The phone call started like many with my clients.

“I just need more clients. I want to be overflowing…waitlist capacity and ready to burst.”

Now, I love waitlists and the idea of overflowing schedules. But, I like knowing how many clients I need to achieve my goals even more.

And, this number is easier to figure out than you could ever imagine.

So let’s start with “How much you need to earn?”.

Yes, I know you have all the hours in the day you can fill, but frankly, I want you to enjoy your life. And, if you’re charging for the unique, high touch service that you offer, you’re not going to have to work 40, 60 or 80 hours a week. You just need to fill the right amount of hours that earn you the right income.

Then let’s add in your Average Client Monthly Value. And, yes, this number can fluctuate wildly based on how you package and price your services. Consider our client Erin. Her ACMV jumped from $86 to $266 in a three week period just based on her new pricing and packaging. Yes…that’s tripling what each client is worth to her business.

Your Average Client Monthly Value can be found by taking your Total Monthly Gross Revenue and dividing that by the Total Number of Active Clients {these are clients who have been in in the last thirty days}.

Now, I love my ACMV. My goal is to keep it as high as possible. And, the fact is, when it’s high I need less clients to meet my financial goals and I can service them so much better.

In the first week of January, I asked you to come up with what you needed to earn. Ideally, this is a number that’s more than just paying your bills. It’s where you can genuinely say, you are excited when you write yourself a dividend or paycheck. So what is the dollar difference between where you are today and where you want to be?

Once I have that dollar amount, all I need to do is take my Needed Income and divide it by my Average Client Monthly Value. This is the exact number of clients you need to add to reach your goals.

If you’re like me, it’s kinda nice to have an actual example…theory is lovely, but visualizations are even better.

For the sake of my math brain {which moves slow some mornings}, let’s use some large whole numbers.

Last year, Suzanne earned $70,000. She recognizes that she could live the lifestyle she’s really wanting if she earns $90,000 a year. That’s a $20,000 difference.

Last year her Average Client Monthly Value was $200.

But, Suzanne has repackaged and priced her products so that her customers come on a more regular basis and are billed monthly and her new Average Client Monthly Value is $500.

To determine how many clients we need we’ll take Suzanne’s $20,000 difference and divide that by $500 leaving us with 40 clients Suzanne needs to add in 2016.

40 clients may still seem like a lot, but once we know this number we can start making a real action plan to find these ideal clients. We can plan our marketing, how we’ll work with existing clients to drive new business and even what packages we want to sell the most of {bonus if this drives your ACMV up higher}.

Once you’ve taken the mystery out of what you need for success, actually reaching it becomes a whole lot easier. So, how many clients do you need to reach your goals? And, what steps come next to get you there?

With Grit and Gratitude,

Lise