Feb 19, 2019
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Welcome to my January Income Report! Every 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!
IMPORTANT THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN JANUARY
- I started Growth Tools’ Partnership Accelerator Program.
- I started the migration from Infusionsoft to ConvertKit.
- I created the Website Copy Guide
- I completed all the content for my Web Designer Academy
- I booked two new Done For You clients
- I continued tracking my time in Toggl
Notes I found to myself in my planner:
You are fully booked this week.
“I have another commitment”
*What can I delegate?”
*You can handle the busy schedule this week. Hold tight to your mornings and coach yourself through the overwhelm.
Make time for self-coaching, Partnership Accelerator, ConvertKit Migration.
You are booked out this week. Do not accept any more work.
You are booked out this week, do not accept any more work.
REVIEW OF MY GOALS
Now that I have a year of self-employment behind me, I’m revising my income goals.
In 2018, my income goals were:
- $5000 – Income to cover my old paycheck.
- $2500 – Expenses
- $2500 – Taxes
In 2019, my income goals are:
- Pay myself first – $5,000
- Increase my revenue from Courses & Done for You projects by $2500/month to cover potential end of contract.
- Build a cushion in my business savings of $10K ($833/month)
- $2500 Expenses
- $1500 Taxes
WHAT I FOCUSED ON IN JANUARY
I designated January as my Prep and Build month.
TOTAL REVENUE: $9811.56
Affiliate Income: $1804.00
Courses: $2760.75
Done For You & Consulting: $5264.81
TOTAL EXPENSES: $4043.80
Get the full breakdown of income, expenses and net profit month by month here.
NET PROFIT: $5767.76
BIGGEST LESSONS LEARNED
The biggest lesson I learned in January is that you just gotta ask for what you want, focus on delivering value and results, and be totally okay with a no.
This came up for me in two ways in January.
I mentioned earlier that I joined Bryan Harris’s Partnership Accelerator, which is a 4-week intensive workshop all about finding potential partners and pitching them.
I joined it because I’m focusing on growing my email list this year, and collaborations with people who serve a similar audience are one of the best ways to do that.
And I’ve known this for quite awhile. But something has been holding me back from doing it – it’s like that resistance I mention back in episode 22, like how I know I need to stick my neck out and do something based on not wanting to do it.
And putting my money where my mouth is always works for me. If I pay for something, I’m going to show up and do the work and get over my crap. So that’s what I did.
And by the end of 4 weeks, I’d gone from feeling my heart race and my palms sweat before hitting the send button on my first pitch to a potential partner to feeling like I knew the perfect thing to say to get a response and start building a relationship.
And from having 0 partnerships because I was scared to ask – to getting 5 yesses, 3-ask-me-laters and 2 non-responses (yet).
What I’ve learned about myself is that I can get really wrapped up in being worried about what people think about me.
So instead of making it all about me and my self worth, I’m looking at all of this as an experiment. I’m going to try a bunch of things – coming from a place of integrity and delivering value and results first – and analyze the results and see what works and what doesn’t instead of thinking that I’m either amazing or awful depending on the results.
The second way being willing to ask for what I want came up for me in January is related to billing for my time for small web design projects.
I’m looking at an uncomfortable reality now that I’m tracking my time with Toggl…
And when I write uncomfortable, I mean, I’ve got a pit in my stomach and tightness in my chest as I write this.
Because I have to admit this to myself, and I’m worried about what you’ll think of me. But here goes…
Last month, I mentioned in my income report how small projects didn’t make the cut of services I’m offering.
Yet here it is, mid-way through February as I’m writing this income report and my planner is dotted with small projects that I’ve said yes to.
All fine and good, but here’s what I discovered after looking at my Toggl time-tracking reports:
Example: I spend an hour talking to a potential new client about a project, give them client an estimate of 2 hours to complete the project, send over an invoice, it gets paid and I reserve a spot for the work on my schedule.
I spend another hour gathering what I need from the client to work on it and planning the work, and then spend 2 hours working on it.
Another hour meeting with the client to review the work, and then another hour of revisions, and another 30 minute meeting to wrap things up.
I’ve charged the client for 2 hours for the actual development work, and I’ve spent over 4 times that much on the project.
So I’m actually charging only ¼ of my hourly rate – which is less than what I was making at my day job.
No wonder I’m so “busy”.
And when I outsource any overflow work to subcontractors and pay them, I actually make close to nothing.
In January alone – just look at the numbers – they don’t lie.
$2369 in the door in Done For You projects, $2099 out the door to subcontractors.
Why am I doing this? Why am I not charging for my time?
Like, I’m not even trying to and being told no.
Here are all the thoughts that go through my head:
What if people can’t afford my rates? I feel bad charging that much. All of this is easy for me, it’s like second nature to me, I can’t really charge that much, can I? Shoot, I said it would take 2 hours but I totally didn’t anticipate X, now I have to eat that, don’t I? It’s not their fault I estimated wrong. I don’t have time to do this, but I said yes so I need to outsource it – I’m going to make $0 on this job. Who am I to charge X for this?
And this isn’t a new problem for me.
This is the exact mindset struggle I had when I first started freelancing, and it pops up for me ALL THE TIME.
And for my full web design package?
I FINALLY dialed that in and made it profitable. And it took A LOT of mindset work. But there’s still plenty of work for me to do there because I provide a lot of unpaid support after the project is over.
And it’s not like my clients balk at paying me – I just don’t ask them to.
Why am I afraid to charge for the time I’m actually spending on these projects, not just the development time? And why don’t I value my skillset?
Like, if I needed to have surgery, wouldn’t I want the surgery to feel easy and like second-nature to my surgeon? Wouldn’t I want to pay for that level of experience? Yes, I realize I just compared WordPress to surgery, but you know what I mean…
Here’s what I know about myself – I will deliver results. No matter what. One of my WordPress colleagues said recently, “I can never leave a mystery unsolved.” And I can’t even describe how much that statement resonated with me. And I also know that with WordPress, there’s almost always a way to solve any business or tech problem.
But I’m terrible at estimating the amount of time it will take me.
Wait, scratch that.
That’s not true.
I’m terrible at telling the truth about the amount of time it will take me, because I’m afraid to say those bigger numbers out loud.
What if you tell me it’s too much? What if you yell at me? What if we have to NEGOTIATE!!?
I tell my Web Designer Academy students: “Think about how long it will take you to do this, and then double it. And that’s what you charge. And then the first time you do it, track your time because you may be totally off, and that’s okay you’ll know for next time.”
And then when it comes to my own projects, I don’t take my own advice!!
And to be 100% transparent, it’s because I think my hourly rate is too high and if I have to double it then my clients won’t be able to afford me and then they’ll be left hanging.
Yeah, like I’m that important. And like I’m the only one in the world that can help them.
Ugh. I told you… you might not like me after reading this article. But those are the for-real thoughts that pop into my head!
Sometimes I feel like I’m just bad at business. And it’s easier to sell courses and memberships and large packages than have to address this problem.
Anyway.
This has been a problem for me for over 3 years, and I’ve done nothing about it.
Except complain about it in my head.
I’ve blamed my old day job. I’ve blamed my clients (I know, ridiculous bc I never gave them the opportunity to pay me more money). I’ve blamed my dog (I mean, she needs walks but dang it I don’t have time I’ve packed my schedule too full).
I’ve waffled on whether I want to accept more small projects.
I say I’m done – and then I say yes to the next person that asks.
Because I like helping people, and I want you to like me. And I want to make money.
So how can I solve this problem, once and for all?
***6 Hours Later***
So six hours ago, I actually typed “How can I solve this problem once and for all?” and had to stop writing this income report.
I was stuck. Because I didn’t know the answer.
I mean, I was really asking myself how can I solve this problem?
And I was having a conversation with myself in my head about how I keep doing the same thing over and over and over.
Like, do I really want a solution?
Or do I want to keep the drama around it and keep being the “victim” of my poor choices and humble-bragging about how I have so much work and too many clients? Gag me with a spoon. (Yes, I grew up in the 80s).
And like my business coach always told me, asking myself “how can I” is magical.
Because I have the answers – I just need to get past all the drama and listen to myself.
The solution has been right in front of my face this whole entire time.
And it’s not to “set boundaries” or “start saying no” or any of that other stuff that just doesn’t work for a YES person like me who wants to help everyone.
Its my Web Designer Academy graduates.
The people who I’ve trained (to do as I say, not as I do – as my mom used to say) to market themselves and provide awesome service to their clients.
Who serve a wide variety of niches and a wide variety of price points.
Like, there’s a web designer for everyone in there.
So how can I solve this problem once and for all?
Give my clients a choice.
My rate is what it is, my package is what it is, and I bill by the hour, and when you work with me, I’m gonna knock your freaking socks off.
But if my schedule is booked out (which as you saw from the notes in my planner, it often is) or you have a specific budget or you need an expert in a certain niche or tool?
Then I refer you to my directory of WP+BFF Certified Experts – web designers who have already gone through my 12 week training course, who have invested in their WordPress education, who set their own rates based on their unique goals, and who love serving clients and leaning on each other to solve problems for their clients.
It’s a win-win.
I get to send clients to the awesome, amazing web designers that have gone through my training program, and I get to help everyone that comes to me, and I get say yes to everyone, and I already feel more confident about my hourly rate.
Because I’m really, really good at what I do.
Yeah, I said it. It’s uncomfortable to say it, but I’m saying it.
So I’m in the early stages of putting that together, and I’m super pumped to debut it to my audience so you’ll have a group of vetted, super skilled web designers to hire for your projects!!
So my biggest lesson learned in January is that I just have to ask, that I can still serve people if they say no, that I can always come from a place of integrity and that this really is all one big experiment. The results I get aren’t good or bad – they are just feedback that lets me know what I need to adjust going forward.
So what I want you to take away from this pep talk is that all the things you try in your business, all the things you ask people for, I want you to look at those as experiments.