From $305k in 2020 to $377k in 2021
Despite Delta
I wish corona was over by now but it looks like it’s the new normal. Omicron shuffled all the cards and the present looks scary. But I have trust in the future. I have to let the data guide us.
It’s been super hard in 2020 to see everyone suffer in the event industry. It’s been frustratingAF to see the same good people struggle with Delta in 2021. And now with this super-fast daredevil of a variant, Omicron, it’s easy to be afraid.
I choose not to.
On a personal level, I look at how much Kivi Media did with its six brands (BAC, KEA, GMA, KMC, ZR, DC) in the last few years:
2017 – $110k
2018 – $165k
2019 – $277k
2020 – $305k
2021 – $377k
This type of growth that is consistent over a period of five years is very rewarding. We more than tripled ourselves in revenue.
And yes, expenses grew as well. We are running a team that includes 4 writers, a proofreader, a website builder, three designers, and one miraculous personal assistant. A total of 10 people.
Our salaries expenses went from 0 to around $77k per year.
Other expenses include FB ads for about $16k, hosting and software licenses, etc.
On overall, being online is a pretty lucrative business. With biz expenses that are low, I get to keep some of the profits and re-invest them into Kivi Media.
In 2021 we invested $25k into solar panels. We are now the owner a small electricity factory that generates a truly passive income of $3.5k per year.
We also moved this year to the city of Tel Aviv, which according to the Economist magazine – is the most expensive city in the world. Let me tell you this – it’s true. Family expenses definitely went up.
Add to that the fact that the USD to Israeli Shekel ratio went from around 3.5 to 3.15 and you get a situation that is frustrating. We are making more dollars by 23% in 2021 compared to 2021, but in terms of actual profit (which I have to measure in Shekels as it has to be money in the bank) – we are not that bright.
In fact, due to certain tax surprises, we lost 60k shekels, around 19k USD.
All of this hard work and eventually we lost money.
But I am not letting this get to me – I see how we grow, and how we invest into our team, and our assets, and as my friend Guy Sheffer says:
Sometimes you need to get rid of money in the wallet, to make room for new money.
So how did I do in 2021 in terms of plan vs execution?
The original plan was to grow from doing $305k in 2020 into doing $400k in 2021.
But we only did $377k.
The main reason for that is actually not corona-related. It’s FB Algorithm related.
We planned to do $30k in GMA which was based solely on Facebook ads. But the iOS 14 update in Apr has caused sales to drop, and then the Facebook second wave of algorithm changes in July have totally killed profitability. We were dead, it was game over for GMA in terms of fast pace growth.
We still use Facebook ads, mainly for lead gen campaigns for Daily Cookie, but when I look into planning 2022, I am not counting on GMA to produce ANY income.
It’s not like I am ditching the business. We are already considering a sexy topic for season 4 and it might happen and might not.
But we won’t pay FB to grow our business and I am shifting as much focus as possible to the existing brands.
Here’s how much we were planning to do in each business (with BAC including the KMC measurements for accounting reasons). On the right side you can see how much we actually did:
| BAC | 120 | 133 | |
| KEA | 60 | 48 | |
| Coaching | 90 | 130 | |
| GMP | 30 | 16 | |
| DC | 100 | 49 | |
| Total | $400k | $377k |
I have to say that I am delighted about the overall result. Since I suffer from Imposter Syndrome, I thought we will scratch the 300k. There were signs of shrinkage in KEA and BAC club offerings that are related to the never-ending pandemic.
But Coaching saved the day and KMCs too.
Out of the $377k we did this year, 135k were made from “tripwires” and 242k were made from coaching products (namely KMC, Spark, and one on one).
So did the pivot of 2020 actually work? I think so. We do more copywriting, more websites, and get our clients bigger results.
Ruthless results.
Many of our repeat clients reported that in 2021 they did their BEST year ever. This fuels me in overcoming all the obstacles that are in the way.
So what’s in the works for 2022?
My plan for 2022 is based on a few things.
The current growth of 23% in comparison to 2020 means we can probably make around $463k next year.
But Omicron poses a threat to two of my six brands as they are heavily rooted in the event industry.
In addition, there are certain factors that show we will be able to grow. Big plans that are already in the works (like new funnels that on some of them we literarily have been working on for an entire year).
So here is my plan to crossing the $400k barrier:
| 2022 | Did in 2021 | Goal for 2022 | |
| Entertainment | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BAC | 133 | 160 | |
| KEA | 48 | 60 | |
| Coaching | 130 | 150 | |
| GMP | 16 | 0 | |
| DC | 49 | 100 | |
| Total | $377k | $470k |
Here are some of the reasons we plan to grow to $470k in 2022.
1. We are reworking the signup funnels on all of the tripwires TOP-OF brands – KEA, BAC, and DC. We got better in writing, designing, and building funnels, end to end for our clients, and are now using our own resources to help our own brands. This explains the moderate growth in KEA and BAC.
2. We plan to experiment with the concept of a mini membership on three brands. This helps warm up the decision to join the higher tiers and is properly positioned for days ahead in terms of FB ad costs. I am committed to making this happen and even joined a program by Evelyn Weiss to make myself accountable (and because she is brilliant in getting results for people around her).
3. Daily Cookie is going into Upwork. It’s a thriving arena for clients of copywriters and we are well-positioned to make it there as we don’t operate from a place of Ego. We don’t mind undercharging in comparison to US-based copywriters because… we are not US-based copywriters. We are ESLs and are proud of it as it makes our copy stronger and keeps us motivated and focused on clients getting results. We plan to make 15k USD from Upwork clients within 2021.
Final notes
The hardest part for me in 2021 was… well there were a lot of challenging moments actually:
- The number of coaching sessions I do on a given day has gotten so high… I do as many as 21 coaching sessions a day. At the very least I do around 12 of them and I work 6 days a week. This has a bad effect on my ability to overcome the desire to eat and I am still struggling with losing some “corona pandemic weight”
- Moving to Tel Aviv was challenging for my family in surprising ways, which I shared regularly in my schools’ AHODs (all hands on deck weekly meetings)
- Team members that failed to show up or even stick around had to be replaced way too many times. I prefer keeping my team stable and long term but changes in 2021 were inevitable. I feel a new muscle growing and will eventually get used to firing and finding people
I am still committed to creating transformation in people’s lives – helping them make their businesses prettier, one business at a time. I still believe that any significant change in the world will come from the world of Business. And so my best shot at making a dent is helping businesses make this world a better place.
But if the numbers make it seem easy let me just tell you this – if you don’t have to be entrepreneurial then walk away. This road is hard, frustrating, depressing, and painful.
And as an empath who helps other people in business, I feel the pain of everyone around me.
I hope this short summary of the rollercoaster of 2021 inspires you. It’s super transparent but if you feel I missed something or have a question – just shoot me an email at ziv@zivraviv.com.
Yours truly
Ziv Raviv