🌸 Q1 review - cool things that happened

I like to think about my business in two “seasons”.

We can’t give 100% all of the time, we are human, and we need to both rest and recharge properly. Energy ebbs and flows.

I find it useful to think about what kind of “season” I am in:

🌱 Spring - I am in a high growth period. I am excited to try new things.

🍁 Autumn - I am in maintenance mode. I am stabilising the business. I don’t need to try new things right now, I just need to keep things working smoothly. I will note down exciting things ready for next spring and enjoy the calm in the meantime.

While I use spring and autumn as my names for my business’s seasons, they don’t need to correspond to real seasons. They also don’t need to take as long as real seasons do, sometimes I will switch between a spring and an autumn within a month.

Using the seasons helps me to ride out frustrations and manage my energy within the business. It helps me to avoid burnout.

I have been in an autumn for the last quarter - January to end of March - but I can feel that I am entering a spring. Within the same time period some of my clients have been in autumns, some have been in springs. Both seasons are important, and all of my clients have achieved things I am proud of them for. Q1 achievements for some of my clients include:

• 🤗 Chris and I overhauled the marketing strategy and he managed to completely outsell his core offer to a point where we chose to add more capacity.

  
  

• 🌴 Ghayth booked a holiday to Egypt, the first time he has treated himself to something personal like this since starting the business, and thanks to our systems his team handled everything in the business without him. He could relax.

  
  

• 🙌 Jen was able to cancel all of her sessions last minute due to a personal situation without any negative impact at all to her business (her clients went out of their way to give her space!). She even broke her revenue record.

  
  

• 🤝 John signed his first B2B partnership and got his website finished, then got loads of leads from his talks.

  
  

• 🌎 Colin successfully moved country! The systems we put in place meant there was no interruption to his business despite the move taking months.

  
  

• ⛷️ Benoist achieved record revenues by switching focus from lead quantity to lead quality. His team now handles everything (including all emails!), and he has spent his time kitting out his new van for endless travel between going skiing every Wednesday (and most weekends!).

  
  

• 💃 Kaidi partially switched to a group model and successfully launched it (guaranteeing that we make more per hour and work 90% less per person). She has since more than doubled prices and yet sold more seats. She is now making record cash and working less, even making time to compete at a dance competition in San Francisco.

  
  

What did I do during this period? I have spent a lot of time with family, visited friends in Sweden, London, and Valencia, gone to shows like Hamilton and Frank Turner, and done some strategic maintenance work like tightening up my email automations, my positioning, and my funnel. I’ve added 9 new clients during my autumn and now I am feeling ready to put the energy in to push on these improvements. For me, spring has arrived.

What season are you in?

Spring vs Autumn, what season is your business in right now?

Ghayth has been unavailable due to travel, yet the business is growing thanks to a key change we made (2 mins)

Ghayth is making $500k per year working 6-10 hours per week (90 secs)

💡 Quote I'm pondering

"If you never hear no from clients, you’re not charging enough” - Ryan Holliday

It may sound silly but you want some of your leads to reject you for being too expensive. If everybody bites your hand off to sign the deal then it is often a sign that you’re undercharging.

I usually instruct my clients to aim for 15-30% of leads to reject them for pricing concerns (though it does depend on your business, ask what is right for your business).

Less than 15% and you’re likely undercharging, more than 30% and you’re either overcharging or you need work to improve your messaging or positioning.

Only count rejections from qualified leads - people who actually need your offer and can afford it, and people that you actually wanted to work with.

How often are you rejected due to price? Does it suggest you’re undercharging, overcharging, or about right? What are you going to do about it today?

This point came from my newsletter Work Smart Wednesday, if you would like to read the other related points I made in that email you can find it here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-april-9-2025

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