2020-2021 Learn to Scale Annual Report
Two Trips around the Sun as an LLC
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What We’re Covering Today
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Learn to Scale’s Life So Far
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Founded
Mission: Enable small high-growth organizations to build employee engagement programs that deliver superior retention
October 2019
COVID
Pivoted from HR consulting to HR professional development and delivered audience-building programming
Summer 2020
HR Impact Program
Launched a group coaching program designed to help HR professionals have a bigger impact, greater influence, and personal confidence
Winter 2020
Outbound Experiment
In an attempt to increase sales, contracted with a lead gen firm that connected and engaged Learn to Scale with perfect future clients for the HR Impact Program
Spring 2021
Pivot to Entrepreneurs
With no new sales or pipeline for the HR Impact Program, began exploring entrepreneur-focused services
August 2021
Quality Conversations
Research showed that sales and business development was a consistent pain point. Launched the Quality Conversations lead gen service
October 2021
2020 Goals and
2021 Performance
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AKA The Old Learn to Scale
Summer 2020-2021 Goals & Performance
Generate $100,000 in revenue
Monthly Client Spread: 28.2 billing hours per month
July 1, 2020 to Aug 6, 2021 Income: $28,123
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BUT THAT’S THE PAST
Finance
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Fiscal Year: Oct 1st*
*The rest of the presentation is built off an Oct 2020 - Oct 2021 timeframe
The Ledger
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Major line items:
Finance Observations
Made about $19K
Spent about $19K
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Hypothesis: A failed business broke about even in a year. Perhaps it wasn’t a failure.
Sales & Marketing
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Summary
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Output
Impact
Cold Outreach Experiment
Contracted with lead gen firm to conduct cold outreach over LinkedIn, email, phone
Over four months, invested $4,720 for 2215 requests, 801 accepts, 44 meetings, 0 deals but one $88 sale can be connected
This experience helped inspire the entrepreneur-agency business idea we are currently pursuing
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Wins & Fails
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Wins
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Hypothesis: Anytime I can set up a project and knock it down, I excel. This includes content creation!
Personal Wins
Fails
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Hypothesis: I’m a great starter, but a terrible finisher. Got discouraged easily at sustained resistance
Fall 2021 Transition
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Research, Cofounder, Services, and Traction
Spent 5 weeks researching/interviewing
Unearthed a cofounder through the process
Solidified on a tangible service: lead generation
First customer signed October 3rd
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What The New Business Is, In a Nutshell
Service: Outbound-as-a-service, aka top-of-funnel lead generation
Market: Entrepreneurs and businesses without a sales team or outbound sales pipeline
Initial Model: Value-added reseller. Learn to Scale resells lead generation services with added business intelligence and coaching
Vision: Learn to Scale is a one-stop shop of integrated outsourced services for entrepreneurs
One Liner: “Learn to Scale enables small businesses to predictably sell.”
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2021 Forecast
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Immediate Future
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Sales goal is to close 2 new clients in October, 3 new clients in November
Three webinars planned to market the service and start brand building
Dec 2021
Initial Traction
Six clients under management by EOY
Replicable Process
Use current clients to inform buyers journey and create replicable processes
Q1 2022
Execute and Grow
Put processes into action and refine
Grow team to handle intake and management
Q2 2022
25 Clients
Reconvene at 2022 Annual Report exceeding expectations
Q3 2022
Appendix
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Deals Won / Lost
Won - 8 deals, $16.2K
Lost - 30 deals, $108K
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Hypothesis: Too much variability in possible deals means little replicability or improvement
Business Development
973 Hubspot contacts created
8 deals won / 30 total deals, 27% close rate (from 40% in ‘19-’20)
225 Hubspot Meetings (from 79 in ‘19-’20)
4 Challenge Campaigns
14 free webinars/workshops
16+ Facebook Lives
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Free Workshops/Talks
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Challenge Week Webinar
Email Marketing
16.6K (459% increase) Hubspot emails sent with 3.5% click rate
Sample campaigns:
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TL;DR Newsletter:
Yearly Email Metrics
Social & Content Marketing
Negligible Instagram, Twitter, YouTube presence
Blog Posts
The 20/20 Perspective
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Hypothesis: Content creation needs a process that maximizes juice-per-squeeze
Website Performance
Audience
Top Acquisition Channels
Behavior
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Hypothesis: Pay-to-play to get the traffic, content to keep them coming back
All the Hypotheses
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Hypothesis: A failed business broke about even in a year. Perhaps it wasn’t a failure.
Hypothesis: Too much variability in possible deals means little replicability or improvement
Hypothesis: Free programming must have a clear CTA to a sale or existing nurture campaign
Hypothesis: Content creation needs a process that maximizes juice-per-squeeze
Hypothesis: Pay-to-play to get the traffic, content to keep them coming back
Hypothesis: I’m a great starter, terrible finisher. Got discouraged easily at sustained resistance
Hypothesis: Anytime I can set up a project and knock it down, I excel. This includes content creation!
Tech Stack Review
GSuite and Analytics
Squarespace
Asana
Buffer
Hubspot
Simplecast
Sli.do
Typeform
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Zapier
Stripe
Quickbooks
Upwork
Medium
Ubersuggest
Eventbrite
Camtasia
15Five
Crello
Stockmusic.net
HelloSign
PartnerStack
Instamic
Teachable
Zoom
Voxer
Leanstack
PayPal
NameCheap
Slack
Printful
PizzaTime
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Paid service
Free service
Affiliate Partnerships
Hubspot
Instamic
BambooHR
Asana
Bambee
15Five
Saberr
CultureAmp
PercentPledge
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Shoutouts
Officially a Fiancé- Hannah
Business Partner - Jeremy
Failure Friend- Alycia
Accountabilibuddies- Rebecca and Kate
Always Knows the SCORE- My Dad
The Man Behind The Curtain- Jeff
Biggest Fans - The Hack.Diversity Team
Countless mentors, advisors, former bosses, chance conversations, and fortuitous Lunchclubs
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