This is the third part of a three-part series where I take you behind the scenes of my most recent program launch. Before reading on you might like to read Part 1 and Part 2.
For the last two posts you got a peek behind the curtain of my first six-figure launch. I told you what went right and wrong and everything in between.
I also told you why one-on-one services are far more profitable than large group programs, and I promised to reveal some numbers to prove why.
But before I do that…
You should know that the thought of revealing the specific numbers behind my launch makes me very uncomfortable.
There’s a reason hardly anyone in this industry shows the REAL numbers from their business!
At the same time, I really wish someone would have been this transparent with me years ago about what “next level launching” looks like.
So here we go…
The Actual Numbers
For this Make It Work Online© program, we enrolled the most amazing clients. Smart, motivated, driven action-takers who are ready to get their businesses moving, get clients, and create consistent income doing work they love and making a difference for others. (I love my clients!)
The total revenue was around $420,000.
Add in payment plans and the Get Your First 1000 Subscribers downsell, that’s about an additional $25,000.
Sounds amazing, right?
And it is, until you add up what it cost to generate this revenue.
The Launch Expense List
Running a large-scale launch isn’t something you can do alone—especially if you want to get enough sleep and not burn yourself out.
Personally, I like to work with a team of experts who are each amazing at what they do.
As a result, my launch expense list looked like this:
- Facebook ads
- Facebook ad manager
- Copywriting support
- Backup VA and customer support
- A team of people to help me review applications
- Sales and affiliate commissions
- Community manager
- Design
- Web and tech support
- Professional video shooting and editing
- Credit card processing fees
- Additional software expenses
Then there’s the program delivery expenses, which includes paying my amazing team of talented coaches to serve our clients.
Also—sad as it is—there are always clients who default on payments.
For this launch, the above expenses add up to just about $130,000.
And this doesn’t include the web and tech costs and professionally shot videos from the last launch that we reused (totaling another $20,000). Which would bring us to…
$150,000.
Yikes!
The Monthly Business Expense List
Aside from the launch team I have in place, I also have my “core team.” These are the incredible people who help keep jennyshih.com running smoothly month after month. I pay most of my team on a regular retainer.
This means, in addition to my own salary, my ongoing, monthly expenses include:
- Almost full-time assistant
- Content strategist and copywriter
- Designer
- Web and tech support
- Bookkeeping
- Secondary VA support
- Many different tech services and software like website hosting, email marketing, shopping cart, and webinar services, just to name a few
- Insurance
- Payroll taxes
Plus other non-recurring expenses like legal, travel, training, supplies, etc.
In total, it costs between $20-25,000 every month just to stay in business.
Then there’s Uncle Sam. (For you non-US folks, that’s taxes.)
So, at the end of the day, after this launch, and after we set aside the seed money for the next launch, my business pretty much just breaks even.
(Bet you didn’t see that coming!)
Click to TweetNo sugarcoating here! Jenny Shih shares the REAL numbers behind her most recent launch.On Top of It All, Launches Are Risky
The other tricky part about a launch like this is that most of the expenses (except for things like affiliate commissions) have to be paid before I make any money.
Launching on this scale requires I have everything ready and paid for in advance, including Facebook ads, sales pages, email sequences, workshop materials, video training… everything.
This means I need cash on hand (or a very fat credit limit, and I don’t have that much room on my credit card) to be able to even launch in the first place.
For those of you considering launching your own program or course, it also means you have to be 100% certain that your offer is viable, or you’ll be left in a huge pickle with massive debt.
And even then, there are so many scary “what ifs.” What if it doesn’t work this time? What if I get sick during the launch? What if our website goes down? What if our credit card processing breaks? What if…?
There are infinite things that could go wrong, and just like that—Poof!—I’d be screwed and my team would be too.
My Personal Recommendation for YouThe Hard Truth of What It Really Feels Like to Run My Online BusinessNow, Let’s Compare That to When It Was Just Me…
I think back to 2013 and 2014 when my business first hit its multi-six-figure mark. It was just me, a very part-time VA, some light social media support, and a little web and tech support.
My monthly costs were a few hundred dollars (excluding hiring coaches for myself), leaving me with huge profit margins.
On top of that, it was much easier to serve my clients.
And on top of that, there was so much less financial pressure month to month, because I built a six-month waiting list.
Plus, I had honed my coaching process so the work was easy. (This was back when I was my sickest, so I’m grateful for the ease I created.)
My take-home pay was twice what it is now, give or take.
So this leaves me regularly asking myself why I’m not back in that business model. The money makes so much more sense!
Then I remember Lesson #7: I love teamwork so so much!!
Teamwork is a big driver for me because it allows me to work in my zone of genius.
(I’m an “Arranger” if you know StrengthsFinder or a “Lord” if you know Wealth Dynamics. If you don’t know either, just imagine the role of an orchestra conductor and translate that to business; that’s me in my genius zone.)
This is why I’ll continue to deliberately choose this path because it’s more fun and fulfilling. Fulfillment, personal growth, and fun over profits—that’s success on my terms.
The Bottom Line
This is why I say over and over and over to my clients:
Don’t switch to groups because you think it will make you more money.
It won’t.
Stick with one-on-one as long as you continue to love the work. It’s more profitable, way less stressful, comes with much lower risk, and takes so much less time and effort when you add it all up.
Now, I’d love to hear from you.
What do you think when you read these numbers?
What surprised you?
Do they make you more likely or less likely to launch your own group program?
Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.
My Personal Recommendation for You7 Steps to Make It Work Online
Wow Jenny! Thank you for sharing this and thank you for doing what you love rather than what pays xx
So glad to be in your program 🙂
Becky Booth
Jenny,
AWESOME!!! of you to share. Congrats for seizing what you love!
There are many ways to build a business… speaking, in-person networking, online marketing, referral relationships, paid advertising….
And….some teachers think that “The Way” they have built their business is “The Way” for everyone.
I loved your program and that you always push people to do what’s best for them and the clients they serve.
Adding Groups is an option to allow more people access at a different price point, and not necessarily a guarantee of more $. There are many ways to make six figures.
Continue to BElieve in YOUrself!
xoxo Tina Wascovich, MIWO 2017, Helping clients achieve career success.
So glad to work with both of you! <3
Wow! I’m shocked. Mainly because EVERYONE online is pushing you to go to groups, online and virtual courses & it just doesn’t make any sense! (well not if you’re going to do it properly anyway…!). I love working 1:1 and only wanted to create it online because then I could reach more people … I’m sure I will one day, this at least takes the pressure off and helps me stay grounded in doing what I love (& what I can afford right now).
Thank you so much for your honesty 🙂 & good luck to all your new enrolees!
Best wishes, Katie
(p.s., I’m doing your success without sacrifice course at the moment & it is AMAZING!!)
WOW that is a shock! And, honestly, a HUGE relief!
I am very much a lone wolf. I do my best work alone. While I love empowering and guiding others, leading through example and coaching, being an employer/manager doesn’t resonate at all. The thought of having a team of employees makes me ill. I plan to hire consultants and contractors (and coaches, like you, specifically you when I’m there!) but you know that that is very different to having a full time team.
All of the entrepreneurs I know are in industries or have businesses they want to scale with a team. The thought has never appealed to me, but I didn’t want to ham-string my ability to grow. It is really nice to hear that not EVERY business benefits from a team!
Honor what’s right for you as a person and what’s right for your path, always. It will bring the greatest fulfillment which is a big part of what we do this business for in the first place!
I really appreciate your transparency Jenny. I’m in the beginning stages and thinking about what direction I plan to take and this is a really helpful perspective to weigh.
Holy $h!t. Thank you for sharing this brutal truth. As a newbie entrepreneur, I am so grateful for this insight from a veteran launcher. My sincere gratitude in doing something you love to help others reach their dreams. I’m honored to be a part of your program. Much love and gratitude, Deanna
That was surprising, and liberating. I have had this background worry that I would have to keep getting bigger and taking on bigger challenges as my business grew ( I’m in MIWO because I am just getting started in business). I loved your ads and signed up with you because I only want to work 20-30 hours per week, I love 1:1 coaching, and I would love to be portable and be on the road 1/2 of the year, still working. Thanks for pointing out the financial wisdom of that approach. I don’t know what my type is (other than upholder) but it would probably be more lone wolf. So I can rest easy now, knowing it’s ok to stay with what I love.
Jenny, thank you for sharing, this is amazing! I just never understood all of the costs of launching and going bigger. It’s like you let out the dirty little secret, thank you!! I’m rethinking things, now!
Alicia
Thanks for sharing details, this is actually very close to what I had predicted, given your huge team of support. I am grateful you do it though, because you are providing so much more value than an evergreen course could, so thank you! Personally, I went away from the group program model quite intentionally because I felt it wasn’t giving individuals the deeper work they needed. I feel even more validated in my committment to stick with 1:1 work going forward!
Thanks so much for posting this, Jenny – it’s refreshing to have hard truths to reflect on. I do intend to do *small* group courses in the future, but these will be more like facilitating peer-to-peer coaching groups.
Interestingly enough, I’ve been listening to Amy Porterfield’s podcast recently and a recent episode was interviews w/ people who ‘zig’ instead of ‘zag’. One woman decided to do a very quiet launch, without doing the big spend – she wrote to her list, did some social media posts, nothing extravagant. Because she was authentic about the purpose of her group course and about herself, she had an amazing sign-up rate, with very few refunds. This made me doubly sure that the path I’ve chosen for myself – working on my own, not building a team (other than a very part-time VA in the future) – is the right one for me.
I challenge you to develop a stripped-down launch model so that you can continue to work with groups *and* make a living wage! :))
To clarify, my BUSINESS breaks even on the basis of MIWO revenue alone. This includes paying myself a fair salary, which is included in the business expenses.
Thank you Jenny for your honesty and transparency. I found reading this validating. It leaves me resonating with a strong sense of “I knew it” and also appreciating myself for trusting there is a way with 1:1 and small groups… Loving your work Jenny and the visibility behind the scenes.
Wow this was SO helpful! This really helps me see that I would much rather run a smaller scale business with fewer clients and higher margins but also that my larger group programs need to be about serving more people for the greater good (getting the Information out!) than cash. Thank you SO much for sharing how much you spend on support this was a real eye opener as well!
Firstly, thank you. In an industry where there is so much selling, it feels amazing to have some clear insight, disclosure, and so on. My Jenny trust level just soared.
I understand that you are an Arranger, that success on your terms involves that, but let me ask this: Would it be accurate to say that part of your acceptance of this larger more expensive biz model is that you view this stage as a stepping stone to another level of break-through financially. So the win-win is that you love working this way, so you are not losing out by risking, but also that you expect to break this ceiling and have this bigger level of working becoming lucrative, or lead to a higher ceiling and other bigger better things and dollar values?
What a great, thoughtful question, Erin!
One of the things I’ve found as I’ve grown my launches over the years is that each stage of growth, there are more expenses… which then keep me at this “business break even” point. It gets better with each launch, and I also find that the margins don’t grow exponentially. This is partly my fault because I believe in the power of a high-touch, high-integrity program; I’m not willing (right now, anyway), to offer a large scale program and sell to the masses just to make a lot of money. (I’ve been criticized for this by peers, not prioritizing profit enough, but this is my way.)
Yes, the goal with all of this is a stepping stone, but I’m also not disillusioned that massive courses will mean massive riches. I see the numbers at this level and have a glimpse at what’s ahead. It’s not the infinite wealth that many espouse.
Beyond just a financial stepping stone, I LOVE growing my team and growing this business and serving more people. That is me excelling in my genius zone, and I know it’s preparing me for something bigger and greater down the road. (I have some ideas about what that might be, though time will tell.)
More than just growing this business for profit, I’m here to make a good living for myself, work with a team I love, work with clients I love, and grow myself as a business woman and a human for whatever life has in store for me next 🙂
Thanks for asking!
Great post, Jenny! Thanks so much for writing it. Really enjoyed reading your take on launches.
Thanks for the info! Question though – if it’s break even, why do it? Seems like a huge amount of work for not much financial benefit. Not to mention you still have bills to pay.
To clarify, my BUSINESS breaks even on the basis of MIWO revenue alone. This includes paying myself a fair salary, which is included in the business expenses. I have additional revenue streams, but MIWO is by far the largest.
Great information. As I think about launching my one-on-one into a group program. what is MIWO ?
MIWO is Make It Work Online. The program I launched that I’m referencing in this post. Enrollment is closed, but it can be found at http://makeitworkonline.com