[00:00:00] Fiona Johnston
We've made a lot of progress as a society in many of the areas that we needed to in the last few hundred years. But one thing that has not changed enough is money. If we want to be able to tip the scales towards the favor of marginalized people, we need to understand the secrets to making money in small business.
The more we talk about money and the secret. That usually stay at the golf club, the more likely we are to be able to make money. My mission is to get more money into the hands of good people, specifically good business people like you. This is Money Secrets, the place to learn about the money secrets of successful small business owners.
Because I believe small business can change the world, and in order to do that, we need to be making lots of money. Let's go.
This podcast episode was recorded on the lands of the Wie people of the KO nation, and I'd like to acknowledge them as the traditional owners and [00:01:00] custodians of this land and water that I live. Work and play on. I'd like to pay respects to elders both past and present. And note that sovereignty has never been seeded.
This always was and always will be. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
Today I wanna talk about. Business strategy. So I meet small business owners all the time, and people are often asking me things like, how do I know that what I'm doing in my business is the right way to do it? Well, they tell me things like, I seem to always be having to justify my price.
The clients that come to me looking to work with me or wanting to buy from me, I feel like I have to justify my prices, or they tell me things like I just feel like I'm working all the time, but I still don't feel like I'm making enough money. So all of these problems are a sign that your business model is not [00:02:00] working for you.
Your business model is a thing that underpins. Everything in your business. So let's say what you are wanting to do is make more money. So what we wanna do is have a look at how do we increase the prices that you can charge? And in the context of a business model, some of the things that we're gonna be looking at with your business model is what is uniquely valuable or different.
Or differentiated from your customers in terms of how you do things, how you deliver your product or service. What do your customers absolutely love about working with you? What are the things that make your product or service really valuable? And the next question we want to be thinking about is who is the client that values that product or service the most?
So when we are looking at your business model, one of the really important components of that is who are the customers that I want to work with? Are there [00:03:00] different groups of customers that I wanna work with for different products or services? Are they the same kind of customer but they're different stages of their life or business?
And which of those customers that I have in the past or want to in the future actually is able to value or leverage or get value and return on investing in my products and services. So if you are finding that you are constantly having to try to fight for the prices that you want to charge your client, it means that you have the wrong clients landing in your inbox.
And the best way to change that is to work out what kind of clients do I want to land in my inbox. And what are the products and services that I actually want to sell them, and how can I do it in a way that is so valuable or so unique or so differentiated that when I get the right person in my inbox, it's a yes every time.
So these are the [00:04:00] sorts of things that we are able to get clarity on when we work on your business model. The other thing that I mentioned earlier was that a lot of business owners tell me that. They just feel like, I don't really know if what I'm doing is right. Like sure, I tweak at things and I work on my marketing.
I get advice from other people from time to time, but I'm just kind of doing it. I'm just letting my business kind of be, and there's nothing wrong with just kind of letting your business be, but it's not a very efficient way to be able to translate your. Skills and expertise into money. So if you feel like you're just not sure whether you're doing it right in inverted commerce, by the way, there's no such thing as right or wrong about business.
It's just what works for you. But if you really wanna get clear about, am I actually doing business? In the best way that I could. The best way to work that out is to look at your business model. You might be wanting to look at [00:05:00] things like, what are the things that I need to do really well? What are the things that my customers, if they experience this, they will become absolute raving fans?
So if I nail this one or two or three things, my business is going to be successful. But most of us don't actually take the time to sit down and think about what does my business need to do well or what do I need to do well as a founder? Another question that I am asked, or another challenge that I see from so many small business owners is this problem of working lots of hours.
But not feeling like you're making enough money, and there's lots of things going on. When this is happening, generally there's some mindset and psychology that we need to work through. We need to look at things like setting boundaries and setting appropriate scope and actually adhering to the scope that you are delivering on.
But we also wanna look at things like, what is your capacity? What [00:06:00] resources do you actually have to deliver these products and services? If you're a service-based person, you'll need to think about literally how many hours in the week do I have to be delivering services to clients, and then I can work out how much do I need to charge for those services in order to hit my revenue goals.
If you're a product based business or you need a team to deliver the services or products that you want to deliver, you need to look at your resourcing. For things like positive cash flow, do you need to have money in the bank in order to be able to purchase your stock three or four or six months before you'll be able to sell it?
This is something that a lot of product-based. Businesses get really caught out on the more your business is growing, the more money you need to buy stock. Are you actually considering that in your business model? If you need cash to purchase stock, how are you gonna make that happen? We also need to be looking at things like, what are the costs to deliver our product or service?
Do I need to [00:07:00] rent an office? Do I need insurance or licensing? What kind of support will I need in my business? And how is my business actually going to be able to turn those costs that I'm investing in into revenue? We also need to be looking at things like, who do I need in my corner? So what suppliers do I need to rely on in order to be able to deliver my products and services?
If you're an e-commerce business, then your suppliers and manufacturers are. So important to you, but how much time do you actually put into thinking about them and how best to work with them? If you are a business owner of any description, you are going to need to have people working in creative industries to help you.
So that might be photographers, videographers, web developers, graphic designers, brand strategists. Have you actually thought about how you are going to find support from those kind of professionals when you need it? Do you have a relationship with an accountant, a bookkeeper, or a money coach like me that's actually gonna help you with [00:08:00] the skills that you don't have?
So there's so much that goes into understanding how your business model can best be set up to make business so much easier for you. Have you ever had any of these challenges in your business? I wouldn't be surprised if you have, because so many business owners have the issue of working lots of hours without being able to return a decent pay, and a lot of business owners feel like they are constantly arguing with potential clients about pricing and scoping and inclusions.
And that's because you haven't differentiated yourself or made it really clear exactly what sort of client you wanna work with and how you want to be charging for the products and services that you are offering. If you've been listening to this episode and thinking, actually, I've never worked on my business model, or I don't really even understand.
Understand how I would do that or what it's all about. I really encourage you to come and have a look at the Business Model [00:09:00] Design program. If you're listening to this in real time, it will be the 30th of June, 2025, and today is the last day to sign up for the program in order to be able to come to our live session in July.
So the business model program is. A deliciously simple program that has everything you need and nothing that you don't to analyze, review and get really clear about what your business model needs to look like for you to have the business that you want. We have three on demand modules, which you can work through in your own time, and the tools included in the program actually help you to build out a 12 month.
Business plan. I've designed them in a way that makes them really easy to use. Once you've done the thinking work so that you can actually use it to plan out what sort of marketing messages do I need to get out in the next year, how am I going to be earning revenue? You're actually gonna be putting together a.
Mini financial plan for the next 12 months as [00:10:00] well. So doing this in June and July, 2025 is the perfect time to be working on your business model. And there's also a live session on the 22nd of July. It's a 90 minute session where you can come and ask. Me any questions at all about your business model and we can even have a chance to go through your business model together.
If that's something that you are interested in, I really encourage you to run, not walk to my website where you'll find the information about the business model design program. And yeah, sign up today if you wanna start making money the easy way. I'd love to see you in there and I'll see you next week.
Thank you so much for listening right up to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Money Secrets, where we talk about the money secrets of successful small business owners. If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you subscribe to the podcast, but leave us a review or share this episode with one of your friends.
I hope you learned something. I hope you [00:11:00] got a new perspective and I really hope you enjoyed the listening experience.
