I made it my goal to post a monthly income report for 2018, so can we say that I’m succeeding if I’ve made it 2 months in a row (see January’s income report here)? I say yes :).
February was my highest income month since beginning my blog and virtual assisting. Also, it was also my highest month for expenses BY FAR. When reading blog income reports in the past, I thought it was cool that people made so much money just from blogging (like Breaking the One Percent). However, I never even thought to think of the expenses of being a business owner. I figured I would buy a laptop and be scotch free on expenses from there on. HA! I was so far from reality!
Here are the results of this months income report:
INCOME
This was my highest month by far. Part of my increase in my affiliate income is because I am FINALLY utilizing Pinterest to drive traffic to my blog. However, as you will see in my expenses, this did cost me some set up, subscription, and administrative fees. Overall, I think it was an investment worth making. I also picked up another virtual assisting client last month, so that increased my income there as well.
EXPENSES
Yes, you read that first line correctly. I hired a virtual assistant this month! I realized that I am better at working for others than I am at working for myself. There were certain areas of my blog that were suffering because I was spending so much of my free time with my clients accounts. I knew I needed someone behind the scenes with my blog. The majority of my VA expense for this month’s income report was with setting up my Tailwind & Pinterest account, so that was a one-time expense.
I do plan to keep my VA for monthly maintenance and scheduling with my Pinterest account. My subscription expense was slightly higher this month as well, because I prefer to pay for subscriptions yearly if I have the choice, so that it isn’t a reoccurring expense each month and you usually get a discount doing it that way as well.
Even with my added expenses this past month, I’m still within $100 of my net income from January, so I’m very pleased with my progress for the year. As I reflect on this past month, I’ve once again learned a few things too.
- Hire help. I’ve always thought I could do it all. But I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders the minute I hired someone to help me out. I have found it’s much more enjoyable to blog when you able to share your passion and be fully into it, rather than when you feel burdened by the responsibilities of running your own blog.
- Stay organized for tax season. We filed our 2017 taxes this past month, and I plan to be more prepared for next year. Being a business owner comes with extra tasks, and one of those things is properly reporting income and expense. I’m hoping my commitment to monthly blogging reports will help me stay on track for 2018!
- Use a calendar app, rather than pen and paper. I’ve started utilizing Asana for myself this past month. I so enjoy having my daily/weekly tasks laid out at the beginning of the week. And, I love the feeling of checking my tasks off the list every day! It’s so much easier than keeping track of all my scribbled notepads laying around the house!
I’ve booked yet another VA client starting for the month of March– I’m looking forward to my March income report already!
