2022 End Of Year Business Recap
Like many, we use the end of the year to reflect on what went well, what did not, and how we can improve. We believe it is important to not just focus on the things that did not go as well as we hoped, but to stand in gratitude for what went according to or better than planned.
Often, in the moment, we aren't present enough to truly appreciate it. So we make an effort to ensure we do so now. We shared our year in review for 2021 last year and gave our takeaways. We'll begin there and see how 2022 measured up against them.
Last Year's Business Takeaways
We need to remain focused on the work we are doing. Despite not hitting the numbers we set for ourselves, feeling like a launch was a failure, and at times thinking that "nothing is happening", we see how large of an impact we've made in such a short time.
Building a business online (only) is not viable for us. Though it seems to be a popular business model, we have found that attempting to market, sell, and scale solely through the internet (or in our case, Instagram) is quite time intensive and laborious. Building the know, like, and trust factor strictly online takes time, intentionality, and patience. It is quite unlike meeting someone in person, where a connection can be immediately felt. We're looking forward to providing more of our services in person.
We must stay true to who we are. Building on the last two points, we "tried" a lot of things in 2021. Some things didn't feel in alignment, but because we were learning, we tried them anyway. Now we know, that is not necessary. There are as many different options available to us as there are businesses, and we needn't force ourselves into options that don't fit.
Do The Work
When it comes to business, focusing on money and sales is an easy trap to get caught up in. In 2021, we did not hit the financial goals we set, but we recommitted to doing the work. We are the antithesis of "get rich quick" and have grown largely allergic to any messaging that portrays such an outcome. We focused on serving our customers in the most effective ways possible, which is how we started our first business and why we started this second business.
What Did That Yield?
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What Did That Yield? ↓
Our Impact:
4 virtual cohorts of 8 business owners apiece who went through our Self Made Accelerator (SMA) curriculum between January and June (30+ people!!) This allowed us to truly connect and work inside other peoples' businesses for a short time; we were so impressed with the transformations these owners left with.
4 In Person visits with business owners from across the country, taking us to Milwaukee in January, Modesto in March, Dallas in April, and Miami in July. These were the in-person connections we had been craving from 2021 and fed into our desire to launch a full in person group offer for Q4.
9 business owners from across the country joined us at our SMA in-person experience in November. This is probably one of the biggest highlights of the year for both of us: the energy exchange of in person connections combined with the collaboration of group work really made this a very special experience.
Landed 2 corporate clients who challenged us to apply our expertise inside of multi-million dollar structures (besides our own staffing company, of course). We learned a lot going through this, especially in how to approach organizations with multiple departments and stakeholders differently than with single business owners.
We served dozens more businesses with our passive courses, Start-Up Incubator and Business Viability Benchmark, were named to the Inc 5000, and connected with hundreds more people through social media.
We saw an increase in press and media features spotlighting our business. This helps us to increase visibility of the impact we're making, while also asserting our authority in mediums beyond client testimonials or results. This also assisted us in landing gifted partnerships with several brands for our in-person seminar, which was an incredible way to surprise and delight the attendees!
We introduced our weekly email series, Clarity is Confidence, in March. Over the 9 months of delivery, we increased our open rates from 42% to 62%. This tells us that the free content we deliver provides value, keeping our community engaged and coming back to us week over week for new information.
The Money:
All of this resulted in us basically 4x our revenue from 2021, going from about $25k in revenue to $125k in revenue. The word revenue is very intentionally used here, to specifically describe money that was captured in 2022.
This is different than sales (which is a number many people use), because we actually captured an additional $15k in sales for 2022, but not revenue. Those are payments that are continuing into 2023, so we do not count them towards our 2022 revenue.
Of this income, we spent about half of it, netting us around $50k of income.
Some of the best expenses are included below:
Travel. The costs associated with getting to our 1:1 clients was one of the larger expenses we had (and was also accounted for in the cost), but also one of our favorite. We love to travel, see new places, and connect in spaces we love.
Ongoing Consultant. We have had Artisha Walker on retainer since December 2020 and she is hands down the best investment month over month. We value her unique zone of genius beyond ours, the ability to "mastermind" with her, and her overall willingness to jump in and help. She is a secret sauce in our business and money well spent.
SEO. We invested in a full SEO audit of our website in Q3, have spent time implementing them in Q4, and will be majorly shifting content strategy to build into this starting 2023. It was an informative process for us and one we were ready for in our business.
Hosting an in-person seminar. The planning and logistics that go into putting on an event where people are flying from all over the country, all staying in the same place, meals are provided, lodging is included, etc. is no small feat. But was a worthwhile investment and one we will be doing again in 2023.
Increase production value. When we were getting started, we filmed everything ourselves and had limited production value based on what we could afford and produce on our own. One of the areas we invested in this year was filming for all of our in-person meetings, professional photography and videography for our branding shoot, and professional videography for trailers, course intros, and more. All of these assist in demonstrating our brand with the level of professionalism we carry through our work.
What we're changing for 2023
Overall, we are quite pleased with how 2022 went. Much of it was unexpected and we were open to the directions it took. With that in mind, as we look into the next year, here is what we are planning:
Authenticity in all we do. With a full 2 years under our belt of watching and being in the online world, we are fully prepared to do our own thing. We're bringing all social media management in-house, designing all our posts, deciding on all our videos, and choosing messaging that really aligns with where we're at in real time.
Adjusting brand messaging. As a result of seeing where we stand in the space, having more experience in delivering our services, and working intuitively with our clients, we have found areas within our brand that could use updating and adjusting. This will mostly be leaning into what we already have, while shedding some of the fluff. Being increasingly unapologetic about our views and sharing more intimately about our work.
Further emphasis on blog strategy. As mentioned above, there will a priority placed on SEO, which requires blogging. We started blogging in 2021, but there will be a higher volume and greater diversity of work written and shared in this medium. Which will also act as our "hero content" that drives majority of our other content, from weekly emails to social media posts.
Separating offers and trying more platforms. In accordance with adjusting our brand messaging, some of our offers are getting a revamp and will have "mini to the master" type separations. There are a few modules that demonstrate themselves to be the MOST POPULAR, which will become standalone offerings and will be offered in various forms across more platforms to diversify our lead generation.
What we're keeping for 2023:
We loved the 1:1 experience, and so does our audience, so we've gotten creative with more ways to offer it.
We will continue to offer in-person 1:1 experiences where you meet us in PHX for a 1-2 day immersive experience working ON your business. We will be booking 1-2/month, priced at $5k for Q1-Q2. Find more info here.
We are introducing a 1:1 virtual option, called the Self Made Accelerator Intensive, where we audit your business, build a roadmap, then tackle it on a 2-3 hour call together. You still get full access to our Accelerator curriculum, but now coupled with our individual time. We are booking up to 2/month, priced at $2500 for Q1-Q2. Find more info here.
The connection to our clients and the ability to continue serving them is of utmost importance to us. We stay supporting anyone who has come through one of our programs indefinitely, no questions asked. But as the list of clients grows, we need a more formal way of providing this support, so will be offering a P10 Alumni network. More to be announced about this in Q1 2023.
In Conclusion
We are the antithesis of “get rich quick” or schemes that guarantee any kind of fast results. What we stand by are long term solutions, not so sexy work that creates longevity in a business. As business owners who were birthed out of the Great Recession, navigated the pandemic, and have supported countless businesses through challenges & pivots, we are here to do the HARD work.
