2021 was the first FULL year in business, and I learned so much!

I’ve taken the last few weeks to reflect on last year hoping to find areas for improvement in 2022. So often, it feels like businesses only share their success metrics online. This means we’re only seeing a piece of the puzzle, instead of the whole thing. That can lead to a toxic mentality about the online business world! In this blog, I want to go over ALL of my business metrics with you—from the wins to the losses. That way you can see the full picture.

I gathered up allll the metrics for you and made them into easy-to-read graphs and charts, so let’s get started! Don’t worry, I included pretty much everything that I look at to evaluate my business on a quarterly basis. If you’ve never done an evaluation like this before, feel free to use this as an example! I got my inspiration from @thepassionscollective on Instagram!

Clients

My Clients & their Niches

Firstly, I wanted to start with my clients, because without clients there would be no business. Not to mention, questions about niches, clients, ways to find clients, etc. are what I get asked about the most. As you can see, my highest category of clients is service-based businesses and, more specifically, wedding photographers.

Interestingly, product-based businesses came in a close second with a wide variety of different businesses following in third. Oftentimes, I find that new Pinterest managers don’t include product-based businesses in their target market. This is a mistake! Product-based businesses are the perfect candidates for Pinterest Marketing because they’re constantly selling products, updating their offerings, and often have new content or products.

How my Clients Find Me

The next part of my evaluation looked at how most of my clients found me. The majority of my clients found me on Instagram. HOWEVER it is important to note that none of my long-term or ongoing clients are from Instagram. Instagram clients, on average, have typically hired me for 1-3 months at a time. The clients I’ve retained the longest have been from referrals from previous clients, or via Facebook groups.

Remember: If you’re struggling to find clients on Instagram, widen your reach. Facebook groups are a great way to showcase your expertise to potential clients who already know they need your services. Once you have 1-2 clients, create a referral program to encourage referrals.

Discovery Call Deep-Dive

Discovery calls, get-to-know-you calls, coffee chats, regardless of what you call them, they’re stressful when you first start your own business! However, seeing this breakdown of all of my discovery call data gives me a confidence boost. Even though I typically assume the worst, the data shows that I’m killing it. In fact, I have a 64% success rate, which is pretty great if you ask me!

I wanted to make sure that I included discovery call stats because it’s important to remember that everyone has unsuccessful discovery calls. I’m sure I’ll have even more of them in 2022! However, it’s important to keep booking them regardless of your success rate. You never know when the next one will be a new client! If you need tips on how to nail a discovery call, check out this IG post! (link)

Client Relationship Timeline 

The last part of client metrics that I tracked was how long I worked with each of them. The majority of my clients hired me for about three months, which is just long enough to start seeing traction on Pinterest. Almost all of my 5+ month clients are still working with me, which speaks for itself.

This metric is very important to evaluate because in 2022 I want to retain clients for longer periods of time by improving my client experience. Knowing that the average client length is four months also helps me plan my income, workload, and timeline for lead generation.

Finances

Income Breakdown

Some months are better than others. Because this is my first year in business, I can make any trend predictions based on time of year or season; however, I am excited to have this graph to refer back to in 2023 when I do next year’s breakdown!

At the end of the day, just because you have a few bad months doesn’t mean you won’t have an amazing next month. Looking at this graph, I’m sure you can tell when I was feeling down in the dumps about my business. But what brought the higher income months was determination, re-evaluation, and implementing new strategies. Don’t give up! Not every month will be an 8K month, but when you have one, it’ll feel GREAT.

Job Type Breakdown

Clearly, the majority of my work in 2021 came from Pinterest Management. In planning for 2022, I’m going to use this breakdown to figure out how I can better market myself for a more even distribution of work. While my specialty is Pinterest Management, I also started a coaching program in Q3, and I’d love to do more of that in 2022. Comparing this with the income breakdown is a great way to plan quarterly goals and create a marketing plan for each quarter in order to hit those goals.

Total Income & Total Expenses

I am proud of my 2021 total income. I went from making $1.6k a month–before starting my business–to the occasional $8k month and a consistent $4 – $5k month. That is massive growth, and it’s something to celebrate. Looking at my total take-home income, I’m definitely not RICH by any means. Unfortunately, running a business is costly. But I am comfortable.

I’m dedicated to being one of the best in my field, which means constantly reinvesting in my business. On top of that, there are so many subscriptions and services that are absolutely essential to my current business and my ability to scale in 2022, like my VA and tools like Notion, Canva, Click-Up, and Tailwind.

Looking for some business support?

Whether you’re a new Pinterest manager, or you’re interested in starting your own Pinterest management business, I want to help you! When I was a new business owner, I struggled a lot with self-doubt, and I almost gave up a couple of times. The success I’ve experienced this year makes me feel so relieved that I kept going, and I want to support you through those difficult times too. My 1:1 Pinterest Coaching Program is the perfect way to get started. I wrote a comprehensive Pinterest Management Workbook with 70+ pages of juice Pinterest management hacks and how-to’s for you, so that you will be successful! PLUS the 1:1 Coaching Program includes 4 strategy calls with me and 2 months of Voxer support.  Click here to apply for my next round of coaching, starting in February!