The February Inside Scoop: 🚀 Lemon7 Investor Style Update
Lemon7 Monthly Investor Style Update
Hey!
Welcome back to my 7th monthly investor-style update, where I transparently share the highs and lows of running my business. It’s running late this month - apologies but as you can see below we’ve been busy busy!
If you missed any of the past updates, you can catch up here:
In this email, you'll find:
✅ Goals, sales, successes, and challenges.
✅ Financial data.
✅ Behind-the-scenes decisions, strategies, and pivots.
This isn't just a newsletter - it's an open book. Let’s dive in! 👇
TL;DR
Revenue Growth: Revenue in February increased 15.5% over December up from 7.4% from January over December. We’ve really gotten some resourcing requirements nailed down and I was ready to open back up the gates to closing new deals for the business.
Sales Pipeline: Our pipeline continues to perform well, we’re up to an 80% success rate which is super high. I started using a tool called Pitch for our proposals and now we can get really nice analytics on how people view our proposals and have made a ton of adjustments off the back of it to improve sales.
Customer Retention: 0% churn from January to February which was great news!
Market Trends: Market spending power is definitely moving in the right direction. Myself along with every agency I’ve had a chance to chat to had absolutely killer Q1s but it’s hard to tell how Q2 will pan out. Especially because we still work with a lot of American clients and things are out of our hands there (politically speaking).
Team Expansion: We’ve just hired another full time employee. A really up and coming marketer who I am really excited will join the team in April of this year. This brings our headcount up to 7 between full time & part time folks.
Scaling Up: Scaling means shifting from being the person who ‘does everything’ to being the person who ‘builds the machine.’ I’ve felt that transition a lot this month as hiring has ramped up, and while it’s exciting, it’s also an adjustment.
Key Metrics:
In February we predicted that we would grow 30% or so going into February but we were actually closer to 15% so though a few projects were pushed out we weren’t upset about our growth especially when we experienced no churn. Last month I did mention risk of one deal in particular falling through and that in fact was the case. I still suspect we will have a few down as projected growth can’t continue forever, but here’s what we’re seeing for March and including all months since we kicked off in July.
Here is what we can predict the business will look like in March of next year if we continue to hit 10% month over month growth. It puts us on a run rate that is pushing up towards the €1.5-€2 million range.
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.
Churn will definitely become more of a factor as we grow. There’s just no two ways around it and it’s inevitable. I am just so proud to have gotten this far with such a small churn percentage. That’s a testament to the team. And there’s not been a single churn that was due to negative work done by the business. All of the churn to date has been around a change in business circumstances for the client outside of our control (except one now that I think of it but that was last months ghoster situation which was bizarre).
Team & Expenditures:
I’m allowing margin flexibility for the next 3 months to allow for meaningful growth my flexing out my resources. Normally we aim to operate at a “as close as possible” 60% expenditure to income ratio leaving us with 40% margins. If we have 0% growth and 0% churn over the next 3 months, our margins are going to be 30% as I have hired new people and it will inevitably pinch the margins.
Transparently, I could have taken a personal wage hit to make the margins more comfortable, but I work night and day on this and I just don’t think there’s a need unless we have a few clients that don’t pay on time, there’s been plenty of sacrifices made in terms of my time to make sure everything. The reality also is that it’s unlikely we’re going to stay stagnant - we have sales pipeline though it does feel slightly slower than at the start of the year but that’s not unusual as we move into Q2.
Diversification of Revenue Streams:
Courses:
Ok we’re back and firing on all cylinders here and I’ve launch dates lined up. I am also looking for collaborators for a few courses. So if you’re up for a collab course and to do a rev share deal on it let me know. Ideally Cork based folks so that we can tee up recording in person together. Just drop me an email at jen@lemon7.ie to chat about it.
I’ve been trawling through my backlog of content and making a ton of SOPs and training guides for this and I am actually really excited to get this fired back up. I’m going to aim to have this account for 15% of the company revenue by the end of the year - that’s the big stretch goal.
Podcast:
I don’t know what it is because I’ve never managed to truly scale this medium but I am really eager to get back podcasting. I’m actively researching it, potentially co-hosts and topics etc. I don’t want it to be just another business podcast. Something that would actually be exciting and that I would be fired up to talk about. Same as the courses above - I’m putting it out into the ether for folks to reach out to me if they’re interested in collaborating on something like this!
But that being said, if I am doing this for a 3rd time I am doing it properly, metrics, prep and all the rest so don’t reach out if you want to do a “I just show up and talk” podcast. I’d be treating the other person as a co-founder on a side hustle which is the podcast if I was to launch another one and really dig into it deeply from research to production to launch.
Marketing Experiment Results:
Email Marketing Evolution:
Growth is levelling off but it’s not having any major swings over time. I am eager to get this back into growth mode but I need to just cop on a bit and get back into the studio for more batches of content for my Instagram which is the main driver of growth for this newsletter.
No other active experiments are live right now. I’m feeling a bit “cobbler with no shoes” at the moment on the marketing front especially as we scale up. Probably why I am having itchy feet about getting a podcast back up and running.
What I feel good about:
Hiring:
I’m so excited about the new hires and the growth from a team perspective over the next few months. I know there’s a ton of people who applied who I haven’t personally gotten back to yet, but I will be in touch asap. It’s just taking time to get through all of the applications.
From Launch To Date:
From June 2024 to February 2025, the business achieved an impressive 125.33% growth in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). This far surpasses the typical industry growth rate for digital marketing agencies, which averages between 15-30% annually for well-performing firms. That’s also not atypical for a startup and it’s not fair to compare it to typical growth rates for longer term growth.
New Business Lead Source:
I’m under NDAs for the most part on this, but I have found a really interesting niche of becoming an overflow agency for others and have closed a few deals that are in that space. It’s super interesting because it’s a real partnership model that works well. I am working on fleshing it out a little more. Long story short, I may start adjusting some messaging on the site to focus more on this arm of the business.
New Pact:
I’ve made a new content creation pact with Jay Woodard that I’m excited about. We’re going to do a better job at holding each other accountable. Hopefully it will get us both back into the swing of content creation again.
What I Am Freaked Out About
Growth is going well, but I know it won’t always be this smooth, and that’s what I’m thinking about most right now.
Churn is still low, which is amazing, but as the business grows, I know that will change. Right now, every single client still feels incredibly personal. I know their businesses inside and out, and that’s been a huge part of why we’ve been able to retain so well. But as we scale, I won’t be able to be as involved in every single account, and that’s a shift I need to prepare for. I need to make sure the processes, team, and service level stay at the standard I’ve built so far - even as I step back from day-to-day execution.
Hiring is another area where I feel the pressure. I’m so excited about the new hires, and we’re building something special, but every time we grow the team, I feel the weight of responsibility a little more. I have seven people relying on this business now, and that means every decision has bigger stakes. It’s not just about making money, it’s about making sure I can sustain a company that takes care of its people. I don’t take that lightly.
Financially, I’ve allowed for margin flexibility over the next three months to accommodate growth. Our normal target is a 60% expenditure-to-income ratio, but with recent hires, we’ll be running closer to 70% for the short term. That’s fine if growth continues at the rate it has been, but I also have contingency plans in place if things slow down. I could take a personal wage cut to make it more comfortable, but realistically, I already pour everything I have into this business, and I don’t think that’s the right move unless we hit a real squeeze.
On the marketing front, I’m feeling restless. We’ve been so focused on client work and team expansion that I haven’t been as consistent with my own content. I know what I need to do, I just need to get back in the studio, batch record, and go. But I’m also thinking about what’s next, particularly around new revenue streams like courses and podcasting. I’m eager to scale smarter, not just bigger, and part of that means diversifying where revenue comes from.
I’m not freaking out in a bad way, I just know we’re at a critical stage of growth where one or two missteps could have a big impact. Scaling isn’t just about adding more revenue, it’s about making sure everything behind the scenes keeps up. That’s the work right now.
Personal & Fun Highlights in January
February was a blast and one of my favourite personal highlights was going to BeeWild in East Cork where we got to learn all about beekeeping, polytunnels and lovely nature things that oriented around learning to be a bit more self-sustainable when it comes to the food chain. Here’s a little snap of us heading there.
Overall though it was a pretty quiet month, a short month and a real “head in the laptop” book. I think I fell off the bandwagon of some of my January commitments like my goals around fitness and health. I’m happy to say I’m back in the swing there at least in terms of focus this week. This email provides me with a huge amount of accountability each month so I am going to start added a health and wellness metric board. Here’s my first stab at that one.
Health & Wellness Goals & Performance
Well.. this isn’t great news! As anticipated, I knew I was slipping on my personal health and wellness goals. Actually writing this out and putting it in here might seem like a step too far, but I want to take it seriously and writing this newsletter is a huge motivating factor for me. I use it as a forcing factor each month. I never want to go into it with bad news. So this should hopefully force me to cop on a bit more and really start taking things more seriously.
That being said, when I started a few months ago tracking this - things were definitely worse so at least I am not back to the very beginning.
5KM Run Time is improving (38:42 → 37:12), This is still a pretty awful time for someone my age (at least from what I can gather from Google). I am only a few runs in though and going in the right direction (Making myself feel better).
Bone Mass increased (3.3kg → 3.4kg), a sign of strength training paying off.
Sleep Performance is perfect (99 → 100), meaning sleep consistency is strong.
Weight increased slightly (68.85kg → 69.3kg), which is moving away from the target of under 60kg. It’s so slight it likely isn’t a big deal and fairly normal for women.
Recovery has dropped further (62 → 57), which could be impacting performance and energy levels.
BMI is up slightly (25.9 → 26.1), meaning the weight increase isn’t muscle gain. Plus it’s just too high.
Muscle Mass and Muscle Rate dipped slightly (40.8kg → 40.7kg and 59.3% → 58.7%), which suggests some muscle loss that needs to be addressed.
Cardio Training Sessions dropped to just 1 per week, which might be slowing fat loss progress.
I can’t believe the data thinks I am 15+ years older than I am too. That’s a real wake up call. There’s a decent journey ahead here and I’m clearly not doing enough. Sitting in front of a computer all day will inevitably impact your overall health and wellness. And you inevitably can’t do good work when your health and wellness is down. Vicious circle that I am actively trying to break the cycle on.
What’s next and What I need help with:
Hiring:
As always, I am always looking to find great candidates, but in particular great freelancers. If this is you or someone you know, please feel free to reach out to me. I probably won’t have key roles open again until May/June based on my current growth trajectory.
Clients:
If you know someone looking for paid advertising or social media management we’ve streamlined out pricing and proposal requests. Those can be shared here. Also, we’re opening up a commission structure for people who refer clients - so definitely reach out to me if you have someone in mind and we can negotiate your kickback :)
February Sign Off:
Thank you for taking the time to follow along on this journey. Your support means the world to me!
If you have questions, feedback, or just want to chat, hit reply - your email will land directly in my inbox.
Warm regards,
Jen