My Monthly Review - January 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 January 2023.
Looking back - review last month
Revenue
Revenue from January 2023 was $194,028
Expenses
Main expenses:
Paid advertising: $18,591
Virtual Assistants: $1,596
Software Subscriptions: $1,883
Social Metrics
Email/newsletter subscribers: 43,533
Instagram - TLDC: 80.9K
Instagram - CLR: 9,848
YouTube - CLR: 9.63K
TLDC Facebook Page Follows: 24,428
CLR Facebook Page Follows: 368
Facebook Group: 11.8K
Pinterest Follows: 10.8K
Pinterest monthly views: 885K
Twitter followers: 191
LinkedIn Follows: 607
TLDC Website visits: 38K
Bounce Rate: 76%
CLR Website visits: 2.1K
Bounce Rate: 66.4%
Top 3 Wins Last Month
Great trip to Gerringong 🏖️
Started the design for our new house 🏡
Published daily blog posts 💻
Notes from Last Month
What went well, what didn’t go well…
So it’s time for my first monthly review of 2023.
I have been a bit up and down about whether I want to keep publishing my revenue and the “warts and all” of my business this year so I asked you guys what you thought and the overwhelming feedback was that you find these reviews helpful and motivating and that I should keep doing them.
I had a few people write tell me they think they are crass or that I shouldn’t feel the need to publish what I’m earning, but after giving it a lot of thought I’ve decided that it’s a good thing to be doing as encouragement for others about what’s possible with hard work and determination.
I also remember back to when I was starting my business and reading posts like these. I was thinking about whether I used to feel like the people who were sharing their revenue figures publicly were showing off or seemed crass in the way they were talking about things and I never felt like that if they had a good reason for sharing (i.e. to be helpful to others and/or to keep themselves publicly accountable).
So I figure (and hope!) that’s the way that people who read my reviews look at them as well.
Anyway - so I’ve decided to keep doing them publicly for the moment, that may change in the future, but for now they are here to stay.
What happened in January
I always over estimate what is possible in my business while my boys are on summer holidays and I think I’m going to get more done than I’m really ever able to. So January was a bit of a write-off in terms of how many strategic projects I was able to get done.
But despite this revenue was still very strong this month, which I think is for a few reasons:
I’ve been exceptionally consistent with content creation during the month. I have published daily blog posts (which pushes a lot of people over to my website and they then hang around browsing lots of the other content I have, which inevitably results in some people deciding to purchase courses or templates)
I have been very active on my Instagram stories - I always notice that when I am showing up on stories (especially talking to camera) that sales in the business increase
A few of my Instagram posts were quite popular this month, which resulted in some new organic traffic coming to my business.
People are starting the new year and want some courses to get stuck into.
I have been purposely driving more people over to my SketchUp information session (by just talking about it more as many people don’t even know it exists!) and this session always converts well.
So I’m happy with the strong revenue start to the year and will keep using some of these strategies to hopefully keep things continuing like this for the remainder of the year.
Here’s what else happened in January:
We had an amazing holiday to Gerringong with Mum and Doug. Bunker House was stunning and the best place for 2 families to holiday together. We all had such a great time that I’ve booked to go again next January - something to look forward to for the year!
We enjoyed the rest of the summer holidays with the boys - just hanging around and not doing much. Also not doing much work either, but that’s fine as we did things together instead.
I’m redoing a course called ‘Ship 30 for 30’ which is all about online writing and the goal of writing 30 pieces of online writing for 30 days in a row. I’ve been publishing daily blog posts, which I enjoy writing each morning.
Our home rebuild has started - we have plans nearly finalised and our old house is being knocked down this week!
I hit some great milestones at training - my pull ups and chin ups are getting a lot better (now doing 3-5 without breaking), I did 140kg hip thrusts the other day and also 140kg sled pushes as well. I’m feeling strong at the moment which I think is from a combination of trying a bit harder and also eating more protein (and more calories overall I think).
Looking ahead to February it’s a month I’m dreading as I’ve got my next craniotomy to get through. I really only feel like I’m just getting back to my old self after my last brain surgery so I wish I didn’t have to go through it all again, but it is what it is, so I’m just doing my best to get in the best possible shape before the operation as I think going into the last one at peak fitness really helped me with my recovery.
As a result of the looming surgery I’m feeling a little bit in limbo land. I don’t feel like I can start any of the major projects I want to get done in 2023 right now, as it’s not enough time to get any of them started properly, but I also don’t want to waste the next 3 weeks doing nothing while I wait for my surgery. So my focus until my surgery is on getting ahead with some content for while I’m not feeling up to doing much, working hard with my fitness, plus tidying up some lose ends before I’m off for a little while.
Looking forward - plan this month
Focus this month:
🧠 Get through my brain surgery
🏡 Finish the design for our new house
👏🏻 Daily content
🤩 Commence brand refresh
💪🏻 Get as fit as possible before my brain surgery
Projects this month:
Scorecard project completed
Start brand refresh
Facebook ads review and refresh
Update content plan for coming few months
Get ahead on content for while I’m recovering
Finish designing new house
Create new TLDC lead magnets and share
Revenue goal this month:
$150K revenue
What would make this month amazing?
Pretty simple one for me this month - I want to survive my brain surgery with no complications 🤞🏻
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
