Track this: How much money is coming in and from which sources

Right beneath our MVP metric of relationships, are dollars earned. News flash! Money matters! There I said it. There’s nothing wrong with the desire to be rich, nor being forthright and authentic by expressing such a desire. People who stay poor often struggle with this notion, believing their suffering is part of God’s plan. Other people are afraid to look at their numbers, and fear the anxiety that will be created from knowing the truth. Queue the wrong answer buzzer. I’ve been there, and there is hope.

Measuring revenue draws your awareness to the fruits of your labor. It can help you increase awareness of alignment with your goals. We all want to live fully and be wealthy, and measuring revenue is important. It helps us to know if our labor is producing fruit at all, and if so, how much?  And, is that enough for now? The revenue metric answers questions like the following:

• Is what you’re doing enough?
• Are you working hard enough/good enough to produce results you want?
• Is it time to change the product/service or your job?
• Is that MLM (multi-level marketing) pyramid scheme making you a millionaire OR someone else benefiting more from your labor?
• Is our product meeting the customers needs? Is it a quality/valued product?
• Are you connecting with enough people to meet your goals? Do you have enough relationships to get the word out, sell your product, and get honest feedback?
• Are you doing enough for your customers to get you where you want to grow?

Those are just a few questions you may explore as you reflect on the numbers. Suffice it to say that they are very important.

Do: Look at the numbers and ask yourself questions

Even negative numbers are opportunities and blessings. They queue the investigation, that gives you the ideas, that transform operations, that shift attitudes and results to those you want.

Don’t: Ignore the numbers or make excuses

Burying your head in the sand and neglecting the numbers will keep you poor.  Own your numbers, ask and answer questions and be accountable to the result. This is the gift that invites change and opportunity.

If your revenue isn’t where you want it to be, it is a good time to challenge your thinking about:

• Your level of investment in sincere relationship building – (# of relationships and the quality of relationships have a direct impact on your wealth)
• How you are treating, motivating and connecting with your team
• Where are you spending your time, effort and attention (TEA), where are you pouring your TEA? Is that the best place to spend it.
• What’s your relationship with money? Do you believe that you deserve to be wealthy? (read, How I Found and Transformed my Limited Beliefs about Wealth)
• Where are you spending? Are those investments yielding fruit?

The point is to start measuring and pay close attention. Challenge yourself and use the numbers to refine your efforts.

Revenue Growth Tip: This will make you feel better, spend better and evaluate more honestly. Figure out a percentage of profit first (20%, 40%, 60%) from your gross revenue and reverse engineer those figures to find out what you ideally want to be making in the first place. If 20% of $100 earned is $20, that leaves $80 to manage everything else (taxes, expenses, etc.) If you come back with a negative number afterwards, do not reduce your profit, increase your efforts, make your endeavor more efficient by boiling it down to the essential, and make appropriate changes. It’s better to feel the pinch that forces you to change while making a profit, than it is to feel the pinch of red ink without making a dime. ALWAYS pay yourself first! I know you’ve probably heard this before but are you actually doing it?