All big goals are just a series of small steps.
With that in mind, anything can be achieved…
Even earning $1 million a year.
It sounds like a huge goal on paper, but let’s break it down into smaller steps.
- $1M per year = $83.4K per month
- $21K per week
- $3K per day
Doesn’t $3K per day sound less daunting than $1 million per year?
Now don’t get me wrong, making $3K per day consistently for 365 days a year isn’t easy.
That’s why only 9% of businesses make it to the $1m mark.
But once you break it down into parts, it’s much easier to see a path to get there.
There are many different business models to make $1 million per year, which I’ll explain shortly.
For now, let’s break that goal down even further to put it into perspective.
Say you sell an online course for $200.
To make $3K per day, you’d need to sell 15 per day.
Could you sell 15 a day? Possibly. What if you increased the price to $300? Then you’d only need to sell 10 a day.
Everything feels more possible once you understand the individual components at work.
To make this easy for you to see in action, I’ve created a free template which I’ll share with you further down.
So let’s explore several ways to make $1M per year…
If you’re selling low-priced digital products…
Say you’re selling one low-priced digital product.
This might be a cheat sheet for $15 or a one-off guide for $100.
Your route to $1 million might look like the following:
To make $3K per day you’d need to sell 200 x $15 cheat sheets a day.
Whereas if you’re selling $100 guides, you’d need to sell 30 a day.
What about if you’re selling high-ticket items…
This makes things easier.
Say you’re selling $500 video courses or $1000 workshops.
To make $3K per day you’d need to sell 6 video courses or 3 workshops every day
Sounds easier? On paper it is, but don’t underestimate the work that goes into selling higher-priced products.
Thankfully there’s a way to combine the benefits of selling both low and high-priced products to create a more achievable path to $1M in sales…
Discover the specific leverage points that will unlock growth in your business in less than 3 minutes. Start the diagnostic.
The ideal strategy – reaching $1 million even faster using deep funnels
If you’ve read my growth note on deep funnels, you’ll know the impact they have on revenue.
Deep funnels are where you sell multiple products in quick succession when your customers are in ‘buying mode’. It works on the buying principle that a customer is most likely to buy from you at the point that they’ve just bought something.
Typically these products increase in value following a concept called a ‘value ladder’.
So let’s explore how combining low and high-priced products can help you to hit $1M faster.
The example below gives an idea of what a value ladder could look like in a digital product business:
- Free weekly newsletter or a lead magnet
- $15 cheat sheet
- $100 guide
- $500 course
- $1000 workshop
Let’s assume the conversion between each stage of the funnel is 10%. Here’s how the math works out:
- 2000 email subscribers
- 10% take the $15 cheat sheet – 200 customers ($3000)
- 10% of that take the $100 guide – 20 customers ($2000)
- 10% of that take the $500 video course – 2 customers ($1000)
- 10% of that take the $1000 workshop – 0 customers ($0)
That’s $6K in revenue right there.
Feels more achievable than trying to sell 400 x $15 cheatsheets to make the same amount.
By diversifying the products you’re offering, you’re opening up more potential revenue streams.
You’ll be able to see this in action for yourself with the template linked further down.
Mix-in continuity offers to accelerate growth further
Having to make the same money each day is hard work.
This is why creating Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) can help you to reach $1 million even faster.
An example of this would be an ongoing subscription for coaching.
Let’s see how this plays into the above example of the value ladder:
- 2000 email subscribers
- 10% take the $15 cheat sheet – 200 customers ($3000)
- 10% of that take the $100 guide – 20 customers ($2000)
- 10% of that take the $500 video course – 2 customers ($1000)
- And let’s assume 1 customer per month subscribes to a $1K monthly coaching subscription
Month 1 revenue: Products $6K, Coaching $1K, Total $7K
Month 2 revenue: Products $6K, Coaching $2K (you now have 2 paying customers), Total $8K
Month 3 revenue: Products $6K, Coaching $3K (you now have 3 paying customers), Total $9K
See how each month the continuity offer is building up the recurring revenue part without needing to keep replacing customers from previous months? This plays into other important metrics like Customer Lifetime Value and Cost of Customer Acquisition.
Your roadmap to $1M per year
Here’s what you need to do…
Note down your current digital product offers. Then, map out what your ideal value ladder could look like if you don’t already have one. Add price points for each of the steps.
For now, assume a 10% conversion rate between each. You’ll need to measure the actual conversion rates and look to improve them once you start delivering.
From here, you should be able to roughly work out how many of each you’ll need to sell every month to hit the $1M per year mark.
To help you do this, I’ve created a spreadsheet template that you can use here.
Play around with the different price points and conversion rates to see what you need to do to hit $1M per year.
Doing this will give you great clarity on the exact targets you need to hit to reach your goal.
If this is something you need help with, me and my team can help.
Hope these ideas help.
Until next time,
– Dan Steinhart, CPA
P.S. Take this simple 3-minute diagnostic to identify the hidden leverage points in your business that will help you to hit 7 figures faster. Start here.