250 - Finding a Business Structure that Works For You with Haley Johnson
On today's episode of the podcast I chat with copywriter Haley Johnson about her P&L and income breakdown.
Haley Johnson is an ethical copywriter and trauma-informed marketer. In her six years in business, Hayley has tried scaling up to an agency model and scaling back down to what works for her. She recently found herself best able to describe her business in the last six months.
In addition to her copywriting, Haley has a DBA (doing business as) with another arm of her business called Propegy where she teaches people how to use LinkedIn to grow their business. Propegy brings in about 10% of Haley's revenue which she shares was helpful to know because the more she became okay with those numbers the better content she feels she creates for the brand. Currently she is revamping an offer for Propegy that had one buyer and they are going through the program together to fdeliver the offer 100% and see how it can be broken down into smaller pieces at a lower price point.
The other 90% of her business comes from Haley's three offerings to help with customer journeys, email sequences and sales pages. Her offers are $800 for a half day, a full day at $1500 or a full week at $2500. These offers were not in place in 2021.
In 2021 Haley was focused on making six figures because she felt like that's what all the internet coaches defined as success. She started the year with the intention of being a full service marketing agency doing everything from content to web design to social media with prices ranging from $1200 to $4500. She did this all throughout 2021 and it was too much and the expenses reflect that to cover the large team. Her revenue was $98,000 and she paid herself a lower hourly rate than any of her contractors or employees. Today, Haley no longer believes she needs to have six figures to be a successful business owner. Success is arbitrary. She does not want to offer hourly/retainer work again because she likes a tight turn around or being stuck in a contract.
Looking at Haley's profit & loss statement, a couple of line items stuck out. Her advertising expenses are only $220 for the year, covering her attempt at some Facebook ads but stopped because the cash flow wasn't at a place where she felt she could spend the money on Facebook ads. Her education and training expenses were about $15,000 and included a mastermind, a course, and an HR membership with Kira La Forgia that helped her with her business.
Of all the things Haley was investing in, she felt like many of the solutions for her problems were to invest in more things. She learned that she needed to take some time to be her own coach and find her own way to get to six figures instead of being told she has to get there. Currently she is on a coaching detox.
Group coaching and high ticket programs can be great, but sometimes they can be competing and when you can't do A & B simultaneously, you has the business owner have to decide which way you want to go.
Looking at Haley's 2022 P&L, she currently has one employee who does marketing and social media for Haley's business and podcast that isn't client-facing. She decided to hire an employee in December 2021 instead of a contractor because she knew the way she worked with people she needed to have some control of the employee's availability to work on projects. This year she still has contractors with a contractor expense of $8,000, part of which is her accountant and then also her one day branding intensive and a one day website build for Haley Johnson and a one day website build for Propegy because she wanted it taken off her plate.
Get in Touch with Our Guest
Haley Johnson, Customer Journey Strategist
Connect with Haley on LinkedIn
Listen to Haley's podcast, Messy in the Middle
Follow Haley on Instagram @haleyejohnson
Work with Haley at haleyejohnson.com
