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Before we get started, did you know that there are only three marketing systems that drive predictable revenue in your business?
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And here's the thing.
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You're already doing them, but you're likely running them separately when they should be working together. And when they do, your revenue grows without you having to actively manage every piece. Meaning your business actually becomes primed for growth rather than dependent on your smarts, your efforts, your decision making. Essentially you. I'll teach you the three integrated systems that built my business so you can experience the same compounding results in yours, not by adding more, but by aligning.
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What you've already built.
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I'd love to see you there. So head to amyporterfield.com training to save your seat for free. Amyporterfield.com training all right, let's jump into today's episode.
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My my first hundred thousand dollar month and lost money. The whole time. I was actually moving backward. So that moment broke me. What's wrong here? Where's my money? Revenue had become my scoreboard, but I was playing the wrong game. I had a six figure month and I lost money. That $100,000 month back in the day meant not seeing my husband, who I was newly married at the time. Don't make that mistake. And the way you get there isn't by making more, it's by keeping more. My guest today is a dear friend of mine. One of them goes, that one over there. She's big money. And it was my guest today. Her name is Amy Porterfield. Amy Porterfield, the ever amazing best selling author of two weeks notice. Ms. Amy Porterfield. I need to tell you about the time that I hit my first hundred thousand dollar month and lost money. Not broke, even lost money. I was in the red on a month I thought was a massive win. And here's the worst part. I didn't even know that it wasn't a win until weeks later. I was out there celebrating, feeling like I had finally made it. And the whole time I was actually moving backward. So that moment broke me. But also it fixed something because it forced me to look at a certain aspect of my company that I had been ignoring for way too long. If you've ever looked at your revenue and thought, where is all this money going? Like you know it's coming in but you don't have it. Or if you've had a launch that looked great on paper but your bank account told a totally different story, I need you to keep listening because what I'm going to share with you today might be the best business lesson ever that no one ever taught you. So here's what we're going to do. A few different things today. I want to break down in a little bit more detail, not basic. What's the difference between revenue and profit? Because high level, of course, you know, But I want to get into it just a little bit more. And then I want to talk about why most entrepreneurs really miss the mark when we're talking about revenue and profit. And then I'm going to give you five strategies to actually keep more of the money you're working so hard to make sound good. All right, let's get to it. First, my wake up call. So you know that a hundred thousand dollar month where I actually lost money. I'll get back to that in a second. First, I want to let you know about a night that I realized something was very wrong in my business. So my son Cade was in junior high at the time. So this is many years ago and he was playing football. And if you know anything about youth, you know that there are lots of team dinners. So parents host these team dinners at their home and the whole team shows up. Now at the time I was living in a tiny condo in Carlsbad, right outside of San Diego. It was a three bedroom condo, but the rooms were tiny, the kitchen was tiny, and it was me, Kate and Hobie. And we couldn't host so we couldn't be part of the parents who hosted. I didn't have enough chairs, I didn't have a backyard like we were out, which is kind of, kind of embarrassing in of itself, but it is what it is. So we would go to these dinners and I remember walking into some of the homes and just being in awe. They were so beautiful. They had big backyards, kind of spaces that felt like this is where you raise a family, this is where you make memories. Now back then they felt like mansions. If I were to walk up to a home now, which is an average really nice home, but back then, you know, I was in a different place. So it felt like they were all mansions, but they were really nice. And I remember thinking two things. Anytime I walk into a nice home, I think, what do these people do? Because I'm nosy and my business mind turns on. And then the second thing I think is, well, in that moment I thought one day I'm going to have this, I'm going to have a beautiful home and I can host people and I'm just going to be so proud. So at the time it felt exciting and motivating. I was Building my business. I had big dreams. But then one night, something shifted. So I was right at the cusp, right around the moment where I could hit a million dollar year. And we all know that's a big deal, right? Money's not everything. But if you're an entrepreneur and you have your first million dollar year, you know that's a big deal. So I'm chasing it. And I felt like I was getting close. And then I walked into this house and I'm standing there and I'm looking at this beautiful stairwell and everyone's coming in. And I thought, wait a second, I'm close to hitting a million dollar year. And I don't have anything like this, like, what's wrong here? Where's my money? Where's the life that was supposed to come with the kind of success that I had started to see? And that question gutted me because I realized I'd been so upset, obsessed with hitting the million dollar mark, that I never stopped to ask what I was actually keeping. Revenue had become my scoreboard. But I was playing the wrong game. That was the moment I knew I needed to get serious about one thing. How to keep more money. But knowing it and doing it are two very different things. Because even after that realization, I still wasn't tracking the way I should have been. And that's how I ended up having $100,000 month and actually losing money and not even knowing that I was losing it. So in my early days of building this business, I was a hustler. And I always have an excuse for this, because 16, 17 years ago, there weren't a lot of women doing what I'm doing now, or if you're a female entrepreneur building a business online, there weren't a lot of women doing what you're doing right now. And so I learned from the boys. It's affectionately called bro marketing. But bro marketing is all about hustling, sacrificing, working every hour, grinding, grinding, grinding. And that's what I did. And so when I finally had my first $100,000 month, I mean, I thought I had arrived. And so here's the problem, though. Here's what I wasn't doing. I wasn't tracking the expenses, I wasn't tracking racking profit. I was just watching the revenue come in and assuming everything was fine. So when I finally sat down and looked at the actual numbers, what I spent on ads, contractors, software, all of it, because I didn't have full time employees yet, so I had a lot of contractors, I was absolutely in the red. I had lost money on a month that I thought was a huge win. So let me say that again. I had a six figure month and I lost money. So that was the wake up call that made tracking profit non negotiable for me because it was really hard to make that hundred thousand dollars. That was a lot of in my hustling days, I'm proud to say I don't do that anymore, by the way, if you're new here. But in my hustling days, that meant 10 hour, 12 hour workdays, that meant missing Kade's football games. That $100,000 month back in the day meant not seeing my husband, who I was newly married at the time. So when I realized that, I'm like, what is all this for? So I just didn't know how to track profit. And so I promised myself I'd never be surprised by numbers again. Now if you run a launched based business, you might have months that are intentionally in the red because your expenses hit before your revenue does. That's different. I don't mean that. What I'm talking about is just not knowing. I had no idea I was losing money. I wasn't tracking, I wasn't planning. I was just hoping that the math worked out. Not even hoping. I think I just expected, well, it's all going to come out in the wash. I'm working hard, so this should work. I know how that sounded, but really that came into my head, that was the very thought I had. So let me make sure you don't make the same mistake I did. First, I want you to get crystal clear on the three numbers you need to know, because I find that a lot of entrepreneurs, they use these terms loosely and that's where the confusion starts. Okay, so now let's talk about the three numbers that you need to know. Let's do a quick finance check. So here's the thing. The difference between three terms people throw around all the time. Number one, gross revenue. So this is the total amount of money that comes into your business before anything is subtracted. So every dollar from every sale, every offer, every payment plan installment, this is the top line number. Gross revenue. This is the number most entrepreneurs obsess over, including what I did. So this is the number that you probably celebrate on Instagram when you hit milestones. Okay, but here's the thing, it doesn't tell the full story, right? Gross revenue is what came in. It's not what you kept. It's not at all what you kept. So number two is net Revenue. This is your gross revenue minus refunds, chargebacks, and any returns. So one more time. Net revenue is minus refunds, chargebacks, any kind of return. This is what you actually collected. Okay, so if you made $100,000 in sales, but you had $8,000 in refunds, your net revenue is $92,000. That's the real money that came in the door. And then number three, of course, is profit. This is what's left after you subtract all of your business expenses from your net revenue. So your team, your software, your ads, your contractors, your subscriptions, your payment processing fees, all of it. Profit is what you actually keep. And yes, for this conversation, we're talking about profit before you pay taxes. So your accountant will get into the tax piece. But what I want you focused on right now is this. After you pay for everything it takes to run your business, what's left? Now, here's the gut check question that I want you to sit with. Do you know these three numbers for last quarter? So if I said quarter, whatever last quarter was, when you're watching this, do you know your gross revenue, your net revenue, and your profit? Can you tell me those numbers? Like that? Not. I'm not talking three years ago where you're like, amy, I would never remember that. Just last quarter. If you don't know these numbers, that's okay. We don't judge here. You're here to learn. That's why you're listening right now, right? So by the end of this episode, you're going to have this under check. You're going to. You're going to be ready for this. So now that we're speaking the same language about, you know, revenue and profit and all of that, let's get into the five strategies. I'm going to do a rapid fire. Are you ready? Strategy number one, know your numbers first. You can't fix what you don't track. So before we talk about making more or spending less, you have to start with awareness. Here's the habit. I want you to build quarterly profit check ins every quarter. You should be able to answer these questions. What was my gross revenue? What was my net revenue? What were my total expenses? And what was my profit? And also, when you say, what was my profit? Like, your profit margin is usually the number I'm looking for. So that's your profit divided by your revenue as a percentage. So that's what profit margin is. So put it on your calendar. Make it a CEO date with yourself. 60 minutes. You should be good to go. And I know that you may be resisting this. Like, it feels overwhelming. You're afraid of what you'll find. I think that's why in the beginning I wasn't looking. I remember when I, like, had no idea how much money I was losing in chargebacks. I remember logging into an account that showed me. And I'm like, who are all these people that are demanding their money back? Like, I was so confused. So you just. I learned. My dad says I'm like a caveman where, like, I have to touch the fire to learn that that's hot. And so I do. I kind of learn by air a lot. And that's okay if that's how you are too. So we. You'll find something. You're like, oh, my God, why haven't I been tracking this? Then you start to track it. So if you're resisting it, know that that could be very normal. But we can't fix what you don't track. So I want you to not give this to somebody else. Not think like someone else is going to manage it and take care of it. You, as the CEO, as the founder, you need to get control of this, and then you can get support with it. So. And also, you don't need to be an accountant. I'm not telling you to do your own taxes or bookkeeping or anything like that. A simple spreadsheet here. Have a conversation with your bookkeeper. Maybe your bookkeeper could give you those numbers every quarter. Maybe what you really should do is have a meeting with your bookkeeper every quarter, Go through the numbers, ask questions. Don't be embarrassed about things you don't know. That's how you're going to learn. Okay? So knowing your numbers isn't about judgment. It's about power. You can't make smart decisions if you're guessing. And right now you may be guessing a lot. And that might be the reason you're not seeing your revenue grow like you want it to. So once you have those numbers, you can actually do something about them. I love tracking year over year. So I have a student in Made to scale or a client and made to scale, my million dollar plus mastermind. And we were talking about her Evergreen funnel today. And I love that she said, okay, I'm recording this in January, end of January. So she said, amy, my Evergreen funnel this month did better than last year's January numbers. I love to track a year over year or what happened this time last year. And she just instantly knew. And that's what I want you to be able to do. Because if it was dramatically lower, she could say, okay, some. Something's off here. Because last year at this time, it's, here's what I did. And so that's just always good to know. So once you have those numbers again, you could do something with them. Which brings me to strategy two, which is simplify your offers. So now that you know what's coming in and what's going out, you can start to see where the leaks are. And one of the biggest profit leaks that I see, too many offers. More offers don't mean more profit. In fact, it actually means less. I see this all the time. An entrepreneur has a course, a membership, a template shop, VIP days, a group program, maybe a few others floating around. They're doing lots of affiliate deals with other people. And then she thinks she's being smart by having multiple revenue streams. You've heard it like, and I'm not saying don't have multiple revenue streams, so stay with me. But I know someone who has like, 15 revenue streams, and I, like, she brags about it, and I am just like, imagine if you had three or four and did them really well. That's what I'm all about. So having, you know, a course, a membership, and maybe some affiliate deals, I love it. But 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 different revenue streams, you're not good at any of them. You're just, like, kind of scratching the surface. So this is just how I feel. This is how I've run my business from day one, and it's worked very well for me, and I have so many of my students following this as well. Well, less is more. So each offer you have requires its own marketing, its own systems, its own support. And that's a level of complexity, right? And if you have too many of those different offers, it eats into your profit margin. Every offer has overhead, even the digital ones, right? And the more offers you manage, the more scattered your energy is. And that really, really does mean that it's harder to grow your profit. You're just not as good as you could be. So. And when you get good, imagine this. When you get really good at just a few offers, the profit margin keeps going up and up and up because you've got the systems. You don't have to hire a bunch of people because you've already did that in the beginning. Like when I first created Digital course Academy in 2019, that was my most expensive year for Digital Course Academy. Every year I launched it from then, my profit went up, up and up, because I wasn't starting from Scratch. I was fully fixated on optimizing it. Optimizing it. Cause I didn't have a lot of offers. That's what I mean by less offers. I'm all about one signature offer and maybe two smaller ones. But you get so good at marketing it and delivering it that the cost goes down. So it's a big deal to me. I really do think this is like the secret sauce. So fewer offers promoted, well, almost always outperform a bloated offer suite or 10, you know, streams of revenue. So ask yourself this, which of my offers generates 80% of my revenue? And what would happen if I sunset the rest? Or at least stopped actively promoting all of them or some of them. So I just want you to do less. But do what you're going to do in your business insanely well, like phenomenal. The entrepreneurs making the most profit are the ones who get ruthless about where they focus. You know, I've known Marie Forleo for many, many years. And one thing that I've always admired about her is she is laser focused. She is locked in on whatever it is she's committed to working on. And that means some sacrifices. She might not be able to go on the vacation she wants to go on just at that right time, or she might miss an event she was asked to speak at or whatever. But she's locked in. And she's someone who's had fewer offers and done them very well. I mean, B school comes to mind for everyone, right? There's a reason she's known for B school. So it's like such a great example. Sometimes you make sacrifices when you're locked in, but once you get it done, then it starts to grow way more effortlessly. So you streamline what you're selling. Once you do that, it gets so much easier. So fewer offers. So let's go to the next strategy, which is raise your prices. Okay, this one's going to feel uncomfortable for some of you, so stay with me.
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Hey, before we continue, we need to talk about something. So you've got offers that convert an audience that trusts you and proof that what you do works. Then why does growth still feel so hard? That's what we're talking about this Tuesday during my live training for six figure female founders. It's called the revenue consistency formula. I know you're busy, so in just.
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An hour we'll talk about why your.
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Revenue stays inconsistent no matter how many launches you do, which three marketing systems drive 90% of your growth, and why scattered tactics will never get you there. The Answer something you already have just misaligned. So save your spot for this Tuesday by going to amyporterfield.com forward/training. That's amyporterfield.com forward slash training. All right, let's jump back into the episode.
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And it shouldn't mean something coming from me because if you've ever been a student of mine or you worked with me in the Millie club or made to scale where we work one on one, you know that I'm not the first one to be like, raise your prices, you're not charging enough. I might say that to a few, but I rarely say that because I really do think people throw that around. Flower flippantly. So is that a word? I think it is. I'm always really nervous about saying words that mean nothing, but in my head I'm like, ooh, nailed it. Anyway, most online business owners, especially women, we actually undercharge though. So as much as I don't throw around, you should all raise your prices. What I have seen is a lot of women do undercharge and I've seen it over and over again. So raising your prices is often the fastest path to increase profit because it doesn't require more effort, more launches, or more hours. And here's another little perk to this. If raising your prices is appropriate, that's why I don't tell everyone to do it. It's not appropriate for everyone. But if it is, if you got really honest and asked yourself why you're not raising it, and if you're just scared people won't buy, I think we need to dig deeper because you probably have some limiting beliefs that are stopping you from making really good money. But I'm not going to do a therapy session right now. But what I do want to say is when you raise your prices, you might get less students, maybe, but you're making more money if it all shakes out right. And less students means less work for you, actually. So in some cases dealing with less students, clients, customers, but they're paying a premium to me, I think that's a really good setup. So it allows you to pour more into the people that are there with you. So if you raise your prices, let's say 20%, that increase goes almost straight to your bottom line. You're not working harder, you're not creating more content, you're not just valuing your work differently. Oh, but I got to say, don't raise your prices and then think you need to throw in three more bonuses. A one on one session with you coaching or Whatever. Like I'm saying, raise your prices and don't add anything to your program. That's when. And that is very doable. You can do that, and that is when you're going to see a lot of profit. So I know the mindset piece is real. Like, a lot of us struggle with confidence in raising our prices. And this might be you. Like, if you deal with imposter syndrome, like every entrepreneur I know, you might think, like, who am I to be charging more? Or no one's going to pay that much from me. However, your prices should reflect the transformation you provide, not how long it took you to learn what you're teaching or how long it took you to create the thing, or how long it takes someone to go through the thing, the program, the course, the membership. Your price should reflect the transformation. So let me ask you this. When's the last time you raised your prices? And what would a 15 to 20% increase look like on your main offer? And here's the thing, if you follow me enough, like, if you're really paying attention, and I know, like, I'm not the only thing on your mind, so you're probably not paying this close attention, but I only raised the price on Digital Course Academy once, and it's a regret if I were to launch it again this year. I already told myself it will be a $3,000 program. I knew it got people big transformations, it made people a lot of money, and it had so much proof behind it that I should have raised the price a long time ago. And so I learned my lesson and I like to teach from each. Either what worked for me or where I messed up and would do it differently. And in this case, I shouldn't have had the same price for so many years. So this. Learn my lesson. Um, so anyway, think about raising your price. And if you don't want to, get honest with yourself and ask yourself why and make sure you feel good about that reason. Okay? Number four, audit your tools and subscriptions. So when was the last time you sat down and looked at every single recurring charge hitting your business credit card? Like, this is real. Like, tool creep, it's real. You sign up for a $29 a month software and then another one, and then another one. You're still paying for this one thing, but you're never even using it like it's important. Important, right? Or you upgraded to the pro plan. We've been guilty of this. And then you're not using the pro plan. So now on my team, my ops department, I have Two people in my ops department, and they are like ninjas with figuring out what are recurring costs, who's using it. And they'll go to the person and say, are you using it this way? Do you need this pro plan? Like, we have people assigned to different subscription plans to knowing who kind of owns it, and the minute we're not using it, it's out. It hasn't always been that way, but we needed to clean things up. These small changes, they add up and they're eating into your profit every single month. It reminds me of when I left Carlsbad and I moved to Nashville and I was here one year and I was looking through credit card charges for something, and I'm like, what's this? What's this? And it was like 24 Hour Fitness, the gym, and it was charging me $50. I'm like, well, that's weird because I haven't been to 24 Hour Fitness in two years. When I lived in Carlsbad, I had canceled the membership, and then I looked back and I had been charged $50 for two years and I didn't even know it. And I do check my business subscriptions, but I failed to check my personal ones. And. And so I actually got a refund for that because something weird had happened. But I should have known way before that. So now I check my personal and my business. Okay. Anyway, moving on. Here's what I want you to do. Pull your last three months of credit card statements, highlight every recurring charge, and ask yourself two questions. Am I actively using it? And does this directly contribute to revenue or client experience? Am I actively using this? Not I'm going to use it down the road. And does this directly contribute to revenue or client experience? Anything that doesn't pass the test, cancel it. It's out. And if you want to speed this up, you can drop that statement into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to pull out every recurring charge. It'll do it in seconds, of course. Then you can just go through the list and decide what stays and what goes. So I would do it that way. And it isn't about being cheap. It's about being intentional. Every dollar you save here goes directly to your profit. And this is something that you can do, like this week, like block an hour. It's not even going to take that long. And I promise you're going to find hidden money. So go get it. Okay, finally, last one. Number five, hire smarter, not more. Now, this is for you. If you are hiring contractors or W2 employees and it's it's a challenge I see all the time. So entrepreneurs think that they have a team problem, but they actually have a systems problem. So a lot of the money being lost on team isn't overspending, it's misspending. So you hire a VA for $500 a month before you've documented what you need them to do, and you end up redoing their work and spending hours being frustrated with them in the beginning. And then sometimes they don't even work out. Whereas if you had a system before you brought in that va, it would have been a smoother transition. You wouldn't be wasting a month or two of they're not even doing it right. And it's not the VA's fault, it's the missing system, which essentially is your fault. Sorry. So before you hire anyone moving forward, I want you to ask three questions. One, what specific outcome will this person create? Is it revenue generating or time saving? It needs to be one or the other revenue or time. If they're going to help you get leads, I would see that as revenue. If they're going to help you not have to get into your inbox to answer all the self. Self help help scout, that's the tool we use. But like support tickets, then that's worth it to you as well. Number two, can I document exactly what I need them to do? If you can't explain it, you can't delegate it. So just keep that in mind. And then three, will this hire pay for themselves within 90 days either through revenue they help generate or time they free up for me to generate the revenue? So if you can't answer those questions, clearly you're not ready to hire someone. You need to build the systems first, grow your team. Yes, but document what you need before you hire someone to do it. Otherwise you'll end up doing everything yourself for a long time and just being frustrated and wasting money. Oh, and I want to say one more thing. I don't want to get off on a tangent, but one thing I've been really guilty of in my earlier years is I get really stressed out. I have so much on my plate or one of my employees is like, I'm feeling burned out and my first inclination is we need to hire someone. You need someone under you. I've done this so many times, marketing especially. So my marketing manager or project manager's burned out. We need to hire you an assistant or we need to get whatever in here to take three things off your plate. I have been so guilty of this and at one point, my team got too bloated because of it. And let this be a cautionary tale. At one time, I let nine beautiful souls go from my company. I eliminated nine positions at the same time in my company because it was bloated. And that is my fault. Those are people's livelihoods, and I didn't take it lightly. I cried for a very long time. But I realized I shouldn't have made that higher. I should have simplified that role or dialed it in or found out how to automate more. And I wouldn't have needed another hire. So not all the positions I let go of were because they were redundant. We were kind of changing the business as well, but many of them were. So, you know, do it for the health of your business, but also so you know, you're not hiring people that a year later you have to let go of because you realized you didn't really need them. You just needed to fix a system. So please, learn from my mistakes. Okay, so let's recap the five strategies and then I'll let you go. Number one, know your numbers. First, commit to quarterly profit check ins. Two, simplify your offers. Fewer offers, more focus, better margins. Three, raise your prices. If appropriate. Your profit margin will thank you. You don't have to work harder when you make the money. Four, audit your tools and subscriptions. Hidden money. And five, hire smarter, not more systems before staff. Here's your challenge. Before the week is over, I want you to find out your gross revenue, your net revenue, and your profit from last quarter. Get it into a spreadsheet. Make it your goal to track it every single quarter. And again, once you know your numbers, you'll be making better decisions. And I want to bring it back to where we started. Those football dinners. Me standing in someone else's beautiful home, wondering why I had almost had a million dollar year and I couldn't afford what they had. I was chasing the wrong number. I was so focused on what was coming in and bragging about how much money I was making. Like, not really bragging, but to myself I was. And I never stopped to ask what I was actually keeping. Don't make that mistake. You didn't build this business to hit revenue goals and still feel broke. You built it for a really good life, for freedom, for the ability to, you know, be there with your kids, for options, for breathing room. And the way you get there isn't by making more. It's by keeping more. So do the work this week. Pull the numbers. Look at what's happening. In your business, and it might be uncomfortable, but I promise you, what's on the other side of that is clarity. And clarity is where everything changes. You got this. Thanks for being here today. I know that talking about profit and money in general can feel very heavy, but I hope this gave you a clear path to get started. Remember, just three numbers this week. Gross revenue, net revenue, and profit. That's it. Now, if you're watching on YouTube, so subscribe to the channel so you can catch the next episode. And if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, make sure that you're following the show. I'll see you next week.