This is the monthly blog income and expense report for May 2017, in which I’ll tell you how I earned $26,961.93 last month (working from home, running my online business). Because this year, I’m going to drop real numbers in your lap to show you exactly what can happen if you stick with it.
And by the way, a big thanks to Art of Blog for recognizing Marketing Creativity in their list of the top 50 richest and most influential bloggers! That’s a good list to be on.
Income report – May 2017
- The Summer Shift: $13,223
- Luminaries Club Membership Dues: $4,160
- CreativeLive royalties: $3,338.44
- Marketing Playbook: $859
- Complete Copywriting: $3,620
- Amazon royalties (YBY2017): $1,417.18
- Direct sales Your Best Year 2017 : $344.31
Every two years or so, I clear my schedule to take on private clients. The Summer Shift 2017 launched in May, and it is an aggressively dedicated service that offered very little availability. It sold out, earning $13,223 in May, and that was a combination of one-time payments and monthly installments. It will appear in income statements for the next three months.
The Luminaries Club is currently closed to new members, but earned $4,160 in recurring fees and payment installments. It’s a thriving membership of inspired entrepreneurs. Please be on my list to be the first to know when it reopens!
Every quarter, I receive royalties for two CreativeLive workshops I’ve filmed, Copywriting for Crafters and Turn Your Etsy Shop into a Sales Machine. I love everything about teaching on CreativeLive, and it’s delightful to see my hard work paying off years after the class has wrapped.
My new book, Marketing Playbook: Scale Your Online Business to Outrageous Success was still in the works throughout May even though it launched digitally on April 25. We’ve finally gotten all the kinks worked out on the Kindle version, and it’s become fully available on Amazon.
Complete Copywriting is my signature course, and it re-opened for enrollment back in January. It continues to perform well and welcome new students.
Your Best Year 2017 earned a combined total of $1,761.49 at its end-of-season rate.
Total income for April 2017: $26,961.93
Y•T•D Total: $119,303.26
Business Expenses
- Staff, salary, and contractors: $16,348
- Payment, host, and shipping fees: $1,538.10
- Infusionsoft: $299
- Office Supplies: $524.78
- Home Office Remodel: $777.90
- Education + Training: $62.21
- Web hosting + software: $232.89
- Meals, accommodations, travel: $115.81
- Advertising: $89.58
Total expenses this month: $19,676.46
Y•T•D Total: $78,046.36
As with most months, staff, salary (mine), and contractors were my biggest expense in May. I just wrote an absolutely *epic* guide to hiring. Please be sure to check it out! My hires help with …
- shipping and handling (physical books)
- video editing and production
- webinar moderation
- accounting
- customer support
- text editing
- product creation
- photography
- transcription
- tax preparation
- branding, website design, and development (coming soon)
- office organization and cleaning
- business management
Etsy fees and shipping take up the bulk of the second line, but I’ve also included Paypal and credit card processing fees there.
Infusionsoft is my email and customer management software, as well as the host of my private membership and training programs.
Office supplies cover everything from pens and notebooks to office equipment (computers, tablets, etc.).
Home office remodel isn’t an expense I have on here every month, but I’ve recently moved and I’m in the process of finishing my new home office. It was included as an expense category for the last few months. Click here to see the before and after.
My web hosting is by Pagely, and my bill is only $24/month (sadly, that amazing price is no longer available to new customers; I love this service).
Meals, accommodations, and travel is a rare category for me, but it does happen occasionally. This month, I bought dinner during a business meeting.
Marketing Playbook is Here!
Marketing Playbook: How to Scale Your Business to Outrageous Success is the most comprehensive + affordable package I’ve ever put together for online business owners, and I can hardly wait to deliver your copy to you. I took my six-figure earning strategies and packaged them into a revolutionary system that anybody can use.
>> Click here to learn more about Marketing Playbook <<<
If you’re not already, be sure to subscribe to my email list to receive exclusive pre-order discounts and private lessons. Here’s to your success!
Thanks for sharing, Lisa! Great job!
Thank you!
Impressive numbers. Looks like considerable reinvestment as monthly expenses is more than 70% if your income generated if I read this right. But that’s what is required in growing a business…reinvestment. It can be expensive to take your business to the next level and I commend you for showing it. Certainly it will balance out and earnings will grow and expenses decrease as you cycle through the year. In my first 5 yrs of business I had to reinvest strongly and it was hard but worth it. Several friends in the wedding industry didn’t make it past 4 yrs for this reason. They got discouraged when profits were eatten up by expenditures to grow business. But, in the long haul it can be very rewarding. 9 yrs later I have a business that is and been thriving. Even so I am looking ahead and planning my new future. Wedding photography is my first love, but as years progress the physical demands will eventually require me to adjust my vision. I’m years away from that but have already started adjusting my business plan and scope so that when that future is here I will still have a thriving business. Of course it will be different than today from an operations standpoint but I still doing what I love.
It’s actually about 30% into reinvestment. My own salary is listed as an expense of the business, and what’s left over is capital.