Jennifer Dawn’s client had built her business to $750,000 in revenue, but lost enthusiasm for the business. “It had sucked the life out of her,” says Dawn, who runs Jennifer Dawn Coaching in New York City. “She started to hate the company and it was tanking.”
Sales gradually fell to $500,000. Dawn worked with her on marketing and other key aspects of the business to rebuild her sales – as well as encouraging her to exercise and take care of herself in other ways. The client gradually built sales back to $1 million.
Then the pandemic hit – and the schools the client served in the company were closed. “I’m going to lose my business,” she told Dawn.
Dawn encouraged her to launch a digital product, making the most of the time during the pandemic when business was slow, and she made $1 million from it. Now the company is on track for annual sales of $2 million.
Jennifer Dawn believes that an important step in taking a business to $1 million in revenue is to take … [+]
These types of clients are not uncommon for Dawn, which focuses on helping businesses achieve 7-figure sales Jennifer Dawn Coaching and also runs the Happy Productive Podcast, focused on productivity for entrepreneurs. She uses what she learned about both the mindset and the practicalities of scaling when running a previous company that developed amusement park POS systems and grew it to more than $1 million in sales per year.
She recently shared three strategies she uses to help clients reach $1 million and more in sales.
Make sure you do the right things every day. Many small business owners struggle with time management and get caught up in putting out fires for clients or cleaning up their team, says Dawn. A simple decision like scheduling your own calls can have big consequences by taking you away from more important activities like lead generation, she explains. “They don’t know that every day I should be getting something that pushes me out of my comfort zone, that gets me closer to that million-dollar mark,” she says.
Do not neglect your physical health, soul and common sense to grow the business. Many owners let themselves get so burned out, stressed and overwhelmed that they don’t show up as their “best selves” at the business, Dawn believes. “If they don’t take care of themselves, they are sick all the time. They didn’t get their stuff done. They just don’t feel right, and they’re just not getting the results that the owners who take their health and make it a priority are getting,” says Dawn.
Ultimately, if you want to grow your business, you have to make time to take care of yourself, she believes. “It’s about taking the time to exercise, eating healthy, so that you have the vitality and energy to show up and face all the challenges, and think clearly,” says Dawn, who believes so strongly in the importance of physical health to small business owners that she has a health coach on her team.
Sometimes taking the first step, like eating one raw food a day, is all it takes to build momentum. “We start rebuilding their habits and when we do that and they start feeling better, they have the energy they need and are more motivated,” says Dawn.
Follow the money. Dawn teaches clients how to use Profit First accounting, a cash management system that helps them better understand the cash coming in and out of their business and help them make informed budgeting and strategic decisions. “It helps them understand where their money is going,” she says.
It may seem like putting systems in place to track income and cash outflows would be normal for entrepreneurs, but often there is a gap between knowing and doing. Having a system to rely on helps keep things on track, she says.
“As an entrepreneur, it’s so easy to do so many things that you don’t focus on them,” says Dawn.
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