July was definitely one of those months that flew by for me. One day it was the Fourth of July and the next day was August.

So even though it still feels like the middle of the summer…it’s time for another income report!

In this post I’ll cover:

• How my business makes money
• How I did on the goals I set for last month
• My exact income and expenses (😮juicy I know!) 
• What’s working well and what’s felt challenging
• My goals for the upcoming month 
• All of the tools and resources I use to run my business 

You Can Read My Previous Income Reports Here:

• January: $13,338.33
• February: $10,616.89
• March: $10,663.22
• April: $9,450.00
• May: $14,410.47
• June: $11,802.66

Total for the year so far: $70,281.57

How does my business make money?

Most of my business income comes from one-on-one clients where I help them with digital marketing and online courses.

I also make some money through affiliate income, speaking, coaching and selling my own digital products.

How much do I work?

Honestly, it just really depends. No two weeks are the same but on average I work 35 to 40 hours a week. I’m also the main income earner in my family. Some weeks I work a little more and some weeks I work less.

 How Did My July Goals Go?

Here’s a recap of the goals I set last month.

1. Declutter something every day – DONE!

This was actually a really wonderful exercise. I picked one item or sometimes a small area of our house and let go of stuff we didn’t need. This only took me five minutes a day, but I ended up getting rid of so much.

See the evidence below!

2. Negotiate our internet bill – DONE!

Our internet company does that annoying thing where they give you a year at one price then try to sneakily raise the price so I called to negotiate and saved us $25 a month ($300 total for the year!)

3. Map out all of our childcare thoughts – DONE!

If you’re new to the income reports, I have a super cute 10-month-old daughter. My husband and I have been trying to figure out the right childcare situation for many months. So far we’ve done a juggling act of switching off with each other. One person watches the baby while the other works.

We finally made the decision that my husband isn’t going to go back to work full-time in the fall and will be taking on most of the childcare duties through at least the end of the year, possibly longer. Our plan is to re-evaluate in January.

It feels like a huge relief to at least have a plan. Personally, I would still love to give out some additional help where we had childcare 1-2 days a week so that we had a little more flexibility.

4. Redo my email template – Didn’t even attempt it!

I planned on redoing the main email template I use to email my list, but never got to it. Honestly this was a pretty low hanging fruit and not a big deal.

My July 2024 Income: $10,317.08

Client Work: $9,771.58
Affiliate Income: $545.50

My Expenses: $1,236.36

Here’s my exact expense breakdown:

• Credit Card Processing Fees: $365.49
• Contractors: $662 – Podcast editing, A website designer to help me edit some really outdated things on my website and a copywriter that we are co-working on a client project together
• Dubsado: $20
• G Suite: $7.20
• Libsyn for podcast hosting: $7
• Office Supplies: $27.05
• Courses/Education: $79 – I joined Laylee Emadi’s new Educator’s Lounge and a course about Tik Tok that really wasn’t great. 
• Coffee: $10.75 (when I’m co-working at a coffee shop)

What’s Working Well

1. Coffee Shop Sundays

In a perfect world, I wouldn’t work on the weekends, but I totally do – especially after having a baby. My weekdays are more packed so I sneak in a few hours of work each weekend.

Usually on Sunday afternoons I try to work and end up getting distracted by everything in our home. This month I started going to a coffee shop on Sunday afternoons to get 2-3 hours of focused work time. It’s wonderful!

I get a bunch of stuff done, enjoy a tasty drink and my Monday’s are so much more smooth.

In case you’re curious, my husband and I do a 50/50 split on Sundays for childcare. I take the morning shift and then he covers the afternoon so I have some alone time to work.

2. Audiobooks

Ok…I knew these existed before, but I got out of the habit of using the infinite amount of audiobooks the library has. Plus they are so easy to use. You search the title, listen on your phone and it automatically gets returned for you! No fines or missed due dates.

I have tons of listening time these days. I rarely watch TV, but between baby playtime, my morning walk, cleaning, and work there’s so much time I can listen to things instead of binging podcasts I’ve been listening to more books.

3. Making a schedule

This one is so simple, but it’s been so helpful. My husband and I sat down and made a realistic schedule of how our week should go – who is in charge of the baby and when does everyone get time to sleep, eat, etc…

It was a huge juggling act to figure out a schedule that works but now that we have one it’s been super helpful.

We printed out the schedule and stuck it on the fridge. We don’t stick to it perfectly but it’s really helped with having a better life balance.

What’s Been Challenging

There’s actually not a ton that’s felt super hard this month. I think 10-months-old is when the whole parenting thing officially gets way easier or maybe I just got way better at it.

Last month was the first month in a longtime that I felt like I had a handle on all the things going on.

Here are a few things that were still a little bumpy last month.

1. Sticking to our grocery budget

I think this is a challenge for everyone right now, but last month was extra hard and there were a lot of distractions. Now that we have a kid we end up at the store way more often. It’s an easy way to get out of the house and it’s harder to do a full grocery shop with a baby in tow so we take smaller more frequent trips, but our budget really reflected that last month. 

2. Relying on caffeine more than I should 

That thing happened to me last month where I would sleep terrible, so then I had an extra cup of coffee which then kept me up again and it became a huge repeating cycle for me. I’m working on cutting back on caffeine this month (not all of it, but some) and if I feel tired trying something like going outside first before I go for more coffee.

My Goals For Next Month

Keeping my goals list super small has been very helpful lately so I’m keeping up with that trend and only picking out a few “official goals”

1. Travel!

I have another trip to go see my parents planned for this month. I did this earlier this summer and it was the best thing ever. I saw my parents, had more childcare help and in general felt so refreshed and rejuvenated.

If you’re like me and don’t have lots of family around I highly recommend getting creative and seeing if you can just take an extended trip to see family and get some extra help. This trip is also strategically planned during my husband’s busy work season.

I mentioned earlier in the post that he isn’t going back full-time but he has a time consuming project before our fall schedule will start so I’m flying to the grandparents for some extra help.

2. Record a new money workshop!

This one is really fun. I’ve published these income reports for well over a year now and I often get asked all sorts of money questions about how I do my bookkeeping, set money goals, budget, run a lean business, etc… so I decided to create a super affordable money workshop about how I manage my money in a six-figure business that I mostly run entirely myself.

More details will be coming soon on this.

3. Meet with a new podcast editor

I took a hiatus from recording new podcast episodes while we didn’t have childcare figured out, but I finally have extra space in my schedule that I think I’m ready to come back. I’m meeting with a new editor to brainstorm ideas and create a plan for this fall.

Side note: One really cool thing about a podcast is people still find you even when you haven’t recorded a new episode! I get messages from people who found my podcast almost every single week even though I haven’t released a new episode since March.

That’s it! I’m keeping this month light. I’m sure there will be extra things I end up doing, but lately I’ve found that planning for less helps me get more done overall.

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

A quick note – Some of the links below are affiliate links which means I may get a small kickback if you use them. There’s no additional cost to you and all of these products are things I actually use in my own business.

Business Money Tools: 

• Relay For Business Banking 
• Dolly DeLong’s Bookkeeping Spreadsheet 
• Business Credit Card: Capital One Spark Card 
• Dubsado – For invoicing and contracts 
• Profit First System – For managing business expenses and savings

Personal Money Tools:

• Ally Bank – For my everyday checking and savings account
• Wealthfront – Long term savings like my emergency fund and future house down payment fund.  
• Alliant Visa Signature – My personal credit card that receives 2.5 cashback. We use these for most of our everyday expenses.

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

Other disclosures:

Relay Bank: Relay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services and FDIC insurance are provided through Thread Bank, Member FDIC. The Relay Visa® Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted.