I was editing one of my videos earlier and this line stuck out to me: “All commerce runs on trust. The more that’s at stake, the more someone has to trust you. But once someone has done business with you, they trust their experience with you.” That got me thinking... Keeping customers really is easier than finding new ones. The numbers back it up: - It costs about 5 times more to get a new customer than to keep one. - People who come back spend about 67% more than new people. - The chance of selling again to someone who already bought is about 60-70%. With new people it’s more like 5-20%. - And for most small businesses, about 61% of revenue comes from repeat customers. So why does it work this way? Because once people trust you, they don’t have to figure out if you’re legit anymore. They already know. That’s why losing a customer hurts because now you have to go pay the “new customer tax” to replace them. Here’s what I’d do if I were you: 1. Pick 3 customers you’ve already worked with. Reach out. Thank them, check in, or offer a reason to come back. 2. Make a simple habit of staying in touch. That could be a call, an email, or just remembering them when you post online. That’s today’s Referral Friday thought. Trust is built by delivering, but it’s kept by showing up again and again.

Here’s something I found in my digging into ways of dealing with cash flow issues: (and a little infographic to make it easy to remember.) When you separate your cash into different buckets, it forces discipline. I pulled this from Profit First by Mike Michalowicz and other resources. They teach that when money comes in, you allocate portions to different accounts before you spend it: profit, taxes, owner pay, operating. What the research says: The Profit First system flips the normal formula (Sales − Expenses = Profit) to Sales − Profit = Expenses. That means you take profit first, then run your business with what’s left. They recommend using multiple bank accounts (buckets) so you always know what portion of your cash is profit, what’s for taxes, what’s for you, what’s for bills. Typical starting allocation: maybe 5-10% of revenue goes into profit first, then a chunk for taxes, then your owner pay, the rest is operating expenses. As you grow, you adjust those percentages. Here’s what you can start doing today in your business to make sure you’re not bleeding money and so it can run WITHOUT YOU: 1. Set up three separate accounts at minimum: Operating (for bills, supplies, day-to-day) Profit (set aside a % of every deposit) Tax (to cover your quarterly or annual tax bills) 2. Decide your percentages (even rough ones): e.g. 5-10% to profit, 10-20% or more to tax depending on your situation, rest to operating and owner pay. Doesn’t have to be perfect at first. 3. Each time money comes in, immediately split it into those accounts before spending. Get in the habit like clockwork. 4. Over time, track your numbers. If you find profit account is empty or tax account is short, you’ll see exactly where you priced too low or spent too much. If you don’t separate the money, it’s too easy to spend what you think you have. You end up working crazy hours, worrying about bills, and you don’t build reserves. When you do this splitting, you build breathing room, reserves, and the ability to step away (for a day, for a week) without everything falling apart. That’s part of building your business without you.

Law #1 of the $25K/Month Growth Formula: A business should GET customers by clearly being the best fit at solving their two problems. Here’s a simple checklist to see if your marketing is set up to do that: ✅ Clear Target — Can you name exactly who your customer is (not “everyone”)? ✅ Two Problems — Do you speak to both the tangible and the emotional pain? ✅ Google Business Profile — Is it set up, verified, and updated with photos + reviews? ✅ Follow-Up System — Do you have a way to follow up with every lead (text, email, call)? ✅ Entry-Point Offer — Do you have a low-risk “first step” offer that makes it easy to say yes? ✅ Message Test — If a stranger read your ad, flyer, or site, would they instantly know why you and not someone else? 👉 Take 5 minutes, run through this list, and check the boxes you already have in place. The gaps you circle are exactly where to focus this week.

So many times there's this feeling with business owners that asking for referrals is begging... but what I’ve seen is that referrals come from community. In this video, I share a story from my own life. How I learned from hosting simple, consistent gatherings how to build a group of friends from scratch, and how you can use the same idea in your business to keep customers coming back and bringing friends. 👉 Hit play and let’s talk about how to build a community around your business.

WITHOUT YOU Wednesday is all about turning your business into a machine. Here’s a quick check: If you disappeared for 2 weeks, what’s the FIRST thing in your business that would fall apart? Drop your answer below 👇