Renia (pronounced R-EE-n-a) Carsillo hates business silos and marketing hacks. So, she spends her days working with mid-size and small companies to integrate their business strategy with their impact strategy, design sustainable marketing frameworks, and find a growth cadence that works for their team and their lives. Renia believes founders are uniquely positioned to create a kinder, more equitable world. She is passionate about bringing C-level strategic support to the small and mid-size companies shaping their communities every day. Renia says, "Sustainable marketing is built on a solid business strategy. A solid business strategy is built on values-driven habits. Values-driven habits are built on healed/healing leaders. We can’t do these things separately. They’re all interconnected. ”
2 Ways to Break the $250k Glass Ceiling [Two on Tuesdays]
|
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, I talked about the $250K glass ceiling that has existed for women in this country for over a decade. Today, I’m sharing two things you can do about it. Breaking Through Tip #1: Bigger Dollars, Fewer ClientsThe top sectors for women-led start-ups still include retail, health, beauty, food, and support services. These industries often share a common problem: small margins and/or a need for scale to be viable income earners. The way to combat this issue (in the earlier stages of a company under the $250k mark) is to aim for sustainability through higher-ticket, healthy-margin services until the smaller things achieve viable scale. In other words, focus on selling a few expensive services that make good profit, rather than trying to sell lots of small-ticket items right away. This solution could look like:
Breaking Through Tip #2: Curate recurring revenue over investing in one-off sales.The one-sale-at-a-time model is almost impossible to scale, especially in micro-companies where one or two people typically do all the jobs. For many small companies, the key to breaking up with one-offs is focusing on packages, subscriptions, and solutions-based offerings. This solution could look like:
As your smaller-ticket products or services start to generate reliable profit, you can choose to streamline by removing some of your high-ticket offerings. But in the early stages, these higher-priced items can help you fill the revenue gap. Addressing your core business model's realities is essential for breaking through the $250K mark, especially when scalability and funding are in their fragile early stages. This week, take some time to brainstorm how you could apply these strategies to your business. What unique high-ticket offerings or recurring revenue streams could you develop that align with your expertise and customers' needs? Until next time, |
Renia Carsillo
Renia (pronounced R-EE-n-a) Carsillo hates business silos and marketing hacks. So, she spends her days working with mid-size and small companies to integrate their business strategy with their impact strategy, design sustainable marketing frameworks, and find a growth cadence that works for their team and their lives. Renia believes founders are uniquely positioned to create a kinder, more equitable world. She is passionate about bringing C-level strategic support to the small and mid-size companies shaping their communities every day. Renia says, "Sustainable marketing is built on a solid business strategy. A solid business strategy is built on values-driven habits. Values-driven habits are built on healed/healing leaders. We can’t do these things separately. They’re all interconnected. ”
Happy Tuesday, Reader! We've made it to the last of our 5 Principles of Sustainable Marketing: long-term thinking. In a zero-click digital world (and one where the phone in your pocket is competing for your attention even while you're standing in a physical room with actual people), the discipline of thinking in long-term story arcs has become a superpower precisely because almost nobody is doing it anymore. Marketing has become about optimizing for the next scroll, the next quarter, the next...
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, we talked about Sustainable Marketing Principle #3: marketing as the heartbeat of the company. This week, we're on Principle #2: build on a values-driven framework. A values-driven framework starts with getting clear on your 3-Core: your core values, your core beliefs, and the core communities you're built to serve. Get those three things right, and you have a foundation solid enough to stand on, no matter what’s happening around you. Many people view...
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, we talked about Sustainable Marketing Principle #4: building an intentional word-of-mouth and referral strategy. This week, we're moving to Principle #3: marketing is the heartbeat of the company, not an appendage. While it’s often treated as an afterthought, sustainable marketing is part of a business's DNA, deeply aligned with its goal of service and its values. When it's disconnected from either, it stops working the way it should. Where I See This...