At the end of January I carried out a detailed review of what went well and what didn’t go so well in my business and why. I’m here to share some wisdom from that review!
Dare I say that I actually had a good January. Yes, the days were short, dark and cold but I had my SAD light on at work which really helped me to be productive.
If you’re new here, it’s important to know that I work a 20 hour week so that I can be at home with my daughter after school and during school holidays.
I worked a total of 82 hours in January (between 16 and 20 hours a week) and 60% of that time was on my own sales and marketing. This needed to happen because after a lot of time off over Christmas and a revenue target for 2026, I was ready to crack on and get the sales in!
My hard work paid off…
Here are my January business review highlights:
♥️ I won 4 new clients and had 3 clients return to work with me.
🎯 After hitting my Jan goal, I also secured 55% of February’s revenue target in January. I increased this to 77% on target by the end of the first week in Feb.
💰My tripwire converted at 10% off the back of my live masterclass sign up page.
🙌 My clients were getting sales thanks to my direction and email campaigns.
🧘🏼♀️ I went to 7 pilates classes as part of my commitment to taking an every day holiday. This was fewer than I wanted but I got bronchitis and the snow stopped me getting to class one week!
🥰 I felt at peace and super calm both at home and in the business. This is probably the thing I’m most proud of from January - the inner work I did to stay grounded and happy.
Specific actions that had a positive impact on my solopreneur online business
Sales calls! I secured £7k worth of work from calls which was great.
The mindset stuff I mentioned above!
Checking in with cashflow and sales every single day. I have a sales plan for this which keeps me focussed on my goal.
What didn’t go so well in my online business and why?
My sales call conversion rate was lower than normal because I reduced the call time and spoke to some people who weren’t well qualified. This is changing for February!
My email list growth was lower than usual because I switched off ads and I got fewer new sign-ups via my masterclass than anticipated. I have a fix for list building in Feb.
The majority of my revenue in January came from my email marketing strategy. You can read more about how I write my weekly email newsletter in as little as 15 minutes here.
My notes from my January review confirm that I hate selling in the DMs on social media (no time or energy) and so I went with my strength: lead generation from my emails. If you’re also tired of selling on social media, here’s why you should focus on email marketing.
I’m sharing this monthly business review to remind you that:
You don’t need to work full-time hours in your business to get great results if you portion up your time to include revenue-generating tasks. I write about this in more detail on my blog: How I run a profitable service business in a 20 hour week.
Email marketing is a super efficient way to book sales calls and sign clients.
You don’t need to be a social media pro to grow a 6-figure business.
This was the only photo I took of myself in January. It about sums up how I feel about the cold weather.
Cheering you on!
Kelly
💬 If this mini January review was interesting, comment to tell me so and I’ll write more content like this.
⚒️ USEFUL LINKS:
🔗 As a solopreneur service provider, I’m constantly asked: How do you get so much done? I wrote a blog on this recently: How I run a profitable service business in a 20 hour week.
🔗If you want to review your business, try my 7 powerful questions for your quarterly business review.
🔗 If you would love to get more people on your email list so that you can rely less on social media for leads and clients, download my free guide: 25 ways to grow your email list for free.