I always ask my clients to set business quarterly revenue goals and track them.
So the other day I asked people to report how Q1 went.
One client told me she had done better this quarter than Q1 of last year.
I told her to go celebrate.
A few days later she came back to me and admitted she hadn’t actually looked at her numbers the first time. She had merely guessed.
In taking an actual look, she realized that she hadn’t just exceeded last year’s first quarter by a little but had beat it by somewhere between 20-30%.
I think we can agree that is more than a small margin of improvement.
Now the point of this story isn’t to shame her for guessing the first time.
The point of this story is to show that our brain will often draw incorrect conclusions (underestimating our success) if we are not consistently showing it the REAL numbers.
Why?
We all have money trauma. That trauma creates anxiety around interacting with our money.
It writes stories in our heads of scarcity and lack. It tells us we are failures before we’ve even checked to see if we have succeeded. And that trauma keeps us in fear regardless of the number in our bank account.
Which is why we must look at the numbers.
Our numbers tell us exactly what is happening. They are a gauge letting us know where we are and what needs to change to have even more.
Our emotions and beliefs around money block us from looking at both the wins and failures that can move us forward – and that’s problematic.
When we don’t know our numbers, we can’t celebrate the good things that are actually happening.
We can’t really know where we are with our goals.
We can’t really make the business decisions we need to make because we don’t know what’s working or not and why.
If we hide from our numbers they’ll still be there tomorrow. They’ll still be causing stress and anxiety.
We have to heal this relationship with money so that we can get excited about looking at our numbers, understand our businesses fully, and see the opportunities and possibilities of where we can grow next.
Here’s the 3-2-1 on looking at your numbers.
3 TRUTHS
- We don’t need to be the ones crunching the numbers to look at them. We can hire that part out and have them give us the data we need. But no matter what, we must look at our numbers.
- Avoiding our numbers is problematic. We cannot celebrate the good things happening in our business, know exactly where we are with our goals, or make informed decisions around expenses or investments without knowing our numbers.
- Our numbers tell us the story of what is happening now but that doesn’t mean there’s no control over what could be. If we don’t like the story we see, we have the power to change the story and increase the numbers.
2 ACTIONS
- Look at your numbers for Q1 of this year against Q1 of last year. How did you do?
- Actually do the 5 steps in my Stop the Money Meltdown guide – DAILY. Write and burn. Speak your power statements. Talk to Money. DO WHAT IT TELLS YOU. And celebrate your wins. I am serious about this. If you want something different, you have to do something different. No more excuses. No more putting this off. Start today.
1 QUESTION
- What numbers am I avoiding looking at and why?
This money conversation continues on YouTube. Check out Why Looking at Your Revenue Numbers is Super Important to learn more about the importance of looking at your numbers and healing money trauma. Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there!
While it may feel like stress is a constant in your relationship with money, it doesn’t have to be that way. My gift allows me to talk to your money AND hear it talk back so we can get to the root of your money trauma, heal the old wounds, and set you on the path to experiencing joy with your cash (instead of stress and dread). If you’re ready to live a new story, let’s talk about how I can best serve you.
To your impact and legacy,
