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Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

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Hello and welcome to the show I am recording from an uncomfortably hot Victorian house on probably the hottest day of the year so far, and of course, that is influencing the theme of today’s podcast. I know there are other episodes already on summer proofing your business. This one is different. This one I’ve decided to niche in and help those specifically earning under 5k but what I will say, guys, is, if you are already in the six figure brackets, there will be something to learn from this. So still, you know, if you’re thinking, I’m already at six figures, this won’t be relevant to me. Point number one in particular is super duper relevant to you. So even if you just stick around for that, please, please, just stay, just stay. Pull up a chair, pour, pour yourself a nice tea, or and a nice coffee, or get yourself a nice bougie match, a latte. Let’s hang out together, because this episode is going to help you, because we’re going to talk about some important stuff. So this is also, by the way, going to be part of a mini series, because, of course, of course, I want to talk about summer proofing your business when you’re at six figures. I am slightly making the assumption that the majority of six figure businesses are relatively summer proof already, or you wouldn’t be at the six figure stage. But I mean, I do know a few who are heavily reliant on live launching, and the summer can feel a little bit perilous to them.

So we will be diving that into that, into the next solo episode. But this is for you. If your business is currently bringing in under 5k per month, no shame, just clarity and strategy. In fact, beyond that, actually, there is zero shame. If you are earning anything in your online business, my goodness, I am celebrating you. You are brave. You are courageous. You are a visionary. You are growing your own freaking business, and you are making money from your magic. Uh, hello, I’m celebrating you. So yeah, anyway, let’s get into it. So I’m going to be sharing with you four things you need to consider this summer, when you are earning under 5k and you want to kind of not be scared of the summer. I want you relaxing and enjoying the summer, and not just social media, enjoying the summer like legit, enjoying the summer. I don’t want you chasing sunsets so you can stick in your stories that you were admiring a sunset. I don’t want you hanging out in the garden having a lovely barbecue with friends and then hiding away in the kitchen answering questions on slack because you’re struggling to switch off. I don’t want you dealing with anymore mummy. Why are you always on the phone questions?

Okay, this is a summer that gets to look really different for you, and I’m going to be sharing four tips to help you get there. And if you’re thinking, How does Paulie know? Because I’ve been in your shoes, friend, being in your shoes, I know what it’s like, and I also really, really know the importance. You know, cushy business is no joke. It’s really important that you build a business that you can genuinely take breaks from anyone who’s been in my world a while now knows that I don’t do any calls in August. I quite often travel in August. This August, we are not traveling because we’ve got another focus going on. But having that month off, having one week of every month with no calls as well, is integral for my mental health, and I wouldn’t be able to do that had I not financially built a business that allows me that breathing space, okay? And I want you to have breathing space, not as a reward for your hard work. I want it to be the standard that you set for your business as a whole. Okay, so number one, I want you to clear the damn decks. I cannot tell you the amount of people who come to me who are like, Oh, well, I was getting a 20k month in okay, this is irrelevant to someone making 5k let’s turn this on its head. I was making 10k in January, and I made a 7k month in February. But, you know, things are starting to Peter down a bit for me, and I’m really worried, and I’ll be like, well, you know what’s happened to your money? And they’re like, Well, I hired somebody to do my website. I’ve invested in that expensive photo shoot I’ve got, you know, I threw some money at some ads that didn’t work, and so that was a big waste of money. When the money was coming in, I was reinvesting it like it was going to be the thing that secured my future. And now suddenly there are very, there’s very minimal profit margins.

So yeah, on paper, I’m making, you know, like, 5k months now, but it’s not feeling as expansive as I thought it would. Eight okay? And that’s always a challenge, believe me, like I’ve met people who are like, I’ll feel really spacious when I’m making 5k months, I’ll feel really spacious when I’m making 10k months. I’ll feel really great when I’m making 30k months. And if you have the habit of aggressively reinvesting in your business or aggressively harvesting as much money from your business as possible and leaving no space for kind of the inevitable ebbs and flows of business, then you’re making things unnecessarily hard for yourself. So a really simple thing I’d like you to do is to audit your outgoings. I want you to be looking at any recurring charges that you might forgotten about that often looks like old domains like there are. So I’m so guilty of buying all the domains, right? And I make myself every quarter review them and be like, is this genuinely a domain that I’m likely to be coming back to or not? Because so often with business expenses, you know?

Like, yeah, it’s just 30 quid. But when you then think about that other I mean, there are various things I will delay buying in my human life, but in my business life, I’m like, Oh yeah, let’s get it, you know, and we have to be careful of that behavior. Like I’m not pretending I don’t have it. But self awareness was the first step to preventing myself from getting too carried away with that. Subscriptions that you’re barely using, subscriptions that don’t really make sense. I’m about to get rid of a subscription because while it’s been used a handful of times, I also know that when I look at the function it plays, it’s just not necessary to have it there. I have another bit of software that can do the same function with the same efficacy, efficacy. So there’s no point keeping it anymore. Any tools, anything gathering dust, just have a look at it. And again, ideally, this isn’t just a summer activity. This is something I’d like you to be reviewing quarterly, particularly if you have the same sneaky habit I have of just buying all the things, particularly when you’re having a, you know, in a very good month, right? You know that we do need to be aware.

I think you know, one of the things that can be guilty of that is that whole sense of like when we trust in ourselves, when we, you know, throw ourselves into things, that we will always be protected. But there is an element here of like, give yourself a percentage that you’re willing to invest in certain areas your business, a certain percentage towards tools, a certain percentage towards support, a certain percentage for your salary, so that whatever you’re investing in, you know that you’re always leaving enough breathing space for what will always be inevitable, ebbs and flows in your business, because anyone who pretends they don’t happen is lying there will always be doesn’t necessarily need to be. The summer could be another time of year. It looks different for all businesses. I’ve got many businesses I’ve supported where summer has no impact, but there usually is a period of the year which is just naturally quieter for them, and we don’t need to be scared of it when we make allowances for it throughout the entire freaking year. Okay. VA, hours, are you actually getting an ROI, or are you just outsourcing busy work? Okay, if you are not in yourself organized and structured and you’re just passing chaos over to your VA, then you’re, you know, it’s not actually you’re not getting an ROI on the hours that you’re investing in. So review those and make sure that you are getting the best from your VA or any support that you have, I’m assuming, at 5k per month.

Chances are it is just a VA at this stage. But yeah, whoever is supporting you, review it and ensure you’re getting the most juice from your lemon and your tech stack and software, what can be downgraded or what can be paused? That’s another thing I sometimes forget about. I’ll review my package and I’ll be like, Wow, it’s allowing for 10,000 bloody blahs, and actually, I’m only needing 5000 so I can downgrade. So, yeah, keep an eye on those things. So the mental reframe here that’s really important is like, this isn’t scarcity mode. This isn’t like downing the hatches preparing for survival. This is lean luxury. You’re literally creating breathing space. You’re taking the pressure off yourself. If you are obsessive about, Oh, I must have consistent 5k months, or I must keep on scaling and don’t allow breathing space for those quieter months, then it’s just unnecessary. The only part of yourself that you’re protecting is your ego, and that’s not the thing that’s going to keep your business afloat. So the best way you can truly care for yourself, and you know, ensure that you genuinely can lean back this summer is rather than thinking, How do I create one to 2k in additional revenue? Instead, think, is there a way, by trimming some fat in my business, I can actually create one to 2k more the majority of businesses I speak to, it’s entirely possible.

So, you know, we’re not just looking at how much more can we accumulate. We’re looking at the efficacy of how we’re running our business before we even look at that part. But of course, that bit comes in too coming to point number two, secure your bread and butter revenue, as I like to refer to it. Some people also call it baseline revenue, so whatever feels best for you, but. I want you to define your baseline. What is your minimum monthly need. The closer we are to our numbers, the better we can actually support ourselves. Because the majority of times again, someone will say to me, oh, I want to be earning this much money, but when we look at what they actually need, it’s actually a very different story, and being really aware of that is really important, you know. So what do you need to pay yourself, your VA, your tech, and ideally, what I’d love for you to be doing is at least list building over the summer. So if you can leave a little bit left over for that wonderful if that’s something you’re not in a position to do this summer, then that’s fine, too, but you want to make sure you know what that number is, then I want you to create your bread and butter plan. Do you have one solid offer you can sell two or three off to meet that minimum. Do you know how easy it is to sell two or three of your premium offers over the summer? Like easy any time of year you can be doing that. Okay? So you know, if not, it’s it’s time to reshape your offer suite urgently. If you need to be selling 50 of something every single month to be successful, you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position. The majority of successful coaching businesses have a baseline offer that they only need to sell two or three off to cover their main expenses, so that anything they do outside of that is extra profit, extra money, extra cash in the bank, which means that they can be more experimental, which means they can show up in that magnetic, playful energy that people struggle to do if they’re thinking this launch better work, or I’m not feeding my kids next month, or this launch better work, or I’m going to have to go and get that loan. By the way, getting a loan should not be something people have such feel such a strong stigma around when you have a strategy and you are funding that strategy, then I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all. What is wrong is throwing spaghetti at the wall with a loan.

That is not a comfortable place to be in, but it doesn’t need to be that way anyway. That’s a slight slight going off piece there. But you know, the really important thing here is that what I don’t want to see you doing that I unfortunately see a lot of coaches doing over the summer is that sense of launching new things every other week, trying to sell lots of cheap things, if people are downing tools, relaxing over the summer, spending less time on the screens, which is what we often see, not in all industries, of course, but if they are then, like, stop trying to fight that. I mean, what I will say this is only relevant to those earning under 5k if you are running ads to low ticket offers, I’ve still see them doing incredibly well over the summer. But if you are relying on your organic audience, and you’re trying to still squeeze more out of that audience, and they’re not growing very quickly, then you’re making things unnecessarily hard for yourself. Don’t compare your business model to somebody who is in a position to run ads and grow their audience exponentially. They are in a much better position to be selling low ticket offers over the summer.

Focus on your premium offers. Okay, focus on your bread and butter. And point number three is, I want you to be building for the long term, but Don’t bet on it for summer cash. Okay, so one of the things that is going to prevent you needing to listen to this podcast episode next summer is working on your long term strategy. Now what I mean by that is, if other people are downing tools and slowing down and it’s creating some breathing space for you, one of the things I recommend you do with some of that breathing space is getting ahead before September. Because if you wait till September to start working on your business, you are, quite frankly, leaving yourself in a really vulnerable position, because rather than being able to hit, go and start making invitations and start making sales and really capitalize on that final quarter of the year, you’ll still be in market research mode, you’ll still be in validation mode, and you won’t be able to make as many sales. So working on the business you want to have at the end of the year now is the best way to go about. It also means you can do it in a more leisurely fashion, because you’re giving yourself more time to do it.

So now I’m not saying sacrifice beach time or sacrifice Pool time or sacrifice time with friends or family. I am saying that you can be doing these things gradually, behind the scenes, particularly where your caseload might be slightly lighter to enable yourself to have a really strong final quarter. Like, if your goal is to not be at the 5k mark anymore and get yourself to 10k months, then now is the time to start working on it. Okay, you know? So, as I mentioned earlier, the kind of things you’d be doing now is market research, audience building, warming people up with niche, specific content that speaks to the problem that your offer is going to solve. So that comes September, when you do a bigger launch, you’re going to have a whole bunch of sales already made over the summer with your pre sale, pre selling strategy, and you’ll have some money. Probably to put towards some ads so you can have a big fat, sexy launch. So what, what I want to kind of warn you about here, like the mistake I don’t want you to make is, don’t expect this work to carry your your summer financially. It’s a full it’s a full harvest, not a summer salad, as my notes say. But it’s true that sometimes somebody in May might be like, right, I’m going to launch in July, and it’s going to be the thing that’s going to give me my biggest, hottest, sexiest summer ever. I’m going to be making loads of money and chilling out poolside. But developing funnels that support your business long term is not an overnight transformation, particularly if you’re under 5k for those who are approaching 10k it’s a different story, because they often have various things under their belt that make it a really smooth, easy transition. But if you are earning under 5k you’d be working now for the best September of like you, you’d be working now to create a quarter in your year, the final quarter that is stronger than the rest of your year combined.

But I wouldn’t be expecting the windfall to start coming in in the summer like I say. That’s not to say you could be making any sales. Like I say, pre selling can happen, but a big launch would be something I would postpone till September so that you could cut the groundwork in now to have a really big one on the other side. The other thing I want you thinking about is mindset. Okay? I don’t want you to pre sabotage. I don’t want you to listen to this and think, Well, everyone’s downing tools, nobody’s doing any work, everyone’s on holiday. There’s nobody to sell to. That’s just not true, particularly if you’ve got clients in the US, I find the US is particularly unaffected by the summer in terms of sales and everything I’ve seen happening over there, in the UK and in Europe, we see a slight change, but there are always still people. I mean, tell me, have you ever looked at a beach that doesn’t have a gazillion people scrolling on their phone, if they’re scrolling on their phone and they’re on social media, if anything, they’re engaging with that kind of content more. And the other thing I’ll also tell you is my podcast listenership always goes up when the weather gets nicer, because people are plugging me in to their ears as they go off to the beach, or as they go out for more walks, and as they go out spending more time out and about.

Okay, so podcast listenership tends to go up. So there are lots of things that are really working for us in the summer, and there are lots of ways that we can package up our offering to meet any objections somebody might have about getting started in the summer, but there are lots of people who, quite frankly, don’t even have objections in the first place. So I don’t want you to assume, because it’s hot and maybe you want to chill out and slow down, that that’s necessarily what everyone else wants to do, too. You know, the really important thing to remember is that your energy drives sales. If you disappear, so does your revenue? Okay? So you know it’s really important that you in keep on making invitations and keep on making it clear that you know your wealth service is available. And obviously, I’m talking to you with the assumption that you do not have an office suite that is working for you at the capacity you’d like it to, yet what I would love for you is for your business to not be your energy and for you to be able to be in a position where you can be creating passive sales over the summer, but if you are still in the position of the majority of your revenue coming through you and your time, then you know the things I’m sharing with you are going to really support you with that. Okay, so one of the biggest mistakes I see people making over the summer is launching low ticket offers or funnels out of panic without a clear strategy. That is not the thing to do, particularly if you’re really short on time and wanting it to work straight away. Funnels and new offers require tweaking and testing and are not something you can expect to work overnight. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s always the exception to every rule, but for the majority of business owners, it’s something that’s going to require a bit of time and effort. So working with what you already have validated that you already know there’s a demand for one thing we do in our business is we focus on one offer every single month, no more than that, and we make so many more sales that way because of it.

Okay, so don’t feel like you need to throw all your offers out there to see what sticks. That just creates confusion for your ideal client and creates a lot of stress for you. So your business doesn’t need a desperate summer flag. It needs a lean and clear game plan. So I just want to kind of give you a recap of the three moves I want you to be thinking about as the summer approaches. One I want you to be clearing the decks. Let’s get rid of anything that doesn’t need to be on this Lean yacht of a business of yours. Okay? Number two, I want you to lock in your baseline revenue Once you’ve cleared the decks. If you only need two or three offers to get you through the summer, how spacious is your summer going to look? How good is it going to feel and by doing that, it’s going to give you some additional time to be thinking about your longer term strategy. So that summer 2026 gets to be one, where you truly get to switch off, where you truly get to be seeing cells popping up on your you know, notification. Telling you that you’ve enrolled another client, but that perhaps by kind of rushing it this summer, you’re going to make things unnecessarily stressful for yourself. So what I recommend instead, point number three, build long term strategies without relying on them for the summer, I want you to be building them now so that your final quarter of the year gets to be your strongest yet, okay? And that’s so possible. And summer is such a lovely time. If you’re doing market research, people are so open to having conversations. If you reach out to them, say, Hey, I’m developing this thing, and kind of had you in mind as I was building it, because it’s going to be doing this. And I know you mentioned you had this thing going on for you, and it’s going to solve that? Would you be open to, like, listening to me for five minutes and learning about it and giving me some feedback? And people often, you know, like, yeah, sure, let’s do it so, you know?

And, I mean, I guess the final thing to kind of say here is, like, please, like, use the summer. It’s an amazing opportunity to be growing your list again in support of the final quarter of the year being your strongest yet. So my invitation to you is to, you know, take step number one and look at clearing the decks. Regardless of the revenue you are creating right now, we are always carrying additional lumber that we do not need to be carrying. And I know I switched between two analogies there. I’m gonna, I’m gonna stay with that, but yeah, that’s what you need. If you are curious, if you’re like, oh, Polly, this sounds good, but my goodness, I wish I had an everyday sales system. I wish I had more passive sales coming in. I can’t believe it’s May, and we are approaching the summer, and I still don’t have a way to attract sales in a way that feels predictable, then please do go check out my everyday sales system, freebie that guides you with the strategy you want for your business to get that in place. It does start with a baseline revenue. It’s then expanded with a group program, and that is obviously all the work I do with my clients inside the accelerator, which as a little heads up if you’re listening to this in May. May will be the final month that it is at its current investment. It will be going up by 2000 pounds in June. So if you’ve been sitting on the fence, now is the time to reach out and have a conversation with me.

Anyway, guys, I hope you found this episode helpful. Any questions, any reflections, do reach out to me in the DMS, and as always, if you found this episode helpful, please do go and share it with your business besties, because I want everyone having the best summer where they genuinely get to have that perfect business life balance and really enjoy the beautiful weather and time with friends and family. All right, I hope this is helpful, and I’ll be in your ears next week with another guest.