Do you set unrealistic goals for your business? In today’s shorty episode we are going to correct this because it’s really important to be aware of where you are at in your journey and how you set your goals realistically.
Episode Transcription
Den Lennie (1s):
Hey guys. It’s Den here. And in today’s episode of the How to Scale a Video Business podcast, we’ll be talking about how to set realistic business goals for maximum success. This is episode 259.
(14s):
Welcome to the video business accelerator podcast. Each week we uncover the secrets to creating a wildly successful and scalable video production business with your host, Den Lennie. Discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. Enjoy this episode
Den Lennie (44s):
So this is something I’ve been pondering for awhile, and I think is a really important topic for discussion today. And that is that I, I think that a lot of video businesses set unrealistic expectations of where the revenue can go and how long it’s going to take to get there. And this is kind of one of those topics that, you know, as a coach, I’m always very conscious. It’s my job to be realistic and tell the truth, not just tell you what you want to hear. And sometimes telling people what they want to hear is actually what they want from a coach.
Den Lennie (1m 25s):
And those clients don’t tend to well ever become clients actually are, if they do, they don’t stick around. And those, because I think the most important role for a coach is to highlight the blind spots and prepare the video business owner for the domain site, as well as really actively generating opportunity for the upside. And there’s something that I’ve come across talking with a number of people recently, and that is there is this kind of blind optimism, and it’s always around getting to a million dollars. It’s it’s like I’ve had a number of occasions.
Den Lennie (2m 6s):
Recently, people say to me, oh, well, where we want to get $10 million in a couple of years, and then we want to sell. And, and the question you’ve got to ask yourself is how many video business do you know of that reached a million dollars and then sold. And businesses tend not to sound video because they’re generally very, very reliant on the main operator, the business owner, and when a business is too reliant on the main operator, nobody is going to buy you because if the buy the business and then you’re not there, they literally don’t have a business. And this is something that I, I see a lot of video businesses kind of, you know, ponder and talk about what they want, but there’s a distinct missing link between the reality of where they’re at on their journey and what need to do to get there, to get to maximum success.
Den Lennie (3m 3s):
And I just wanted to kind of raise this today because I want you to be realistic, optimistic. Yes. Ambitious. Yes. But realistic about where you’re at on your journey and how long it’s going to take to get to the other goal. Cause I have the unique perspective that I work with businesses who are doing an excess of a million dollars by some margin. And I have businesses that are starting at doing 10 to 20 grand a month. So I see the entire spectrum. And when I look at the businesses that are achieving high six and seven figures, there’s something different. And that’s something different is the way in which the process opportunity.
Den Lennie (3m 48s):
It’s very balanced. It’s very measured and they have a very unique offer in the marketplace, which has been tested and is delivering consistently high results in more than one company. Another area we see a lot of weakness in businesses is a reliance on a key client, too much business coming from one source. And even when we talk to people about this, there’s almost a kind of, oh, we know this is a problem and we know we need to change it, but then there’s a hesitancy. And so I think it’s really important to be aware of where you are at on your journey.
Den Lennie (4m 29s):
And also what have you achieved to get to this point here? So some of the other areas that we often see challenges is that businesses in the early years, double year on year, and, and that’s actually easy to do when you’re a freelance filmmaker making 50 grand a year. It’s actually not that hard to double to a hundred. And it’s actually not that hard to double from 100 to 200, but 200 to 400 changes things because you can no longer do all the work yourself. And so when you bring other people into the business, be that as contractors or as, as full-time team members, your revenue goes up, but so do your costs. And there’s a period in business growth where your costs go up exponentially and your revenue doesn’t necessarily meet it.
Den Lennie (5m 16s):
And so when you’re scaling from, let’s see two 50 to 500, you might find yourself revenue doubling, but your profit will go down because you have to put more infrastructure, more people, more resources into that business to get it to the point where you can take it from 500 to 600 and 600 to 700 and 700 to 800. What I would say though is I have a number of clients who are hitting high six-figures. And by that, I mean, 750 a year plus K, up to a million plus million, 1 million, 4 million, 5 million 6 who have a team of three or four people.
Den Lennie (5m 57s):
So there’s definitely a point at which you can’t scale on your own. And as it’s another growth spurt where you, you can’t scale just with contractors and you need to put some full-time staff on, but the can get to a point where I’d say, there’s, there’s no reason why with a full-time team of two or three people, you can’t reach six, 700 plus, and maybe another person to get you up towards the eight or 900 mark. But it also takes time. And, and you have to be obsessively focused on your revenue, your profit, your operating costs. You have to stop buying gear. You have to start looking at, you know, investing in your business, investing in the right support, investing in some marketing.
Den Lennie (6m 44s):
And that’s all going to take some time to kick off. I always say to clients, if you start using LinkedIn, now it’s going to be three months before you start seeing any real results. And that can be challenging. Cause that’s, that’s reaching out to maybe 20 people a day, a hundred people a week or more every single week without fail for three months before you see a return. But once you’ve done that for a while and you’ve done it consistently, and consistency is where virtually everyone fails because to be consistent as a creative is a very challenging thing to do. And so we actually help our clients with that. We actually offer our clients inside the VBA opportunity for us to our team to do that for them. But it’s, but it’s very labor intensive.
Den Lennie (7m 25s):
It can take three or four hours a day to reach out to 20 clients and do the research and follow up with messages. But once you get that rolling, then you end up with this consistency. And it’s like a kind of pendulum effect, like a steam train, where the wheels are going round and you’ve got motion and you’ve got momentum because then you can travel farther. And if you keep doing that throughout the year, you’ll start to see that roller coaster of revenue and opportunity flatten out and become more stable. And so really I want you to think about how to set realistic business goals and that can be well, if you’re currently at two 50, set your business school for next year to three 50 and work out how you can get there.
Den Lennie (8m 7s):
If you keep looking at the doubling and doubling and doubling, you’re going to find yourself in a position where let’s say you want to double, you’ve doubled two years in a row and you think you can double again, let’s see you’ve gone from a hundred to 200 and 200 to 400. And now you want to go to 800. That’s going to be a lot harder than going from 200 to 400 and it’s going to take you longer and you’re going to need way more infrastructure and way more marketing funnel opportunities. And, and I, and I, and a high success rate when closing deals to make sure that’s a reality. And so being realistic and, and, and balancing that with what was your revenue last year and how much revenue have you done in the first quarter of this year?
Den Lennie (8m 51s):
Because if your goal is to get to 400 this year, but you’ve already done 20 in you’re, 80,000 short of the first quarter going into the second quarter where you need to do another a hundred. So it’s about realistic, ambitious goals and not just blindly seeing numbers. Hope that’s helpful, guys. I will see you again soon.
(9m 14s):
You’ve been listening to the video business accelerator podcast with your host, Den Lennie. If you’re a video business owner who is tired of going it alone and would benefit from mentorship support and weekly accountability that mouse over to www.videobusinessaccelerator.com to learn more about how the accelerator program can help you today. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the show over on iTunes. And we’d really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review.
