Expenses Breakdown
Tools:
AccessAlly (Membership plugin for all of my courses) – $79.00
Acuity Scheduling (Done For You Consultations) – $10.00
Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, etc.) $64.48
Auphonic (audio optimization for podcast) – $11.00
Canva for Work Annual Subscription – $119.40
Dropbox (File Storage) – $19.99
Elegant Themes Marketplace – $7.00
GoDaddy (Domain Names) – $40.17
FreeConferenceCall.com (Coaching & Client Calls) – $3.00
Gravity Forms Developer License Renewal – $97
GSuite (wp-bff.com Email) – $10.76
Infusionsoft (email marketing, automation, e-commerce & customer management) – $321.44
ManageWP (WordPress Site Management for Clients & WordPress Protection Package) – $94.78
Social Warfare Pro License – $29.00
Soundup (Alexa Flash Briefing Hosting) – $9.99
Zapier – $15.00
Total: 932.01
Marketing:
Bonjoro (Video Welcome Service) – $25.00
CoSchedule (Social Media Scheduling) – $59.00
LinkTree Pro (Instagram Profile Links) $6.00
Recurpost (Social Media Scheduling) – $25.00
Total: $115.00
Professional Services:
Suzanne Dibble’s GDPR Pack – $228.80
Bench Accounting – $135.00
Tax Filing Fee – $145.10
Total: 508.90
Help:
Subcontractors (VA Team, Graphic Designer, Web Developers, Pinterest Specialist) $2040.00
Learning/Mentorship:
Nathalie Lussier – Online Courses Simplified – $97
Travel:
None
Bank/Credit Card Processing Fees:
Credit Card Processing Fees: $188.74
Office Supplies
One giant box of mechanical pencils because Scarlett keeps stealing and ruining mine: $23.64
Total Expenses: $3905.29
Net Profit: $5111.42
Biggest Lessons Learned
I met my goal, but at a great emotional and physical cost.
Nine projects is way too many to manage at one time.
I did have one awesome person helping me, but it was still too much for both of us.
I began to feel very overwhelmed at the thought of taking on even one more client, and fearful of what would happen if the few proposals out there actually booked…it might send me over the edge. That energy definitely leaked out into my interactions on client consultations that I did in April.
I spent most of the first camping trip of the year working on writing blog posts and producing Pep Talks for Side Hustlers, and creating a content calendar for the quarter, not relaxing or just chilling out like I used to do.
While it felt freeing to be able to nap whenever I wanted, it should have never gotten to the point where I needed to nap.
My written planner in April looks a hot mess. It’s chaos. It reflects someone who is barely hanging on. I was eating like, a quesadilla a day, drinking too much on the weekends, and gaining weight.
I took on GDPR full force. I spent at least 25 hours researching and writing an epic blog post on it for my community and planning my re-engagement campaign.
Feeling the way I felt in April is not why I left my day job. It felt very much like having no freedom, no flexibility and no independence.
What am I creating? Is this what I want? Is this worth it?
I started discussing with my business coach that I was struggling with managing all the client projects. I shared that while I felt that the new Done For You Method I had created resulted in projects that were on track, my prices aren’t high enough for it to be worth it to me to feel this way, and they weren’t high enough for me to be able to bring someone on
And people knew I was totally frazzled, but I would brush them off. I would say things like, “I’m at this weird place in my business where I have too many clients but I can’t afford help, so I can’t complain. It’s a good problem to have.”
No, Shannon. It’s not a good problem to have. It’s a problem that’s grinding you into the ground and you have to do something about it.
My mindset at that point was again to wrap up these client projects and simply not take on any more. I couldn’t fathom in my brain how to make it worth it.
I thought about raising my prices since I do so much more than just web design for my clients, but the bully in my head got to me. “No one’s going to pay you that much for a website…” he said.
I thought about bringing on a project manager, but my expense budget was already totally out of hand. So I tabled that idea.
I wanted to shift my efforts into growing the passive income side of my business so that I wouldn’t need to work 80 hours a week and feel stressed and exhausted.
I had a frank discussion with my business coach about it, and she told me that in order to do that, I needed to prepare for a significant drop in income because right now, these projects are my bread and butter.
I should have moved more swiftly to cut back expenses so that I could start that shift, but I wasn’t mentally ready to face it, as you’ll see in my May income report.
So yes, I had a totally profitable month. I’m grateful that I netted over $5,000… but working 80 hours a week? That’s $15.62 an hour. I don’t want to work 80 hours a week, and my time and expertise is worth way more.
So, you’ll see how I’ll start to dig my way out in the coming months!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
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