The 1 Thing in 2024: Grow Your Resilient Base of Revenue

If there’s one thing that can change the course of your 2024-2026, it’s placing 10x more focus on number 6.

Chubbies went through a 9 figure acquisition and 10 figure IPO, and the increased focus on 6 took us from almost going out of business to being a very profitable, growing brand.

The biggest mistake I made was going the better part of a decade placing 99% of my focus on numbers 1-5.

Don’t be like me.

Start increasing your focus on number 6, gradually, over time, and you’ll see the benefits.

—

But first, what’s the problem we’re trying to solve?

The problem with inordinately low focus on number 6 is the doom loop caused when we increasingly rely on number 1-5 each year, not only to drive the revenue growth we want to hit, but to make up for the decrease in the resilient base of revenue from yet another year of ignoring it.

—

What are the benefits?

More people will purchase from you without needing to be prompted in the buying moment by a direct response ad that appeals to the rational brain (product, offer, urgency).

Rather, when they’re ready, a potential customer come in-market for the product category.

And, rather than going through a rational process of selecting their top 3 candidates and objectively evaluating the pros and cons of each option in order to arrive at a purchasing decision, they’ll simply think:

I need [product category] so I buy [your brand].

*thought process concludes*

*customer then proceeds to google your brand name, clicks, and purchases*

*or, they remember your url, enter it in their browser, and purchase*

This, friends, is the Free Money Machine

—

How do you increase that resilient base of organic revenue?

The tactics will reveal themselves as you try things and monitor the changes in that resilient base of organic revenue.

If we focus on and measure something long enough, we’ll find ways to improve it.

It’ll take longer to see the changes compared to the 15 minute feedback loop from numbers 1-5 in the image, so there will need to be a mindset shift.

(Side note: extending the time horizon for our decision-making never hurt anybody. I’d imagine your experience has been similar.)

However, even though it takes time to see the resilient base of revenue grow, you have the leading indicator of traffic.

Focus in on organic and direct traffic (assuming good UTMing).

Do your best to remove the spikes caused from numbers 1-5 so you can smooth it out and get to that resilient base of revenue.

You’ll get a feeling for what, and how much, to strip out as you look at things you do (e.g., have a TikTok go viral, or send a banger email and see a huge spike) and get a sense of the response in organic traffic

While not a panacea, and not ‘organic’ per se, wholesale builds the resilient base too

—

Does this mean I can’t do numbers 1-5 anymore?

Nope.

As in all things, find the balance

Numbers 1-5 become ways to grow off a growing base.

Get out of the doom loop and jump on the vroom loop