Figures Without Fear

Is Growth Actually Profitable?
When we talk about business growth, we usually talk about turnover.
More sales. More customers. More money coming in.
But more turnover doesn’t always mean more profit.
In fact, your business can be growing on paper while you’re working harder, spending more and still not paying yourself properly.
In this episode of Figures Without Fear, I’m looking at what profitable growth really means and why growing your business shouldn’t just be about chasing a bigger turnover figure.
We’ll look at some of the numbers that can have a much bigger impact on profitability, including:
Controlling your costs
Increasing your Average Sale Value (ASV)
Improving your conversion rate
Making sure your pricing is right
Protecting your profit margins
Understanding how much of your turnover you’re actually keeping
I also explain why you might not need more leads or more customers to grow.
Sometimes the biggest opportunities are already sitting inside your business.
A small increase in your prices, a better conversion rate, a higher average sale value or tighter control over costs can make a significant difference to profit without you having to dramatically increase your workload.
During the episode, I also ask you to think about one important question:
If your turnover increased by 20% tomorrow, would your profit increase too?
Because the goal isn’t simply to build a bigger business.
It’s to build a better one.
A business with stronger margins, better profit and more money available to pay you properly.
If you’re focused on growth over the next few months, this episode will help you look beyond turnover and understand which numbers really matter.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why turnover isn’t the same as profitable growth
How costs can quietly eat into your profit
Why ASV is an important number to track
How better conversion can help you grow without finding more leads
Why pricing needs to support healthy margins
How to identify the area of your business that could make the biggest difference to profit
Listen now and ask yourself: is your business genuinely growing, or are you simply getting busier?
 
What to do next…
Express your interest in Yiply: https://getyiply.com/ Be one of our first 50 subscribers and get free one to one support to set up your pipeline.
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
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Join The Business Club for ongoing support, advice and guidance. Join Here!

Stop Celebrating Sales – Start Measuring Them
A sale is great news.
But the real question is: was it actually a good sale?
In this episode of Figures Without Fear, I’m looking at why small business owners need to go beyond simply counting sales and start measuring what those sales are actually telling them.
Because turnover alone doesn't tell you whether a sale was profitable, whether it cost too much to win, whether it came from the right marketing activity or whether that customer is likely to come back again.
In this episode, I talk about some of the key numbers that can help you understand your sales properly, including:
profit margin
customer acquisition cost
where your customers came from
conversion rate
average order value
how long it took to make the sale
repeat business
referrals
customer lifetime value
I also explain why looking at these numbers can help you make better decisions about your marketing, your offers and where to focus your time and money.
You'll also hear about two simple tasks you can do straight away to start understanding your sales data better.
And I introduce Yiply, our business management system designed for small businesses, by small business owners.
Yiply gives you one place to keep track of leads, customers, sales, notes, pipeline activity and where your business is coming from.
We're currently looking for the first 50 businesses to try Yiply, and each of those businesses will also receive an implementation call to help get everything set up and working in just one hour.
Because there’s no point having another system sitting there unused.
It needs to help you understand your business and make better decisions.
So if you’ve ever looked at your monthly sales figure and thought, “That looks good,” this episode will help you look a little deeper.
Because the sale isn't the finish line.
The real value comes from understanding what that sale can teach you.
In this episode, you'll learn:
why turnover only tells part of the story
how to work out whether a sale was genuinely profitable
why Customer Acquisition Cost matters
how to identify your strongest sources of customers
why improving your conversion rate can sometimes matter more than generating more leads
how Average Order Value can affect growth
why repeat customers and referrals matter
what your sales data can tell you about what to do next
Your action for this week
Don't just ask:
“How many sales did I make?”
Ask:
“What are my sales telling me?”
 
Useful Links:
Express your interest in Yiply: https://getyiply.com/ Be one of our first 50 subscribers and get free one to one support to set up your pipeline.
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
Share this post with your audience to help other small business owners
Join The Business Club for ongoing support, advice and guidance. Join Here!
 
 

Are you so busy delivering work for your current customers that you’ve stopped thinking about where your next customers are coming from?
If so, you’re definitely not alone.
One of the biggest causes of peaks and troughs in small businesses is that when we’re busy, marketing is often the first thing to disappear.
We stop following up.
We stop networking.
We stop posting.
We stop checking our pipeline.
And then, when the work starts to dry up, we suddenly switch everything back on again.
The problem is there’s usually a delay between the marketing you do today and the money that comes in tomorrow.
So, in this episode of Figures Without Fear, I’m looking at how much of your time is being spent on growth versus delivery.
We’ll talk about how to create a better balance between serving the customers you already have and making sure there are still opportunities coming through for the future.
And we’re also going to look at something else that might be stealing far more of your time than you realise:
all the stuff you’re doing that probably doesn’t need doing at all.
Because sometimes the answer isn’t working more hours.
It’s being much more deliberate about where those hours are going.
So, let’s get into it.
 
Express your interest in Yiply: https://getyiply.com/ Be one of our first 50 subscribers and get free one to one support to set up your pipeline.
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
Share this post with your audience to help other small business owners
Join The Business Club for ongoing support, advice and guidance. Join Here!
 

Welcome to another episode of Figures Without Fear, the podcast designed to help small business owners understand their numbers, what those numbers are telling them and how to use them to make better decisions.
In today’s episode, we’re talking about a number that a lot of business owners never actually calculate:
The value of your sales pipeline.
I recently covered this with my Mastermind clients and they were absolutely gobsmacked when they started adding up the value of the potential sales already sitting in their businesses.
People they’d spoken to.
People who had enquired.
People who had asked for prices.
People who had said “not yet”.
And people they simply hadn’t followed up with.
They discovered thousands of pounds sitting there, just waiting to be converted.
Because sometimes the problem isn’t that you need more leads.
Sometimes you already have enough opportunities sitting in front of you — you’re just not managing them properly.
So in this episode, I’m going to explain what a sales pipeline actually is, how to move people from cold to warm to hot to sold, how to work out what your pipeline is worth and why every single lead should have a clear next step.
And I’ll also talk about why your sales system doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, a simple spreadsheet can be enough to get started.
So, if you’ve ever found yourself saying, “I just need more leads”, this episode might make you look at your business very differently.
Let’s get started.
 
Useful Links:
Express your interest in Yiply: https://getyiply.com/ Be one of our first 50 subscribers and get free one to one support to set up your pipeline.
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
Share this post with your audience to help other small business owners
Join The Business Club for ongoing support, advice and guidance. Join Here!

Welcome to another episode of Figures Without Fear, the podcast where we take the fear out of your figures and help you use your numbers to build a stronger, more profitable business — and importantly, one that pays you properly.
Today, I want to talk about something that I learned the hard way very early on in my own business journey.
Are you overly dependent on one customer?
Because having a brilliant customer who gives you lots of work can feel like you've hit the jackpot.
You're busy, there's money coming in and you don't have to constantly worry about where the next piece of work is coming from.
But there can be a hidden risk.
When I first started my business, I put far too many of my eggs in one basket.
A large proportion of my work was connected to a charity I was supporting and everything was going brilliantly — until the charity ran out of funding.
Suddenly they could no longer afford to work with me.
I didn't just lose one customer. I lost all of the clients associated with that work too, and almost overnight, the majority of my income disappeared.
And the timing couldn't have been worse because I'd just signed a lease on new premises.
It was a painful lesson, but it's one I've never forgotten — and I've never made the same mistake again.
So in today's episode, we're going to look at how dependent your business might be on one customer, one source of work or even one income stream.
We'll talk about why being busy doesn't necessarily mean your business is secure, how to spot customer dependency in your numbers, and why having more than one sensible income stream can make your business much more resilient.
I'm also going to give you a couple of really simple exercises you can do to work out just how exposed your own business might be.
Because the question isn't whether you'd be disappointed if your biggest customer disappeared tomorrow.
The question is:
Would your business survive it?
Let's get into it.
 
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🔥 How quickly is your business burning through its cash?
And perhaps the more important question…
If sales suddenly slowed down, how long could your business keep going?
Three months?
Six months?
A couple of weeks?
Or do you genuinely have no idea?
This week's episode of Figures Without Fear is all about your business burn rate — one of those numbers that sounds very corporate, but that I think every small business owner should understand.
Because you can be busy.
You can have customers.
You can have money sitting in the bank.
You can even be generating a decent turnover.
And still be quietly eating away at your cash reserves every single month.
In this episode, I'm talking about:
What your burn rate actually is• Why your bank balance doesn't tell you the whole story• The difference between what you're spending and what you're actually losing each month• How to work out your cash runway• Why knowing this number gives you time to act• And what you can do if the number makes you feel a little uncomfortable
Because I'd much rather you discovered that you had a cash problem six months before it became a crisis than six days before.
Your numbers aren't there to frighten you.
They're there to give you information.
And information gives you choices.
🎧 Have a listen to this week's episode of Figures Without Fear:
What Is Your Business Burn Rate? Knowing This Could Save Your Business
I'll pop the listening link in the comments.
And when you've listened, I'd love you to answer this:
👇 If your income stopped tomorrow, how long could your business survive?
 
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Do you know your real break-even point?
And I don't mean the number you think your business needs to cover the bills each month.
I mean the actual number your business needs to generate once you've taken into account your costs, the cost of delivering your work and — very importantly — you getting paid too.
Because getting this number wrong can affect far more than just your accounts.
It can affect your pricing, your sales targets, the amount of work you think you need, the offers you focus on and whether your business is actually making enough money to support you.
In this episode, we're going to look at what break-even really means, the costs business owners often forget to include and why your break-even figure may be higher than you think.
I'll also show you how to turn that number into a proper sales target and how knowing it can help you understand whether your current business model is actually working.
And I've included two simple tasks you can do to help you work out your own number and start using it to make better business decisions.
Because knowing you've made £5,000 in sales is one thing.
Knowing whether £5,000 is actually enough is something completely different.
So, if you want to understand the number your business really needs to generate — and what to do with that information once you've got it — let's get into it.
 
To join my Free Training day Reserve your Place Right Here
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Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
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Is your business actually a business… or has it accidentally become a rather expensive hobby?
That might sound like a slightly uncomfortable question, but in this episode of Figures Without Fear, I’m looking at the difference between simply having a business and actually behaving like the CEO of one.
Because being busy doesn’t automatically mean you’re building a successful business.
You can have customers, a website, social media accounts and a diary full of things to do… and still be making decisions based on what you enjoy, what feels comfortable or what keeps you busy rather than what the business actually needs.
In this episode, I’m talking about 7 common Hobby Traps I see small business owners falling into, including emotional pricing, hanging onto offers that don’t make enough money, avoiding sales, saying yes to everything and mistaking a healthy bank balance for proper financial management.
And, more importantly, I’ll show you what the CEO mindset looks like instead.
There are also two simple exercises you can do alongside the episode to help you spot where you might be slipping into hobby behaviour and start making more deliberate CEO decisions.
Because if your business is supposed to provide you with an income, it needs to be run like a business.
And the CEO is ultimately responsible for whether that business succeeds or fails.
Isn't that you?
Have a listen and see how many of the Hobby Traps you recognise in your own business.
 
To join my Free Training day Reserve your Place Right Here
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
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Your time isn’t free — even when no money leaves your bank account.
As a small business owner, it’s easy to reach the end of a busy day feeling exhausted but unsure what you’ve actually achieved. You’ve answered emails, completed admin, tweaked your website and created content, but have any of those activities generated income, improved the business or moved a customer closer to buying?
In this episode of Figures Without Fear, I’m asking one important question:
Where are you spending your hours?
We’ll look at why every hour has a cost, how busy work can become a hiding place and why being the CEO of your business means thinking about your return on time — not just your return on money.
I’ll also help you identify whether you’re giving your best hours to your least valuable work, when doing everything yourself starts costing the business more than getting support, and how to protect time for the sales, planning and decisions that create future growth.
This isn’t about squeezing more work into your day or becoming obsessed with productivity. It’s about making the hours you already work count.
Download the episode now and discover whether your diary is building the business you say you want — or quietly keeping you stuck.
 
Next steps you can take...
To join my Free Training day Reserve your Place Right Here
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
Share this podcast with your audience to help other small business owners
Join The Business Club for ongoing support, advice and guidance. Join Here!
Take The Pay Day Challenge! Start paying yourself a consistent wage from net month. Learn more here

You might not need more customers. You might just need to keep the ones you already have for longer.
In this episode of Figures Without Fear, I’m exploring the hidden profit in customer retention and why constantly chasing new leads may not be the best or most profitable growth strategy for your business.
We’ll look at why customers leave, how to create a better experience that encourages them to stay, and why making a clear next offer is not pushy when it genuinely helps them move forward.
You’ll also discover how improving retention can strengthen your recurring income, reduce the pressure on your marketing and help you generate more profit from the customers who already know, like and trust you.
The episode includes two simple tasks to help you identify where customers may be slipping away and create a clearer next step for one of your current offers.
Download the episode and take a closer look at the profit that may already be sitting inside your business.
 
 
Next steps you can take...
To join my Free Training day Reserve your Place Right Here
Subscribe to Figures Without Fear to get more hints, tips and ideas to grow your business
Book a FREE strategy call to help align your business plans with your personal income goals
Share this podcast with your audience to help other small business owners
Join The Business Club for ongoing support, advice and guidance. Join Here!
Take The Pay Day Challenge! Start paying yourself a consistent wage from net month. Learn more here