August Investor Style Update - Lemon7

This isn’t just a newsletter; it’s an open book.

Hey!

Since this is the first email in a while, you may not have heard what’s changing.

In June as I launched Lemon7 into the Irish market, this time around, I wanted to share the journey of growing this business transparently. The ups, the downs and everything in between. To help other marketers and founders understand the metrics to look at and the impact that they have month over month. It also gives a little insight into how we look at other businesses to help them grow too.

With that in mind, every month from now on, our newsletter subscribers will get what I am calling the "investor update" and you’re going to get unparalleled access to the growth of my new company Lemon7.

This email might be slightly longer than future updates to give everyone early context.

✅You’ll see our goals, sales, successes, and failures—every month, in your inbox.
✅ Our financial data
✅A front-row seat to every decision, every strategy, and every pivot we make.
✅You’ll know exactly where the money goes, what’s working, and what’s not.

This isn’t just a newsletter; it’s an open book.

Here we go! 👇

It’s been a great but intense few months which is always the case with a new business. Many things are tracking well, but there are some challenges we’re working through.

TL;DR

• Revenue in August is up 19.76% on July

• We’re scaling up work ahead of Our New Course Range which will kick off in November

• We closed out the terms of a major AI company partnership that will be announced in due course

• Our pipeline is closing at a 66% success rate (Give or take 2 out of every 3 proposals are accepted)

• Market spending power and interest rates are still having an impact on businesses and their ability to spend on marketing.

Key Metrics:

We continue to have a ton of momentum across every important metric. From July to August we grew almost 20%. We are also on pace for a really strong September. With an additional pipeline that will account for 48.90% growth. It’s worth noting here that September is predicted by proposals out and not proposals accepted. The actual growth rate will be a maximum of 48.90% but will likely be closer to 20-25%. That revenue may also not be realised in terms of cash flow until October.

A key learning we’ve had over the summer is the major shift in the market. Spending power is down and many businesses are panicking. Marketing spend is often the first to go, but I’m seeing a different market this time around.

People appear to be more invested in widening their brand presence to try mitigate some of the loss. The only risk to this for our business is not a lack of business, but a lack of lifetime value (LTV). Working with companies that are potentially in a tight spot from a market perspective, are already on the back foot from a growth perspective. We’ve only ever lost less than 5% of our customers in the first 6 months of working together, but I am monitoring that metric closely because of the market.

Prospective clients are also shopping around way more than they were a year ago. I’m often seeing us in the mix with 3-5 other agencies in terms of pitching for projects. I took the leap in June to mitigate this by putting pricing directly on the website. This is really unusual for an agency, but now I know that I’m not competing on price when a proposal request comes through.

We’ve not lost a single retainer customer since relaunching as Lemon7, but I know churn will have to factor into the growth of the business. Churn can make a massive difference to the performance over the next year.

Here is what we can predict the business will look like in June of next year if we hit 10% month over month growth. It puts us on a run rate to hit around half a million in revenue in year 1.

But, here’s what the business will look like if 5% of revenue churns or goes away every month despite a 10% month over month growth rate. That run rate is closer to quarter of a million. Which is a massive difference.

As a result, the name of the game here is customer first support. It’s paramount when dealing with compounding revenue that is labour intensive. As a result we’re focused on two key progressions: Diversified revenue streams that are less labor intensive to minimise churn and expenses and reviewing our marketing to support from two perspectives: getting new customers in AND keeping current customers as long as possible.

Team & Expenditures:

Currently our total expenditure (wages/contractor fees, marketing and subscriptions) accumulates to 84% of our current revenue per month. The good news is that leaves us cash flow positive consistently month over month. This is a massive feat in the first 6 months of business so I am really proud of keeping that set. I’m purposely keeping my own wage on the lower end for the first 12 months of growth in order to maintain a positive cashflow but if we are able to move faster I may adjust my own wage moving into 2025..

Expenditure in September is predicted to increase in terms of amount spent, but in the same breath it will decrease to 52.17% of overall income. This is a milestone I didn’t expect to hit until February 2025 or so. Every change here has a positive impact on my margins which I am aiming for 50% margin by year end. I started working on this in August and have really made an impact and will continue for the rest of the year. These include:

• Shared Password Ecosystem: No one for everyone in the audience subscriptions - one login for everyone. The only exception to this is the premium version of ChatGPT or Claude dependent on personal preference because an AI Co-Pilot needs to be 1:1 subscription.

• AI and automations: We do work that requires highly qualified, experienced and smart human brains. AI isn’t advanced enough to develop the right answers for marketing problems that are complex and without significant context which would be a privacy implication for many of our clients. Instead what we have done is created automations that remove significant volumes of manual labor. (Example: We know the CPM and CTR metric benchmarks for each client, if the CPMs go up and the CTR goes down, new creatives need to be developed. When the metrics signal change - we get an automated email with a task generated for the relevant team member.

• We started a few relationships that allow us to trade resources to support our growth. My office space, many marketing tools and other resources are as a result of sponsorships via my Instagram or a barter of services. We also have a partner agency where we trade resources. This gives me access to resources that would otherwise be costing me thousands.

You would be thoroughly surprised at how much faster we can move for clients with the automations in place. Most agencies manually (and worse sporadically) check these metrics, but for us - we get every possible signal of performance straight to our inbox and adjust for each unique client accordingly. This process of automation will only scale as AI gets better. But we can only implement it when it can do the same or better in terms of performance for each and every task. For now, we’re saving on the requirement to hire fast.

My big problem with hiring is that I’ve previously made the mistake in a past company of hiring too fast. I’ve also been partial to hiring a good “B Player” in a sea of “C Players” and seeing the potential in making them “A Players” through training and the truth of the matter is that B Players never become A Players and I never have as much time to train as I think I do. Finding exceptional marketing talent is hard. I will save myself several headaches by slowing down growth if required in order to slow down the hiring process to find exceptional talent that I can pay well.

Right now, we’re not stretched thin. We’ve got excellent processes in place but I know based on the growth models for the company that hiring is going to become a potential requirement in 2-6 months. Everyone can feel the momentum but we can’t ever stretch ourselves too thin and fatigue can’t become a problem. I need to get ahead of hiring, but carefully. Poor hiring choices this early on would be the fastest way to burn this (or any) startup to the ground.

I will make the decision to force a slowdown of growth to slow-roll hiring if required. I’m currently putting a lot of thought into this.

Diversification of Revenue Streams:

Courses:

I’ve previously ventured into the realm of online courses with some success, generating solid one-off revenue. Recognising the growing potential in the AI and Marketing space, I’m keen to explore this further. Currently, I’m in the early stages of developing a new course aimed at marketers and founders who are eager to leverage AI to enhance their processes as they prepare for 2025. My goal is to launch the beta version in November. I’ll provide more details in the next investor update as planning progresses.

Sponsorship:

While I’ve enjoyed successful partnerships with various marketing and AI tools, thanks to my substantial Instagram following but I’ve decided to make a strategic shift. Going forward, I’ll be gradually reducing external sponsorships to focus exclusively on promoting my own offerings. This approach will help concentrate the audience’s attention on the forthcoming course, minimising the clutter of what are essentially paid ads. Although this shift may result in a slight reduction in revenue (less than 5%), I believe it’s a worthwhile investment for long-term growth.

The Collective:

I’m currently in discussions with five top-tier freelance marketers based in Cork, Ireland, on an exciting new venture—tentatively named “The Collective”. I came across this when talking to US based freelancers and hadn’t seen it rolled out in Ireland. This initiative aims to unite freelancers, allowing us to pool resources and tackle larger projects together. Companies that are looking for the full package that they can’t get their hands on internally nor are able to find in an agency setting will soon be able to work with the best in a united way. Stay tuned for further updates as this project develops.

September Marketing Experiments:

LinkedIn Organic Launch

• September is set to launch my new LinkedIn organic experiment. I have over 20 videos prepped and ready to launch on September 9th thanks to my amazing video editor Aoife McNamara. I did the 100 days straight on Instagram to grow my following to 146k+ but now I am lasering in on LinkedIn for the next few months of focus. The content needs to be a completely different process, pace and strategy which I’m looking forward to kicking off and sharing the learnings of down the line.

Email Marketing Shift

• You’re reading experiment 2! I will keep you all posted about the feedback on this new newsletter approach as time goes on also.

Lead Source Diversification

• Currently my lead volume is high, likely because I am back out on my own again, making a bit of a song and dance about it and people who were eager to work with me were able to get some availability. But that is going to taper off. Referrals, LinkedIn and Instagram are my 3 core lead sources. This month will be about putting together a strategy to roll out at least 2 new channels going into October. This means reviewing the LTV of current customers and estimating the upfront cost I am willing to pay to get a customer over the line.

What I feel good about:

I’m feeling really positive about the momentum we’ve built, especially with the strong reception of our new AI partnership, which is already starting to generate interest and opportunities. I’m also pleased with the stability of our client retention rates, which have held strong even in a challenging market environment. Finally, the decision to display our pricing upfront on the website has been a game-changer—it’s effectively filtering out leads that are overly price-sensitive and allowing us to focus on those who truly see the value we bring.

What I am freaked out about:

While there’s a lot to feel good about, there are also some concerns on my mind. The looming interest rates and market spending power could continue to impact our clients’ budgets, and I’m wary of how this might affect our revenue streams. There’s also the uncertainty surrounding our predicted growth—while the pipeline looks strong, I’m anxious about how much of it will actually materialise into realised revenue. Lastly, I’m increasingly concerned about the risk of not finding great marketing talent in the market. We’re balancing the demands of scaling up with the need to maintain our high standards, and I’m keenly aware of how important it is to manage this carefully.

Personal & Fun Highlights in August:

On a personal note, my little nephew who will turn 3 soon, had a cast removed from his legs that he had been in for the most of his life due to bad hip dysplasia. He will finally be able to start walking (he’s already standing only a few weeks after surgery) and really giving my dog Fred a run for his money!

The branding work is also almost finished for Lemon7 which is super exciting! We’ve been working with Fabian Geyrhalter on this and he’s just so unbelievable at what he does. I can’t wait to roll this out. Bonus - here’s a great interview he does with Chris Do - The Futur if you want to learn more about branding from him.

What’s next and What I need help with:

Hiring:

I am starting the lookout process for exceptional talent now. I’m talking about talent that knows their way around an agency. Is eager to learn. Fights for equity. Someone who is already in an agency and is potentially underpaid for the quality of work they do. Someone who understands the value of the conversation being had in this email. Ideally someone who is thinking to themselves “I’ve worked at this agency for a while now, but I know I could run a better show myself but I don’t want the headache of running a business. I just want to obsess over marketing and get paid well in an environment where trust = freedom.” As I said above, I will happy keep hunting for the next 4-6 months until I find a person like this. I am in no rush. It’s either the best or nothing. If you know this person - please let me know.

The Collective:

I am still looking for a top tier graphic designer and email marketing specialist who would be interested in looking at the collective project. If you know someone amazing - just let me know.

August Sign Off:

Happy to answer any questions you might have. Replying to this email will send you straight to my inbox. If you have feedback on insights you’d like to see in this email - just let me know.

Thank you for all the support.

Jen