How to Audit Your Content Business

Performing an audit is all about:

• Intentional self-reflection

• Radical self-responsibility

• Gauging progress

• Creating a plan that works

Every so often, I do a life audit—I look at aspects like career, finances, relationships, etc. But I recently thought, why not do this for my business?

The entire process takes a couple hours, but it’s one of the most worthwhile processes I’ve participated in. The clarity and actionable insights that come from an audit is insane.

Here’s how to conduct an audit on your content business:

Income Streams 💰

Grab your income records from 2024. If they’re not already labeled by income stream (ie. affiliate commission, brand deals, etc), sort them out.

Look at the following:

• Amount made

‍• Time invested

• Satisfaction score (1-10)

Then divide the amount made by hours worked to get your hourly rate per income stream.

You want to maximize the higher hourly rate income streams and consider cutting or outsourcing the lower ones. Make a plan to do this.

Expenses 💸

Open your monthly expense reports (credit card, bank, payment processors). Sort them into categories:

• Subscriptions/SaaS

• Contractors/employees

• Ads

• Misc.

Look at each and ask: "If this wasn’t available, how much would it affect my productivity?" Rate them on a 1-10 scale.

Cut everything that scores 5 or below.

Goals 🎯

What did you set out to accomplish this year?

Score yourself on a 1-10 on each goal.

Be honest with yourself. Be hard on yourself. The highest-performing people in the world are brutally honest with themselves.

For the goals you didn’t hit, ask yourself why. Was there an external factor? Did you fail to execute?

Capture these insights for the year ahead.

Relationships 🤝

Who are the top 10 people you want to keep in touch with this year?

List them out. Then make sure you’re consistently checking in with them.

Your network is your net worth.

Metrics 📊

How did your key metrics grow this year?

Followers, email subscribers, revenue, content views, conversion rates…

Write them down and figure out what you want to hit next year. Be ambitious. If you grew 20% this year, shoot for 30% next year.

Lessons 📚

What were your biggest lessons and insights from 2024?

What were your biggest wins?

What were your biggest losses?

Once you identify these, create a game plan to build on your wins and prevent your losses.

In Conclusion

We can’t improve what we don’t measure. And we can’t measure what we don’t track.

Doing an annual audit on your creator business gives you the clarity and game plan you need to achieve your goals in 2025.

Here’s to an incredible year ahead!