Hey,

Do you have a story like this? I bet you do...

The first time I realized I could make money was born out of my need to take action recycling after learning about it in 3rd grade.

Global warming fast became a worry that made me sleepless as a child with anxiety, somewhere around 1996.

I decided I would collect and recycle the soda cans for us, and for our neighbors, since recycling wasn't as accessible then.

Bonus, I learned could make a few dollars at the recycling plant by doing it.

"Get me some paper and something to write with,” said my dad, sitting at our kitchen table, in our yellow 90’s kitchen. “If you want to make this a business, I will show you what you need to know.”

I bolted to the dining room to grab some paper and crayola markers out of the craft bin.

"Here!" I handed him an orange piece of construction paper and my dad wrote out the math for eight-year-old me.

I can close my eyes and remember that piece of orange paper because it represented a new idea to me. I could not only make money, but I could compound it, and I could change the world I was living in.

I could potentially pay for things like a Mother’s Day gift for my mom from the garage sale down the street without asking her for a $5 bill first.

I could put money toward new art supplies, an N'SYNC cd from Borders, or a new Beanie Baby for my sister.

It made me realize how having a "business" could create independence in my choices. I wouldn't have described it that way at eight, but I vividly remember that sensation.

That business lasted about a year, but after that, I sold rocks that I painted. I cleaned my elderly neighbor's driveways, hosted lemonade stands, raked leaves, walked dogs, and babysat.

My neighbors were good sports.

I won every award for fundraising that existed, every time. I always sold the most Girl Scout cookies.

Later, I would work in my mom's Dog Biscuit Bakery (she still has it-treat your dogs!), in high school–a local boutique at the mall, while holding down two other part-time jobs and school. I would go on to co-own my own Vinyl Record Store & Gift Shop from age 19-35 and co-found a non-profit to help local business owners in my community.

The most uncomplicated business plan of all time taught me that the details are in the simple sh*t.

Recycling wasn't a new idea. I mean, cans existed, the recycling plant existed, and my neighbors were already filling bags. I just had the plan, did it consistently, and took an annoying task off their plate.

This isn't really about aluminum cans, but the formula still works, and it's the same one entrepreneurs forget to run when things start feeling hard.

Input × rate, subtract your costs, scale your volume.

Here's what that looks like in a coaching/consulting business:

Your Rate: You offer a service at $500.

Your Volume: You deliver it on average to 4 clients a month = $2,000 gross.

Your Costs: You subtract your tools, your time, your overhead. Maybe you're left with $1,100. These are made-up numbers, but you get it.

There are a few other things to calculate, like your time and energy but for the most part this formula always works.

Now you know what one offer actually makes you, and whether it's worth scaling or replacing.

It's easy to never run this kind of simple equation on your offers.

For instance, you may be working harder on the thing that feels busy vs the thing that's actually profitable.

And a lot of the time, you may be underpricing the offer that's closest to sustainable because you haven't done the math

So here's what I want you to do this week:

• List a few offers or income generating streams you have right now
• Run this formula on each, rate minus costs, multiplied by how many times you can realistically deliver it in a set amount of time.
• Find the one with the most margin and ask yourself if that one is getting the most attention.
• Then look at your pricing on everything else and ask yourself if the number you chose was based on math or on fear

Maybe somewhere along the way, you stopped running the formula and started running on fumes. That is ok. You can get back on track.

Have a great week!

Lauren V. Davis ​P.S. If you are curious what it is like to work together, feel free to see what my clients say Let's be real friends on social media! Add me on Linkedin or Instagram, and say hello!

​