want to make things a little bit more exciting. You want to avoid overwhelming your audience with too many offers at once. So having your cache calendar will make it really clear not only from a back-end point of view for your business but also for the front end. And for your ideal clients. They're like Oh, wow, Marie's doing a planning session based on quarter two, that's probably what I need to do not you can join these you can join that you can join these, you can join that and he's, you know, 500 different options for you. People go, oh, it's all too hard. Or they say, Oh, I thought you were doing this. No, I'm also doing this, isn't it too hard? Just be really clear on what it is that you are selling and at what time to avoid overwhelming for your clients. So stagger it all out, be really, really clear and have a plan. You also want to add ways for people to be able to work with you when you're not in those big launches or peak periods.

14:06

 You want to be able to show people that you've got something to offer them no matter what time of year it is, or what sort of availability you've got. Because at the end of the day, and I think I've said this on previous podcasts before, if you don't have something to offer people at that time that they're looking to purchase and move forward, then the chances are they're going to go and find someone else. So if you're really clear on what your product suite is and you know that in the financial year is really busy for you for your one-on-one clients find other ways small courses, digital downloads, some other way to help your clients move forward that will also be cash-generating for your business. And tip number five is leveraging your marketing channels wisely. 

14:45

Now, I don't know about you, but as a woman in business and a Mum My energy levels aren't constantly overflowing and I'm not constantly bouncing off walls with miles of hours free every day. If that's you, all power to you Go for it. But that's not me. So what we want to do is we want to tailor your promotional strategies to each income stream, you want to understand where your people are hanging out, where they're looking for those offers, whether it's social media, whether it's email marketing or collaborations, you just want to make sure that your message aligns with your audience in the right place. 

15:22

If your clients are not hanging out on Facebook, don't spend the time on Facebook, if you're selling b2b and a lot of your ideal clients are on LinkedIn, focus on LinkedIn, but just be really clear on what marketing channels you need to use, and leverage them really beautifully. And my last and final tip for you around your cash calendar is going to be one that I harp on about time and time and time again, about monitor and adapt. So you want to keep track of what's going on for you, you want to look at your data, you want to look at your metrics, you want to track how your sales and your marketing are traveling for you, your cash calendar is not set in stone. 

15:59

So just because you said you were going to launch in July doesn't mean that you have to launch in July, if things aren't working, change it up a bit. It's not set in stone, you want to regularly evaluate your results, and be ready to adjust your strategy based on what's working and what needs improvement. If something's selling really well, maybe you can add in an extra one or two times throughout the year. If it's really really popular, figure out ways that you can add it as bonuses or bundle it up. It doesn't need to be so set that you like No, I said I've got to do it here. So I have to do it. Just figure out what needs to be optimized, do your tracking, look at your metrics on a regular basis. And I believe that doing your monitoring and your tracking, even for your cash calendar, you can look at doing these in your CEO dates or your 90 day planning sessions. whichever one works for you, if you're looking to have a community around you to help you with that come in and join her sales club where we help with your planning your tracking your implementation, we will go through your cash calendar and make sure that you've got enough cash generating throughout your business to hit your financial goals. And my goal is to always exceed my client's financial expectations. If they say that they want to earn an extra 100 grand, I'm going for the 150 or 200. Like let's balls to the wall. Let's do this.

17:17

 So make sure you're tracking it if you need help, as I said, Come and join her sales club, we would love to have you there. And now that you're clear on mastering that art of income streams and generating cash throughout your business, you're aware of the power of the cash calendar, you actually need to action this, it's not just a nice to have, I really believe that this is one of the essentials for hitting your goals both financially as well as for the business success that you're after. It's not just about making money, right? Like the cash calendar is not just about putting some numbers down on a piece of paper. It's about creating sustainable and impactful wealth. It's about showing people how you can help them all throughout the year. And not just when you're launching. It's also about making sure that you've got clarity and you're clear on the strategies that you're going to use and how you're going to sell it. Marketing and Sales very different cash calendar brings them both in beautifully together. So thank you for joining us today on the sell show. 

18:19

If you have found this episode valuable don't forget to subscribe and share and I would absolutely be so grateful if you could leave me a review and I'll give you a shout-out if that's the case. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out you can email me at [email protected]. We are opening the doors to her sales club over the next few weeks. If you want to jump on the waitlist and get some extra bonuses. All you need to do is go to Mareekirkpatrick.com/club. So until the next episode of the sales show, keep selling from a connected and relationship-focused space. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the cell show. Please share it on social media for your friends to see and make sure you tag me at Maree Kirkpatrick so I can personally say if you would like to show me some love linear review on Apple podcasts. I'd love to hear from you email me at [email protected]. And if you would like to work with me further or see any of the free resources mentioned on today's show they can be found at Mareekirkpatrick.com I truly hope this podcast provides useful information and so much value to you so that you can build a business with impact and income