or scroll down to get the highlights

How to Set the Right Goals and Achieve Clarity in Your Business

Recently, something happened in one of my small group sessions with clients that made me stop in my tracks. It was such a light bulb moment, and I knew I had to share it with all of you.

It’s about setting the right goals.

We often get this wrong, and it keeps us stuck. But in this post I’ll introduce you to a  process to help make sure you’re on the right track.

Setting the Stage

Right now, in my business, we’re all about our Reliable Revenue Program. It’s a program we sell once a year to help you get (you guessed it) reliable revenue that you can count on year long. We support this program with everything we’ve got – a dedicated Facebook group, mentors, coaches, office hours, and calls for your questions.

Within this program, there’s a VIP group. This is an exclusive bunch who get an extra call with me each week just for strategy. We focus on strategic plans, and let me tell you, it’s transformative.

The Goal-Setting Process

Years ago, I found a document online, and we’ve adapted it over time for product-based businesses. It’s super cool and laid out vertically. On the left, you write your current status, and on the right, your vision for 12 months from now. This allows you to see where you are and where you want to be, helping you figure out the steps to bridge that gap.

Now, here’s the kicker – this is way harder than it looks. I’ve been doing this for so long, I forgot how it felt before I started. But sitting with my VIP group, I realized many of us struggle with this clarity. We get overwhelmed, feel like we’re not doing enough, and end up mentally exhausted. Sound familiar?

What’s On Your Laundry List?

During one of our sessions, I asked each person to describe the current status of their business. One by one, they gave me a laundry list of what they were doing – selling on multiple platforms, managing social media, running events. And when I asked about their vision for the next 12 months, it was more of the same – just more things to do.

This is why we get overwhelmed – we confuse more tasks with progress.

So, how do we fix this? Here’s a process that will give you amazing clarity:

Assess Your Current Status:

• What was your revenue in the last 12 months? (No guessing, get the exact number.)
• How much did you pay yourself? (Again, exact figures, not estimates.)
• What’s working well in your business?
• What’s not working well?
• How many hours or days a week are you working?
• Is your business profitable?

Write down these answers. This is your current status, not a list of tasks.

Create Your Vision for the Next 12 Months:

• What will your annual revenue be?
• How much will you pay yourself?
• How many hours or days will you work?
• What will your profit be?
• What problems will be solved?
• What will you be focused on?

These answers form your vision. There’s no to-do list here, just the desired status of your business.

Practical Implementation

Now, take a look at your to-do list and ask yourself if the tasks on it will help you achieve your goals. If they do, great! If they don’t, give yourself permission to remove them. You need to align your tasks with your goals to make progress.

When an opportunity comes along, assess it against your goals. Does it help you get where you want to be in 12 months? If yes, go for it. If not, it’s a polite decline. This clarity will make decision-making so much easier.

I hope this process helps you as much as it has helped me. After listening to this, take an hour to try this exercise and see what happens. Write down your current status and your vision. You’ll immediately know what your goals are and have the clarity to move forward.

RELATED LINKS:

How To Reach Your BIG Goals This Year

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/2024-how-to-reach-your-big-goals-this-year-episode-197/

The Powerful Work That Will Get You To Your Goals

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/the-powerful-work-that-will-get-you-to-your-goals-episode-159/

Try This Clever Way To Stay Motivated And On Track

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/try-this-clever-way-to-stay-motivated-and-on-track-episode-213/

Ditch Your Decision Fatigue. I’m Giving You My Framework

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/ditch-your-decision-fatigue-im-giving-you-my-framework-its-brilliant-episode-186/

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

or scroll down to get the highlights

How Erica Campbell Turned Her Faith-Based Gift Shop Into A Profitable Business

Erica Campbell had been flying under the radar in The Inner Circle for the past year, but she got my attention recently when she made a post in the group that truly lit me up. Erica’s business Be A Heart, a faith-based gift shop, saw what can only be described as meteoric success. Swept up in her business’s momentum, she did what so many “successful” store owners do and lost sight of the key metrics that should have alerted her to trouble ahead. As Q4 approached, Erica came to the terrifying realization that she was so short on cash she couldn’t afford holiday inventory.

Read on to find out how Erica righted the ship, went from stressed and exhausted to relaxed and excited to keep building on the solid foundation she’s created for her business.

Be A Heart’s Humble Beginnings

Erica’s journey to entrepreneurship started small, when she was a 20-something living in Brooklyn, New York. Working thankless hours at a school and facing some personal challenges, she decided to take up calligraphy in the evenings. She started to post her designs on Instagram under the handle @beaheart , and quickly gained a large following. This early success landed her a new career, this time in LA, creating wedding and event invitations.

After getting married and starting a family in 2018, Erica was ready to let go of the hustle of client work, and decided to strike out on her own selling products featuring her designs. From her original offering of cute baby swaddles, she quickly expanded the range to include other giftable items with a Christian point of view.

More Money, More Problems

Bolstered by her large social media following, Be A Heart saw big success from the get-go. But with no background in business, Erica joined an accelerator program which encouraged her to hire a team to support her fast growth. Because her revenue had surpassed 7 figures, Erica felt confident hiring a team that would allow her to “be the thinker” and stop sweating the small stuff.

But the problem with leaving the details to her team and only looking at the top line numbers is that they weren’t giving Erica an accurate picture of the true health of the business. And with Q4 fast approaching (her biggest season of the year), Erica had a very scary realization – her credit was maxed out and she still couldn’t afford holiday inventory. In the past she had foregone a paycheck at the end of the year, but with a growing family and another move to a new city, she couldn’t afford to do it again.

Something had to give.

“When I started, I wanted to employ other women…to provide for more people. But the reality was that in doing so, my family was paying for it. You know, it wasn’t the business [providing] it was my kids who had a stressed out mom who couldn’t be present.”

Doing The Hard Thing

On a friend’s advice, Erica read the book “Profit First” and quickly realized she needed to be prioritizing profit, not revenue. If you want to learn more about this type of accounting, check out Episode 82 She began the process of auditing her entire operation to find the leaky bucket – the places in her business that were draining cash without adding value. It was a painful decision, but she let go of most of her team and her ad agency, slashing expenses by 286%. She got into the nitty gritty of her books and applied the Profit First method to her monthly accounting, which much to her surprise revealed that she could pay herself and replenish her inventory. With her finances in order, Erica was able to look at her year holistically and reframe her concept of what “success” looked like.

Revenue Down, Profit WAY UP

So the post I mentioned at the top that really got my attention was Erica’s Inner Circle update – that although her sales were down 11% that month (April) her profit was up ONE THOUSAND PERCENT. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. And what stood out to me really was the confidence in her post. Whereas before Erica would have seen a decrease in revenue and thought she was failing, now she looks at her profit and knows that ultimately her business will be able to weather a bad month here and there.

We should always celebrate good sales, but what we should truly celebrate is the store owner who understands the financial health of her business. Most of our students are women who know how to manage debt, provide a good income for their families and themselves, and can sleep peacefully at night. They’re not lying in bed worrying about credit card balances, lines of credit, payroll, or upcoming bills. When you constantly worry about these things, you end up making decisions based on fear.

How Erica Scaled Back To Boost Profitability

Erica knows better than to wear all of the hats, but she’s much more discerning now when it comes to delegating. Certain jobs, like social media management and email, are tasks she actually enjoys and is able to manage as long as she schedules them out ahead of time. She is realistic about the time she has each day to dedicate to her business (about 4 hours) and has learned to embrace efficiency, using her time to do only the tasks that will get her closer to her big goals. As a designer, it takes discipline to invest in only her best sellers, but she understands now that there are times when she can’t afford to add new products.

As for her team, Erica learned a lot about what not to do when she was managing a big one. Even though she had promised herself she would not be the type of boss to text her team in the middle of the night with urgent requests, she had found she’d become exactly that. Moving forward, Erica is honest with herself about her ability to manage a bunch of employees. Rather than looking at revenue as the measure of the team’s success, she defines what success looks like for each role. 

She is also now committed to selling more of what she already has (she credits our Ads Made Easy course with enabling her to manage her own social media ads and drive more traffic to her site) and leveraging her inventory management software to keep her best sellers stocked at all times. 

It has made all the difference to know her numbers, dig into the data, and make decisions based on figures, not feelings.

 Looking Ahead

“My goal this year is NOT growth. The goal this year is just more profit at the end. And to have that that peace of mind. And to find joy in it again.”

Erica has a third baby on the way, so she’s realistic about her goals for the remainder of the year. She’s focused on scheduling things out ahead of time, preparing to spend a little less time working in her business, and filling up her COGS account so that when Q4 hits she isn’t stressed about purchasing inventory.

And the best part is that now she knows exactly how she’s going to make that happen.

If you want to learn more about Erica, the “About Us” page on her website beaheart.com is really exceptional. You can also follow her personal journey on Instagram @EricaTigheCampbell.

RELATED LINKS:

Be A Heart’s Website

www.beaheart.com

instagram.com/beaheartdesign

instagram.com/EricatigheCampbell

3 Things You Can Do To Be More Profitable Today

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/3-things-you-can-do-to-be-more-profitable-today-episode-219/

How To Create Profit Goals

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-create-profit-goals-episode-209/

Do This Now And Be More Profitable

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/do-this-now-and-be-more-profitable-episode-204/

Gross Profit: Will You Take Charge And Pay Yourself More?

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/gross-profit-will-you-take-charge-and-pay-yourself-more-episode-188/

Pricing To Maximize Profit

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/pricing-to-maximize-profit-episode-167/

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

or scroll down to get the highlights

Mastering Cash Flow for Six and Seven-Figure Ecommerce Stores

Before we dive in, I want to let you know that this post is especially for store owners with annual sales in the six, seven, or even multi-seven-figure range. It’s also great for those who are on the brink of hitting six figures.

Here’s the backstory: over the past month, I’ve had conversations with four store owners about money. What’s surprising—and it might shock you too—is that out of these four store owners who have annual sales of seven figures or more, three are facing significant cash flow issues.

There’s a common belief that once our sales hit a certain level (insert your dream number here), everything will get easier and money problems will vanish. We chase sales, thinking that reaching that magic number will solve all our problems. But for most store owners, it’s not true. 

I can relate to this personally. In my first business, which I ran for 20 years, I struggled with cash flow for years. It made me feel awful, wore me out, and led to poor decisions. This happened even though my accountant and banker assured me I was doing well and on track. I figured this was just the way business is, that it was normal. But it was truly exhausting.

I’d love to say I’m a genius who just knows all this stuff. But the truth is, everything I’ve learned about financial literacy, I’ve learned the hard way—by doing it. When I started my first business, I avoided looking at the numbers because I didn’t understand them and was maybe a little afraid of what I would find. I didn’t value that part of the business, which led to cash flow problems.

What I wish I had known when I was struggling with cash flow is this: If you’re running a six-figure-plus store and have cash flow problems, it’s a red flag. You need to stop, slow down, and figure out the cause. If you’re nearing six or seven figures, you know how to sell, so there’s a fundamental problem that needs fixing.

The 3 Most Common Causes Of Cash Shortage

• Mounting inventory. Inventory purchases can eat up the cash you need for operating expenses, leaving you short for payroll or rent.
• Debt repayments consuming your operating cash, especially with the ease of obtaining Shopify loans. They solve an immediate problem but take money back quickly, which doesn’t help in the long run.
• You’re not generating enough profit in actual dollars, even if your margins look okay.

What NOT To Do When You’re Short On Cash

When cash is tight, it’s scary. As a problem solver who knows how to sell, your instinct might be to rush to fix the problem. But often, you’re just stopping the immediate issue, and not solving the root cause.

Here are two common mistakes that can make things worse.

• Having a giant sale to generate quick cash.

It might solve your problem temporarily, but it won’t fix the underlying issue and could leave you in worse shape.

• Borrowing more money.
  
  It’s tempting and easy with Shopify Capital, but it’s a band-aid that leads to more debt and less operating cash.

Instead of these quick fixes, address the fundamental problem causing your cash flow crisis.

3 Steps To Fixing Your Cash Problem

Step 1: Set Up a Dedicated Inventory Bank Account

First, set up a separate bank account specifically for your cost of goods. Each week, transfer the cost of your sales into this account. This account should be used exclusively for inventory purchases.

You may need to adjust how you currently manage payments, especially if you’re using a credit card. Determine a percentage of your sales, based on your margin, and deposit that amount into this inventory account every week.

Do not use this account for any other expenses, and avoid purchasing inventory with money that isn’t in this account. This practice helps ensure you’re managing your cash flow effectively and puts you on the path to increased profitability.

Step 2: Quickly Increase Your Business Profit

Next, focus on creating more profit in your business quickly. In episode 219 , I shared some ideas around pricing adjustments and adding a shipping option, both of which can boost your bottom line with minimal effort.

Additionally, if you’re spending heavily on marketing, consider cutting back on those expenses and leveraging the assets you already have. For example, reducing your marketing spend by 20% but increasing the number of emails you send by 20%. Look into collaborations [Learn more in episode 215] where you can acquire customers without incurring high costs.

Make a short list of actionable steps you can take right away to generate more profit and start implementing them.

Step 3: Take Time to Assess and Get Help

Finally, set aside dedicated time to stop running in circles and really examine your financials. Whether it’s for a day or a few days, step off the treadmill and focus on identifying the root of your cash flow problems.

Seek help in pinpointing the issues and discussing strategies to address them. This is where the hard work comes in. Many people resist facing these tough tasks, but remember, you didn’t end up here overnight, and you didn’t get here intentionally. Tackling the hard things now will pay off in a few months, and you’ll be grateful you did.

Get assistance from a professional who understands product-based businesses or from a friend who has been through a similar situation. Whatever you do, ensure you have the support you need because most cash flow problems are fixable, and you deserve to sleep well at night.

Don’t Normalize Struggle

Once you regain stability and predictability in your business and feel financially secure, you’ll be in an even better place. I don’t want to see you struggle. Having been there myself for many years and thinking it was normal, I can tell you it’s not pleasant. It’s critical to slow down and address these issues correctly. You’ll thank yourself later.

Remember, I’m cheering for you. If you know anyone who could benefit from this post, please share it with them.

-Susan

RELATED LINKS:

3 Things You Can Do Today To Be More Profitable

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/3-things-you-can-do-to-be-more-profitable-today-episode-219/

A Lesson On Fixing Your Cash Flow

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/a-lesson-on-fixing-your-cash-flow-episode-166/

Formula For An Easy Collaboration You Can Do This Month

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/the-formula-for-an-easy-collaboration-you-can-do-this-month-episode-215/

How To Create Profit Goals

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-create-profit-goals-episode-209/

How To Get Control Of Your Cash

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-get-control-of-your-episode-158/

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.

or scroll down to get the highlights

Turning Dreams into Dollars: Your Roadmap to Full-Time Freedom

If you dream of taking your online store from side hustle to full-time gig, this episode is for you.

When I heard that one of our Inner Circle members, Lindzee Barrera had reached the point where she could leave her full time job and turn her full attention to her business Birdie Girl Golf, I knew I had to ask her to share her story with you.

Lindzee caught my attention when she joined us about a year ago. Even though she had a busy job and a young family, I could see she had an organized, systematic approach to turning her side hustle into a Business that pays her well.

I sat down with Lindzee just as she was about to walk away form her corporate job for full time entrepreneurship, and I know that her story will inspire you. 

From Burnout to Birdie Girl Golf

Lindzee was a full-time digital marketer when she founded Birdie Girl in 2022. She had been feeling burned out, but wasn’t interested in moving to another corporate job (or the stress and ladder-climbing that come with it). Feeling stuck and seeking more, Lindzee resolved to channel her creative energy into building a future for her family rather than giving her all to her 9-to-5.

A lifelong golfer herself, she was well aware that golf’s popularity had surged among women during the pandemic. But golf products marketed specifically to women were few and far between. And so Birdie Girl Golf was launched with a single product: a ball marker necklace.

Lindzee quickly realized the market potential for plain ball markers—easy-to-produce items with high margins—and the business grew from there into a full line of women’s golf accessories.

While the marketing side of entrepreneurship came more naturally to Lindzee due to her background, transitioning from B2B digital marketing to B2C consumer ecommerce was new for her. She found that there weren’t many resources available that provided a clear framework for marketing directly to consumers.

When Lindzee joined the Inner Circle a little more than a year ago, her business was making about $10,000 to $15,000 a month in sales. She was thrilled by the positive response to her products, with daily sales and heartwarming stories from women gifting her products to friends and family. But she struggled to figure out what marketing strategies truly worked and where to focus her efforts. She had started running some ads and knew the importance of building an email list from day one, but she wasn’t consistent with her emails and was really just dabbling.

Mom, Marketer, Mogul: How Lindzee Got To $15K Months

Lindzee has two small kids and a husband who supports her goals, but she had to be laser-focused on time management to get it all done. She would wake up every morning at 5 a.m. and spend about an hour and a half on her priorities. Email was a non-negotiable task because it generated significant revenue and kept her connected with her audience. She also aimed to post on social media daily, doing the bare minimum due to time constraints.

In the first year, Lindzee packed orders herself. Once orders reached about 20 per day, she transitioned to a 3PL, following advice from a podcast to get her books in order and prepare for scaling. Customer service was also a top priority; she was committed to  addressing customer issues promptly, and to making things right.

But what got Lindzee to $15k in monthly sales was her focus on marketing activities right from the start. She prioritized tasks that brought the most impact – consistent email, and daily social media posting. Any extra time she had, she dedicated to Inner Circle trainings, learning and improving her business.

Lindzee was off to a strong start, but joined the Inner Circle because she needed to know what to do next to scale her business. With so many resources available in the classroom, and given her limited time, she had to decide what to focus on during the hours she could steal from her vacation for training.

Unlike other marketing courses she had taken, the Inner Circle “Big Picture” training simplified the sales funnel, so she could see clearly where to focus her time just by looking at her numbers. She took advantage of 1:1 calls with the Inner Circle coaches and experts to direct her energy towards only what would move the needle: scaling her ads, improving her email strategy, and improving customer retention. 

“What I really like [about working with Inner Circle coaches] is when people are honest with me. Because I feel like you’re just being nice about what I’m doing, but they’re like, you know what, you could be doing this better. And I really appreciate that.”

The Big Leap: Quitting the Corporate Job

Lindzee’s next (and biggest) move was to quit her corporate job. We’re talking about years of security, a reliable paycheck, vacation pay, and probably some health insurance. How did she know she was ready to make that leap?

Despite admittedly not giving her corporate job her all, Lindzee was promoted to a more demanding position. Around the same time, she attended a PGA show in Orlando, got accepted as an inventor, and her sales skyrocketed from wholesale. February was a record month, followed by even better sales in March and April. 

Lindzee had already started taking a paycheck from her business in February, which helped her focus on her business’s profitability. (This financial preparation ensured that her business could support her paycheck, even in the slow season.) And although she had been in her corporate role for 15 years, and they took good care of her,  she realized she was burnt out and ready for a change.

She says one practice that mentally prepared her for the leap was scheduling “white space” into her week. This is time and space without distractions—no kids asking for dinner, no business tasks—just existing and thinking. Taking a step back helps you see things more clearly and determine what’s truly important.

With the space to think deeply about what she could and could not let go of, Lindzee quickly saw that she was ready to spread her wings.

She also advises ensuring financial security first. If you’re financially stable, have steady growth rates, and your books are in order, you’re in a good position to consider leaving your job.

Knowing your numbers is crucial. Lindzee admits that understanding financials wasn’t second nature to her. She didn’t have her books in order before joining the Inner Circle. Listening to podcasts and following Ciara Stockeland helped her learn about paying herself and managing inventory, which gave her the confidence she needed to strike out on her own.

Building Bigger: Lindsay’s Future Plans

While Lindzee has been working hard to get her net profitability to a staggering 35% (and that’s after she pays herself!!!) her next goal is to improve that even more. She also aims to establish better processes to make things easier, especially for email and social media. Collaborations have been successful, so she wants to do more of those. Her focus is on refining what’s working and eliminating what’s not. Getting her house in order is her primary objective, along with completing her Reliable Revenue training, where she’ll implement an automated email marketing system that will generate sales in the background with very little effort on her part.

Lindsay’s Playbook for Success

Lindzee’s advice to others is to keep it simple. Follow the funnel, know your numbers, and things will start to come together. Identify your gaps and outsource when necessary. For example, although she handled Google ads at her corporate job, she hired coach Leona to run her Google ads for her business. Outsourcing high-touch, repetitive tasks frees up time for her to manage the business.

She also emphasizes that learning how things work initially is essential. Having a grasp of the various aspects of the business helps in managing it effectively. However, doing everything yourself can hinder your vision for the business because you’d be too busy with tasks.

The Inner Circle’s approach of teaching members to fish, rather than doing everything for them, is invaluable. It equips entrepreneurs with the knowledge to run their businesses successfully. Working with ad agencies and consultancy firms is more effective when you can question their methods and understand the processes involved. 

To learn more about Lindzee and her inspiring journey, visit Birdie Girl Golf’s website at birdiegirlgolf.com. Or connect with Lindzee on Instagram at @birdiegirlgolf, where she regularly posts updates and engages with her community.

RELATED LINKS:

Birdie Girl Golf’s website: birdiegirlgolf.com
How To Create Profit Goals: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-create-profit-goals-episode-209/
We’re Getting Consistent Revenue Now: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/were-getting-consistent-revenue-now-episode-202/
ToyCycle’s Sales Have Doubled Due To This One Monthly Marketing Task: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/toycycles-sales-have-blossomed-from-1-monthly-marketing-task-episode-211/
How To Grow To Multi Six Figures When You’re Strapped For Time: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-grow-to-multi-6-figures-when-youre-strapped-for-time-episode-45/

Get my new course,  Conversion School for Free!

Learn our step by step process to grow your sales, without spending a

fortune on risky ad strategies, or discounting your products

The strategy you’ll learn in Conversion School works for Ecommerce stores at all stages. 

You'll use your store’s data, so if you’re starting out, you’ll learn how to get consistent sales. 

Established Store Owners will learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month.