Let’s jump right in with this March 2020 income report! I’m super excited to share with you guys what’s been going on with me lately.
What’s Up With These Income Reports, Anyway?
Ever since my very first month in business (I made a whopping $87), I’ve been sharing my income and expenses for each month, in order to give other online entrepreneurs a good baseline of what a real business looks like during its start-up phase.
My goal with these posts is to give you guys a super realistic look into what type of income and expenses you can expect from being a “girl next door” type of online entrepreneur who isn’t making 6-7 figures each month (yet!).
Let’s do this!
March 2020 Income Report: An Overview
For context: This is the first income report that I’ve put out since we went into quarantine because of COVID-19. At the beginning of March, we took a trip to NYC and that weekend was really when it started to get bad. Brent and I decided to go into self-isolation the next Friday, on March 13th.
I’m not going to lie…things haven’t been great.
In last month’s income report, I talked about how losing one of my biggest clients in January had a huge effect on my business and strongly impacted the trajectory of growth I’d expected us to achieve this year.
Towards the beginning of March, I was finally starting to feel like I’d gotten my feet back under me and had developed a plan for being able to build our revenue back up.
Then…COVID-19 hit.
We had a few of our bigger package clients have to put things on hold because of financial issues due to COVID-19 and the associated recession. So instead of March being focused on building things back up…we slid even further down.
It has been extremely frustrating, as I’m sure it has been for everyone. I’ve been struggling to get to a place where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Not only did we lose more clients in March, but our expenses were also insanely high. We had to pay for that trip we took to NYC (perfect timing!), plus a bunch of tools that I have annual memberships renewed, AND we had to pay our accountant.
So this month really did not go as planned. Luckily, we are still able to make enough profit to keep the lights on, and we have some savings to fall back on. But I don’t love being in “crisis mode,” and am really looking forward to being able to get into somewhat of a “new normal” where we can figure out what the heck this year is going to look like for us, revenue-wise.
A Few Highlights:
- New York Trip — This was pretty much the only highlight of the month, because we started self-isolation right afterward. But it was a great highlight and I have some really good memories from that trip!
Business Goal Setting
My Goals For March 2020: Success or Failure?
- Keep total expenses under $9k. — FAILURE. Ha! I think I forgot we were about to go on the trip to NYC when I made this goal? We failed miserably at this one 😂
- Have a great (not too expensive) trip to NYC. — SUCCESS! The trip to NYC for The Marketer’s Heart conference was actually AMAZING. I had so much fun, learned a lot, and we stayed almost under the loose budget of $1k that I’d allocated for it. I’m calling this one a win.
- Increase package client income to $10k+. — FAILURE. Due to the fact that a few of our package clients had to put things on hold temporarily, we were not able to increase this amount and instead it actually decreased quite a bit vs. last month.
My Goals for April 2020 — Let’s Do This!
- Keep total expenses under $9k.
- Keep team member payments under $6k.
- Make $1k from passive income.
- Make at least $4k profit.
March 2020 Expenses
- Ads & Marketing = $584.25
- Team Member Payments = $7,262.92
- Education (Courses + Memberships) = $106.95
- Gifts = $20.51
- Travel = $1,174.16
- Transaction Fees = $506.33
- Referral Payouts = $59.30
- Active Campaign* = $70.00
- PennyPipe = $9.95
- Adobe Creative Cloud = $44.92
- ClickFunnels* = $297.00
- Quickbooks* = $72.76
- Zapier = $50.00
- DeadlineFunnel* = $67.00
- Dropbox = $128.27
- Later = $99.00
- Astra = $199.20
- Elementor = $99.50
- BackBlaze = $60.00
- GSuite = $12.84
- Rev = $77.50
- Deposit Photos* = $29.00
- Utilities = $167.56
- Website Domains & Hosting = $78.78
Total Expenses = $11,241.72
March 2020 Income Report
- Interest Earned = $1.06
- CapitalOne Cash Back Rewards = $178.17
- Affiliate Income = $207.15
- Passive Income Products + Coaching = $626.80
- Done-for-You Social Media Packages = $7,807
- Hourly Client Work = $6,100.00
Total Income = $14,501.32
Total Net Profit = $3,259.60
March 2020 Income Report: All the Stats & Analytics!
- Number of blog posts = 2
- Monthly blog page views = 9,343
- Email list subscribers = 7,654
- Facebook page followers = 1,494
- The Systems Strategy group members = 2,577
- Instagram followers = 10.6k
- Twitter followers = 6,295
- Pinterest followers = 26,606
- YouTube subscribers = 185
Final Notes on My March 2020 Income Report:
I already explained a lot of my thoughts above, but I’ll wrap it up with this…
At the time that I am actually writing this report, it’s actually towards the end of April. Back at the end of March, I was in a pretty bad place, feeling incredibly anxious and unsure of anything. I think that a lot of us probably felt (or still feel) the same way!
In particular, I’ve struggled a lot with comparing myself to others online. I see a lot of posts on IG from people who are thriving during this time, and I can’t help but wonder what’s really going on behind the curtain. It doesn’t seem like a lot of people are opening up about anxious feelings related to COVID-19.
So here goes…
Our business is struggling. Our revenue is down. We’ve lost clients.
I’ll admit it — there were a few moments where I briefly thought “Are we going to make it?”
It sometimes feels like I’m the only one who is anxious about the state of their business, but I’m sure that there are people out there (maybe you?) who are worried just like me.
At times, I do feel hopeful that we will come out of this relatively unscathed. And then at other times, I feel like a failure — paralyzed, scared, and like I will never get back on track.
I have big dreams for my business. I know you do, too. I’m anxious about how all of this will affect those dreams and make them even harder to achieve (and take even longer). I had a plan for 2020, but the rug got swept out from under all of us, and my plan went up in flames.
But even through all of this anxiety, I just keep reminding myself: everything is going to be ok.
At the end of the day, I’m strong, smart, and capable (so are you!). We can do this.
Here’s my plan for right now:
- Give myself grace. As much as I hate feeling this way, my emotions and worries are valid and normal. It’s okay if I don’t get as much done or can’t easily get back to “normal” right away. It will take time, but eventually I will feel better.
- Focus on the things I CAN do. Serving my clients and going above and beyond to help their businesses in this time of uncertainty. Teaching my audience about the power of systems.
It’s not much of a plan, but it’s all I’ve got for now!
I’m working on taking small, steady steps, and I’m hoping that when I write next month’s report, I’ll be in an even better place.
