The Revenue Target Trap Most Business Owners Fall Into

A lot of business owners set a revenue goal and hope motivation will carry them there.

But chasing a number without a clear path can create pressure fast.

In this episode of Honest Brew, we talk about a different way to approach growth. Instead of obsessing over the end number, we explore how to reverse engineer your goals, focus on realistic milestones, and build momentum without burning yourself out.

We also talk about why revenue alone can be misleading, how success looks different for every business, and why alignment matters just as much as income.

If revenue goals have ever made you feel overwhelmed, behind, or disconnected from why you started your business, this conversation will help you rethink the process.

Because growth is not just about hitting a number. It is about building something sustainable enough to keep going.

A candid conversation between three seasoned business women who've been in the trenches of entrepreneurship. We bridge the gap between the glamorous just market and sell advice and the reality of what it takes to build a sustainable business. While most business content focuses on marketing, branding, OR operations in isolation, we bring all three worlds together. Because your brand culture needs to live in every system you create, your operations need to support your brand promise, and your marketing needs the infrastructure to deliver on what it sells.

We're here for the solopreneurs ready to grow beyond themselves, the partnership survivors rebuilding stronger, and anyone tired of business advice that treats branding, marketing, and operations as separate planets when they're part of one ecosystem.

HOSTS

Cheale Villa, Visual Caffeine, visualcaffeine.com / Monique Johnson, MoJo Design, ...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to Honest Brew, Unfiltered Conversations on Business Growth. I'm Shelle from Visual Caffeine. I'm Monique from Mojo Design, and I am Sarah from Indigo Elephant. We're coming to a place today where we're looking at setting that number. You set the number, you wrote it down, and maybe you even said it out loud. But somewhere between January 1st and right now, that revenue goal started feeling less like a destination and more like a dare. This week we're getting into what actually looks like to build toward a revenue goal in a way that doesn't require you to burn everything down to get there. We're talking about strategy, sustainability, and the backwards math that just might change your plan forever. Let's grab our teacups and click some nice brew. Great. So the problem with forward thinking. So most business owners set a revenue goal. And I guess I feel like sometimes you just hope for the best. But actually, what ends up really happening is that you hustle towards a no, like no clear map in that destination. So you look at that goal in front of you. And I will say, and I think I'm not alone in this room, that I really in 27 years of business, I have never really set a goal, a revenue goal. I will say that I have set where I want to increase by 25% or something like that. But numbers, being a creative person, they do nothing but stress me out. So where are you guys on goals and this numbers game, so to speak?

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yeah, I mean, like you, I don't set a number that I'm gonna achieve every year, but I just my goal really is to just do better than the previous year. Like I know that's very generic. Like you said, as a creative person, I don't find that it makes it any easier or effective by just sending setting a number. It's like it's I'm not that kind of person where I have to make this so I need to break my back to make it happen. And I'm more of the flow and and see what the world presents to me and how I can take advantage of those opportunities and um just be a better business person in general. Some things that I do look at are year over year how my business has shifted over time. Right. And then like the number of clients that I'm bringing in, the type of work that I'm doing. Like maybe there are some uh project types of projects that I am getting more of suddenly in a single year. And so like I take note of all those things. Sometimes you get more of the smaller projects. Sometimes you have like a few bigger projects and they bring in more money. I know it's not the the best answer, but I don't have like a clear-cut, complete formula of what actually works for me. I definitely take note of the ways that I support my business from a back-end perspective. And if I'm becoming better and more efficient and effective in those areas, typically it's gonna bring in more work.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

I also don't really set revenue goals, which you would think as an operations person, and all of my goals would be about.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

I just say the major, major mic drop there because that was the last answer I expected.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

And I would say I like knowing where my money's going. I like tracking it, I like understanding how I'm doing month to month. I like seeing from year to year, like money, because I do feel like it is important to understand where it's going. And the reason that I don't focus so much on my revenue goals is I've had a tumultuous relationship with money. So if I set a goal of like I want to hit six figures in 2027, it would actually create a lot of unnecessary pressure on me to where I'm no longer being of service. I'm I need to get these people to make this money. And that's not why I started my business. Like my access service is my love language. So to me, if a LinkedIn post gets one like, I have served that one person. And the more I just live in that purpose, the less I really have to worry about money. Cause the more people I impact, the more revenue I will get. I, of course, have some like tangible ways to like achieve your revenue goals just based on how I've seen other clients operate. Cause I really feel like it depends on some people make better decisions off of like the profit and loss, or they like the numbers thing. Like my fiance for his weight loss goals or him building muscle. He likes that data. He likes seeing how his weight goes up and down, how his food intake goes up and down. That data thrives for him. To me, it stresses me out. I'm like, oh my God, I've gained weight. I ate this much. I so for me, numbers actually do can overwhelm me. And so by grounding in access service and understanding what activities can generate more revenue for me, whether it's immediately or later on, that's what's most important to me.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

And what I love that I'm hearing you all say, um I'm totally in alignment with is looking at other ways that you know you're being successful. And I think that that, I think that there has to be, when it comes to growing your business, it has to be something that aligns for you and how you measure that success. You know, do you measure that success by the fact that you're only working with people that you absolutely love working with and you're still making a wage that is, you know, sustainable or whatever? Like at the end of the day, the companies making, you know, business, they kind of think about like a lot of the trash on social media is that, you know, make your first million or have that five million dollar business this year. And you like they throw out those monies, that money stuff. I am one person who has never been attracted by that kind of drop, but unfortunately a lot of people are. But what I find, and there's bring this up, is I find if I am driven by money or anyone is driven by money, the stuff that's actually most important to me would fall, you know, to the side, which is customer, you know, customer satisfaction, making sure that what we're creating is really like heart-centered in their business, like the customer experience, the the relationship. Like if I just think that there would be this impact to your customer relationship if you only viewed them as a number. Yeah. Which if you look at historically, anybody who's just been treated as a number, they're human, the humanness and the human connection just goes to trash, right? So I, you know, you don't want to treat your clients that way either. And I'm not saying you can't have both, but I think it is a little bit more of a challenge. Um, I think that you just you have to be disconnecting from the human more to focus on the money. And um, but once again, I'm not saying that to say that people who look at their money like and look at those things, that's not who I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that. Because I will say, with what you guys are talking about, the one thing I thought of in that was how I actually look at previous years on, you know, the months that we made the most money and what was going on in those months. Like I've done that analysis continually in my business, and that's where I know like where we might, I might feel like we're doing like we're making better money at certain kinds of things, like certain kinds of project scenarios or whatever. But when I like step back and look at like other mods, like, no, actually, surprisingly, these kind of things actually bring in the most. And then you kind of make that decision of what you prefer. But you know, I mean, this whole like six-figure, this whole six be a six-figure business or a seven-figure business, it's like, I don't know. I've been in a six-figure business for over 20 years. I don't like it's just to me, it's so it's such a weird thing to even be talking about.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah, it's a gimmick to like hook people in and then but for them to achieve those goals is I mean, I would I would I would be curious to hear what uh the percentage rate of successful people in those, you know, that are that are fall for the gimmick. What is the success rate of that? Because, you know, I just think that for the person that is presenting the gimmick, maybe it did work for them. But there it's such a specific to what they're doing, who they are, how much of a go-getter they are, what industry are they in, what's their location. There's so many variables and factors that come in that maybe they did reach their that successful goal, but not everyone that doesn't mean that it's just like a given, you know. So I I think that it comes down to how individual, like every small business is so unique. It's as unique as the person is. So it's just not unfortunately, there's not really a cookie cutter for, oh, make this, you know, make all this money in your first year business. It's it's really the long game and building up your strategies and your brand, you know, to draw people in and make those connections.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah, and I like that you said the long game because I think that that feeds people's, you know, that whole get rich quick kind of desire, which does not typically exist. I'm sure there's a small percentage, I won't say never, but it's not, it's not the main way.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

No, and I agree with you both because I feel like there's layers to it. I do believe you can become successful faster than you think, because based on how you're showing up as a person, how you're operating, what you're doing, can make blessings come to you faster. And then on the flip side, with what we see on social media, people who say, like, I've made seven million in like seven days, like something like so stupid, like that. It's money sells, you know, people see that and they think authority, which again, we don't know how they achieved it. Just because they've made that doesn't mean it's profit. They could be losing money. Um, a lot of those numbers are just revenue, which is not profit. So it's like you do have to use discernment on like when you're seeing those things because you can tell the people who are honest about how they made it. They're not blowing smoke up your ass about it. They're like, no, it sucked. I'm an overnight success. It took me four years to get here. So it's like that's something like me forget what's happening behind the scenes because that's not what we always show. And I feel like on the flip side, too, where having revenue goals can help. I do feel like it can help ground you. The way I the reason I say that is our brains can make it seem really hard. Like, how do I get to six figures? How do I do this? Being able to work backwards to the point where you're like, I only have to sign two clients a month to reach this. I just have to make sure I'm getting on X amount of discovery calls per month. It can make your goals seem more achievable because it's broken down. And as you break it down, you kind of realize it's less about the number. It's more of like, how many conversations am I having with people? How much am I showing up online that's of value, that's helping them, that's helping them see like, oh shit, I need help with go high level. I need to talk to Sarah. I need help with branding. I must talk with Monique or Shell. Like the more you do that, the more naturally people will be attracted to you. And because this is a business, money will be exchanged.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah. A couple things in there. One is it was so funny when you you brought up like how much they're actually making. What I was literally in my head was going, yeah, I made a million dollars and I spent $900,000 on Facebook advertising to get them. You know, like you don't know you you like people like focus on like bragging about their revenue, and it's like, yeah, but if they've got like 90% expenses, like okay. I don't know. And and I also the other thing that came up for me is these organizations, and I'm not gonna spin them out, but they're like, there's organizations out there that you have to have, you have to make a million dollars in revenue. To be in these organizations, you have to make a million dollars in right to get into them, right? This is about the equality of businesses, a service-based business, it takes a lot more for them to make a million dollars than say a construction business. Someone on paper who like a construction business. Yeah, a lot of what they're making is just money that's coming in to cover the materials that were made. So, like, and I, you know, like, or or like a retail business, they have a certain amount of inventory they have to be like bringing in and out. Like, there's not an there's not a you can't just say flat out like a million dollars, you have to bring a million dollars to, you know, and to me, what I'm pointing to in that is like apples to apples to oranges, and then there's a lime in there. You can't even compare them depending on the type of business you're in. Just like when you, if you're in a retail business, the hit to your business based on the economy is gonna be very different than someone who's a service-based business. Like, and even, and there's so much within those categories. I'm talking about very general categories, but even within those. And what I love, Monique, that you put in was every business is different. And we talk about this a lot in here. And we have to not only bring that lens to looking at our own businesses and giving ourselves grace and permission to be where we are at and what it is for us to be aligned, but also bring it to the place of imposter syndrome where you are not putting in a comparison lens and then somehow saying, like, you're trying to make that make sense, you know, and it and it won't. It won't, you know. Um, I say the people who seem to make these claims tend to be businesses who are selling people on products and courses to build their businesses. That tends to be the people making those claims. So they're making money at telling people how to make money. And I don't have a lot of respect for that because they are there what they're doing is they're trying to hit an emotional spot where people are money triggered. And we all have like everybody has a money issue, you know. I my first marriage, I had abuse related to money. So, like, we all have our thing with money and we all have our history with money, we all have our so, you know, story around money, right? So, where this conversation has weighed though, more is other ways that that can look. If you learn about numbers, you're you don't want to like think about money, but you want to make sure that your business is growing and is successful. There are so many other ways you can look at it. And a lot of those have already been spoken in today's episode, which I am thrilled about. So I'm gonna jump into where the idea for this episode actually started. And it was um a conversation that I was having about a tool that I had learned in being trained as a coach. Um, and one thing I think is great about this tool is you can make it so it meets you where you are at and where you want to be at, right? So there is a reverse engineering approach. And the idea behind this is what is that, what is that future vision? And I'm a vision person. I like looking at the bigger picture. Like one of my favorite questions to ask somebody is like, where do you want to be 10 years from now, right? So where do you want your business to be like a year from now? And thinking of that, okay. So let's say January of next year, these are the things that I want to be celebrating with my business. Now it could be like number of clients. It could be that I I I landed uh, you know, three clients that were supporting them as an external marketing department. It could be, you know, um, our own client's success that we're measuring our success by their success, which I think everyone in this room does measure their success by their clients' success to a certain degree, right? There's a myriad of ways to look at what this vision is, but the thing is is to get to a place where you are thinking of what that vision is. So we're saying January. The idea with this tool is that you create a date. Okay, I pick this date, all right, January 1st. And I'm going to sit here and I'm going to reflect on this last period of time. And yes, I reach that. Okay. The idea of the reverse engineering is that after you determine what you want to achieve by that date, and if you are a numbers person, by all means say, I want to hit this number. I'm not, we're not like trying to leave those people out, and nor are we trying to speak negatively of in that way. I think I hope everybody understands what we were pointing to when we were talking about people who are number focused. But determine your resources. So all the resources that you need to achieve that. And this can be people, this can be software, this can be whatever you need. This can be that you need to go out and get a dog because you need the comfort to get through this year. I don't know. It can be any. So once you determine that, though, you go back to that date. And now you start going backwards. And this is where the verse engineering goes. So if I want to like achieve this in January, in December, I need to be at this place. This is what I need to be doing in December. This is what I need to be doing in November. This is what I need to be doing. Okay. A couple things that this can achieve for you. One, it helps you focus on right now versus getting all messed in the head with the fruit you goal. Because one thing that can get in our way when we're trying to achieve anything is that we can get all stuffy in our head about like, oh my gosh, like it feels so overwhelming or this feels impossible. But by bringing it out in these milestones, you are able to just focus on that milestone. If you get reverse engineered all the way back and you're like, whoa, for me to be in that place, I actually need to be with this place right now. Well, then you might want to adjust a little bit of your goal there. Because sometimes that can create a reality check for you too. But the main thing is what it's meant for is not only to help you achieve what you want to achieve, but it's also to keep you out of overwhelm and imposter syndrome. Keeps you in like a little bit tighter of a boundary of where that you're expecting yourself to be. So I just I wanted to put that in there because now for me, I don't fully do that tool. I take out of that tool what works for me. The vision part, kind of breaking out a little bit of the milestones. But I what's weird is I actually, my brain works. I have to actually do forward milestones, but I do it to that day. So you don't have to reverse if you don't want to. I will say, like, okay, I want to achieve this in January. Then I see that the da-da-da-da. But I see the wisdom in the milestones going in reverse because then at least you know you're chopping up the stuff you have to do, um, probably in a little bit more realistic manner. It's just my brain doesn't want to work that way. I can honor that. That's all I'm saying. One of the really great parts of it that I do think is important for all of us is to make sure that we are accessing our resources. One thing that I think that um soloprinters and small business people are very guilty of is trying to do it all in their own and not delegating out, not accessing the wisdom and the genius of the people who are around you and have been put in your life for a reason. And that can even be a YouTube channel that you just completely love, like us, right? So let me know if you got a question. Um, but anyway, I put that out there. See, Monique's like, be quiet, let me talk. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Well, you just made me think of one of my goals for this year is to better my back end systems and organization and efficiency. So I have hired the lovely Sarah from Indigo Elephant to help me get it together and be less manual, more automation, and just using, because it's only me, myself, and I, using my time in a the most efficient and effective way. That's been I started with this goal last year. I don't think it's a bad thing to carry it through from one year to the other, but I love, love, love setting monthly goals like you mentioned, Shell, because it keeps you. One task and you feel like it's more attainable, it doesn't feel overwhelming, but the end goal, like once you've achieved A, B, C, D of this larger goal, it's a cumulative thing. I love the monthly goal thing because I just feel like it keeps you present and it's attainable.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Another thing I've seen clients do is if they have an offer that's like their signature thing that they repeat every year, they'll map out when they're gonna do the launch each quarter. Their desire, like their goal is like, of course, they're like, I want to hit maybe a million dollars. But when it comes to their actual launches, they're like, I want to help this many students. And that in itself, those students have to pay to be in the program. That can also be another way to like look at revenue. I have another client when it comes to her launches, is she looks at each month and she's like, What are we launching or sharing that's gonna make us money this month? And it can be based on like, I'm really passionate about video editing. I want to do a workshop on editing, or I'm doing my signature challenge, I want to do it this quarter this month. So it can be ways of seeing acts of service leading you to the revenue that you want to achieve. And I personally like that perspective because it does detach me from the money and it detaches me from a sense of failure because I didn't make 5K in January. It's like, no, I actually helped these two amazing people that may never have come to me if I was so short and narrow and about how I wanted it to come. So I feel and I hope from this conversation is like there's so many different ways to look at revenue. There's so many different ways to make goals around it. And at the end of the day, I do think it is really important to understand where is your revenue going? What are your expenses? What is your cost per lead? Like those are just valuable data points that you do want to have in your back pocket.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

There's one thing that I wanted to mention. I always have the mom perspective, right? And I have two kids and they're older, but you know what? They're always gonna be my kids, and it's always gonna, they're always gonna be my priority, right? So one thing that I track is the amount of time that I've actually worked in a year versus had time off. I for many years I never even factored that in, and I would just get so upset myself because oh, I didn't make more money this year than last year. But I had things going on in my life that obviously takes up time. So I just I guess I just wanted to throw the time factor into the mix because we haven't really talked about that at all. And I think it's something that's legitimately a factor.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah, absolutely. This year I I have a goal to be have quite growth in my company this year. But I also it's like, but it my company served me really well the last few years that we've had, and we still continue to have health things in our family, but we had some a lot of health stuff and stuff, and if it's like in some way, company was able to do that um and continue to function and support. And now it's it feels like time, like we're settled in now with our routines, and now we can go to that. So I totally think that's valid, and thank you for bringing that. And with that, I want to leave uh us a quote before we go to Les Ives. My my quotes I find are always good love punches. I think revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, uh, but cash flow is reality, and with that, last sips.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

I should say we all hope from this episode that there are ways to reach revenue goals where your whole life isn't about money and that revenue. There are ways to look at how you're serving your people. What's that experience like? What is your experience like actually doing the work for the clients? Those I find are can be more valuable than being like, I need to hit six figures by 2027. Could it happen? Absolutely, but keep your mind and time open for other blessings to come in because life is gonna life whether we like it or not. And that if you are a data person, please keep doing what you're doing. Just have discernment on is it supporting you or is it hindering you? And with that, I hope you guys have an amazing day. Thank you so much for tuning in. And as always, please leave us a review if you love us and share it with people who you think would benefit from it.