Do you know where your money comes from?
more money, more options
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
We’re approaching the end of the year (26 days left — I know. It blows my mind too).
Many of us engage in planning activities so we know what we’ll do when rubber meets the road in January.
Part of that planning includes setting revenue targets.
And that means you need to understand how you make money — or how you get paid for the value you deliver.
Options include but aren’t limited to: billing hourly, flat fees for products or productized services, monthly or annual subscriptions, and licensing fees.
If you’re a nonprofit business, you may look at individual donations, sponsorships, partnerships, or grants.
The revenue model (the official term for how you make money) most commonly used by a nonprofit business — where a donor makes a contribution so the organization can deliver value to a completely different person — requires the most effort because it means you must focus on delivering value to the people you serve and seeking money.
A for-profit business can put all its focus on delivering value to the people they serve because they’re the ones who pay for the value.
In any case, you set revenue targets so you have the capital you need to invest in your business. As we say here, money is the resource, not the goal.
When you have more money, you have more options.
You still need to choose and choose carefully — doing all of the things all at once and throwing good money after bad still doesn't work (they simply become more expensive activities).
But you have more options to choose from.
Make choices that lead to more options.
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