The Model

By the end of this lesson you will have your Million Dollar Year Model on one page: what your targets ask of your price, your clients, your costs and your hours, and the one lever that moves the page most, so the eleven Ms that follow work on the right thing. It holds your targets, one line per delivery model you sell, your caps, your profit before and after your salary, and the gap between today and what the targets require.

• The revenue requirement first, then the profit requirement
• One line per delivery model, each with a client cap, plus an owner-hour cap
• Every monthly cost, with your salary as a fixed line
• Profit before and after your salary
• The gap to target, and the lever that moves it most

Why it matters. You may know your revenue well and still not know what your model leaves you per hour worked. One page shows what your targets ask of your price, client counts, costs and hours, and which matters most. It is the baseline Market, Message, Math and Map build on.

What you need. Lesson 1.1 (targets and ceiling), 1.2 (offer and models) and 1.3 (planned weekly hours).

Do this.

1. Open the Model calculator. Coach has filled it from 1.1 to 1.3: one line per delivery model you sell, and a planned line for each you will add.
2. Set a client cap on each line: the most clients you would take at that price.
3. Set your owner-hour cap. It cannot be higher than your 1.1 ceiling.
4. Read the revenue requirement: the active clients, held for twelve full months, that reach your revenue target. Coach fills your starting model to its cap, then the next in order. A year spent growing to them produces less.
5. Enter the monthly costs at those counts, each marked recorded or assumed, and fixed or per client. Enter each line's monthly churn: the share of clients who leave in a month.
6. Enter your salary as a fixed monthly cost. Read profit before and after it.
7. Read the profit requirement: the active clients, held for twelve full months in the same order, that reach your profit target after salary.
8. Compare each requirement with your caps. Where one breaks a cap, change one lever (price, scope, delivery model, hours per client, a cost line or a cap) and read the page again. Find the lever that matters most.
9. Save the page as your baseline. Later months replace assumptions with recorded numbers. Math works out the funnel that reaches your required clients.

This is what the target requires at the numbers you entered. It is not a forecast, and we make no claim or promise that you will reach any revenue, profit or income figure. Every figure on the page follows that rule. Anything you try is labeled a scenario.

Done when. By day 19, the member has saved a one-page Model whose required clients, required owner-hours and profit before and after owner salary are calculated from their own entries, checked against their owner-hour cap, with the gap to target shown as a requirement.

Max's plan, day 18. Targets: $1,000,000 revenue first, then $1,000,000 profit after salary. Offer lines: Million Dollar Acquisition, done for you, $5,000 a month (the price at the time of writing), cap 8, 2.0 hours a week per client (16 of his hours across 8); Million Dollar Year, done with you, live from day 29, $2,000 a month (13 payments of $2,000 or $20,000 paid in full, so the monthly view sits between them), cap 100, 0.25 hours a week per member, an estimate; done by you, planned, no numbers. Owner-hour cap: 30. Today: 8 clients and 0 members, $40,000 a month.

Revenue requirement: Acquisition at its cap of 8, $40,000 a month, $480,000 a year; then 22 Year members, $44,000 a month, $528,000 a year. Together $84,000 a month, $1,008,000 a year, held for twelve full months. A year spent growing to those counts produces less. At his estimated churn of 5% for Acquisition and 3% for Year, holding them means about 5 and 8 new clients a year (4.8 and 7.9) before any growth. The climb from 0 members is Math's work.

Owner-hours at the requirement: 32 hours that do not depend on clients, of which 23 are build-phase hours, plus 8 x 2.0 and 22 x 0.25: 53.5 a week during the build and 30.5 after it, against the cap of 30.

Monthly costs at that mix: software and AI $525 fixed (estimate) plus $20 per member, $440 (assumed); payment fees at 6%, $5,040 (estimate); acquisition spend $9,000 (assumed). Total $15,005. The two estimates flip to recorded once the tracker confirms them.

Profit: before salary $68,995 a month, $827,940 a year, an 82% margin. Salary $10,000 a month. After salary $58,995 a month, $707,940 a year, a 70% margin. Profit per owner-hour: at 53.5 hours a week, $827,940 / 2,568 hours, about $322 before salary and $276 after; at 30.5 hours after the build, about $566 and $484.

Profit requirement: Acquisition at its cap plus 36 Year members: $1,020,420 a year after salary. That needs about 57 owner-hours a week during the build and 34 after it, above the cap of 30.

Gap to target: today Max collects $40,000 a month from 8 clients and 0 members. The revenue requirement is $84,000 a month: Acquisition held at its cap and 22 members to add once Million Dollar Year opens. The hours break the cap during the build and sit at its edge after. The lever is Acquisition's hours per client: at 1.0 hour a week instead of 2.0, the requirement needs 22.5 hours after the build. Price is not the lever here: the Acquisition price shown stays $5,000.

Every figure is a requirement. None is a result.