3 Reasons for Fluctuating Income Month to Month

Stop fluctuating income Fluctuating income can be frightening and frustrating.

As an entrepreneur and expert, it’s hard enough to gauge month-to-month what your income will be. That being said, there are strategies to safeguard and attract a monthly minimum (I’ll do another blog post on that!).

Have you ever noticed that some months you’re riding high and your income reflects that? You are “in alignment” and in the flow with excitement! You think, Okay! I finally have this! I finally figured out what works for me and my business and my clients.

And then the next two months, your income doesn’t even come close to that!

You’re up against fluctuating income.

It’s important that you really identify why you’re dealing with fluctuating income month to month – or if you find yourself living paycheck to paycheck, working to pay your bills and not save anything so you can live the life you want.

Fluctuating income creates doubt, which means your confidence plummets – and we all know what happens in business when your confidence goes down.

I’m going to share three factors that come into play with fluctuating income, and how you can create a more consistent income month to month.

REASON #1: Going Against Gravity

Are you going against gravity in your business?

When you’re going against gravity, you can’t build long-term momentum. Let’s say, for example, you have clients you love working with and servicing. Then their programs or services end, or your consulting contract ends.

In the meantime, you haven’t done much by way of finding new clients, so when your contract ends, you’re stuck! (And, you end up with fluctuating income!)

Ask yourself these questions:

Is your database increasing?
Are you following up on everyone you’ve met recently?
Do you check in with past clients and customers – do you remember all the special, authentic connections you’ve made, or have you let them slip by…one by one?

Going against gravity is not having a marketing calendar that keeps you planned three to six months in advance.

Working with gravity looks like this:

Marketing in person and online!
Entering your new contacts into your database right away (always with permission!).
Working a follow-up system in place to stay connected!

Focus on building a strong relationship with the top 20% of your new contacts – those you felt the most connected to. Those will be the easiest to build, and will give you momentum!

REASON #2: The Money Speedometer

Do you have limiting beliefs around money?

The Money Speedometer is created by your limiting beliefs around money. What do I mean by “limiting beliefs around money”? I mean what you think you deserve to earn – what you heard about money as you were growing up.

Now, you might stop me and say, But Ruth, I want a million-dollar business! I’m worth that!

Sure, you want that, but are you operating from a place where you…

Deserve that because you’re worth a million dollars?
Deliver a million-dollar service?
Show your clients the value you bring?

What are your stories around money?

This is going to require digging deep into your soul—asking yourself the tough questions from your past to identify where you have old beliefs around money that block your growth.

Maybe growing up, your family was irresponsible with money – always had the newest clothes and cars, but when it came time to pay the bills, they were always behind. The lights got turned off, and the car got repossessed. There was a disconnect with money that laid in you a story about money: what you show the world is more important than stability and calm at home.

Are you investing in expensive photo shoots for your Instagram every month, but not booking any clients, and letting your website development get outdated because you’re spending all your investment dollars on photo shoots?

Or maybe, your parents were terrified of spending money, and never did – lived in the same house their whole lives, drove their cars till they broke down, never took a vacation. And yet, they were constantly stressed out and paranoid about going broke – when really, they could have enjoyed life a little more!

Are you refusing to invest in your business because you’re terrified of “running out of money” – without any evidence that’s true?

Maybe when you were young, you had a boss who said, “Women don’t know how to negotiate” – and there are people who say things like that! When we’re young, we believe things without really questioning them.

Have you bought into someone else’s belief without even asking if it’s true for you?

Where do your past experiences with money and its value (I don’t mean what it can buy you, I mean money as a value in your life, just like integrity, faith, or kindness) create a lane in your life that you’re afraid to veer out of? That’s what I call your Money Speedometer.

Identifying these stories and these areas can be tough – but I know you can do it!

REASON #3: Follow-Up (Or Lack Thereof)

Are you following up with your contacts?

This is part of Reason 1, but it’s so important that sometimes it’s the only reason you’re not meeting your monthly income goals.

What does follow up mean when we’re talking about business development? It means finding daily time to devote to growing your business, through following up with people you’ve already connected with.

Have you created daily time in your schedule to do business development?

You need to identify the top 3-5 ways you want to follow up with potential clients or customers and create a system to automate these follow ups.

For 8 years, I used a system called Kickstart Cart to help me stay on top of marketing follow up. It really helped me stay on track! You need to have an overview system to help keep you running, because this is the engine of your business.

Here are a few areas where you can look at your follow up process:

Website: What kind of follow up strategy do you have with your website?
1. Are you offering a free gift, and is it something your potential clients really want? Is it a free gift you’ve offered for years – is it up to date?
2. Do you have an automatic email campaign that goes to the people who open the email with your free gift?
3. What if they don’t open your free gift – what’s your strategy for easing them into your community?
Business cards: You still need business cards!
1. Do you pass them out?
2. When you receive someone else’s card, do you input them into your customer database?
3. Do you have a system that helps you follow up with people, shows when you followed up with them, and what you followed up about?
4. Business cards aren’t to collect sales – they’re to build relationships! Good communication converts sales. You really don’t need to be selling to people – you need to be building relationships with people! That stands out and keeps you in the forefront of peoples’ minds.
Social media Engagement: Do you have a system for tracking your social media engagement?
1. When people respond to your posts – whether it’s a comment on a LinkedIn article, a ‘like’ on a picture, or a re-Tweet, how do you engage with that person?
2. Do you have a system for tracking the success rates of your social media strategies? Do you identify what is or isn’t working, and adjust from there?
3. When people message you on a social media platform, how quickly do you respond? Do you follow up in email, or have a system for directing them to your website?

You can see – you really don’t have to stress because of fluctuating income! There are real things you can do about it. Put your business development systems under the microscope and identify what the culprit might be for your brand.

Let me know how it goes!

Warmly,

Ruth