A founder shares the framework that helped his $30 million company hit revenue forecasts for 23 straight months. He works backward from a target, then asks two questions for each line item: Can I do it? Should I do it? Writing down assumptions lets you catch mistakes and adjust.
For 23 months in a row, my business hit forecast, and this is a $30 million a year company, not some $10,000 a month marketing agency. And this is exactly how I did it. So I sat down and I said, okay, how much money do I want to make? And then I started with that number and I started working my way backwards. Then from there, for every single month and every single line item, I said, is that reasonable? Can I do that? And then I asked the more important question, should I do that? And then I listed out all of the assumptions. Okay, so if I assume that this line will make me this much and this line will make me this much and I'll cost this much money, I have to write those assumptions down because then when I'm gonna relook at my reforecasting, I'm going to have to change those assumptions if they're incorrect, or at least I know exactly where I went wrong. Okay? And so the important part is that you start doing it knowing that you're not gonna get it right the first time, but you will get better and better at it. And you ask yourself the question, can I do it? Yes. Should I do it? Because maybe it's not fun selling 700 one-on-one programs. Maybe that's retarded. And we should find a different revenue line or not forecast as much money. These are the questions that good business owners ask and that ones that are stuck at 7 figures never do.
