3 Simple Habits for Solopreneurs to Make More Money in Q1 with Amy Traugh
- Amy Traugh
- 13 minutes ago
- 11 min read
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3 Simple Habits for Solopreneurs to Make More Money in Q1
What if making more money this quarter didn’t require doing more, hustling harder, or adding yet another strategy to your plate?For most solopreneurs, revenue growth comes from a few simple habits done consistently, especially when motivation dips and life gets busy.
Habits quietly shape how decisions get made in your business, what gets prioritized, and what actually happens day to day. Sustainable business growth does not come from working nonstop. It comes from repeated behaviors that compound over time.
Below are three habits that directly support short-term revenue growth in Q1 without adding more overwhelm.
Habit 1: Review Your Metrics With Curiosity and Make One Clear Adjustment
Most business owners avoid their metrics because they associate numbers with stress, judgment, or fear. But metrics are not a report card. They are information.
When you review your numbers with curiosity instead of emotion, your brain stays regulated and decision-making improves. Curiosity activates the part of your brain responsible for strategy and clarity, while fear triggers survival mode and avoidance.
This habit is not about tracking everything. It is about looking at a small set of relevant metrics and asking three simple questions:
What did I expect to happen?
What actually happened?
What is one adjustment I can make based on this information?
Making one intentional adjustment at a time preserves clarity. When too many changes happen at once, learning slows down and confidence drops. One focused adjustment builds momentum, protects your energy, and helps you understand what is actually driving results.
Over time, your metrics start to feel less intimidating and more like a GPS that shows you exactly where to go next.
Habit 2: Take Daily Revenue-Focused Action
Habits remove negotiation. When revenue-supporting actions are habitual, you stop asking yourself if today is a good day to sell. It simply becomes part of how your business operates.
Daily revenue-focused action builds confidence because confidence comes from evidence, not affirmations. Every follow-up, check-in, or sales conversation reinforces the belief that your actions matter.
Revenue-focused actions include:
Following up with warm leads
Checking in with referral partners
Scheduling sales conversations
Clarifying offers people are already asking about
Responding to common objections you see in your data
These actions directly support sales now or create conditions for sales to happen soon. Daily does not mean exhausting. One message, one follow-up, or one conversation is enough to build the habit and maintain momentum.
Consistency beats intensity every time.
Habit 3: Retain Clients and Generate Referrals Through Regular Check-Ins
Retention is often the fastest and most cost-effective way to increase revenue. Past clients and referral partners already know and trust you, which shortens the decision-making process.
Checking in regularly keeps you top of mind and strengthens relationships without pressure. A simple message, a thoughtful follow-up, or sharing something relevant to their goals reinforces the value of your work.
Retention leads to:
Faster decisions
Repeat business
More referrals
A stronger foundation for sustainable growth
When revenue feels urgent, retention is not a backup plan. It is often the most strategic place to focus for immediate results.
How These Habits Work Together
These three habits create a powerful loop your brain responds well to:
Clarity through metrics
Action through daily revenue focus
Connection through retention and referrals
Together, they create measurable progress without adding more hours, stress, or busy work to your week. This is how solopreneurs build momentum and make more money in Q1 with less friction.
If you're ready to finally ditch the data drama and create a simple, repeatable process for growth, this is exactly what we do inside Metrics Mastery.
Get started for free at amytraugh.com and let’s build a business that’s backed by strategy, not stress.
Until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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Transcript for Episode 451. 3 Simple Habits for Solopreneurs to Make More Money in Q1
@0:10 - Amy Traugh (Amy Traugh)
What if making more money this quarter had less to do with doing even more than you already are and more to do with a few simple habits done consistently?
Secondly, habits are what your business runs on when motivation drops because let's face it, life gets busy, it will life, there will be days where you have zero motivation, zero willpower and these habits quietly determine how your decisions get made, what gets prioritized and what actually happens day to day within your business because the thing is that sustainable business growth doesn't come from working 24-7 and this is really hard for most of us to wrap our brains around because we're conditioned to think that more more.
Thank Thank Effort equals more results. But the reality is, is that it comes from repeated behaviors that compound over time.
Your brain loves habits because they can serve energy. And when something becomes habitual, it requires less effort, less emotional labor, and less decision-making.
Your brain is literally wired to repeat what's familiar because it loves comfort. It is a survival mechanism. And in business, this means that your default behaviors determine your results, not your goals or intentions.
So today we're talking about three habits that will directly support your short-term revenue targets. These habits work because they align with how the brain actually learns, decides, and builds momentum without adding even more of your never-ending to-do list.
So let's start. So With habit one, review your metrics with curiosity and make one clear adjustment. Most people think that reviewing their metrics means sitting down with a spreadsheet and bracing for impact.
And that alone is enough to trigger that visceral reaction. It makes you want to avoid your metrics, right? I get it.
It's just like when you check your bank account after a week where you did all the Christmas shopping and you spent a lot more than usual, if you open your banking app and you already feel really guilty, your body's going to tighten up because your brain wants to escape.
You might even close the app before you even look at it. But if you open the app thinking to yourself, well, I just want to see where I'm at.
It's a lot more neutral because we're going in with a curious mindset. Curiosity is really key to keeping your nervous system regulated.
Decision-making. And your ability to make decisions shuts down when your brain feels threatened. But curiosity actually activates the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that's responsible for making decisions, planning, strategy, thinking clearly.
But when you're in this state of fear and judgment, your amygdala, that's the fight or flight mechanism in your brain, it literally wires you for panic.
It's seeking out threats. So it's going into survival mode, not sales mode. So when business owners say, I know I should look at my metrics, but I don't, what they're really saying is my brain thinks this is unsafe and understandably so.
The habit of looking at your metrics is not about looking at everything. It is about looking intentionally at a small set of numbers.
And these don't have. to be the same for everyone. You literally can look at any single metric in your business and ask better questions.
What did I expect to happen? What actually happened? And what is one adjustment that I can make based off of this information?
Not one, not five, not a complete burn everything down in your business. But when it feels like nothing's working, the instinct we have is to change everything.
Our messaging, our offers, our platforms, our schedule. It feels really productive to us. But neurologically, it's actually backfiring. It's like when you're cooking.
If you are making a new recipe for the first time, you know, you do a little taste test and you think, oh, this is kind of bland.
You might add some more salt, some more spices, change the cooking time. And you do all these things all at once, but you really don't have any idea of what actually made it taste better.
Or even worse, you just know that the result changed. Well, your business works in the same way. When you're making multiple adjustments all at once, we lose that cause and effect clarity.
You can't tell which action actually created the result. So what happens is learning actually slows down instead of speeding up.
The brain learns through feedback loops. One input, one output. It's the cause and effect. And when too many things change all at once, that prefrontal cortex we were just talking about, the decision-making part of your brain, it has to work even harder to interpret these results.
And what it does is it really increases the cognitive load and makes decision-making feel even harder, not easier. And this is why so often I hear business owners saying, you know, I'm trying everything and nothing's working.
nothing. But what's? And actually happening is that they're trying too many things and adjusting too many things at once, but without learning from any of them.
And then there's also an emotional component, because when it feels like nothing is working, your nervous system's already activated.
Making multiple changes at once, it really reinforces this urgency and panic, but one clear adjustment sends a different signal.
It's telling your brain literally like, I am in control. I am just testing and seeing what happens. And this sense of control matters because it creates safety.
It creates that emotional safety, which supports better decisions and calm brains sell better than overwhelmed ones. People can pick up on this.
Strategically, one adjustment protects your momentum. You are far more likely to follow through on one focused change. Then a long line of fixes, it gets us out of analysis paralysis and into action because consistency beats intensity every single time.
And one adjustment does not mean staying small. It means staying clear. Basically, you're looking at your metrics. You're choosing which is the most relevant lever to pull.
You act, you observe, and then you decide on the next adjustment. It's just like an experiment over and over and over.
And what happens over time is this builds confidence and business growth faster than trying to fix everything at once.
So when it feels like nothing's working, it's not the moment where you change everything. It's not the moment where you burn it all down.
It's the moment for fewer, more intentional decisions. And this over time builds trust with your brain. This is where you start to fall.
Fall in love with your numbers and your metrics because they stop feeling like this report card and start feeling like a GPS.
You might not love it, but you always know where you are and where to turn next. So that's habit one.
Habit two, take daily revenue-focused action. Habits remove negotiation. So when revenue or income-producing activities are habitual, your brain doesn't need to decide if today is a good day to reach out.
Today is a good day to make sales. No, it's just what you do. Daily revenue-focused action also builds that self-trust.
Your brain's belief that your actions matter. Confidence in sales really doesn't come from affirmations. It comes from evidence. So every follow-up sent, every check-in message delivered, every comment.
These actions teach your brain that selling equals connection, not rejection. I'm going to say that again. Selling equals connection, not rejection.
You are simply presenting an invitation to the solution that we have. And this is why this habit supports making more sales quickly.
Because these daily actions directly support your sales now or create conditions for sales to happen soon. Not someday, but right now.
Think about going to the gym. So we can scroll through Instagram looking at all of the fitness posts. can buy the cute new leggings.
We can organize your playlist. But none of this is actually building strength. Lifting the weights does. Putting in the reps.
Revenue-focused actions are. The weightlifting of your business includes following up with leads, reaching out to referral partners, scheduling conversations with people, clarifying an offer people are already asking about, responding to objections you hear repeatedly in your data or in your conversations.
It's not perfecting your website, reorganizing your CRM, consuming more training, more information without applying or creating content without a clear purpose.
Daily action reinforces identity. And when you consistently take sales supporting action, your brain starts to see you as someone who follows through.
This self-trust reduces hesitation and overthinking. It literally rewires your brain. It creates momentum and momentum creates results. These small, consistent actions create little dopamine hits through completion.
It's a reward signal that increases motivation to take the next action, keeping revenue activities from feeling really hard to do.
And this is key. Daily doesn't mean long or exhausting. One message, one follow-up, one conversation, that is enough to build the habit and see results.
Over time, we're rewiring what your business day defaults to. Revenue stops being something that you're hoping for at the end of the month and something that you actively support through your consistent behavior.
And finally, habit three, check in regularly to retain clients and generate referrals. Retention is so much easier than acquisition and often leads to a faster payoff.
Let me explain why. Acquisition, it really asks your business to do a lot of heavy lifting. New people have
Have to find you, pay attention, build trust, understand what you do, and decide that you're worth the investment. It's a long runway, but retention shortens the process.
Past clients and referral partners already know and trust you. Familiarity reduces the perceived threat. And because our brain prefers certainty, decisions happen faster when people feel safe and confident.
In fact, research shows it costs upwards of 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
Making this habit not just faster, but so much more cost-effective. Checking in with past clients and referral partners, it does more than reopen conversations.
It really shapes the experience of working with you and keeps you top of mind. It could be a simple message, a thoughtful follow-up.
Or sharing something useful related to their business or goals. It's these little touch points that remind people why they value your work.
Which makes them more likely to hire you again or send referrals your way. One of my favorite things to do is with every past client I have ever worked with, I always send them a birthday card in the mail for their business birthday.
So what it's doing, it's keeping me top of mind. And when we have these regular touch points, there's also a confidence effect that comes into play.
Because when you're talking to someone who already knows your work, your nervous system stays calmer. You feel like you don't have to prove yourself to that person.
They've already worked with you. And it comes across. And strategically, retention often skips steps in the sales process. Because you're not starting at zero every single time.
You're just picking up that conversation. That's our. That relationship that's already there and nurturing it, leading to quicker decisions and even more revenue.
So when revenue feels urgent, retention isn't a fallback. It's often the most strategic, cost-effective place to focus, giving you a faster payoff and a stronger foundation for growth this quarter, and really an elevated client experience that encourages repeat business and referrals.
So how does this all come together? How does this really support you in making more sales every single day?
Well, you start by reviewing your numbers with curiosity. You see what's working, what isn't, and decide on one clear adjustment, keeping your decisions grounded in evidence instead of emotion.
Then take daily revenue-focused actions, doing things like checking in with past clients, scheduling calls, creating momentum. day. going end of So of of
These small, consistent actions build confidence and self-trust and momentum in your business. Finally, when you check in with past clients and referral partners, you leverage the existing trust you already have built for faster results.
Retention is easier and more cost-effective than acquisition. And these relationships often lead to opportunities that you don't have to chase.
So together, these three habits form a loop that your brain loves. Clarity, action, and connection. They create measurable progress without adding even more hours, more stress, or more busy work to your week.
If this episode resonated with you, this is exactly what I love helping clients with one-on-one and inside my signature program, Metrics Mastery.
You can get started for free at amytraugh.com. And until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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