It’s time for another income report!

Spoiler alert – January was a very profitable month for me in my business which tends to always be the case. People launch a lot of online courses in January so typically I take on additional launch work.

January is usually my highest earning month of the entire year so what I earn in January isn’t typically what I earn in the other months of the year.

This month I made $13,338.33 which is far above a normal month for me! You can read my previous income reports to see that somewhere between $5,000 to $8,000 a month is more the average.

I’m honestly kind of shocked that January was this profitable. I have a 4-month-old baby at home with me. My husband is currently working part-time to help with childcare, but it’s still been rough balancing work and baby life all day. 

Let’s dig into what happened last month!

In this post, I’ll cover:

• What I accomplished during the month
• My goals for February
• How much money my business made 
• What worked well this month 
• What felt hard 
• What I’m doing to grow my business and income

You can read all of my income reports here.

How did my goals from last month go?

1. Batch record podcast episodes – DONE!

I had to kick my baby and husband out of the house for a day to get this done but I currently have recorded episodes of Create a Better Course through the middle of March.

2. Track our spending and create a new budget – DONE!

I started using YNAB (You Need a Budget) this month after my past budgeting software announced they were closing down. I love it so far!

YNAB is a paid budgeting tool ($99 per year), which I don’t love spending money but I do think using it saved me OVER $100 just this month alone.

I like that I can pre-save for things super easily and budget my money several months in advance.

3. Plan for a BFF trip – DONE!

My best friend from high school is coming to town in February so I planned an itinerary of fun things to do while she is here.

4. Set up for The Systems and Magic Workflow Bundle – DONE!

Emails and social media graphics are all prepped for The Systems and Workflow Bundle: Launch Edition (which I’m a part of!)

I’ve been pitched to join hundreds of bundles in 2024, but I’m being super picky and intentional about what I participate in and this bundle is always one of the best bundles of the year.

Click here to join the waitlist for the upcoming launch bundle.

5. Work my way through Podcast Success Blueprint – DONE, but there’s always more to do!

One of my big goals for the year is to grow my podcast, Create a Better Course and as part of that goal, I joined Elizabeth McCravy’s podcast course, Podcast Success Blueprint.

I’ve been listening to the lessons while walking with my baby in the morning and using my phone to take notes to implement things when I’m back at my desk.

6. Set up a new client website – Mostly Done!

For one of my long-term retainer clients, we’re working on setting up a separate website for her online course. We made a ton of progress this month but there are still a few final wrap-up details before the website goes live.

What worked well this month

1. I got back into using this sunrise alarm clock. It helps me not wake up so groggy in the mornings. I used to use it all the time pre-baby and then I had a newborn who woke me up all hours of the night and my sleep schedule became crazy.

There are now some mornings (not every morning) where my baby sleeps longer than my alarm clock and going back to using this gentle alarm has really helped my energy. 

2. I purchased this Q+A journal to create a better habit of journaling each day and to also make sure I’m documenting some of the moments in my life.

3. I finally bought a new phone (iPhone 14)! My old phone was 5+ years old, couldn’t hold a charge, and would often freeze up when you were using it.

4. I started creating a weekly Reel on Instagram of my to-do list. It’s a super simple thing that has helped me stay more active on social media.

What felt hard this month

1. Trying to work with a young baby at home

In a lot of ways, I’ve actually found the last month harder than the brand-new baby phase. She sleeps so much better at night and has a much more consistent routine, but balancing taking care of a baby all day with working has been really challenging.

Currently, my husband and I rotate throughout the day who is on baby duty and who is working. It works most of the time, but it’s also super exhausting to all be home together all the time with everyone trying to work, eat and sleep.

2. A whole lot of weird career thoughts – this one is kind of hard to explain but I’ve just been feeling kind of stressed about my career lately which is weird because my business is doing better than ever, but I still have all these thoughts that bubble up to the surface sometimes around “would it be better to have a regular job that paid my health insurance and had a 401k match?”

How Much Money I Made This Month: 

$13,338.33

Here’s the breakdown of how I earned that money:

• $7,598 came from retainer clients where I help manage their online courses or do other tasks in their business. This looks like updating sales pages, updating lessons, creating new worksheets, getting testimonials from students, sending weekly emails and a whole lot of other things. 
• $627 came from affiliate income programs I’m a part of
• $500 came from coaching calls 
• $4,613 came from launch projects with clients who aren’t long-term retainer clients, but someone I was helping launch their course (or digital product) out into the world.

January is always a higher earning month for me and this is just slightly under what I earned last January.

You can read more about exactly how my business makes money and the different income streams I have here.

Podcast Episodes I Released in January:

• Episode 32: Want to Know my 2024 Business Goals? Here’s What I’m Working Toward in 2024
• Episode 33: Eat the Teddy Bear, Not the Frog
• Episode 34: 2024 Online Course Trends That Will Make You More Money This Year (My Top 5!)
• Episode 35: How I Plan to Make More Money This Year
• Episode 36: I Had An Unmedicated Birth On Purpose (This is Why + What it Looked Like)

My Goals for February:

1. Trial a co-working space – This month I want to try out leaving the house and working at a co-working space to hopefully help cut down on how distracting it is to work with a baby at home

2. Have a fun BFF trip – My best friend is coming into town this month and we are going to spend the weekend shopping, getting massages, watching cheesy tv and doing crafts.

3. Prep for two upcoming client launches – I have two bigger client launches coming down the pipeline in March and April. There’s a lot of prep work for this so I want to stay ahead and start getting ready.

4. Get my taxes started – February means digging into my taxes from last year and making sure everything gets filed correctly. I work with an accountant to do my taxes so most of the legwork on this is meeting with them and submitting all of the information they need.

5. Create a list of possible childcare options – We’ll probably keep our daughter home for several more months but having her home is having a huge impact on my husband’s and my work schedule. We’re both basically working part-time right now and I’d like to have a gameplan for what the next step for us is.

All of the software and tools I’m currently using to run my business

Productivity and Goal-Setting Tools:

• Asana – Project Management
• Timer Cube – To stay focused on your work
• Full Focus Planner – For planning my week and daily to-do list 
• Bullet Journaling – For planning out my long-term goals and to-do lists (I use this inexpensive notebook as my journal) 
• Dynalist – To create lists and organize my thoughts

Social Media:

• Your Template Club – Canva templates for Instagram and Facebook that you can easily customize 
• ManyChat – For sending automated messages on Instagram and Facebook
• Metricool – To schedule posts on Instagram and Facebook  
• Tailwind – For scheduling Pinterest pins 
• Canva – To create graphics
• Ring Light – The ring light and tripod I use to film content

Podcasting: 

• Riverside – Recording podcast episodes and interviews 
• Libsyn – Where I host my podcast episodes 
• Microphone – For recording podcasts, events and videos 
• Calendly – To schedule guest interviews

Email Marketing:

• Convert Kit – The software I use to send emails
• Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Membership – $9 a month membership that gives me access to hundreds of email templates 
• Interact – For creating quizzes in my business like my Find Your Perfect Course Creation Match

Website:

• Showit – My website host
• Elizabeth McCravy’s Showit Templates – Super easy-to-use website templates for Showit

Finance and Money:

• Dubsado – Invoicing 
• Profit First System – For managing business expenses and savings
• Capital One Spark Card – This is the main business card I use 

And that’s a wrap! We get an extra day this month with leap year so maybe that means an extra day of productivity for all of us!