Lumpy cash flow. Unpredictable income. Feast or famine. If you own your own coaching business, you’ve probably ridden the revenue rollercoaster a time or two. Scary for some, and exciting for others. Either way, this episode is for you! Join us as we explore strategies to smooth out the lumps and create stability in your cash flow, OR learn how to lean into the dips and curves so you can, dare we say, enjoy the bumpy ride! 🌟 Work With Us! BREA Roper Communication | Woo | Activator | Futuristic | Connectedness If you need a Strengths Hype Girl, for yourself or your team, connect with Brea at brearoper.com. She’s ready to deliver an inspirational keynote, empowering training, or transformational workshop. If you’re looking for an expert guide to support your internal Strengths efforts, reach out today! LISA Cummings Strategic | Maximizer | Positivity | Individualization | Woo To work with Lisa, check out team workshops and retreats at the Lead Through Strengths site. For 1:1 strengths or life coaching, check out the Get Coached link. For independent coaches, trainers, and speakers, get business tools support with our Tools for Coaches membership. Takeaways ● Embrace the Lumps: It's completely normal to experience fluctuations in your income. These ups and downs are part of the entrepreneurial journey, and don’t reflect your worth as a business owner. Instead of feeling like something is wrong, let's recognize this is a natural part of running a business. By accepting the lumps, we can better prepare for them, and even leverage them to our advantage. ● Create Predictable Revenue Streams: Finding ways to smooth out the revenue can help alleviate the stress of unpredictable cash flow. Consider strategies like offering retainers, group coaching, or digital products to establish a more stable revenue base. This can help smooth out the highs and lows of your cash flow. ● Nurture Relationships: Stay in touch with past clients, even if you're not actively selling to them. Simple gestures like sending a handwritten note or a small gift can keep you top of mind for future opportunities. ● Align with Your Strengths: Build your business around what you enjoy and excel at. When your offerings align with your passions, it becomes easier to sell and maintain enthusiasm for your work. Take Action ● Identify Revenue Patterns: Look for seasonal trends in your business. Recognize the months or periods that tend to be busier or slower, and plan your strategies accordingly. ● Create Consistent Income Streams: Explore options for establishing a steady base of income, such as offering retainer agreements, creating group coaching programs, or developing digital products that can be sold repeatedly. ● Nurture Past Client Relationships: Implement a system to stay in touch with past clients, whether through email marketing, or more personal outreach. This can help keep you top of mind for future opportunities. ● Leverage Your Strengths: Align your business strategies with your personal strengths and preferences. Focus on what energizes you to make selling easier and more enjoyable. ● Prepare for Lumpy Revenue: If you're considering transitioning from a corporate job to full-time entrepreneurship, assess your appetite for lumpy revenue. Create a financial plan that includes a savings runway or a solid customer base to mitigate the stress of unpredictable income. 🎧 If you're navigating the challenges of lumpy revenue or just looking for some inspiration, I encourage you to listen to this episode! Let's embrace the journey together and find ways to smooth out those lumps. #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #Podcast #LumpyRevenue #Networking #Coaching #SmallBusiness Let’s Connect! ● LISA: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook ● BREA: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram AI-Generated Transcript Lisa: I'm Lisa. Brea: I'm Brea. Lisa: And today we're talking about my humps, my hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely income lumps. Check it out. Priya, do you know what I'm referencing there? Brea: I do. Is it Black Eyed Peas or is it just a Fergie thing or am I totally off? Lisa: It's one of the two. I mean, it is Fergie's voice, whether it was Black Eyed Peas or Fergie solo, I'm not sure. You nailed it. If it's music, you know I've got a little bit of it. If you talk movies, forget it. I've got songs floating in my head all day, every day. So there you go. Yes. Brea: So our lovely revenue lumps. Lisa: Revenue lumps. We're talking about lumpy revenue, lumpy income, lumpy cash flow, lumpy demand. Some people even call these lumpy businesses. We're talking about these solo practices that many of us have, or small practices that are coaching, training, workshops, and they don't have predictable, steady, stable income, and it is the bane of the existence of many coaches. It freaks people out. They talk feast or famine. They don't know if it's normal. And they also want strategies for it. So, yeah, let's talk. I know you're going to want to define what we're talking about, Brea. So take us down the definition trail and then let's jump in. Brea: I mean, honestly, you did such a great job. You used feast or famine. I think that's a great, like, that clues us into what we're talking about. It's unpredictable. You know, this is unpredictable cash flow. Maybe another term would be seasonal. This is often seasonal business. And I think This is something that we can all relate to because a lot of the work that we do as entrepreneurs, as consultants, as you know, whatever it is that you're doing, a lot of it is project-based, right? So obviously that's not a consistent cash flow. There's a beginning and an end to that. And because we're selling into other markets that have slower sales cycles. In a previous episode, we talked about selling to corporate. That's maybe a longer, slower sales cycle than some other cycles. But there are cycles, there are seasons, there are longer lead times and shorter lead times. There's such a reliance on other people, on referrals, on things that are outside of our control that lead to this kind of lumpy, bumpy life. So today I would love to talk about what are the lumps and bumps that we're experiencing because, first of all, I don't think we talk about it enough. People just feel like there's something wrong with them, you know, if they're not perfectly consistent and that's not true. So let's just call it what it is and say it's actually normal to experience this rollercoaster of revenue. Lisa: Oh, rollercoaster revenue, there's another good one. Brea: Yeah, and maybe can we talk about how to create some predictable, consistent revenue streams that make the highs and the lows, the peaks and the valleys a little bit more tolerable, right? I'm just laughing. Lisa: It used to be on the inside, but it came out. I was trying to think of the name of that shapewear that people wear under their pants to smooth out the lumps. What is that called? The Spanx. We are coming up with Spanx for revenue. Brea: Hey, I love it. I love it. Lisa: Yes. And then, okay, you also, I wanted to just call out that this topic came up because you and I were talking And you were like, I don't know what's going on, but are you seeing this trend? There's a mega activity right now. And you were talking about the good, you know, the lumps, the ups, the good part. And I was laughing because I had just been on a call where people were like, have you seen this trend? There's such a retraction. Everyone is freaking out and, you know, killing their budgets. And that is such a truth. in the peer groups that I've been in over a decade of doing this work, you get one person who is on a high and they are on a roll. Then the next person is thinking the world is ending and we tend to assign our personal truths like that's what's going on for everyone and in every time, every time this goes on, you can look around and you can find examples of someone who's on the upper hump and somebody's on the lower hump. Brea: Yes, and we need each other so much. That's why these communities are so important. Hopefully this podcast is helping to fill that need to recognize that when I'm down, someone else can lift me up or I can be so excited that someone else is having a good day, even if I'm not. Then I can offer that energy when I'm on a high to someone else who might be on a low. And if we're both on a high, then we're sharing in that. And if we're both at a low, then we're sharing in that. So true. Lisa: Mm-hmm. OK. Well, should we get right into smoothing the lumps? Or is there more to talk about before ideas and business models and strategies for getting some predictability? Brea: Yeah, I want to talk about smoothing the lumps. I think Spanx for revenue is a very cool topic. And also, I kind of want to normalize the lumps. As a business owner, I don't mind the lumps. And I think part of that might be looking back and seeing, are there some patterns? Do I see that there are some seasons that are really high, some seasons that are slower? Can you find those patterns? And if you can, let's just, let's, let's just call it what it is, you know, and then lean into the highs and, and figure out some strategies to make sure you're, you're covered during the lows. It's okay to be lumpy and bumpy, is what I think I'm trying to say. And accepted. Yeah. I remember in 2023, I was expecting about three months of, I knew it was just going to be slower, where I'm not traveling as much, is what I mean by that. The work that I was doing was pretty much all virtual at the time. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
