Welcome to my February Income Report! Each month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my side hustle and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way!
If you want to build a website and learn how to make money online, check out this blog post on how to get started!
View all of my income reports here!
Important Things That Happened in February
I opened enrollment for Websites That Make Money for the first time since the beta launch last fall.
I purchased Amy Porterfield’s Webinars That Convert Course and spent a significant amount of time following it to the letter in order to create and promote the webinar. It also helped me to craft my presentation for my first live speaking event as well.
I held a webinar to promote Serious Side Hustlers Membership Program again in February.
I booked two new Done For You clients in February and began to test my new Done For You Method out.
I significantly changed the structure and timeline of the projects because I was having trouble moving projects forward to completion.
I also put significant effort into completing some projects that had gone on longer than I expected (I wasn’t able to wrap up all the client projects I had wanted to in January – I was a little too ambitious!)
I had my very first every live, in-person speaking engagement at the Thrive Creative Conference in Austin, Texas where I shared my SEO strategy for bloggers.
While I was in Austin, I also met with the Bluehost team to discuss my affiliate marketing strategy in 2018.
Bluehost welcomed me to their office with an authentic Texas BBQ lunch, and their entire team met with me for a few hours to give me feedback on my website and help me reach more people. They also cheered for me when it was my turn to speak at the conference.
It feels totally amazing to have a crew like that in my corner, and I’m just so proud to promote them to my community!
Review of My Goals
My number one goal in February was to again have $10,000 in revenue because my breakdown to replace my paycheck, cover business expenses, and pay taxes is:
- $5000 – Income to cover my paycheck
$2500 – Expenses
$2500 – Taxes
I also set the goal to have 500 people sign up for my Website Monetization Master Class, have 150 people attend live, and have 10 sales.
What I Focused on in February
February 2018, my second month of self-employment, was a very interesting and exciting month.
I made intentional effort to spend more time with friends and family now that I don’t have to work evenings and weekends – which feels amazing
But that anxiety about making enough money to hit my monthly revenue goal crept in during February a few times.
Thankfully my business coach, Vicki Fitch, told me to expect it to show up and that the first 3-6 months would be my most vulnerable time.
The first time it showed up was during an annual weekend away with friends. Every year we rent a cabin in the woods and just hang out with our friends all weekend, playing cards, having drinks around the fireplace, eating great food, and hanging out in the hot tub.
It was Sunday on our way home that the anxiety about making enough money started to creep up on me. I couldn’t wait to get home so I could “work.” My husband and friends noticed that I wasn’t relaxed anymore, and I shared with them all the racing thoughts going on…
“What if I don’t make enough money this month? What if this was a mistake? I shouldn’t have bought that course. Maybe I should cancel my trip to San Diego for Social Media Marketing World next month so I don’t have an $800 hotel bill…”
And I’m so grateful that I have awesome friends and a supportive husband, because my best friend told me to just STOP, and to look at how far I’ve come and there’s no way I wouldn’t make it, and my husband said STOP, we will be fine, we have enough in savings to weather the ups and downs and to quit putting so much pressure on myself.
I also held two webinars for the launch of one of my programs, and I had major tech issues with both of them which may have affected my sales results – and I totally let the bully in my head, as my business coach calls it, get to me.
“I can’t believe I wasted so much money on Facebook Ads and then these webinars were a disaster! Nobody wants this program. I don’t even know if I should promote it anymore…”
The truth was, it wasn’t a disaster at all, it just wasn’t perfect, and that’s no reason to pour gasoline on it and burn it down.
I just needed to look at what went wrong, what went right, and make changes for the next time. And stop judging myself for every little thing!
Finally, my bully tried to come with me on my trip to Austin, Texas for the Thrive Creative Conference, a conference for food, fashion, mommy, and all kinds of bloggers.
For the few weeks before I left, it was nagging me. “What are you going to wear to speak in front of a 100 fashion bloggers? You know you can’t wear yoga pants, right? You still shop at American Eagle. Find something better to wear.”
So I went shopping, and I found outfits at *gasp* Old Navy that I felt super comfortable and confident in, and guess what? That’s me. I’m casual, I like classic styles, and I knew if I was going to get up and speak in front of 100 people for the first time, I needed to feel great about my outfit.
I left my bully in Columbus and went on to have an amazing time in Austin, meeting some people that I know will be important parts of my journey moving forward.
I tell you all this because I want you to know that there will be obstacles, yet the most rewarding thing to me has been overcoming them.
Building this business has been the absolute best thing I’ve done for personal growth, and it’s having a positive impact everywhere in my life.
So here’s what my income looked like in February:
Total Income: $8955.18
- Passive Income Total: $2942.02
- Time for Money Total: $6013.16
Total Expenses: $5163.40
Net Profit: $3791.78
Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.
Biggest Lesson Learned
I’m writing this income report in mid-April, so I’ve learned a lot of lessons in my first three months in business which I outlined for you here in this blog post.
My biggest takeaway in analyzing February’s income report is that I invested over $2000 into promoting Websites That Make Money, from investing in a course to help me improve my webinar game, creating new graphics and content and spending money on Facebook ads.
My goals were to have 500 people register, 150 attend live, and make 10 sales.
Here’s what really happened:
Registered – 368
Showed Up – 114
Watched Full Webinar Live – 39
Watched Replay – 74
Sales – 1
I didn’t meet my goals and I didn’t come anywhere close to recouping my investment in the program with my big, tech-troubled launch.
However, instead of deeming it a failure, feeling like I wasted $2000, and moving on to the next shiny new fun project that’s going to be a sure-fire success (like I might have done in the past), I made the decision to leave the program open and promote it monthly with webinars.
In other words, I’m playing the slow and steady game instead of trying to create windfalls – and that $2000 really was an investment in the foundation of the marketing of that program.
So obviously my expenses in February were double what my benchmark expenses are, and while I know I needed to make an investment into Websites That Make Money for the long-term, I didn’t specifically plan to do it in February.
In fact, buying the webinar course and investing that much in Facebook ads was a knee-jerk reaction to the uneasiness I felt about meeting my income goals rather than a planned expense, and if I continue to operate that way going forward, I’m going to see some tough times ahead in my business.
I also can look back on these spending patterns and see that just like I was winging it with my content and marketing, I was also winging it with my spending because I didn’t have a real plan in place.
I still paid myself two paychecks of $2500 in February, which was more than my net profit, however, I planned ahead before quitting my day job and do have money set aside in my business for this exact scenario so that my income remains consistent when my revenue and expenses are not consistent.
Thankfully, I’ve gotten a handle on my anxiety, I now have a spending plan and creating these income reports is a fantastic way to keep myself accountable and on track! So thanks for reading, and I can’t wait to continue sharing this journey with you!
