In my recent journeys on Twitter I’ve seen the extremes from “Get 20,000 followers in 30 days” to “it doesn’t matter how many people you have, what matters is the quality of the connection.”

No, I don’t want to sleazily grab 20,000 people on Twitter, my blog, or email list. Yet it’s totally untrue that numbers don’t matter. If you’re running a business, numbers matter in a big way.

But how many people do you really need?

Excruciatingly Boring But Essential Ingredients for Calculating the Numbers

Before we can drill down to the numbers, let me explain two things which go into the calculation.

1. Remembering That People take longer to buy than you might think.
Making a significant purchasing decision can take a long time. Some sales people and copywriters would have you believe that someone makes an emotionally-driven decision within moments of seeing an offer, and then just needs to justify that original decision.

This is true, sorta. But getting to that decision-ready point sometimes takes months or years worth of journeying. If your business really offers the kind of quality help I think you’re offering, then it’s going to change lives, in perhaps small but significant ways.

For this, you need ongoing contact with people while they are deciding. Whether you are reading this by email or on the blog, it’s a good example of how to stay in touch, in a helpful way, with people who are potentially, maybe, possibly interested in what you offer.

The length of time it takes people to say yes affects the number of people you need, because only a small percentage of your followers/subscribers/readers are going to be at the ready-to-decide point at any one time.

2. There are two ways of counting.
Keeping in mind how long people can take to decide, you want to be counting numbers in two ways. The first way is determining how many people are actually connecting with you on a regular basis. How many subscribers or readers do you have? How responsive are they? Do they open your emails or read your blog posts?

The second way is to determine how many new people are finding out about your business every month? Again, a small but hopefully significant percentage will be interested enough to stick around on your email list or blog to get to know you better, thus moving closer to that decision point while in contact with you.

Oh yes. When someone needs help, every moment they are moving towards that decision point of actually getting the help. The question is, are they doing it in proximity to you, or do they hear about you and then forget about you before they decide?

Now for the numbers.

The Numbers: Stick With Me Here

Are you selling $19 ebooks? Or $90 massage sessions? Or $1,500 consulting packages? And how much do you want to earn monthly, yearly?

Let’s leave the “internet millionaire” dream behind and start by aiming for a US$50K/year professional-level income. Fifty thousand dollars is $4,166/month, or $1,000/week, leaving two weeks for vacation. Clearly it would be nice to make more than this with more time off, but let’s start here.

For the $90 per session thang, you need eleven or twelve sessions per week to make that kind of cashola. To get much above US$50K, you’ll need to use other streams of income like teaching groups and selling products. But that’s another article.

If half your clients come once a month, and half come twice a month, then you need 18 once-a-month clients, and 14 twice-a-month clients, which comes to $4140. A total of 32 regular clients. And if clients last about four months before moving on, then you need 96 clients for the year. Call it an even hundred.

Of course, it’s wonderful when some stick around for longer, maybe years. And some will leave sooner. It’s just how it goes.

Some people love noodling the numbers. Some people hate it. Either way, take a moment and breathe now. Ahhh… We’re just taking a snapshot.

So How Many People Do You Really Need?

What’s your experience with how many people actually come in who are interested in your services?

It depends. For first-time connections at a party, networking event, or elsewhere, probably not so many convert to clients immediately. Yet those people you see several times who keep saying, “I gotta make an appointment with you!” will eventually come in.

All told, let’s say three out of ten people who say they are interested eventually turn into clients. That’s 30%. One hundred clients is 30% of 334 interested people.

For our sample massage therapist, she would need to be in touch with 334 interested people in order to maintain 11 to 12 sessions per week without famine periods. And, of course, to find that many interested people, many more people than that would need to hear about her.

There you go. If our massage therapist can build and maintain a list of 350 interested people, and she has an effective strategy for reminding and inviting people in to get the help they really need, that number should maintain her.

Three hundred and fifty people? That’s not too bad. However, maybe getting a list that large seems insurmountable to you. Or perhaps you have more than that on a list and they aren’t coming in.

Your numbers may be different, but if you take a few minutes, I bet you can work it out, even if you’re just making estimated guesses.

So, once you know your numbers, what’s next? Let’s take a look at some of the critical details.

Keys to Making the Numbers Work

• You gotta have heart.

We’ve been talking numbers, and the numbers are very important. However, remember that each of those numbers is a real human being, with real needs. Two things help.

Being present in your heart, anchored in love, helps people know there is something to connect to. People like the Dalai Lama, or my spiritual guide, exhibit this in a big way. Others feel attracted to be in their presence.

You don’t need to run it that big, but taking time for spiritual practice and heart connection means that the people on your list know you are really *there* and may be more likely to come on in.

• Stay in touch.

I mean show up. If you have an email newsletter or blog, send it as regularly as you can. Once a week is great. Twice a month works. Once a month is on the edge of being ineffective.

What to say? Help them. They are hurting, so trust that they want and need your help!

For our massage therapist friend, the best thing to do is get her hands on someone. But there are LOTS of things she can tell people about how to care for themselves, insights on relieving stress or pain in their body, that will increase their trust and connection with her.

• Keep reaching out.

I’ve noticed that going from zero to one is harder than going from one to ten. Getting to your initial numbers will take some concentration. Take the time you need to nurture the love in your heart, reach out to friends, clients. This way you’ll find where your ideal clients hang out. And then invite them in.

The easiest way to invite them in is to start your writing, even if you have pitifully small numbers now. Then your articles can reach out to others.

A client of ours wrote four articles, and one of them really resonated strongly with his clients. That one article was forwarded to others, and brought in new referrals and new subscribers to his list.

You don’t need huge numbers to have a healthy business, but you do need some. Whether you do it on Twitter, a blog, or an email list, reach out and start to build relationships with the folks who need you.