What Are Your Doula Business Stats?
-
Transcript
Welcome to Dula Tips and Tits, the podcast where we cut through the noise and get real about what it takes to build a sustainable doula business. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been a doula informally for 14 years and full time for seven.
Around here, we don't sugarcoat stuff. We talk autonomy, owning your worth, creating a business that works for you. No fluff, no burnout, just the honest truth on how to be your own best boss. Let's get into today's episode.
Hello and welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. My question for you today is, do you know your business stats? Now, you already know, if you've been listening to the last couple podcasts that I have done solo, that I have a workshop coming up on December 6th at 12 Eastern all about your actual business stats.
This is not like my other classes where I teach you and yes, you walk away with information and knowledge and questions to ask yourself about your business. This is an actual workshop where we workshop your real business.
It's limited to only 25 people so that we can dig into what is actually happening in your numbers in 2024 and 2025. This workshop is a mix of looking at what worked and what didn't work from this year and planning out what you want next year to look like and also setting some real steps towards those goals.
There will be a little bit of brainstorming time. There'll be some breakout room time, but mostly it's going to be time for you to share something, a goal that you have and you're then coming back to me to say like, hey, how do I get to this goal?
And is this even a goal I should have? Like, is this a good goal for 2025? Or how can I tweak it so that it actually is realistic in my business? When I'm thinking about why that matters, I think about how much information we don't know about our businesses.
So oftentimes, when I say to someone, hey, how many births do you attend a month? They know that number, like one to three, or two to five, or something like that, depending on who the person is. But if I say to you how much revenue in your business came in from birth clients, I'm guessing you don't know that number off the top of your head, right?
And if you have multiple services, do you know that number for all of your services? Like, how much money came into your business from postpartum clients, from classes that you teach? Which class brought in the most money?
how much money came in from placenta encapsulation or baby-wearing classes or whatever because sometimes we put a lot of effort behind something that's not actually making us much money and we only have so much time and effort to give.
So that helps us make strategic decisions but also sometimes we don't realize how lucrative something is in our business and we can lean into that as well. When I think about growing a business it is in large part figuring out what's working well and doing that thing more and even better and then adding things that are aligned that kind of complement that thing that's working right.
You don't want to try to change everything at the same time. You don't want to try to grow everything at the same time. You want to try to help one thing thrive and then help the next thing thrive so that you're not trying to keep 17 things thriving or 17 things started at the same time because that my friend is not sustainable.
Now there are times in your business where you might feel a little like you're juggling 19 things at once. That can be sustained for a very short time as long as there is an exit strategy. I honestly feel a little like that right now because I am changing I'm working on changing prices for my the package for my team.
I'm working on potentially adding new services that my team members want to add and have the skills to add and so I'm pricing those things and thinking about marketing them and messaging them and all of that and so I have like 90,000 things in my head at the moment right but even that like the other day I was like oh my gosh I have so much to do and then I thought to myself you know what?
This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to raise my postpartum prices, put it in the contracts, put it in on the website, and then I'm going to just add the people to my team that I want to add to my team who are doing birth and postpartum.
I'm not adding new services right now, but I added into the contract that new services can be added. So that is part of what I want you to consider when you're thinking about this is that you don't have to do everything right now.
If there are like 19 things that need to be done, which thing can you focus on? And part of how you know that is which thing is actually working for you. So for me, I'm getting a lot of inquiries and people, I'm sending them to the doulas on my team to interview.
and so it would be really beneficial for me to have their faces and their bios and all of that on my website because I have some people on the team who aren't currently on the website and so I need to do that to get them up there so that when I send their name out to someone I can say hey this is so-and-so on my team here's her bio and information on the site okay so what stats do you need to know I would say at the very least you need to know your numbers of clients served in each of your categories so if you do birth and postpartum and placentas each of those broken down and then of course all of them together your total revenue for the year and revenue by service so that you can see the percentage of the revenue and where it's coming from and then look at things like you know did you like if you taught a class like how profitable was that class right like I think about okay you know doing a postpartum shift has a lot less cost for me than doing going to a birth but doing a postpartum shift often does cost mileage and it does cost food sometimes right for birth I pay for parking I pay for food I pay for you know potentially I have to reschedule things after like there's cost involved this this specific business stats that I want you to do right now I don't want you to necessarily analyze everything about your cost benefit ratio analysis like I don't know that I'm saying that I don't want you to do all of that right now what I want you to do is just look at your numbers like how many people came to your classes how much money did those classes make right how much did you spend renting the space to hold the classes because all of those pieces matter a lot and it's important for you to have a sense of whether this thing was actually worthwhile in your business or not and if it's not how do we change it like where do we go from here right now I don't want this to be overwhelming I want you to have some guidance in this so this is where I really want you to go sign up for my upcoming workshop it is a paid workshop so it's $37 because you're getting some very in-depth time and it's a limited number of people and I'm gonna give you a sheet to help you do all of this so this worksheet you'll get from the purchase of the workshop and then you'll have the replay forever as well so you'll be able to go back to it every year to kind of like reevaluate and audit and then plan for the next year,
because it's a formula that can be applied to a lot of things, right? It's not just this goal. It's also other goals where you can say, okay, let me apply this and see, like, if I want to do this thing, what do I need to do first and second and third?
It's hard to do on your own sometimes, but it is doable. It is something that can be repeated. So go grab your seat in there, and then we can not only break down your audit, but also look at what exactly needs to shift.
All right, I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Dula Tips and Tits podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at hiradula so we can celebrate alongside you.
If you found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment.
It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.
In your doula business it’s vital to take a step back and reflect on the year—what went well, what didn’t, and where there’s room to grow in your doula business. If you’re ready to get focused, intentional, and strategic for the new year, I’ve got just the thing for you: a two-hour, interactive workshop where we’ll do this exact process together. Let’s set the stage for your strongest year yet!
https://harroddoulaservices.thrivecart.com/level-up-your-doula-biz-2024-pod/
How can you evaluate something you don’t know? We can’t work to improve or grow something without a starting place. So your stats are your starting place. That data helps you know how to grow, where to grow, what to focus on. A goal or dream without direction can’t possibly go anywhere! Your doula business can grow and thrive. Your business can grow, but first we need to know where it is right now.
Quote from the show:
“So oftentimes, when I say to someone, hey, how many births do you attend a month? They know that number, like one to three, or two to five, or something like that, depending on who the person is. But if I say to you how much revenue in your business came in from birth clients, I'm guessing you don't know that number off the top of your head, right? And if you have multiple services, do you know that number for all of your services? Like, how much money came into your business from postpartum clients, from classes that you teach? Which class brought in the most money? So that helps us make strategic decisions but also sometimes we don't realize how lucrative something is in our business and we can lean into that as well. When I think about growing a business it is in large part figuring out what's working well and doing that thing more and even better and then adding things that are aligned that kind of complement that thing that's working right.”
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Doula Tips and Tits is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Doula Biz Blueprint Self-Paced Class for Doulas Launching Successful and Sustainable Businesses!
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
