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If this is your first time reading the blog, I run a small marketing agency/consultancy which I started when I was working a day job. I quit that job in June of 2017 to go full-time with this business.
I’ve decided to start posting a monthly update to show progress on my big goals for 2018 and keep myself accountable – as well as give you some ideas for how to improve your own business or side hustle.
February 2018 Summary
New Clients:
- Recurring: 0 new clients
- Non-Recurring Clients (coaching, one-time projects, etc.): 0 new clients
This part obviously sucked quite a bit, but I spent a lot of last month figuring out who I’m targeting and nailing down some processes. I’m okay with it and am hoping to gain 2 clients in March to make up for it (already halfway there!)
Sales Progress:
- For the month of February year-over-year: 1,259% increase
- The year through February: 1,290% increase
What I’ve Learned:
- Rome can’t be built in a day. It’s just not possible. I got so much done this month and have grown A LOT, but I step back and it feels like I got nothing done. I need to remember there are so many years left of business and this is just the beginning, but it’s hard to do that sometimes.I’m thinking of creating a journal of sorts to keep track of things I accomplished.Have any of you done this, and if so, what kind of method are you using to be able to look back and see everything that got done?
- Books I’ve Read:
- I read through about 75% of the book Profit First – haven’t made any progress on this one! But I have been implementing what I’ve learned so far in it and it’s making my life so much easier.
- I started reading Duct Tape Marketing which is an incredible book so far, and I’m only on page 30. I’m excited to keep reading and learn more about the marketing system talked about in the book.
- If you read my post about entrepreneur insomnia, you’ll know I plan on reading more fiction and memoirs in the coming months. I started reading Jack London’s The Call of the Wild but haven’t gotten very far. It’s pretty good though!
Goal Progress for February 2018
As a reminder, here are my overall goals for 2018:
1. Step up my networking game – Meh
I went to 1 networking event in February:
- SEO Meetup put on by IFTF – I’m From the Future is a local Philadelphia SEO agency who puts out amazing content. They put on a meetup about Crawl budget for SEO and it was quite interesting.Plus, I got to hang out with some old friends from a past job which was fun!I would have liked to make more time for networking this month but there was a lot of change happening, so I can’t be too hard on myself.
2. Niche down and focus on a few clients – Success
I decided to stop denying that most of my clients are in the personal finance niche (mainly due to my past life as a personal finance blogger) and am going to stick to this area.
For a while I wanted to focus on events because I have had success with campaigns like that in the past, but I haven’t fully fleshed out this niche yet and am not sure why I didn’t go all in on personal finance a long time ago.
No time like the present! 🙂
3. Content marketing and inbound leads–Semi-Success
I put together a launch strategy for a new Instagram account for my agency, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. While it wasn’t launched until March, I got it out there and I’m proud of that.
This isn’t exactly content marketing or inbound leads, but building a social presence should lead to that in the future so I’m happy.
1st Quarter Goals:
1. Increase sales by 25% – On Track
[wp_progress_bar text=”Quarter 1 Sales Goal” pc=”71″]
Taking the dollar equivalent of this 25% increase goal and dividing by 3, I am on track to achieve this goal. As of the end of February, I am 71% of the way there.
I’m happy with where this puts me.
Productize My Offerings – Getting There
I have been thinking about this, but have not made much progress yet. I did get pricing on my site, so that’s a win for me!
Redesigning My Site – COMPLETE!
This makes me so happy. I finally just sat down and got it done after a prospect told me they couldn’t even access my website :O
Not good. But now it’s done and I feel so much better about how it makes our agency look online.
1. Choosing a Theme: This is done.
I ended up changing this around but still went with a Genesis theme from Studiopress because they just work and run great. The original one I planned on using wasn’t up to the standards I wanted for my site, and didn’t include everything I wanted. So I ended up swapping it out, but still using Genesis.
I use BigScoots for hosting they literally migrated the entire new site over for me to replace my old one. I submitted a ticket and within 15 minutes it was done!
Look at this insanity:
If they’re going for loyal customers, they got me!
Check out BigScoots here if you want customer service like that! Not like the BlueHost wait time I always had of hours….or days.
2. Redesigning the Home Page: DONE
3. Adding a Pricing Page: DONE
I’ve added pricing to my site! Wooohooo – while I’m still testing specific prices, it’s there and ready to be consumed. That makes me happy!
The Rest of 2018
Here is what’s coming the rest of the year and the progress I’ve made on other goals so far:
2nd Quarter Goals:
- Increase sales 87% – this scares me!
- Build out case studies – no progress; but I have some testimonials on my site now!
- Build out a cold outreach strategy – this is up and running!
I’m not super happy with the results yet, but think with time it will lead to some incremental sales. - Be a guest on 3 podcasts – I was on 2 in January
- The Jumpstart Podcast episode is live – go check it out!
3rd Quarter Goals:
- Increase sales by 77%
- Contribute 12 guest posts – no progress
- Set up a profitable Facebook ads funnel – no progress
4th Quarter Goals:
- Increase sales by 58%
- All out marketing frenzy – no progress
Online Business Tools Worth Mentioning:
- Agency Analytics – I’m so happy with this one – I keep upgrading my account because it’s helping me track my own websites as well.
- ConvertKit – I’ve officially migrated over my entire list to ConvertKit and love it so far. It’s running my “Freelancing With A Day Job” 7-day email series (sign up here if you haven’t gone through yet!). So far so good!
- LeadPages – I’ve been using this one since 2015 and can’t get enough. It just easily hooks into everything and allows you to create pages AND pop-up boxes like this that help you gain more subscribers easily.
I think this February was a pretty good month. I’m not super thrilled with everything, especially not bringing on another client, but I am happy to be more focused and have a website ready and an Instagram account live!
March is looking up and I’m excited with where things are headed.
>> So I want to know: Was this helpful/interesting/something you’d like to see again?
Here’s another stat: your Alexa score has gone down by 400k (a good thing) since you joined the Rockstar group!
Here’s to your continued success!!!!