Create a Robust Financial Plan: Revenue Models

Revenue forecasting is a form of predicting the future – which makes it intimidating, and may be why so many entrepreneurs hazard wild guesses to get it over with as fast as they can. But tying income projections directly to marketing and sales activities and using industry research to justify growth predictions is essential if you want to transform your revenue model into a useful tool for tracking performance and staying on top of your cash flow.

In this course, we’ll look at what drivers create revenue, which revenue models work best for product, service, and subscription or membership businesses, and how to predict how fast your business will scale. Detailed worksheets accompanying this course help you develop your own models that are succinct, understandable, accurate, and actionable.

This course is part of a larger series on creating a robust financial plan. To learn more, you can watch the following courses in this series.  

1. Create a Robust Financial Plan: The Fundamentals
2. Create a Robust Financial Plan: Staffing and Expense Models
3. Create a Robust Financial Plan: Financial Statements

Introduction

Your revenue forecast anchors your entire business model. Your revenue model supports your management of cash flow, scaling, growth, staffing, expansion, and seasonal fluctuations. This video provides an overview of revenue drivers, tips for forecasting, and business-specific models for estimating your revenue.

Revenue Model Walk-Through

This walk-through takes you right into the Financial Models Worksheet — spotlighting the Revenue Worksheet tab. This covers the four models you can work with to estimate revenue: A billing-based model, unit-based, subscription, and the "no model" model. Ken explains how to complete all fields in the spreadsheet so that you can confidently estimate business financials on your own. 

Let's start by getting oriented with the revenue worksheet so you completely understand how to work it.  

This lesson will explain how to use:

1. A unit based pricing model, which is typically used for product based businesses such as retailers, brands and manufacturers. 
2. The billing based pricing model, which is typically used for service based businesses. 
3. The recently popular subscription based pricing model (also known as recurring revenue model). This can be used for any business that has an ongoing service or product offering. Used extensively by tech companies.  

Financial Model: Worksheets

This courses included a full blown financial model you can use to create a revenue forecast (and financial plan) for your business. In addition, we have included a collection of completed sample worksheets that are referenced in this course.  

Please note: The password to unprotect the spreadsheets allowing you to change formulas and insert rows is: Success.

1. Anyone who is running a small business.
2. Anyone who wants to start a business.

1. I'm not graduate from economic bachelor and English is not my mother tongue. But this course and how Mr. Ken explained the content is really easy to understand for beginner like me. Thanks to Mr. Ken for answered all of my question with a fast and easy understandable answer! ~ Diantini S
2. Perfect timing and the insights till now are those that I was exactly looking for.... Excited to learn more ~ Yogen P
3. Such an amazing course. You'll be able to understand and create your own business plan and you'll get a lot of valuable advices ~ A Cerimagic
4. Lot’s of info in this course. Ken really takes you from A to Z . Just what I needed for my business to take off. Thanks ~ Hugo M
5. I'm new to the business world and have been looking for courses with practical guidance. This course definitely provides that and so much more ~ S Slawinski
6. So far so good! A lot of challenges I'm facing in my work place Ken has highlighted the root course, which I was not expecting. He is clear, very engaging and breaks down the jargon. He is straight talking, right down to business attitude. I've just completed the first chapter and he's restoring a little faith in me so quite excited to keep learning (I know, I sound like a nerd) ~ Harrie T
7. This course is the right match for me as I know some about business but believe in always improving. I also want to make sure I have a solid foundation for my business so I'm positioned right for the new year, and growth ~ E Jollymore

1. How can the revenue model be useful beyond the pitch deck?
2. What are potential drivers of revenue?
3. How can I project model if I’m selling product versus a service?
4. What if I offer a variety of price points or billing rates?
5. How should I factor in subscription income, and how do I predict churn?
6. How can I accurately predict growth?
7. How should I take into account new product launches and seasonal fluctuations when predicting growth?

1. Basic knowledge of Excel or Google Sheets. We provide the complete financial model so all you need to do is input your data.
2. A basic understanding of business accounting.