My Monthly Review - August 2023
I have been publicly sharing my monthly business reviews since January 2022 (scroll to the bottom of this post to see my others).
This is a reset process I go through on the first of every month to review the month that has just been and to plan for the month ahead.
I highly encourage all of my clients and students to do a similar process each month as it helps keep you accountable and see what is working and isn’t working in your business.
If you want a free checklist to use you can grab that here:
If you aren’t regularly tracking what is happening in your business then it’s very difficult to assess what’s working, what isn’t working, what progress you are making (or not making!) and how you can improve.
My review process normally takes me about 20 minutes to complete each month and when I look back on my previous entries I’m so grateful that I have a record of what has been happening so I can look back on how far I have come!
A quick note before we start…
I share this information publicly because I’m a completely open book and want to encourage and inspire other women and mothers about what is possible with their businesses.
When I was starting my ow business I used to follow a few business owners who did something similar to this and I found it hugely inspiring and helpful as it showed me what was possible in my own business.
However, I’m aware that some people find the sharing of business results and revenue numbers triggering, so if that’s you then I suggest you skip this post and jump in to some of my other free content instead :)
Here’s my review from August 2023.
Looking back - review last month
Revenue
Revenue for August was $172,813.80
Expenses
Paid advertising: $31,611
Virtual Assistants: $2,924
Software Subscriptions: 7,468
Social Metrics
Total student enrolments across all online courses and templates: 21,086
Email/newsletter subscribers: 56,430
Instagram - TLDC: 105K
Instagram - CLR: 10.6K
Instagram - SketchUp: 1,071
TikTok - 217
Threads: 8,547
YouTube - CLR: 11,300
YouTube - SketchUp: 469
TLDC Facebook Page Follows: 24K
Facebook Group: 16.1K
Pinterest Follows: 11.59K
Pinterest monthly views: 1.08M
LinkedIn Follows Personal: 858
LinkedIn Follows Business: 210
TLDC Website visits: 40K
Bounce Rate: 78.48%
Top 3 Wins Last Month
Started my new content challenge
New content and ads about templates - they are selling well
Finish house lighting and electrical plans
Notes from Last Month
What went well, what didn’t go well…
August was a bit of a rough month after the passing of my Dad on July 30th. We had his funeral, which went as well as could be expected, and after that I took some time to myself to just be quiet towards the start of the month.
But in the latter half of the month I reminded myself that my life is not a ‘dry run’ - this is my only life and one day it will be over! So I don’t want to sit around wasting time as I’ve got lots of things I want to do :) I know my Dad wouldn’t want me sitting around feeling sorry for myself, so I decided to set some new goals and get on with life again.
So in the latter part of August here’s what has been happening:
Business:
It’s been a solid revenue month again. I attribute this to a few things:
creating ads for my new business templates, which are performing well
tweaking the SketchUp ads, also performing well
starting my new content experiment (explained below), which is driving many more organic leads into my business
I launched a new SketchUp Tips Instagram page, which already has more than 1,000 followers
I launched a new TikTok page (finally!), to share and repurpose my SketchUp Tips. This is growing more slowly but I’m doing this as an experiment to just see what the platform is about and what I can do over there.
One of my aims for August was to get back to creating lots of content for my community, which I did. I am also doing an experiment around content creation, which I’ll explain next.
Content Experiment:
My experiment is to create 300 pieces of content per week (that's 42 per day!) and see what this does for:
my community growth
my revenue
my engagement and reach
my sanity 😂
I create all of my own content and I don't have help with this - so a posting schedule of 42 pieces of content a day is VERY ambitious.
But I feel like a challenge as I've been a bit bored and lacking motivation lately and I like to try and work on things that feel just out of reach, so I'm excited by the challenge and to see what happens with it.
Here's my posting schedule to hit the 42 content pieces each day:
A core piece of content each week day (2 x blog posts, 2 x YouTube, 1 x Newsletter each week)
Instagram Business (@thelittledesigncorner) - x 2 posts per day
Instagram Personal Brand (@clareleroy) - x 1 posts per day
Instagram SketchUp (@sketchuptips) - x 2 posts per day
TikTok SketchUp (@sketchuptips) - x 2 posts per day
LinkedIn Personal Page - x 1 post per day
LinkedIn Business Page - x 1 post per day
Pinterest - x 3 pins per day from blog posts
Threads - x 2 posts per day
Facebook Community Group - x 1 post per day
Instagram stories across the 3 Instagram pages
= 42 pieces of daily content! 😮💨
I'm finding the experiment not only very manageable, but also quite enjoyable.
However, it's taken some time to settle into the 'groove' of getting all of this created
the first day it took me until about 5pm to get everything created and posted
the second day it took me until about 12.30pm
the third day it took until about 11am
the fourth day it took until about 10am
And I've progressively got it down each day. It's now taking me about 90 minutes a day to create and post/schedule all the content I need to make each day across all the different platforms. This is a very manageable amount of time for me to spend on content creation each day and I'm enjoying the challenge of coming up with lots of new ways to be helpful and share what I've learned from growing my business.
The main reason I've been able to cut back the time I'm spending on it is due to systems I have in place to get my content created.
The only thing I haven’t got on top of yet is YouTube. I still am not 100% sure what to post there and I don’t want to create content for the sake of it. Once I work out the format for content I want to create I’ll be back up and running on that platform as well. I hope to do that throughout September.
Personal:
Have been taking really good care of my health lately. I’ve continued with my virtual stretching/mobility sessions weekly with Kirsti from Pilates to You. We’ve extended to a 1 hour session per week and we are also looking at adding a second session as I feel like I get a lot out of these sessions (I’m getting old and I don’t recover as well as I used to so need as much help in the mobility department as I can get!).
I’m currently focusing on getting stronger and leaner before summer starts in a few months. So I have a big focus on protein at all meals and avoiding foods that I know don’t really agree with me (or my goals!). Also trying to get injury free so I can push myself at training as well. I have a goal of getting to 10 pull ups in a row by 1 December. I’m currently at 5 in a row, so I think it’s an achievable goal.
Our house build is continuing really well. We are getting close to lock up now. Roof tiles are on and almost all the exterior face bricks have been applied. I guess they will soon start to move inside and get on with some of the exciting interiors stuff! We are still looking at a post Xmas move in - I’m hoping to get in before Easter of next year.
So another month of some lows, with Dad’s funeral and getting all his arrangements in order, but also some highs as I get stuck back into new goals and doing work that is meaningful to me.
Looking forward - plan this month
Focus this month:
👏🏻 Keep going with my content experiment
💪🏻 Get strong and lean
Projects this month:
Facebook group update
More content and ads about templates
Relaunch YouTube channel (including a home build series?)
Benchmark study?
Create house furniture/styling schedule
Goals this month:
$150K in revenue
What would make this month amazing?
Continue my content experiment and see what happens with different aspects of my business as a result of doing that.
If you would like to follow my business journey you can read my other monthly reviews via the links at the bottom of this page.
And if you would like to download my free Notion template to conduct your own monthly business review you can do that here:
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
