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Where did 100 Degrees come from?

by with No Comment Featured BlogMindsetNonprofitSmall business

 

Rewind almost exactly seven years and I was laying in the pitch dark, on a thin pad on the floor of a cement room in rural Senegal. I had a mosquito net over me, but no sheets or blankets because I was sweating.

I checked my phone to see the time, hoping and praying it was almost morning so I could get up, splash some lukewarm water on my face, and just end the sleepless night, but it was only midnight. At least five more hours to go.

As if to torture myself, I opened the weather app on my phone to see how hot it was, and when I saw 100 degrees on that screen in the darkness, I cursed everything.

Why was I making myself so uncomfortable? Why wasn’t I home enjoying the summer with my husband in our air-conditioned home?

The next morning, after a few hours of sleep, I woke with a clear head and realized: The discomfort of 100 degrees was a direct path to impact and change.

I couldn’t go into these villages in Senegal to support primary school construction projects without the discomfort. I needed to push through the discomfort in order to bring about positive change in those children’s lives and create impact in my own life too.

When I founded the business five years ago and brainstormed names for my new company, 100 Degrees was the first thing that came to mind.

Why?

Because we help leaders push through their own discomfort around numbers to create greater impact and change in their lives and communities.

So next time you’re sweating through your monthly finance review, frustrated, hot, angry, and wondering why in the world you put yourself through this journey of leadership or entrepreneurship, think about 100 Degrees.

Your journey, even though it may be 100 degrees with no a/c, is the only one to impact and growth.

What’s been a “100 degrees moment” in your journey? Comment and share with me!

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Are you guilty of saying this?

by with One Comment Business DevelopmentFeatured BlogMindsetNonprofitSmall business

“My business [or nonprofit] is my baby.”

Ever said that before? I have.

We love our work! We take pride in the change we’re making in the world and take things personally because we’ve poured so much heart and soul into what we do.

I also have a real life human baby. Noelle is 9 months old now and she is super amazing and fun. She’s starting to talk and when she says Mamamamama, my heart just explodes. She’s crawling everywhere, trying to stand by herself, and I’m constantly chasing after her. Her half gummy/half toothy grin could melt even the coldest of hearts.

But she’s still a baby.

As her mama, I meet her needs and am at her beck and call 24/7. I love her so much that helping her grow and supporting her brings me so much joy, and I wouldn’t trade that responsibility for the world.

Now, thinking back to my business…do I really want my BUSINESS to be my baby too?

Demanding. Needy. Full of responsibilities that ONLY I can fulfill.

That’s a hard NO.

So if our work isn’t our baby, what SHOULD it be?

How about a race car!

You learn how it works, what buttons to push, what features to add to make it go further and faster, and the right mechanics to make it all run smoothly. Then those people (your team) can operate the race car to help it cross the finish line.

It’s a team effort and you’re all in alignment towards the same goal, but you don’t do everything.

So, how do we shift our work from being a baby to a race car?

  1. Automate. Take stock of all of your software and make sure it talks to each other, and there are no redundancies or gaps. For example, are you invoicing clients or donors in Quickbooks AND Dubsado? Choose one and stick with it. Is your CRM like Salesforce talking to your project management system like Asana? Link those babies up!
  2. Hire the right people. Figure out what roles you need on your team and hire for the roles, not the people. Maybe you need financial analysis and strategy and are trying to force a square peg into a round hole by asking your bookkeeper to do that work. They’re different skill sets, so get the right people into the right seats.
  3. Create a routine. Surely there are tasks in your organization that need to happen weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Take an hour and write it all down, then map it out on your calendar, spreadsheet, or project management system. Consistency is the only way to make progress on any of your goals, and getting it all in one place will help you stick to the routine.

What do you think? Is your business your (demanding, needy, yet lovable) baby? Or is it a well-oiled machine ready to cross the finish line to your world-changing goals?

PS – Did you see my Instagram post this week? Check it out and let me know what you think!

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I hate failing

by with No Comment Featured BlogFinancial ManagementNonprofitSmall business

I have a true confession for you, bright and early today.

I hate failing.

I know, I know. Failure is part of success. Fail forward. Blah blah blah.

I don’t care. I hate it to my core. (#enneagram3 much?!)

A lot of times when we think we are failing, it’s only because we are measuring ourselves against someone else’s success.

Here’s what I mean:

Feeling like a failure because your sales numbers are way lower than that person on Instagram who has a similar business model

Feeling like a failure for only raising $75k at your virtual gala when you saw that another organization raised $250k

Feeling like a failure because you only have 10 clients and your business bestie has 35

The problem is, other people’s metrics are irrelevant. Insignificant. Frankly worthless.

The most important measuring stick to use is your own.

I get asked ALL. THE. TIME: What’s a good profit margin? How much should I be spending on my team? How much income do I need to bring in every month?

The people on the other end of those Zoom calls probably hate me but the answer first is always: It depends!

That’s the truth though. It depends on your business model. If you’re a nonprofit or small business. What your revenue streams are. How long you’ve been in operation. How much revenue you’re bringing in. It goes on!

I’ll never leave you hanging though!

The best way to assess your own business is by reviewing your own historical numbers and watching the trends.

If you want to know if your profit margin is “good”, start by calculating your profit margin every month for the last 12 months, side by side. Is the number generally going up? Is it going down?

You’ll likely have highs and lows but when you look at the trend line, we want to see it going up (But not too much! That could be a sign you need to reinvest in the biz).

If you want to know how much income you should be bringing in, start by looking at your average monthly expenses for the last 12 months. You need at least that much per month (plus say 20% for savings/profit).

So, if you were ever wondering if your numbers are “good”, you now have my official answer!

Here’s a quick list of metrics you should be looking at in your business or nonprofit:

  1. Profit margin
  2. Cash on hand
  3. Revenue diversity
  4. Burn rate (average monthly expenses)

PS – You can always grab our Profit Playbook here here to help you calculate these metrics and more.

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Three simple steps to your monthly routine

by with One Comment Featured BlogNonprofitProductivitySmall business

I love the saying: Where your attention goes, energy flows.

We want to put our energy into the right things to get maximum results with minimum wasted time. No entrepreneurs (especially those with kiddos) can afford to be wasting a single second right now, ya know?!

Where are YOU spending the majority of your time and energy right now? Trying to keep your head above water while simultaneously running a household, growing a business, raising children, and not forgetting to feed yourself at least once a day?

Yup, me too! 

I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t expect to be mostly quarantined well into summer and it’s thrown a bit of a kink into my routine.

If you feel this way too, you can get back on track! Today I want to share with you three steps I’ve been following this summer to help you revamp your  routine and put your energy and attention back into your numbers:

Do your bookkeeping. This is as simple as coding all of your revenue and expenses accurately and comparing your bank statement to your accounting.

Review your financial statements. Check out your P&L compared to last month and see how you’re doing. Calculate your profit margin compared to last month (Profit Margin = Net Income / Revenue). See how much money is in the bank.

Update your forecast. You probably have a plan for the rest of the year and revenue and expenses mapped out monthly (If you don’t, reply to this email ASAP and I will hook you up with a template!). Come back to this plan, make any adjustments, and go forth and grow!

Simple, right?! Because what we focus on expands.

How are you going to get into your own monthly finance routine today? 

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It’s not autumn, but I’m talking pumpkins!

by with No Comment Featured BlogProductivitySmall business

Between our clients and new entrepreneur friends from the Creative @ Heart conference, I’ve had dozens of conversations in the last month about how to grow businesses. Some of these entrepreneurs are making just a couple thousand bucks a month and not even paying themselves yet, and others are bringing in several million dollars a year.

I’m in the same place with my business. I’ve primarily built the company with one-on-one client work and I’ve just added a coaching program, but when thinking a year or two down the road, I wonder how I can continue to grow without working a ton more hours.

All of our business models and stages are different but we all have the same challenges.

How do we grow and create more impact in the world without burning ourselves out or sacrificing our precious work-life balance?

Last weekend, I picked up a book that had been sitting on my shelf for months: The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz (yup, the Profit First guy).

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One quote in the book hit home for me and gave me the clarity I needed to figure out exactly HOW to grow my business, and I think it will resonate with you too:

“Entrepreneurs identify the problems, discover the opportunities and then build processes to allow other people and other things to get it done.”

In other words, if your business relies on YOU to do all of the work, you will hit a ceiling of growth and potentially make difficult sacrifices along the way.

For my business, I mapped out the tasks I could and should confidently hand off to someone else. I had to ask myself why I was still doing the daily bookkeeping for a handful of clients instead of operating in my zone of genius. When it was all mapped out I realized it was enough for another entire team member! So now, the search is on because I’ve built processes to allow another person to get it done.

BOOM!

Add a comment below and tell me, what do those processes or people look like in your business?

One of the first things the book suggests to do is map out your revenue goal for the year. If you haven’t done it yet, grab our Profit Playbook – it’s an easy template to help you map out your revenue goals.

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