My Monthly Review - July 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 July 2023.
Looking back - review last month
Revenue
Revenue for July was $243,812
Expenses
Main expenses for July:
Paid advertising: $29,712
Virtual Assistants: $2,215
Software Subscriptions: $1,415
Social Metrics
Total student enrolments across all online courses and templates: 20,264
Email/newsletter subscribers: 53,838
Instagram - TLDC: 101K
Instagram - CLR: 10.5K
YouTube - CLR: 11,151
TLDC Facebook Page Follows: 26,738
Facebook Group: 15.3K
Pinterest Follows: 11.4K
Pinterest monthly views: 932.4K
LinkedIn Follows Personal: 817
LinkedIn Follows Business: 200
TLDC Website visits: 41K
Bounce Rate: 79.78%
Top 3 Wins Last Month
Spent most of the month on our new build design to get all the selections made and finalised
Was able to spend time with my Dad in his final days without worrying about work or asking employers for “permission” to be with him - another reminder of why I love the business model I’ve built so much.
Hit a few business milestones:
Crossed 10,000 students in my SketchUp courses
Crossed 100K followers on my Instagram page
Notes from Last Month
What went well, what didn’t go well…
My Dad passed away a few days ago so honestly this is the last thing I feel like doing today. But in the interests of staying on top of my routine and being consistent with the things that are important to me, I still want to write a summary about last month.
My Dad would approve of this :) Like me, he was very routine driven and he would definitely want me to stick to all the routines I feel like staying on top of at the moment. He hated any kind of fuss so he wouldn’t want me sitting around feeling sorry for myself anyway. I definitely got a lot of my stoicism from my Dad (although actually my Mum is like that too so it comes from both sides for me).
Here’s a bit about what happened in July
Business:
29th July marked the 4 year anniversary of my first ever course sale. Can’t believe how much my business and life has changed in a few short years and how much I love what I’m doing. I’ve built so much confidence in my own abilities over the past few years and I love that I’m making a small impact on the world in a way that feels really enjoyable for me.
It was a great revenue month. We’ve had strong daily sales numbers but there was also a bump of revenue at the very start of the month due to the final days of my EOFY sale. Paul (my husband, who runs all our FB/Instagram/Google ads) has been trying out increasing our paid advertising spend a little bit this month. We spent about $10K more on ads than we normally would in July - so we will keep doing that in August and see if that’s making an impact outside a sale period as well.
Feedback and sales for my newly launched Canva and Notion templates continue to be really strong. I haven’t had a chance to create any ads or specific content about these templates yet - so this is something I want to work on for August and start getting these formally out into the world. All sales at the moment are coming from my organic content creation and word of mouth (which is fantastic as it shows these are working really well as a strong lead generation channels).
Crossed over 10,000 students in my SketchUp courses this month - that’s a crazy number of students and I’m so grateful people enjoy the courses and get so much out of them :)
Passed 100K followers on Instagram, which is definitely a vanity metric, but still one I’m proud of as I’ve spent 10 years creating content on Instagram and have just slowly built up my community over time.
My aim for July was to get back to creating lots more free content for my community but as is often the case for me, life definitely got in the way of that plan. My house design took way longer than I was expecting and then the final weeks of July were all about my Dad. So my aim for August, once I am ready to get stuck back into work, is to get on with all the content ideas I have in my mind. Creating content is one of my favourite things to do and I can’t wait to have some space and time to just focus only on that.
Personal:
Losing my Dad has been a terrible experience. His final months have been very distressing for him, but the final days were like nothing I’ve ever encountered (except perhaps over those first few days of Hugo’s life). It’s a weird feeling - you feel like you’re living in a parallel world to everyone else. Life is going on around you, but you feel like it’s standing still for you. It’s hard to describe. But I do remember this feeling back from when Hugo was born.
Dad was in such distress in his final days and death was honestly nothing like what you hear about in books and movies where they say they ‘peacefully passed in their sleep’, or at least that wasn’t the case for Dad. He was struggling to breathe, he lost the ability to shut his eyes so they were open despite him being in and out of consciousness and he was anxious and scared for days on end. It was so harrowing and traumatic for not only him, but also for me and my sister. So we are so happy the suffering is over for him, but we are also so sad and will miss him so much. The funeral is next week and I think once we have closure from that we can start to move forward again.
A few other personal updates from this month:
I turned 45 :) I wanted to feel really great for my 45th birthday and I definitely am feeling really strong and fit at the moment and taking care of myself. One thing that I’m not 100% on top of still is sleep. I’m a terrible sleeper as I’m always so excited to get started with the next day of work that if I wake up anywhere from about 2.30am I tend to not be able to get back to sleep as I start thinking about all the things I want to get on with. For me, this is the negative side of loving what I do so much :) But sleep is something I really want to start trying to improve over coming months and it needs to start with my poor sleep hygiene - e.g. I know I should just go to sleep or read before sleeping, but most nights I do end up scrolling my phone for 10-15 minutes and this is a bad habit I want to break.
This month I’ve continued my stretching/mobility sessions weekly with Kirsti from Pilates to You. I have just signed up to continue with her for another 10 weeks, after finishing my first set of sessions. I’ve even decided to increase the length of our weekly sessions from 1/2 to 1 hour as I often felt we were just getting started when the half hour is up. Due to how much exercise I do (and how old I’m getting!) working on stretching and mobility is a huge focus for me at the moment. However, I’m not great at being consistent with this unless I pay for the accountability I need - so that’s why I am choosing to pay to work with Kirsti on this. She’s fantastic by the way - if you need help reach out to her!
Along the same lines of paying for accountability around areas I want to improve I have also continued to work weekly with nutritionist, Darcie during July. We have been working through my annoying approach to eating - e.g. lots of food rules and strict “all or nothing” approach. None of this has served me all that well up until this point, so I’m trying to break bad mental patterns that take up too much of my brain power. This is also proving to be helpful for me. One of the main reasons is because working with her makes me questions my choices a lot more than I did before. I think a lot more about why I’m thinking in certain ways and try and break negative though patterns that I’ve had for decades! Paying for accountability and help in areas I want to get better at is 100% the way I make improvement!
Our house build is going really well - we’ve got a second level now and the roof tiles are going on this week, which is exciting. I guess we then start to move inside and commence electrical rough in and those sorts of things. It’s really starting to look like a house now!
The boys enjoyed a holiday in Queenstown, NZ (to go skiing) at the start of July. They had a great time (although Paul said he needed a holiday from the holiday when he got back!!). I also got to enjoy a week of quiet time where I did lots of home based jobs I’ve been meaning to do for ages - just decluttering and sorting out different things. I always find that sort of thing very cathartic.
So July was definitely a month of lots of highs but also extreme lows as well. As always I just try and take everything in my stride and be as resilient as I can about what life throws at me.
And as my Dad always used to say to me “this too shall pass” xxx
Looking forward - plan this month
Focus this month:
👏🏻 Content revamp - start back with long form content and get back to creating heaps of free content now house design is finished
Projects this month:
Facebook group update
Content and ads about templates
Relaunch YouTube channel (including a home build series?)
Plan Podcast
Finish house lighting and electrical plans
Create house furniture/styling schedule
Goals this month:
$150K in revenue
What would make this month amazing?
When I’m ready - get back to creating lots of free content across all my platforms and start on some of my new content projects that I’ve had in the back of my mind for ages.
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
