EP 16: Mastering Your Numbers for Business Growth

In this episode of the Meaningful Marketing Podcast, Chantal Gerardy dives into the critical importance of knowing your numbers. Discover how tracking your income, expenses, and financial metrics can significantly improve your marketing and overall business profitability. Chantal shares personal stories, practical tips, and expert advice on how to develop financial literacy, manage budgets, and make informed decisions. Learn how to create efficient pricing strategies, control expenses, and diversify income streams to ensure your business thrives. Tune in to gain valuable insights and take control of your business finances today! 

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Chantal Gerardy is an International Award Winning Marketing Strategist who empowers purpose-led businesses to revolutionise their online marketing approach and create a brand that resonates deeply with their online audience. If you're tired of cookie-cutter marketing advice, and seek strategies that truly make a difference, this podcast is for you.

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Join me each week as we explore management and monetisation online marketing strategies designed to reduce your time online while increasing your impact. With our guidance, you'll align your business and marketing team more closely, ensuring every effort moves you towards growth. From overcoming challenges to seizing opportunities, each episode is packed with actionable advice to help you thrive in the world of online marketing and effective management.

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 This podcast is brought to you by Podpro Australia. I am blown away by how many business owners do not know their numbers. Yep. I'm talking to you right now.

Social media, Google, email marketing systems, website traffic, and the endless content creation that comes with marketing. It's overwhelming, right? Say goodbye to endless stress and hello to clarity. With the meaningful marketing podcast in this podcast, I will share with you fast and free practical methods to help you manage monetize and market your business.

All infused with a healthy dose of motivation. Let's do this. Hey, this is Chantal Gerardy from the meaningful marketing podcast. And today I'm going to talk to you about knowing your numbers. Knowing your numbers is going to help you improve the monetization of your marketing. So what exactly am I talking about? Well, firstly, let me acknowledge that this is one of those yucky things that most business owners avoid looking at doing. And I am so incredibly grateful for the fact That when I first moved from South Africa to Australia, I literally had to count my pennies on everything, that I was spending on because when the money ran out, the money ran out. I had to track my income. I had to track my expenses. And I can tell you now that those skills that I acquired by knowing my numbers has certainly paid off, in scaling my business.

So I've also read books like the Barefoot Investor. And I've also worked with a money coach and continue to work with a bookkeeper and accountant so that I can continually better understand my numbers. But what I find is there's so many business owners that even if they have the accountant or their book, bookkeeper, they stick their head in the sand and don't really

want to know what is going on and they don't really want to understand how everything works. And I can tell you right now that the skill will certainly help you to scale your business and improve your marketing. One big example of this for me was probably a couple of years back now, maybe two years ago where I was making more income, but my expenses were going up.

And after reading the profit first book where it spoke about operating expenses being at 30%, it helps me to take. and remedy what was going on so that in the next year my income was up and my operating expenses were down to 30%. So even now I say to my bookkeeper, Hey, could you just let me know that my operating expenses are within the range that I need them to be within.

And that means that I was now creating a more profitable business and I was able to cut back on my expenses and re look at my staff and re, or my team, re look at what they were doing and make sure that I was sticking within the percentage of operating expenses so that I'd have a more profitable business.

Now had I not been aware of that, had I not taken action in that, I would say that I would not be where I am right now had I not done that. I immediately felt the financial benefits after making those decisions. So knowing my numbers was incredibly important.

So I make sure that I check in with my accountants and bookkeeper all the time and understand exactly what is going on in my business and that I am budgeting and meeting my goals. So if you do not know your numbers and you do not have a budget and you're not putting money aside, you're going to be More reactive and less proactive.

So I encourage you to make sure that you do sit with your bookkeeper and accountant often. And what I love about this is it actually gives you a sense of control over your numbers. Now, another thing that people may do is overspend. So when you're not looking at your numbers, you're just spending and spending and spending.

And the next minute you're going, Oh my gosh, I've got no money, but really you've been overspending and not allocating or putting money aside. So, number three is really good habits. You want to make sure that you are disciplined when it comes to spending. Just because you're making money doesn't mean you get to spend it.

You need to be organized and you need to improve the efficiency within your business. You need to make sure that when you price your products or your offers that you've done them thoughtfully and you've taken into account things like your software expenses or your time. You will not believe how many.

clients I've sat down with who, when we go to work out their offers, they do not put in the time they spend creating those offers or delivering those offers, or they do not put in the costs associated with that, like marketing software or paying for, you know, their website or their SEO, they don't take any of that into account.

So therefore they have all these expenses, but their products haven't taken that into account.

So number four is making sure that you pay things on the due date, because when you pay things on a due date, you get a discount. So have a look at that. Things like your mortgage, your insurance, your electricity, and make sure that you can pay on the due date. Also, many of them now, you can actually pay monthly or weekly, and they'll give you discounts for doing that.

You certainly don't want things being dishonoured, because then you're paying late fees, and who wants to give money away for nothing? Now, before I continue, I probably should say that you should talk to your accountant or bookkeeper or financial advisor with all of this. Everything that I'm talking about right now is stuff that I've personally dealt with myself and with my clients.

So number five is diversifying your income stream. So looking at where your money comes from. And I think that, you know, when COVID came, this was a big eye opener for everyone because many people had one source of income coming in. They were relying on that one source. And if that source dries up, So say for example, a photographer who does, you know, photo shoots with COVID suddenly, they couldn't go and do photo shoots anymore. It means that you've got to constantly be exploring new revenue streams and diversify your offerings to reduce your financial vulnerability. And this seems like a weird one, but if you are just starting out, this is something that I highly recommend. And I personally did myself. I got a job. I got a job so that I could have some steady income coming in.

Therefore I could focus on my business without the fear of not having money and being able to feed those kids. And number six is always making sure that you have an emergency fund. Your emergency fund needs to be topped up all the time. So putting an auto direct, you know, an automated direct money transfer into your account so that money automatically goes into your emergency fund, making sure that in that emergency fund, you're still allocating funds for tax, holidays, hospitals, vets.

bills, anything that may come up suddenly, and making sure please that you never, ever, ever, ever, ever spend your tax money.

So it's absolutely important that you continue to review your finances regularly to give you a sense of control over your business and your money. Make sure that you have strategies in place where you are living within your means and you are controlling your expenses. One of the most important things to do as well is to make sure that you celebrate your small achievements. I remember the first time that I put money aside and I'd set this goal that in a year I was going to put money aside and buy a new car. And when I finally went and bought the Toyota Kluger , that I always wanted, the seven seater.

I took the family out for dinner and we celebrated and my daughters were like, mom, you've just spent all this money on a car and now you're taking us all out for dinner, you know, to a nice restaurant. And I said, yes, because it's important to celebrate the achievement of saving and then buying. Spending on something that you really wanted to buy.

And I'd done that thoughtfully. It wasn't irresponsibly.

So if you want to be a professional business owner and run a professional business, it is important for you to not neglect your financial literacy or understanding. It's important for you to be fully aware of your expenses and your income and making sure that you're managing them on an ongoing basis.

You constantly will have to relook at your offers, relook at your pricing structure and relook at the expenditures within your business and see how you can better do things as life and as your world changes.

If you have enjoyed today's episode of the Meaningful Marketing Podcast, be sure to like, follow, subscribe and rate. And if you have a topic suggestion, please send it through to me and I'll be more than happy to create content on it for you. This is Chantel Gerardy from the Meaningful Marketing Podcast.

Thanks for listening in. Meaningful Marketing is all about you making your marketing meaningful. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. By subscribing means that you won't miss out on future episodes all about marketing and motivation. Stay inspired, stay focused, and make your marketing meaningful.