Calligraphy Biz Corner

25. Empowered CEO Part 2: Strategize Like a CEO and Scale Your Calligraphy Business

• Alane Gianetti

Share episode

We’re back with part two of our Empowered CEO Series, and this time, we’re diving into how to strategize like a CEO in your calligraphy business. If you're a creative business owner who is ready to shift from simply creating beautiful work to making strategic, CEO-level decisions that drive business growth, this episode is for you!

In this episode, we talk all things business strategy - from big-picture vision planning to using financial data to make smarter decisions. We’ll talk about how to understand and leverage your profit and loss statement (P&L), make data-driven decisions, and focus on your zone of genius so you can build a thriving, sustainable business.

Plus, we’re sharing personal experiences, practical frameworks, and real-life examples to help you align your goals with your daily actions. Because being the leader of your business isn’t just about working harder—it’s about working smarter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Big-Picture Thinking: How to create a strategic vision for your calligraphy business and stay focused on long-term growth.
  • Understanding Your P&L and Other Key Data Points: Why knowing your numbers is key to making confident, data-driven decisions as an empowered CEO.
  • Optimizing Your Strengths: How to maximize your zone of genius and delegate or streamline the rest.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start making more intentional, informed decisions as a business owner, grab a notebook (and your favorite latte) and tune in! 

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

Text us a question to answer on a future episode!

Support the show

👩‍💻 Learn From Us:

👯‍♀️ Follow Us:

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Back to calligraphy biz corner. I'm Elaine.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

I'm Shao Chen and we're so excited to bring you part two of our three part series all about being an empowered CEO in your calligraphy business. Today, we're talking all about how to be a strategic leader of your business. And if you haven't listened to episode 23 yet, that was our part one. Make sure you go back and listen to that one. We share key insights. Four key mindset shifts that will arm you with the right foundation for thinking like a CEO.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

So before we jump into today's episode, we want to take a moment to first thank our latest buy me a coffee supporter. Laura from the letter green generously bought us five coffees and she said, you girls rock and pack so much value into each episode. Thanks for showing up and sharing your knowledge, Laura. Thank you for listening and for supporting the show. And if anybody else is out there listening and enjoying what you've been hearing, then you can buy us a copy at the link in our show notes, your donation helps pay for the software and the subscriptions that are needed to actually get this podcast out into the world. And also at the time of recording, we are about to celebrate our one year anniversary of this podcast. I can't believe we're coming up on a year. It's crazy. We launched our very first episode January 21st. of 2024 and we had absolutely no idea of what it would become. So we are just so grateful for your listens, your comments, your messages, and are so thrilled that this podcast has helped so many of you dream bigger and build your business with more intention.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yes. Thank you so much for all of your support. We've had over 4, 500 downloads, which is I think basically plays in the past year. And we hope to reach even more calligraphers and help more calligraphers this year. So if you have been finding this podcast helpful, can you please share it with one of your friends or a couple of friends? And we're also hoping to grow our YouTube channel. If you didn't know calligraphy, this corner is also on YouTube. So if you're a YouTube person, we would love if you could subscribe to our channel, Calligraphy Biz Corner there. And back to today's episode, now that we've talked about adopting the CEO mindset, today we're gonna talk about actionable strategy. So having a strategy in your business is essential to help you know where you're going, especially when it feels like you're deep in the day to day work of your business. So as CEOs, it's important that we plan and align our day to day actions with those bigger picture and longer term goals. And so we're going to be talking about a couple of ways that you can be more strategic in your business.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

So the very first one that we're going to chat about is what we kind of refer to as taking a bird's eye view of your business, or, you know, this This can also be thought of as looking at the bigger picture as a CEO. You really need to have a clear vision of where your business is headed, both in the short term as well as the long term. And by stepping back to look at that bigger picture to pull yourself out, take that bird's eye view. You are able to make smarter decisions. You can identify what's working, what's not, and then you can also start to recognize like, where do you need to pivot or change things? In all honesty, to get a little open and vulnerable with you here, I feel like I wasn't doing a very good job of this in 2024. I'm trying to give myself some grace about it, but I know that it left me feeling just a bit overwhelmed and burned out by the end of last year. And this is because 2024 was really like a year of experimentation in my business. You know, I was doing weddings, trying to book higher end weddings. I was doing the mentorship one on one mentoring. We were doing the podcast. Like there was a lot going on and I was trying a lot of different things in that and learning a lot too, while we were going through all of these different things. But I feel like I didn't prioritize enough time for just like quiet reflection for myself last year to really take note of what was working. What was I really enjoying? What was lighting me up? What were things that I needed to change? So this year I'm just bringing back some. Simple habits like journaling in the morning, as well as making sure that I am being consistent with doing weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews to really make sure that I am giving myself that time to step back, to reflect, and to do any realignment that I may need to do with my bigger picture vision.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, I feel like Elaine, you and I have been so kind of on the same path and feeling in very similar ways. For me last year also was a lot of experimentation, trying to grow my online education business, which is like very different model than wedding or client service business. And yeah, I ended up really burning myself out too. And so this year I'm really reconnecting to what I'm passionate about. And like you said, kind of like taking a step step back to really figure out what's important to me and my business. But what we wanted to do for this, other than kind of sharing some personal stories and how we can get better at doing this is also share some like frameworks for how you might think about taking that bigger picture. Look and so this is going to get a little bit more tactical. And while I'm personally not really big on the five year plan, just because I just have a really hard time predicting what's going to happen in the next five years of my life, I do think that having some kind of high level goal or clarity, at least for your year is helpful. And so I like to start off by thinking about some of the big things that I want to achieve for the year. And then I sort of like spread them out across the year in terms of what my focus area is going to be for each quarter. So to give you an example for a calligraphy business, like Quarter one for me, maybe I focus on my educational offerings because it's a little bit slower for weddings. And then in quarter two and three, I know I'm going to be focusing on weddings. And then quarter four around the holidays is where I know that I'm probably going to have a big lift in live events. And obviously that's like very, very simplistic, right? And in reality, I'm going to be working on multiple streams of income and services and every quarter, but this just helps me be intentional about where I want to focus and grow and put my efforts to. And so it doesn't feel as overwhelming because I know a lot of times when we have multiple offerings, we're trying to work on them all at once, market them all at once, deliver them all at once. That can be so overwhelming. And then once I have my focus kind of figured out for each quarter, then I dive into my goal setting for that specific quarter. I like to chunk my planning and strategic actions by quarter because I feel like that's enough time for me to really do some bigger projects, move the needle in my business, but it's also not so big of a chunk of time that I'm going to get overwhelmed. The first framework I want to share with you was one from Salesforce when I used to work at Salesforce. I honestly cannot believe I'm talking about this on this podcast. Cause I used to absolutely hate doing these. We, We, use this framework called the V2 mom. And it is, I do think it is helpful. It's like a high level planning framework that can be used to align an entire organization. And Salesforce, by the way, is over 72, 000 employees. So you can imagine how, how having something like this is absolutely like necessary for them, but even as solopreneurs, I think that this is a helpful framework for us too, that you can use, especially if you're feeling like a little bit lost about how to do this. I remember when I. I think I was in my second year of business. I was really feeling lost in terms of my direction. So I actually, this is when I rediscovered the V2 mom and pulled it up again as a way for myself to get some clarity. And there is a, this is like something they publicly share. So it's not like I'm sharing any like confidential employee information. And there's actually like a blog post that dives more deeply into this. And we'll link it in the show notes, if you want more information on it. The V2MOM stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures. You do it kind of in that order. So, vision is like, big picture, like, what do you want to achieve? So, put like a time frame around it. It could be this quarter or this year. But, again, I think revisiting it every quarter is a good idea. And then the second V stands for values. What's important to me about like this goal or this vision that I have the methods are where you get more tactical. Like, how do you actually get to the vision that you set out? So like write out what your action steps would be. And then the obstacles, like what is preventing you from being successful? And then how can you actually resolve those obstacles? Really thinking through that proactively. And then measures would be how do you know you've achieved the goal that you set out for yourself, or the vision that you set out. So these could be your KPIs, your key performance indicators. And I think the cool thing about this framework is, like I said, it can be kind of applied at a big picture level, for your, your plan, or even your five year plan, but it can also be applied at a project level. So if you're starting a brand new project, maybe you're launching a new, you know, Service offering, you could do a v2 mom for that service offering too, to help you kind of get organized. So I do like this framework and you can kind of like take what you need from it. Maybe you don't need to do every single part of it. But I do think it's like a helpful way to think about a project or anything that you're planning on a bigger picture level.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yeah, I love that framework. I have never heard of this before, so I feel like I'm going to go and try it. But I'm even thinking with like some goals that I'm starting to dream up and write down. I'm like, this would be such a helpful tool to have to help me figure out, okay, this is my goal. How am I actually going to get there? What's standing in my way? And I think the most important part is that measure because. Sometimes we set these goals, but they aren't necessarily measurable. So figuring out how can we actually measure our success or like, if we've hit this goal, like what constitutes that I think is so important. Cause sometimes I also think we hit goals without even realizing that we hit them because we don't have a way of tracking them.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, that's such a great point and also, if you have a team, this format's great too, because the way that we would use it at Salesforce is that the executives would start, so the V2 mom gets set at the very top of the organization. So the executives are right there, V2 moms, and then the next level and so on throughout the organization. And so it really like trickles down so that everybody's aligned to what they need. The person at the top's vision and goal is. And so if you have a team, this is also a great exercise to do for them. You create yours first and ask everybody to create theirs based off your vision I have also developed my own kind of more tactical planning tool called a quarterly planning roadmap. That's part of my pro wedding calligrapher course. And it basically starts off by setting your key five to seven goals for the quarter. And then you break them down into what, you know, the v2 mom calls the methods. So you break them down into the action steps that happen each month that tie back to your goals for the quarter. And then from there, you can take your monthly plan to use, to create your weekly list of priorities, which then kind of trickles down to like what you work on daily. Whether you're using kind of a planner or something else to plan your daily work. So it goes back to the same idea of like, let the big picture vision and goals that you set trickle down into your day to day action. So you can keep things aligned, because I think what happens a lot of times, there's this thing called. Disconnect between the goals we set and the action that we actually take is like we set the goals, but we don't actually tie the actions to the goals that we want. And so I think both of these methods, the V2MOM and my quarterly planning roadmap really seek to like solve that problem is to try to help you make your day to day actions be more aligned to what you're. Big picture trying to achieve. And let me know as you're listening to this, if that roadmap template would be helpful for you right now, I have it available through my per wedding calligrapher course, but if there's interest, I might try to offer it separately. So you can send me a DM on Instagram at calligraphy, this corner, or you can also text us. There's a link in the show notes for that too.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Oh yeah. We never, we keep forgetting to tell people to text us. Um, But yeah, I think you're so right that like. Both of these, the V2 mom, and then also your quarterly planning roadmap are such powerful tools because it is, it can be kind of hard to attach action items to goals. And then sometimes too, I feel like we set goals. But we don't even have any action items to back them up. Like I know for so many years, I would just set this goal then be like, okay, well, that's just going to sit like in my journal as a 2025 goal. And we'll see what happens,

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

right. Yeah.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

but even like, I'm even thinking something as simple as like. I want to read 37 books this year. And like, one of the things that I'm trying to do as an action and be intentional about so far at the beginning of this year is to pick up my, like, pick up a book over picking up my phone or the TV remote, and to also try to get into bed a little bit earlier so that I don't just immediately fall asleep after reading like one page. So it's like prioritizing the time each day to actually. Read so that I can actually work towards that goal of 37 books for the year. So even something as simple as that, I think is helpful for you to create these habits, intentions, actions, whatever they are that tie back into your goals and both of these tools will help you do that.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, that's a great example. I was also thinking as you were talking like you have what 37 books for the year, right? I think a lot of times the other challenges when we set goals for the year We don't think about how that actually breaks down into like what we need to do for the month or the week So 37 books is three books a month Right? So it's almost like you have a little over a week to read a book. Like, I don't know, when I break stuff, when I break up the big numbers into like those smaller increments, that helps me really think about what I actually need to do on a daily, weekly basis too.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yep, exactly. Yeah. It makes it feel way more manageable when you break it down like that. And then if you start right from like the time that you set your goal, you're like, okay, I think I could keep up with three books a month, and then if you start to fall off and you're doing your. monthly review. It's like, okay, I need to read one extra one in February because I fell off in January on my, my track. So yeah, that's so true. So number two is to get comfortable with your profit and loss statement, which is also known as your P and L in your business, in case anybody's. Heard the acronym thrown around. But as creative business owners, I feel like we tend to shy away from numbers. I mean, I am guilty as charged. And I find that this is usually either because number one, they just aren't our strong suit because we have the creative brain going, but not necessarily like the numbers and math brain going or two. They just kind of feel scary to look at. Like I said, I was very guilty of this myself up until I started working with my business coach, who was specifically a money mindset and management coach. Although she helped me with all business strategy. But when I started working with her, I learned that if I really wanted to be running my business, like a CEO, then being comfortable with and knowing my financial numbers was going to be a non negotiable. So I had to get comfortable with them, even if. They brought up certain feelings. We actually interviewed my business coach, Erin on episode 20 of the podcast. So if you want to go back and give a listen to that she shared a ton of tips and strategies for managing your finances and growing your wealth. But the main thing that you do want to look at when it comes to your business finances is going to be your profit and loss statement. So understanding this is essential because running a thriving business isn't just about revenue, which is the money that you're bringing in. It's also, it's also about seeing and understanding where you're spending money, what is driving your profit and where there's room for improvement. So having that first Full picture of your business's finances really helps inform your price adjustments, your offerings, what's your, what you're investing in all of those things.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, and so I want to caveat first by saying like Elaine and I are not accountants or CPAs So, please do seek out those professionals for your own business and don't just rely on our podcast But we did want to also point out some things that are helpful when we do like our own accounting or look at our own PNLs So at the most simplistic level like in terms of making the PNL not A scary thing it's basically the revenue, which is the money that you make. Minus your expenses. So your costs and that equals either a profit, which is when you make money or a loss when you lose money for your business. Your profit or loss is also called your net income or your bottom line. And that bottom line is basically telling you if your business is in the green or in the red, meaning that you're spending more money than you're making and your expenses can include lots of different categories of expenses. So that can include your. project supply costs to the softwares that you use like your CRM to your website or any kind of advertising that you do or spend money on like you grow to a trade show or like a wedding expo or anything like that that all falls under expenses that you can then categorize So I think a couple takeaways for me from this is like If you're especially if you're just starting getting started with understanding your P and L is one most important thing is like track all of the money that you make from your business as well. All the money that you spend on your business, and that might seem obvious, but I do know, like a lot of times, especially when we're first starting our personal and business finances aren't always separated cleanly. And so in order for you to really have a clear picture of your business's health, financial health. You want to make sure that you. Have separate bank accounts and separate either credit or debit cards for your business that are separate from your own personal finances. And then the second thing, once you have them separated, is you need a way to track all of your revenue and expenses. So I personally use QuickBooks and I've also heard of other tools like FreshBooks, Xero, Wave. Even if you don't want to pay for a software right now, I would suggest at least having a spreadsheet that you can track all of the money that's coming into you, as well as like going out as individual transactions that you can then kind of like categorize and things.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yeah, I use QuickBooks for my business and I used to just use a spreadsheet when I first started, which is a great way to help you get going with this. The nice thing about having a software like QuickBooks or something like that is that your transactions from like your credit card and your bank account, you can hook all of them up. So it would go in automatically, which just save you, saves you time from downloading statements and copying and pasting. Eventually you may get to the point in your business where you want to save that time and move from a spreadsheet to an actual accounting software.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, I think that's a great example of how you can be more efficient. So you're not spending time on data entry as a CEO. And then one tip as you're tracking your revenue and expenses, no matter how you're doing it, is that you can separate out your different streams of revenue. I think this is really important, so don't put all your revenue just in one bucket, start to kind of like. Categorize how, like, how would you categorize the different types of income that you're making? So for me, I have like a course income stream that's separate than wedding income or live event income. And that way I can really see which income streams are driving the most revenue in my business. And then similarly, I would also suggest if there are expenses that are specific to income streams as well. See if you can separate those expenses as well. So maybe like I can separate out my supplies that I use for wedding clients versus the supplies I use for live event clients. When you have your revenue and expenses separated out by income stream like that, you can then find your profit margin for each income stream. And that helps you be able to see like, Which of my income streams are more profitable that maybe I want to book more clients for or which ones are not as high profit of profit margin. And maybe I want to change that profit margin somehow, like maybe I need to charge more money, maybe I need to find more ways to lower some costs or something and your profit margin, the way it's calculated is it's your profit divided by your revenue. Multiply by 100 so that you get a percentage and the higher that percentage is, the more profitable that income stream is. One thing I would say is like that's missing from that picture that you'll also want to look at is that doesn't take into account how much time you spend on the projects. So it's also a good idea just to know like how much time you're tracking towards different types of projects, different income streams, and then also know like how much you're making per hour based on that.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Even if you provide a wedding calligraphy, you might even have some different packages in there that you'd want to take a look at profit margins for. So like, for example, say you offer a rental calligraphy package to clients, and then say you offer a fully custom calligraphy package to clients. Even those may have different profit margins because like rentals, you've probably already bought all the materials. So it's actually probably lower expenses for you versus going full service. And so I think even that is a good way to evaluate, you know, what types of packages do I want to be driving business? To even within something that already feels niched down like wedding calligraphy. So just kind of an example to help people kind of think through how that could affect their, just the data and the decisions that they're making in their businesses.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, I think the example we want to really call out here when it comes to P& L, because anybody can talk about the P& L, is like make the way you're doing your accounting and tracking, make it personal to your business in a way that's actually useful for you, like the numbers are actually going to be useful for you when you get them, because if everything's lumped together, yes, you can know whether you're Right. Yeah. In the red or in the green as a whole for your business, but you don't know the individual levers within your business that you can change your pool to make more money or improve your profit margins and things like that. And so if you kind of categorize your business in a way that makes sense for you and how you're running it, those numbers are gonna be way more helpful and that you can use it to help you figure out what is like, The optimal balance of those different income streams you have. And also we want to call out, like, make sure you're not just relying on numbers. Like we talk about how numbers are important. You want to be friends with your numbers, but you also want to think about as a business owner, like what brings you joy. Just because something isn't bringing a high profit margin, for example, it doesn't mean that you need to cut it out of your business. If you love it, if you're really passionate about it, it just means that maybe you need to raise your prices. So you have better profit margin. Or if you can't do that for whatever reason, maybe you can compensate it with another revenue stream that does bring you a higher profit margin. Right. So, you know, you want to look at the whole picture, but you also want to look at the individual pieces and kind of help you figure out what makes the most sense in terms of like the different decisions you have for your business.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

So all of this is bringing us to number three, which is leaning on data to drive your decisions. So in addition to your PNL, there are also other key data points That you want to be familiar with in your business because they help you make more informed and strategic decisions. Also goes along with part one of this series, the CEO mindset, when we talked about adopting an evidence based mindset. So if you need a little refresher, you can go back to episode 23. So to kick off this strategy, I'm just going to share a personal story from my business. So a few years ago, Instagram was my top lead referral source. I was getting a good amount of engagement on the platform and almost every couple that inquired was selecting it as that. How did you hear about me question on my contact form? And because it was my top lead source, I was spending a lot of time marketing my wedding calligraphy services on there, but when I dug deeper into my marketing metrics and looked at the number of leads that were actually converting from Instagram and the amount of money that those leads were investing with me, I realized that I wasn't actually seeing the return on my time and energy that I was putting into Instagram as what, like, I actually expected. So. While Instagram was driving a ton of eyes my way and inquiries were coming in, et cetera, those leads weren't actually my ideal client. They either weren't converting or they weren't hiring me for the types of packages that I really wanted to be hired for. So Looking at that kind of full picture data told me two things that one, I wasn't doing a great job of educating my potential clients on my wedding calligraphy services and the value that I was providing. So I could go in and tweak my Instagram marketing just to better showcase that more full service wedding experience that I was really looking to drive and build. And then the other thing that it told me was that. Other lead sources were converting at a higher rate and higher package prices. So in addition to changing the way that I talked about my services on Instagram, I was also able to shift my time and my energy into more lucrative marketing channels. So I didn't need to spend quite as much time on Instagram. So basically I was able to refine my messaging on that platform, but also spend less time there and put more time into other places that we're seeing better conversion rates and higher value projects.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

I actually had a similar experience with my Google leads that we're converting really low a couple years ago, and I think most often I would just get inquiries for things that I didn't do, and I realized that my website at the time was pretty bare bones, and I was just lacking that. Education for clients and information to help qualify leads before they actually submitted a contact form with me. And so I, you know, using that information, I prioritize updating my website with clear language about what my services are, what my minimum is. And since then, I've had much more qualified leads come through. So that's just like one example of how we can look at data. So we wanted to share, you know, in addition to looking at your financial metrics, a couple other, you know, categories of data that you might want to be tracking and looking at in your business and also making sure that you like interpret what they mean. So as I go through these, I'll kind of give some examples of like, as you look at the data, what could they be telling you as well? So just to go off the example that Elaine and I just shared, like, you'll definitely want to be tracking information about your lead sources. So not only looking at how many leads are coming in through a source, because like in Elaine's case, she's probably seeing The highest quantity through Instagram, but you also want to look at the quality of those leads. And you can look, you can identify the quality through things like how much revenue is that lead source bringing me. And then also what is the conversion rate for that lead source, which is the number of leads that booked with you divided by the total number of leads for that particular category. So I think in your example, those Instagram leads you a high quantity, but the lead conversion rate was low, right?

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yep, exactly.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

And so as you're interpreting this data, You know, you want to look at, okay, what are your highest converting lead sources so that you can invest more in those, those could be like relationships, maybe you do more networking and stuff. And then which lead sources do you want to improve? So we just gave some examples of how we improve some underperforming lead sources. The second category of data you can look at is making sure that you're checking in on your client experience, because obviously we don't want to just focus on, like, how many leads we get, how many clients we book, but also the quality of the work that we're delivering and the experience they're getting from us, because we know that happy customers will lead to more happy customers, right? They can refer each other. So here you can look at things like. How many reviews you're getting. And I think a lot of this depends on you asking for reviews. I, I rarely see people just proactively going, finding your Google business page to leave your review. So I make it easy for them, send them the link. So remember to ask for reviews so you can get more reviews and then check your, not only your review ratings, but also like, what are the themes and the keywords that people are saying about you, your business, your service, all of that. And. So in terms of interpreting, interpreting that information, you can take the themes that people say a lot about your business as ways to highlight and market your business. You can use basically the same language that your clients are using for you. And then you can also look for areas that you can improve in that review, or if you send a separate feedback survey to your clients you could take action on that feedback as well. Another category that I think Elaine and I both need to look at more, we discovered as we were prepping for this recording, is your website data, and you can look at that data through a platform, whatever website platform you're on, we'll probably have some analytics. Like I use Squarespace but you can also use Google Analytics to look at your data. So you can look at things like traffic sources. How are people discovering your website? Like where are they coming from? You can look at your traffic over time. Is your traffic growing? Are more people discovering your website over time? Especially if you have a new website, you're going to want to track it over time because I think it'll change your website. Matures. You can also look at like, what are the top pages people are visiting? And are those the pages that you want them to be visiting? So for example, my, for my wedding business, Monstera Gold, my the number one page that people visit is actually my live calligraphy page, which is surprising because I think I built the whole website around like wedding, a wedding client primarily. It's like wedding first, I think, but I think what it. Tells me to is like I might be getting more wedding clients through referrals, but a lot of people who are booking me for live calligraphy. They're looking on Google. They're like searching on the Internet for a person who can do the service. And so if I know that people are landing on it and they're searching for it. Then I might want to invest some more time into that page, make sure it has the latest photos, maybe put some more information so I get better SEO. Maybe I want to make it easier to inquire. I'm actually thinking about having a separate contact form just for live events, that's kind of some examples of how you can like take that data and turn it into action. and then you can also sign up for a Google Search Console account to understand how people are searching for you. So not just like the traffic that comes on your page, which might be from. Direct to links or from Instagram and stuff like that, but also specifically how people are searching for you so for example, you can through Google search console, see what people are searching for that led them to your website being shown in the search results or to them clicking on your page. And that's also why you want to make sure you have like relevant content on your website, especially if you're blogging. One example from my experience is like people are finding my calligraphy CEO, which is like my education website through a blog post about how to make acrylic ornaments. It's like, this is like my biggest search term is like people trying to make their own DIY acrylic ornaments or just like work with acrylic, I guess.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Oh my gosh.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

And so,

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

funny.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

right. And like, that's one of my blogs. I had no idea that was going to be my top blog, but I'm like, okay, hopefully I feel like. There could be people in that DIY space that also want to start a business using their calligraphy skills

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

That could also like, you were talking about how, you know, you're using the information on your website traffic to like, okay, maybe I need to improve my life calligraphy page. You can also update blog posts, right? So like if everybody's landing on this DIY acrylic ornament blog posts and you're like, okay. They're landing here, but then they're clicking off or they're not poking around. Like maybe I want to add some links to other blog posts that they would find relevant or a podcast episode that I think would be helpful for the DIY audience that would just help them like consume a little bit more, get a little more familiar with you. So I feel like that's still great data to have that you can then translate into some sort of like, okay, how can I now use this now that I know. Also,

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

put an I think I have an opt in now, so hopefully get them on my newsletter So especially if they're cold traffic, they have no idea who I am. I want a way to continue that relationship with them. So you can also use google search console to see how you rank for a specific keyword that you want to rank for So I think this is also super super useful and actionable So when you're in Google search console you go under the performance section and you can add like a filter for a query to find specific keyword. I had to research this today. That's why I'm telling you, cause it was not easy to figure out where this was. But you can, so let's say for example, I want to rank for Denver wedding calligrapher, I can basically put in a query to see what my ranking is for that specific keyword, you probably have to rank between like one to 10 if you want to show up on the first page of people searching for that specific keyword. So one thing to remember too, is like, even if you have blog posts and things like that, that help your SEO, if you're ranking super far down for the keywords that you're ranking for, those blog posts might not be seen by people because they're just too far down on the pages. So I think this is just like, Good visibility to know, right? Like, are you ranking for the keywords you wanna rank for? And if you're not trying to figure out what's the next step from there so that you can improve that ranking. The last piece of data I wanted to call out that I think is useful to track and be aware of is your hourly rate. And what I mean by this is like really tracking your time so you can actually identify like what is the difference between my actual hourly rate, like how much time I'm spending on a project and how much money I'm making from it versus what did I set out to make as my hourly rate. Because I feel like a lot of times when I actually track my time, My actual hourly rate is lower than my ideal hourly rate, like the hourly rate that I use to calculate when I'm going to charge a client, because I just always end up spending more time than I estimate on a project. And so keep tracking that information, because then you'll know if you need to increase your hourly rate further. When you're sending someone a quote, and this can funnel into like your pricing strategy and how to make sure that like your time is covered. And also, if you're not using a design and management fee on your proposals, like you should start doing that now because there are so much like admin and client management time that doesn't get tracked when you're just doing it. Tracking how long it takes you to create a specific thing. There's so much like back and forth and just revisions and all this other stuff that is kind of this overhead. So make sure that when you're thinking about your pricing, if you have like a flat fee like that, it helps you to account for some of that time that the hourly rate might not be accounting for.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

I know so many people are fearful of putting this fee on their proposals and I'm just going to say go for it because I've been asked about it twice in like four years.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, and I remember I think like I introduced this idea like the first time that you started adding it, like I was telling you about it.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yeah, because I was doing it for stationary, but I wasn't doing it for signage. And I think you were telling me that the, I think it was around the same time that I was working with. Erin on restructuring my business and my pricing. And both of you were just like, what are you doing? Why are you charging this fee on stationary, but not on your day of designs when there's still a hundred percent custom to the clients and you're still sourcing materials and you're doing all of these things for them and you're not charging for it. And I was like, Oh,

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

think, I think it really goes to also like, what's the norm? Like, I feel like in solution or an invitation, because I'm an invitation design, that's pretty like, Normal to see most people have that fee a design fee But I totally agree it applies to when you're doing day of too so it's just one of those things where like It's just not as I think normalized. So like let's all start doing it and normalize it

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yep.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

So if you're interested in doing a Comprehensive kind of look back on your business knowing that I think this episode comes out in early february, right? Both on your data and financials and also some introspective reflection. We actually put out an episode last year that is still our most popular episode is episode two of our podcast. We'll link it in the show notes. And there's also an editable reflection guide that goes with it that you can like fill out. So we'll link all of that in the show notes.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

So our fourth and final kind of strategy tip for this episode is to maximize your zone of genius. Some of you may have heard this before, but if anybody hasn't, as your business grows, it's important to identify what your zone of genius is. First way that you can start to figure out, okay, what is my zone of genius is identifying what's actually bringing money into your business. So as a calligrapher, for example, it's probably your actual calligraphy that Bringing money. That's what people are hiring you to do, whether it's weddings or live events or something else, people are paying you to create the calligraphy. So this is going to be your zone of genius. This is my zone of, of genius. It's not something that we're going to delegate or outsource. It's what people are hiring us for. So as you're starting to think about that and how I think about it in my businesses, I want to make sure that I have enough time. To dedicate to that particular zone of genius. So knowing that my time needs to be spent on creating actual calligraphy for my clients, because that is what they're hiring me and paying me for. I can then make decisions that help me make the most impact of my, with my time. So for example, going back to our numbers, accounting is a hundred percent, not my zone. My zone of genius. It is not my strong suit. I want to have like a good understanding of what everything means, but I don't need to actually be in the numbers, crunching them on a day to day basis, running reports and doing my taxes, figuring out what my tax payments should be, et cetera. That is actually going to cost me way more time than if I just outsourced it to somebody. So, I know that it's more beneficial for me in my business to remove that task from my plate to outsource it to somebody else. So that I can remain in my zone of genius, which is making sure that I am creating beautiful designs and creating calligraphy for the clients that are actually. Hiring me and giving me the money to then go and do the accounting.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

And you can have multiple zones of genius. Like I consider myself a left brain creative. And so I do enjoy a lot of the operational and business side of things too. And actually just to play devil's advocate lane for four years, I did actually outsource the calligraphy element of my business, but it was, yeah, but it was, I mean, I think this just goes to show like, You can have whatever business that you want to have that works for you, but that plays to your zone of genius. So I used it as a way to expand my business. Essentially, I moved away from California, but I still had a lot of connections there. And so I, when I moved to Colorado, In order for me to keep serving California clients, I actually worked with a calligrapher in the Bay Area, Tiffany, some of you might know her, Tiffany of Handletter by Tiffany and so we had a system set up where like all of her wedding inquiries came through my website, I managed all these clients through the inquiry proposal, the design process. I manage all the client communications up till like, it was time for production. Then I handed off all the details to Tiffany. And then she would do the actual creation and production part. And of course, like we would talk throughout the process to make sure like she knew what was coming down the pipeline and like, it was something she could do all of that. But ultimately This optimized for like both of our zones of genius. And it allowed her to also like get more Bay area jobs through clients who are inquiring through like my business and my website. So it was like a win win in a lot of ways. And she also just like in a way needed to outsource some of that client management stuff because she just didn't have a lot of time. And so it worked out really well for us this way. I also got to take on more clients in Colorado while still like maintaining my footprint in California. But not have to do all the calligraphy work myself and still like increase my revenue. So I've also heard another example of this is I've also heard a lot of calligraphers who will like hire other calligraphers for onsite events or live calligraphy events, whether it's like an inquiry, they got that they can't attend. So I did this in my own business too. I booked like 40. Calligraphers in California for a luxury client, but I wasn't physically in California. So I was just coordinating all of the teams and the dates and the logistics and stuff for them. But I also know sometimes like when you need additional hands on deck, you might hire other calligraphers to work along with you. So lots of ways to think about how you can use your zone of genius to also like expand your revenue opportunities. And as you think about what can you, like, divest from your business in order to stay or maximize your zone of genius think about like the trade offs in terms of how you price your time. So one example, let's say it takes you like two hours to create a reel. Like, I know that it takes me forever to create a reel. And maybe, you know, you can charge like 150 or more for your services. So that two hours of your time could potentially own you 300, let's say. Maybe you want to research a content creator or a virtual assistant who can help you create content, create reels. Because if they charge less than, 300 a reel, that might be a sign to you that it's it's something you could outsource. So you could take that time to make more money.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yeah, exactly. This is literally why I outsourced my accounting because I'm like, I know it would cost me way more than what I could make in my, like, if I'm actually working on my business, whether it's doing calligraphy or serving my clients. And that kind of brings me to another zone of genius in my business. I think the, the kind of overarching theme here is we are giving you. Strategies and tips and examples from our own businesses, but like, make sure that you're figuring out like, what is your unique zone of genius and what is it that you really enjoy doing? And that's driving money and revenue and business into your business. But another one of mine is. I think that creating personalized experiences for my clients is one of my zone of geniuses. Genia Genia, geniuses and I know that that is something that they hire me for. They hire me not just for my calligraphy, but also for the experience of working together, you know, how I interact with them, how I make them feel special throughout the process, and really create that. Seamless experience is all part of it. And because that is just something that I personally feel super strongly about, like I'm not going to delegate it or outsource it to a virtual assistant or someone else, because like, I just, I pride myself on that. I really enjoy it. I liking make those, making those personal connections with my clients too. So. I don't want to remove that from my plate, but what I will do is utilize various programs and automations like HoneyBook, Zapier, ClickUp, all of these things that help me deliver that elevated personalized experience more effortlessly. So even though I am still spending my time on it, I'm not spending nearly as much time as if I didn't have the help of, you know, technology programs, tools to help me just run it smoothly. But still allows me to stay in connection with my clients. So if you are a calligrapher who resonates with this and wants to create that, you know, a similar elevated. Personalized experience for your own clients while also streamlining your operations, then I would love to invite you to join the flourish biz group coaching program. Wait list. This is a 12 week program that I have designed. Specifically for calligraphers that not only helps them attract their ideal clients, but also charge what you're worth by leveraging these seamless systems and automations to really improve your overall client journey. The January group is officially in full swing, which is really exciting, but enrollment for the April cohort is going to open sometime in mid to late February. So if you are interested in being a part of this group and just Kind of elevating your business, your operations and your client experience in 2025, then you can head to the link in the show notes. We'll drop it there to join the wait list and be the first to know when enrollment opens.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

Yeah, that's super exciting. And I think as you were talking, I thought of another point too, which is like, don't outsource your zone of genius, because if that's something that you do really well, and you outsource it to someone who doesn't do it as well as you, that could be kind of detrimental. As we were talking, I was just thinking about this experience that I had when I was inquiring for like my own wedding. I think it was like a makeup hair and makeup company. And I love their work, their Instagram, all of that. But the client experience was so bad. The person who responded to my inquiry just like did not seem to care about me at all. And so I think they just had the wrong person doing the job that someone else could probably do a lot better. Right.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Well, and this is also why it's like systems processes, having, you know, standard operating procedures is all an important part of Running a business and also stepping into a CEO, because even if you do want to outsource it, even if I wanted to say, I do want to hire a VA that can help me with all of these things. I want to make sure that like the emails that the VA is using, the tone of voice that they're using, the timing of when they're sending things is all like, Aligned with what I would want to be delivering. So, I think it's just making sure that like you have the foundation of your business set, and then you can start to decide like, where is my time best spent and making sure that you're, you have the right systems in place and you're hiring the right people to handle things for you if you are getting it off of your plate.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

So today's episode was all about thinking strategically as the CEO of your business. So focusing on your business rather than in it and making informed decisions. So we talked about taking a bird's eye view, getting comfortable with your P and L. Leaning on data to drive decisions and maximizing your zone of genius. And in our last episode of the empowered CEO series, which will be coming up next, we'll be discussing CEO action. So tips for when you're working in your business and how to maximize your focus and your productivity.

alane_1_01-16-2025_144900:

Yeah. I'm excited for that one. Cause now we're taking everything from these past two episodes and we're going to help you actually make pretty much like a daily game plan for your business. All right. So we would love to know what strategy are you most excited to implement from this episode? Feel free to send us a DM on Instagram or if you want to text the show, we'll do another text the show plug.

shaochen_1_01-16-2025_124900:

All right. Talk to you soon.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Alane Gianetti

Host
Head Shot

Shaochen Wu

Host