Her Online Business Makes Over $1 Million in Revenue – How She Did It

In 2017, finance expert Jamie Trull quit his six-figure job at Coca-Cola. The company was undergoing a major restructuring that would have required it to go abroad. Trull, who was pregnant with her second child at the time, decided not to uproot her family for her job.

Instead, he decided to start his own business.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Trull said. entrepreneur in an interview. “I didn’t have any big plans of any kind.”

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Trull, a certified public accountant (CPA) with more than a decade of experience in finance at companies like Ernst & Young, got into business offering her financial expertise to small business owners. They called it Balance CFO. They started with $5,000 and their mission was to help small business owners making less than $1 million a year understand their finances to grow their companies.

Trull spent his initial investment on software to help him collect emails and manage his email list, technology tools, and educational programs to help him learn how to run a business effectively.

As her business grew, she transitioned from offering 1:1 coaching services to teaching audiences on Facebook and YouTube about financial literacy. At the time of writing, he has over 35,000 youtube Subscribers and more than 6,000 followers FacebookAnd Balance describes CFO as “entirely an education-based company”.

The business derives revenue from brand partnerships and affiliate income, as well as the sale of digital products such as financial fitness courses and toolkits to help small business owners understand their finances.

In 2019, Balance CFO achieved revenue of $100,000, which increased to $500,000 by 2021 with the addition of digital products. In 2024, the company hits the million-dollar revenue mark. This year, it is on track to surpass “over one million dollars” in revenue.

“From a revenue standpoint, we’ll be over a million this year and that’s really exciting for us,” Trull said. “Our profit margin is over 50%. I’m really proud of that.”

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Trull is clear that her primary motivation for starting her own business was the freedom to be more present for her family, set her own schedule, and pay the bills.

“I started my business with the hope that I would be able to be there with my family instead of in a cubicle or corporate office,” Trull said.

Trull released a book earlier this month with Simon & Schuster called “hidden benefits,” which goes in-depth about strategies small businesses can use to maximize their earnings even with limited budgets.

Here are three tips he shared for small businesses to maximize profitability.

1. Understand Pricing and Profit Margins

Many small business owners understand their profit margins in aggregate, but not necessarily at the product or service level, Trull explained. He gave the example of a winery owner who was profitable, but not very much, and they were trying to figure out why they weren’t bringing in more money.

“I helped them break everything down based on the type of wine, the type of bottle they sold it in,” Trull said. “They realized that their biggest salespeople were actually losing money. This is more common than we think.”

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Trull says making a product or service more profitable may require price adjustments and a closer look at the direct costs involved. She advises small business owners to make sure they’ve updated their prices to take into account rising costs and inflation.

2. Spend wisely

Trull encounters business owners who are hesitant to overspend. Although she agrees that deliberation is important, she thinks it is more important to take stock of what a business is spending money on and evaluate whether those measures are providing a return on investment (ROI). For example, higher marketing costs may be useful to help bring in more customers.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that people will cut costs because they’re trying to increase their profits, but they’ve cut costs that were actually contributing meaningfully to their profits,” Trull said.

She recommends that small businesses understand which costs are worth it and invest more heavily in areas with higher ROI.

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3. Value your time

In many of the businesses Trull works with, owners are doing a lot of the labor, and they are not valuing their contribution as a cost.

“I’ll see owners who are doing work that they could hire out for $15 an hour, but they think they’re saving money by continuing to do those jobs,” Trull said.

He explained that if these owners were to free themselves from tasks that could easily be outsourced, they could spend their time on higher-level tasks that bring in new sales or strategies. Trull currently employs five people full-time, including a chief operating officer and a customer success manager, as well as several contractors.

“Our business has grown exponentially since we brought in the right people,” Trull said.

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In 2017, finance expert Jamie Trull quit his six-figure job at Coca-Cola. The company was undergoing a major restructuring that would have required it to go abroad. Trull, who was pregnant with her second child at the time, decided not to uproot her family for her job.

Instead, he decided to start his own business.