Key Decisions

Change your business and life in 2023 by focusing on the right things

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During my year-end review, I realized that a few key decisions changed my business and life more than ever in 2022. I feel obligated to share these foundational choices that will empower you to reach new heights in 2023, as they did for me this year.

Let's dive in...

Investing in timely and accurate bookkeeping.

Business decisions are increasingly data-driven, yet a high percentage of operators' financial statements lag by months or even quarters (and are rarely accurate). Without a stranglehold on your financials, you're operating blind and guessing at best.

On the flip side, accurate Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow statements allow you to look forward and make intelligent decisions about investing, hiring, financing, distributions, and more. Depending on the size of your company, this will cost $500 - $3,000/mo. and will reduce anxiety and 10x clarity after the first month.

Action Item: Hire a bookkeeping service that reports within ten days of month close and shares KPIs like days cash on hand, receivables, payables, and more. If you need a recommendation, email me!

Building an Audience.

Heading into 2022, I had 1000 Twitter followers (mostly college friends) and was apprehensive about publicly sharing my thoughts. In January, I said f*ck it and started writing 1-2 threads per week. I now have 100K+ followers across Twitter and LinkedIn.

Some " friends " made fun of me, but I was rewarded with a massive bump in income, opportunities, and a key that opened many doors. An audience turns into a never-ending supply of options and opportunities. This space will get more competitive, so I'd start now.

Action item: Write 1-2 Twitter threads per week and use TweetPik or TribeScaler to repurpose them into LinkedIn carousels. Network in the DMs and create engagement by making real friends on the platforms.

Lean Teams.

I made the mistake of letting my teams get bloated because I was putting off tough conversations. The reality of ownership is you'll outgrow particular employees, and sometimes they won't be willing to change with the company. Most people crave comfort, and change is uncomfortable.

It's harsh, but you need to fire these people immediately. I let go of an early employee who refused to conform to new policies, which was my best decision this year. I felt/feel bad about it, but it had to be done. Immediately the rest of the team had new life/energy and knew I was serious about changes. We had a record-breaking Q4 — it's not a coincidence.

Action Item: Divide gross revenue (revenue after product costs) by / the # of employees. Your team is too bloated if this number is less than $150,000. This will vary by industry, but this is a safe benchmark.

Quick thoughts:

Over the year, you'll make 1000s of decisions, but a few will have an outsized impact on your success or failure. So emphasize these areas above; I guarantee you'll be in a better position one year from today.

Barrett

Quick SEO Case Study: $17K+ MRR in Months

This SaaS company started with Brightline in March 2022 and has experienced 85% growth in traffic and $17K+ in MRR... here's exactly what we did:

  • Improved authority with 70+ niche backlinks (healthcare)

  • Added 4-7 internal links to each blog to pass internal link juice to key pages

  • Advised on 5K+ new words of content per month

  • Removed or improved blogs with no traffic

  • Advised on-page SEO site wide

Simple and consistent = results.

Work with Barrett

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Thanks for reading!