My Monthly Review - April 2022
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 April 2022.
Looking back - review last month
Revenue
April Revenue - $112,192
Social Metrics
• Instagram - TLDC: 61.9K
• Instagram - CLR: 6727
• YouTube - CLR: 6.56K
• YouTube - SketchUp: 286
• Facebook Page Follows: 21,842
• Facebook Group: 7.7K
• Twitter: 165
• Pinterest Follows: 9.98K
• Pinterest monthly views: 1.94 million
• LinkedIn Follows: 381
• Website visits: 21K
• Bounce Rate: 73%
Top 3 Wins Last Month
1. Owner builder course done
2. Time off over school holidays including holiday in Gerringong
3. Continue to write my daily blog posts - nearly 4 months of this now!
Notes from Last Month
What went well, what didn’t go well…
The reason I like doing this monthly review so much is because it really keeps me accountable! I have been lazy and unproductive this month and my metrics mimic the results of that! However, I don’t feel bad about that as I need a break from time to time and have also not been that well after COVID.
Most of my metrics are down this month. Revenue is lower (but obviously not disappointingly low as my aim is always to get over $100K, which I have done) and growth across my socials is also slower. I did very little strategic work this month and much less social posting and although I thought my numbers were all holding despite this it’s clear they have dropped now I’ve done my review.
So this shows that taking a bit of a break and foot off the pedals can have an impact on business growth and revenue. If I were to continue like this for another month I would likely see more negative impact - so need to get back in to it!
April was slow for a few reasons:
I took ages to get over COVID. I felt tired and had some residual breathing issues that were really causing me issues and meant I had to lie down often - so I am not going to be hard on myself about that! I am much better now thank goodness.
The boys had 2 weeks of school holidays and I just felt like taking it easy while they were home, plus we enjoyed a week away in Gerringong and I did very little work while we were there.
I’m feeling recharged and boys are back in school now so going to get stuck in to some good projects this month.
Although revenue is a little down on last few months my course sales are actually significantly higher as we are selling more of my business courses. But these are less expensive than my SketchUp courses so the average order spend has dropped a little and this will be impacting revenue numbers. The reason business course sales are up are:
people are purchasing after reading my daily blog posts, which are more often than not focused on running a design business
we have been testing some new ads for the business courses and these are working well, particularly the ad for my Client Welcome Pack, which is my biggest selling course for this month.
I’m still writing my daily blog posts. This is nearly 4 months of that now, with only a few days missed here and there. I enjoy writing them and get lots of positive feedback from the community as well. It’s also interesting to note that bounce rate on my website continues to drop the more posts I write. Overall web traffic was lower this month but bounce rate is lowest it’s been for ages at 73%, which means people are sticking around to read the posts and not clicking away straight away. This is likely due to traffic coming from more sources than just Pinterest, where habit is to just click away quickly.
Last month I made the decision to split my brand and spend more time growing my personal brand/business stuff. This lasted a few days before I found it way too overwhelming to create such a ridiculously high amount of content haha! I keep thinking I have to split my own personal brand away from my TLDC brand but the more I think about it the more I think people are with me on the TLDC brand because of ‘me’ anyway - I really am the TLDC brand. So why not just keep things simpler for myself and have everything in the one place. This silly issue is one that I spend WAY too much time overthinking. Need to take the advice I give everyone else and stop overthinking it and just keep moving forward :)
Almost none of the projects I set for myself last month were completed due to the reasons above. So I have now projected planned this all out in Notion for completion this month.
Also still haven’t started my YouTube videos again - I have been saying I am going to do this since the start of the year!!! Need to get on with it!
From personal perspective - we are getting closer to knowing what we are doing with renovation. I have done the owner builder course now and we have started talking to an and architect to talk about getting plans drawn up (someone from within my community). Have looked at a few rentals to move to as original plan was to stage the renovation and live here but the more we think about it the more we think it will be hideous to live through it, especially as we both work from home. But the rentals are pretty awful and cost a fortune! So now I’m back to thinking about how we might be able to stage and live through it here somehow.
Health wise I’ve been training hard again now my operation and COVID are behind me. I lost quite a bit of strength and fitness over past few months due to COVID and my operation so now trying to build that back up again before my next operation in the middle of the year.
So overall I wouldn’t say it’s ben the most ‘productive’ month but it has been nice to take some time off.
Looking forward - plan this month
Focus this month:
Get back on track with my social posting and lead generation (e.g. new FB ads). Get my projects completed as per my project timeline mapped out in Notion.
Projects this month:
☐ Update SketchUp webinar
☐ Business short course webinar
☐ Update ads
☐ Weekly video posting to YouTube
☐ Renovation - finaslied + CDC submitted
☐ Get back to regular Instagram posting schedule
Goals this month:
☐ $150K in revenue
☐ Tasks completed as per Notion timeline
☐ Daily blog posts
☐ Daily posts to Instagram
☐ Weekly YT videos
☐ Finalise renovation drawings + CDC submitted
☐ Create renovation project plan + start boys’ wing
What would make this month amazing?
Get back on track with productivity with aim of improved metrics including revenue. To do this I need to get back to my regular social posting schedule and update my FB ads + webinar. Start renovation.
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 Canva template to conduct your own monthly business review you can do that here:
Business Short Courses 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
