Hello and Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Before diving into this new segment I wanted to personally thank all the men and women who risk their lives and have lost their lives to keep our country safe. I have a number of friends who are in the military and know a number of Domainers who are or have been, my eternal gratitude and respect goes out to all of you!
Now for a new segment on MorganLinton.com, Domaining MBA Monday’s. One of my favorite blog, one that I’ve been reading for years is AVC written by Fred Wilson, a Venture Capitalist in NYC. Fred has a great segment called MBA Monday’s that I really enjoy. One of the top questions I get from blog readers is, “what do I need to know to run a domain business?”
When I started my business there was a lot that I didn’t know about the domain space. Now, I’m still learning more every day but can definitely say that I learned a lot over the last five years. So I’ll be trying this segment out and seeing how people like it, if you want to see more of these let me know in the comment section below.
To start I wanted to cover one of the most fundamental elements of any Domain Business, yet one that is all too often overlooked. What I’m talking about is a revenue forecast. In fact you don’t really have to call it a forecast at all, you can just call it a plan for how much money you want to make every month.
Every business needs to know this, otherwise you’re not really running a business. You should know at the end of the month whether you missed or exceeded your goals. Without goals and tracking Domain Investing could become more of a hobby than a business. It takes under thirty minutes to put together a simple revenue forecast, below are the steps you’ll need to take:
- Use a program like Microsoft Excel or Google Apps so you can use a full-featured spreadsheet
- Make a row headlined by the months from January through December
- Create a new row for each revenue source your business has
- Dive in! Create real goals for yourself each month of the year
With June approaching now is a great time to start a revenue forecast if you haven’t already so you can have a solid 6 months of planning this year. It’s never too late to start a revenue forecast and you’ll quickly see the benefits of setting goals and trying to beat them every month.
I know for some of my readers this is complete review, and for others this is a resounding wake-up call. Either way I hope it helps a few of you take the time to create a forecast and turn a hobby into a real business. As always I’d love to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard, and let me know if you like this new weekly segment!
