Janet started her interior design business three years ago with a wonderful vision. She planned to work three days a week and help affluent families achieve the home of their dreams by offering her creative services.
As happens so often with small business owners, the reality didn’t quite pan out as Janet had hoped. Instead of working three days a week, she found herself balancing a 70 hour work week with looking after her three children, all of which was putting a strain on her marriage.
It all came to a head when Janet met with her accountant to review her year end accounts and tax position. Yes, she was profitable and had cash in the bank, but she confided that she was becoming more and more unhappy with the business and was considering selling it.
Janet’s accountant took her client through a discussion to align her business and personal goals. Together, they discovered that;
- Janet’s primary motivation was to make enough money so that she could spend time with her children – that was more important than business success
- She had taken on all comers and felt obliged to squeeze in more and more clients
- Her brand in the marketplace was most definitely premium, yet her pricing did not reflect that
- By running the numbers, they found out that 23% of Janet’s clients had contributed 82% of her profit the previous year.
Following the session, Janet agreed to work with her accountant on an innovation day, a process based on redesigning the business to suit her lifestyle goals, by starting with the numbers.
Not surprisingly, revenue jumped significantly as a result of understanding the numbers. But more importantly, within 12 months Janet had her life back. If this sounds like something that might suit you, get in touch and we’d be happy to set up a time to talk it through.
