Welcome to my July Income Report! Each month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my online business and reveal exactly how much money I make, how much I spend and lessons learned along the way!
If you want to learn step-by-step how to build a website so that you can start a side hustle and 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 July
- I scheduled vacation time the first week in July.
- I spent a lot of time figuring out how Pinterest works.
- I released the 100th episode of my podcast, Pep Talks for Side Hustlers.
- I offered free site migrations to anyone that signed up for Bluehost via my affiliate link for Bluehost’s birthday sale.
- I turned my “So You Have a Website, Now What?” webinar into an evergreen webinar.
- I booked zero new Done For You Clients.
Notes I found to myself in my planner:
- Normally I find little notes I’ve written to myself… Not so in July. I did find quite a few ideas of things I’ve been wanting and meaning to do but was unable to accomplish in July.
Review of my goals
Again, my goal each month has been to generate $10,000 in revenue because my rough breakdown to replace my old paycheck, cover business expenses, and pay taxes is:
- $5000 – Income to cover my old paycheck.
- $2500 – Expenses
- $2500 – Taxes
What I focused on in July
For the very first time in many years, I took an actual break from working the first week of July.
I planned for it well in advance so I had already recorded my podcast episodes and written and scheduled my blog post and newsletter.
I actually cleared my schedule, accepted no meetings, and put an “out of office” notice on my email saying that I’d respond the following week.
And then my husband and I went camping at a few different state park lakes with friends and family, and just RELAXED.
Did I pick up my laptop? Yes. Did I feel like I HAD to? Nope. And that was a fantastic feeling. When I’m able to do what I want and love to do and not feel like I HAVE to, that’s when all is good in the world.
I definitely need to plan time off more often (and actually take it).
July was a slow month for me revenue-wise, but not work wise. Once vacation was over I jumped right back into the grind, working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in an attempt to do all the things… Stay tuned for my August income report and you’ll see how well that schedule has been working out for me…
Because July is typically a slow month revenue-wise, you know, because most normal, non-workaholic people are slowing down and taking time to enjoy their time off… I figured I’d do a little experiment to boost my affiliate commissions in July. Bluehost sent me an email about their birthday sale, and it gave me an idea: I’d offer free site migrations to anyone on my email list who had been wanting to move to Bluehost but didn’t want to deal with moving if they used my affiliate link.
I was totally excited about this idea!! A typical site migration takes me about 30 minutes, so I figured no big deal, right? Well… I miscalculated.
I didn’t add in time for answering questions for my peeps, getting access to all their accounts, walking them through what would happen and when, and I didn’t account for tech issues. Had I accounted for these things, I would have come up with 3 hours per site migration, and at that price point, it wouldn’t have made sense financially.
On the bright side, I got 5 rockstars moved over to Bluehost, and I now know that trading my time for affiliate commissions isn’t an effective strategy for me. 🙂
July was an awesome month for Pep Talks for Side Hustlers. I got to have amazing conversations with women like Mandi Holmes, Jenn Walker Wall, Ashley Beaudin, and Jen Snyder about starting their businesses and their side hustle journeys, plus I released the 100th episode!
I also decided to stop freaking out about money in July. I cut what I could cut in June, and I just made the decision that I was done worrying about it, and that I’ll just keep moving forward.
That being said, here’s how much money I made in July 2018:
Total Income: $7477.17
- Passive Income Total: $4683.17
- Time for Money Total: $2794.00
Total Expenses: $3618.16
Net Profit: $3859.01
Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.
Biggest Lessons Learned
As I reviewed my numbers for July, I see that my expenses are still higher than I want them to be for what I’m generating in revenue.
And while I do believe that I must invest in my business in order to grow, I have to invest wisely, with focused intention.
That philosophy applies to both time and money, because not only am I spending more money than I want to and not getting the ROI I want to get, I’m also spending more time than I want to and also not getting the ROI…
So you know whose fault that is? Mine.
My July income report is a clear representation of me winging it. Giving into the relief of not worrying about money and then making totally random decisions about how I spend my time (I’m looking at you, Bluehost Birthday Sale) and chasing shiny objects (Pinterest, that’s you. Definitely important, but I didn’t plan for you, Pinterest!).
Yes, I’ve got my schedule and I was planning my week every week, but if how I’m spending my time doesn’t tie out to an overarching, clear goal? What’s the point?
Oh my gosh, imagine what I could do with solid systems, a concrete plan, and laser-focus?
That’s exciting to me. And that’s why I’m planning to do my own little mini-retreat so that I can go off and make some decisions about what I want to focus on for the rest of the year and in 2019 and create a plan, a budget, and BOUNDARIES to make it happen.
And as I plan for the rest of 2018 and for 2019, while I have a strong focus on increasing revenue, I’m going to look at realigning my spending on expenses to make it happen.
