Pence Branding End of Month Report

October 2019

4 Clients, 33% Growth, $996 MRR

Although we did not meet our goals for October, I don't think we ended in a bad place. At the end of the month, the pursuit of a partnership with the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce finally paid off. However, if it wasn't for that, our key metrics would have stayed stagnant again. Looking into November, we have another client lined up and web design projects that will move 2 of my older clients (grandfathered in at a $199 price point) up to $399/mo (at least for November).

Marketing

In October, Pence Branding took advantage of $100 in Google Ad credits and launched a pay-per-click campaign. The free design concept is still being used as bait. Out of 51 clicks to our website, 34 of them came from the search keyword "brand design". Only 1 person signed up for a free design concept, but didn't respond after emailing and calling for more information about their business. The campaign is still running (as we have $40 left in ad credits).

A few people used the live chat on our site to ask quick questions about services, but still failed to sign up for a free design concept (let alone a membership).

Pence Branding also failed to continue with the "surprise rebranding concept" that showed minor success last month. This is something I want to do twice a week starting November to test it's success.

As for social media, Pence Branding is starting to post general branding/business news to become a place people go to for entertainment, rather than just examples of our work & branding tips. Posting about Yahoo's rebrand performed better than 90% of Pence Branding's other posts. Further than this, I would like to see Pence Branding post twice a day on all social media.

I was also able to write my first guest blog post in October on Failory: a startup blog with a newsletter of 7,000 readers on average. Although this had an unnoticeable impact on website traffic to Pence Branding, the article will continue to be an asset to Pence Branding with it being a 4,000 word guide on how to build a startup brand. I plan to use the article as a lead magnet in the future.

Partnerships

After reaching out to the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in August, 2019, I was finally able to start a test run offering Pence Branding's services to their members at a discounted rate. I was able to meet with the owners of The Farmacy in Athens, Ohio about their business goals and design needs. After meeting with the owners, the president of the chamber of commerce paid 2 months up-front to initiate the test run before rolling us out as an option for all their members.

The Athens Area Chamber of Commerce has over 400 business as members and has the opportunity of being a million dollar partnership long-term. If this partnership is successful, I plan on establishing the same partnerships with different Chambers across Ohio to start.

I was also able to meet with the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Ohio Tech Growth about using their resources, mentorship, and a business grant of up to $30,000. Establishing this relationship and securing grant funding will help us narrow in on our customer acquisition cost and get Pence Branding ready for outside investments.

Revenue and Expenses

With the original 3 clients that I had when I was freelancing being "grandfathered" in to our membership pricing at $199/mo (minus web design), and the Chamber of Commerce test run bringing on a new client at $399/mo, Pence Branding is now sitting at $996 in MRR for October, 2019. Although our goals were not met, it was nice to finally see a progress in our metrics for the first time in months. I am highly optimistic about the rest of Q4.

Regarding the expenses, Pence Branding paid only $160 in Office Supplies & Software.

$996 - $160 = $836 in Gross Profit for October, 2019

Goals

After failing again to meet growth goals for the month, Pence Branding will reset the same goals as last month rather than setting an unrealistic goal for November.