Online Income: $7,311 in November 2017

Ouch!

After a year of having income reports showing over $10,000 pretty consistently, it hurts a little bit to write this one. But, I knew after last month’s business changes that this month would be lower.

Truthfully, I am ok with it because I know bigger and better things are coming. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the next few months go as I continue in my business transition.

But first, here’s a look behind the curtain at my business income and expenses for November.

Why Share My Income Details Online?

You might think it’s weird that I bare my books for the entire world to see. That’s ok. I don’t really care if you think it’s weird. 😉

The reason I do it is because I want to be open and honest about what it takes to run an online business.

Running an online business isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, so I like to share the pros and cons.

Sharing the details of my personal and business finances also helps me stay accountable for my goals. It makes me want to keep working hard to pay off debt, build savings, and grow my business. So, as long as these reports are still helpful for me and you, I’m going to continue.

Here’s a look at my income and expenses for November.

Income

VA/Blog Management Services – $3,285.90

Freelance and Ghost Writing – $3,675.00

Freelance Business Coaching – $0.00 🙁

Advertising and Affiliate Income:

MyFinance – $0.00 – My payout came after the cut-off 🙁

Survey Junkie – $49.50

Google Adsense – $120.78

Direct Advertising – $180.00

Total– $7,311.18

Learn how to make affiliate income on your blog with Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I highly recommend it!

Expenses

My favorite income reports are the ones that share expenses, not just income.

I think sharing expenses helps create a complete picture of what it really costs to run my online business.

The expenses listed below are only what I paid out of my business account this month.

You won’t see a line for internet because that is something I would pay for even if I didn’t have an online business. (But yes, I do get to deduct most of it now that I have an online business.) So, keep that in mind.

Contract Services – $2,487.00

PayPal and Other Fees – $42.28

Facebook Ads – $821.66

2018 FinCon Conference Ticket – $189.00

WiseStamp Renewal – $48.00

Supplies and Equipment – $13.61

Email Marketing – $0.24

Domain Names – $53.36

Board Booster – $20.00

Accounting – $135.00

Travel – $375.89

Meals – $55.67

Total Expenses: $4,241.71

Income less Expenses: $3,069.47

Reflections

If you read my budget report last week, you may be wondering how exactly I was able to spend more than the net income listed above. Well, it’s because some of these business expenses are things I’ve been saving up for for months prior to actually spending money on them.

Plus, during months where I earn more than enough income, I’ve been putting extra aside in my business savings account to help cover months like this when income is lower.

I do expect my business expenses to go down somewhat for the next few months as I don’t have any major projects, travel, etc. planned.

Even though it’s a fairly small expense this month, the one I hate the most is paying fees just so I can get paid for the work I do. PayPal fees and credit card fees are evil! But, I know they would be way higher if I didn’t use FreshBooks for my invoices.

FreshBooks has an agreement with PayPal to make the fees only $0.50 for transactions of any size, as long as the payment is from a US client. You can try FreshBooks for free for 30 days with my link.

Note: Recently FreshBooks launched a new version that no longer has this $0.50 for the new version. However, I got them to agree to keep my link going to FreshBooks classic so you can still take advantage of this $0.50 PayPal fee agreement!

Business Changes

So, over the last few months, I have made quite a few changes to my client roster. In September, I dropped a few of my clients to make more room for my own projects. Then last month, I stopped working with my largest client as both of our businesses had changed and it was no longer a good fit for either of us.

Luckily, I was able to pick up a new client, as well as ramping up work with a few of my existing clients, so that should help make up for some of the income drop.

Additionally, I’ve worked hard on growing my own brand. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been hard at work to do a better job of bringing you consistent content every Monday.

I’ve also been updating lots of my old content to give it a re-fresh with a new look, more complete information, etc. Creating new pages for you to easily access my freebies and learn about my favorite resources was something I also did in November.

Finally, I’ve been working hard to re-vamp my freelance coaching program and create my first course, $10K VA!

I plan to have the course open before the end of the year and I can’t wait to help my first students create their own successful virtual assistant businesses!

If income reports get you jazzed, you can see all of my online income reports on this page!

Just to see how far I’ve come, I averaged my monthly online income for the 41 months I’ve been freelancing. Even with the part-time months at the beginning, my average monthly online income (gross) is $6,132.24. My 12 month (gross) average is $11,258.40.

Did you make any income online last month?