One thing I have been thinking about lately is how to be more transparent with Every Cloud.
Recently, I have seen multiple companies including Convert Kit, publicly report their revenue.
Huge corporations have to, but I am talking about small businesses.
The idea has been whirling around my head for a few months and I’ve been thinking, could I report Every Cloud’s revenue? Is that disclosing too much? What happens if I have a bad year?
I thought why not?! It feels right and in line with the business I want to run.
Publicly sharing Every Clouds yearly revenue
I have decided to share the Every Cloud Accounting results for a few reasons.
- Transparency is one of my key values – I get to see under the bonnet for clients and see their financial results, so it feels right to do the same back.
- The accountancy industry can feel a bit boring and stale. I haven’t seen any other practices do it, so it feels cool to try something a bit different and to remove the secrecy.
- It may inspire other businesses on their own lifestyle business growth journey and potentially I may meet some great fit clients.
In another post, I also mentioned about growing a lifestyle service business. So alongside publishing the revenue, I am going to analyse the year; what went well, and what didn’t go so well, marking myself against the markers of having a lifestyle practice.
In the future, I may disclose costs and profit, but for the time being it feels right just being revenue. You don’t need an accounting lesson, but this is just sales, rather than profit.
However, it is just me running the business with limited costs, so the net profit margins are very high.
Every Cloud Accounting Results
Year 1: September 2023 revenue: £37,153
Review
- It was my first year in business after leaving practice, I was happy with the results starting from scratch.
- I stumbled across a couple of big clients to start with and for various reasons, they stopped in April 2023. I then had to pretty much start again so revenue was lower May – September 2023, it was a good lesson in not relying on big clients.
- Two marketing strategies worked well in getting new clients: SEO and writing personal handwritten cards to local limited companies that I found on Companies House. SEO has been a LONG road producing a lot of content, but I am finally starting to see the results.
- Sadly we had a miscarriage at the beginning of the year. This impacted my motivation and I ended up doing very little work over a 2-3 month period. I learnt that when things are going on in your personal life, it’s really hard to turn up with energy and clarity.
Lifestyle business
- Another big thing that was going on personally was that we were going through IVF. Every Cloud allowed me to go to every single IVF appointment (and there were loads of them) and I am extremely grateful and in a strange way, proud that I got to do this.
- We got our dog, Buddy, at the beginning of 2023, so working from home allowed me to look after him, take him for walks, and spend time with him.
- At times I still did long hours, working to 6pm-7pm regularly and not switching off when I came downstairs, which was a challenge.
- I had a couple of weeks off and few short breaks where I completely switched off from business which was nice. If I am still accessible with phone, emails etc. I never have the reset that I need.
Exploring transparency
It feels vulnerable writing a post like this sharing the Every Cloud Accounting results, disclosing financial along with personal information, but I am all for ‘exploring’ and seeing how the content is received. I want to be more transparent, so here’s the first step in being so. If anything has resonated with you, please reach out to tom@everycloudaccounting.co.uk to let me know.
Next stop? Year 2… choo choo.
If you would like to find out why I set up Every Cloud, head the about page to watch a short video.
