It’s been a while since I last updated on my income and profit. Things got a little bit crazy there for a while. Here’s a long overdue update for February through April…
First for a little bit about what I’ve been up to the past few months!
Throughout February and March I was working on a part time IT contract as a Business Analyst. This involved some days travelling to sites in the UK, but many days were working from home which was nice. In March my time spent on this contract was up to 3 days a week which is part of the reason why I was a bit quiet on the blog front!
Casting my mind back to February I had fun learning how to arrange flowers (expertly tutored by one of my friends), plus I also spent a day at the Apple Store in Birmingham taking advantage of their many free learning sessions. It was a fab day where I learnt video skills such as capturing cinematic shots, and how to create cool video edits such as jump shots.
On the social front I enjoyed a wonderful Valentines’ Dinner at The Botanist in Coventry, as well as a relaxing spa weekend with my good friend at the De Vere Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire.
March got super busy on the social front. I was delighted to visit the Royal Albert Hall for the first time to see a Disney Broadway Hits concert.
I also tried the Bear Grylls adventure (affiliate link) near to Birmingham International airport when some friends came to visit with their son. We had a fantastic time doing their base package which includes 4 fab activities. I particularly enjoyed the escape room!
Other events included a couple of games nights, heading out with friends for St. Patrick’s Day, a ladies film night, a baby shower and celebrating Mother’s Day with a delicious lunch at Bistrot Pierre.
I think the highlight of March has to be my niece’s dance show Dreams. She has been learning ballet, street dance and musical theatre for several years.
Her dance school Capella Academy present a show about every 2 years. It was an absolute joy to see her dancing out onto the stage in the very first dance, as well as seeing her sing her first ever solo. What a treat.
On to April and things certainly didn’t slow down! I went to see Disney on Ice which was absolutely brilliant. Then my attention turned to Tony Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within event where I was serving on the crew.
It’s the second year that I’ve been on the crew, and what an uplifting experience it is. If you haven’t been to Tony’s Unleash The Power Within event yet, I highly recommend you make the investment to go. It may sound like a lot of money up-front, but believe me it’s so worth it. A completely transformational and life changing experience.
On my return home from London it was Easter before I knew it. I spent time with family at our local go karting venue TeamSport and at my parents’ for a bbq. I was super excited to see the final instalment of the Avengers series End Game. Finally near the end of April I was privileged to receive the opportunity to partner with Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi and Russell Brunson on an exciting new venture. The launch for their new product took up the remainder of my time in April.
This is a recurring monthly post as I pursue my 2019 goal of making £7,000 in one month from my side hustles, before the end of the year.
Last year I made a total profit of £3,166.15 from my side hustles, with my best month’s profit being £597.95. My average monthly profit for 2018 was £263.85.
In January I made a profit of £250.45, slightly under my average for 2018.
This meant there was still a huge way to go to achieve £7,000 in one month. Let’s see how I got on in February, March and April…
INCOME REPORT
Here’s my income position at the end of April:
| Month | Last Year's Income | 2019 Income | 2019 Running Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | £377.45 | £428.54 | £428.54 |
| February | £156.62 | £392.05 | £820.59 |
| March | £120.29 | £591.95 | £1,412.54 |
| April | £305.67 | £227.43 | £1,639.97 |
| May | £217.61 | ||
| June | £281.89 | ||
| July | £311.20 | ||
| August | £496.84 | ||
| September | £762.16 | ||
| October | £732.34 | ||
| November | £529.77 | ||
| December | £297.16 |
Income for February, March and April respectively was £392.05, £591.95 & £227.43. A bit of a mixed bag really. March saw my highest income month so far this year, but April saw the lowest!
Here’s some lovely pie charts showing a break-down of where my income came from in February, March & April:
Things that stand out to me from these charts:
- Blogging income has been consistent every month of the year so far at £45. It may not be much, but it’s nice that I’ve been able to make some money every month - there was a time not so long ago that I didn’t have a clue how to make even a penny from my blog!
- March’s overall income was boosted by the sale of my old apple watch on eBay. I can’t guarantee money from eBay on an ongoing basis because it’s dependent on when I have things I no longer need that I can sell
- Income from Kindle book publishing has been on a downward trend this year. This is because I have been changing my marketing approach, spending less on marketing for free book promotions and experimenting with Amazon advertising instead. Expenses should also be lower for this category
- As I had anticipated, income from Audible sales is slowly on the increase
- Income from completing surveys, and cashback from sites such as TopCashback (affiliate link) and Quidco (affiliate link) remain a relatively small percentage of my overall income, because I don’t see value in spending a lot of time on these with their relatively small returns for the amount of effort required
EXPENSE REPORT
Here’s how my Side Hustle expenses looked by the end of April:
| Month | Last Year's Expenses | 2019 Expenses | 2019 Running Total Expenses |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | £145.20 | £178.09 | £178.09 |
| February | £18.62 | £146.78 | £324.87 |
| March | £17.84 | £238.15 | £563.02 |
| April | £93.05 | £2.19 | £565.21 |
| May | £54.86 | ||
| June | £28.83 | ||
| July | £121.26 | ||
| August | £156.39 | ||
| September | £296.98 | ||
| October | £134.39 | ||
| November | £162.58 | ||
| December | £192.85 |
Woah! So what happened in April? I barely had any expenses at all with just £2.19 spent. That sounds like a good thing, but actually it’s not. You see my profit is proportional to the amount of sales that I make. If I don’t spend money on marketing then I don’t make sales.
As you could see in my income section, April’s income was the lowest so far this year - here in the expenses section it’s clear to see why. I didn’t spend enough on marketing.
The reason for this is because back in February (I get paid 2 months in arrears for publishing), I did a big review of my marketing strategy and decided I needed a radical change. Previously my approach had been to list my kindle books as free for a number of days each month, then while the book was free, pay a marketing company to blast out my free book to their email list so that I would get lots of downloads. Then over the next few days (when my book was back at full price) my book’s Amazon ranking would be improved and therefore I’d make plenty of sales/profit.
The trouble was, this strategy had been giving me smaller and smaller returns over time. In January I marketed every book using this strategy and some of the books only just broke even after I’d accounted for the cost of running the promotion. There’s no point putting in time and effort to run promotions if they aren’t making me any money.
So I decided to switch strategies and start advertising using Amazon’s pay per click service. However, during February (which is where my April figures in today’s post come from) I was in a transition period - and I still had a lot to learn!
To be fair I still have a lot to learn, but I’m improving!
Here’s how my expenses stack up on a chart I’ve been tracking since the start of 2018. Just look at how April drops off the cliff!:
PROFIT PROGRESS
So that leads me to my profit update for February, March and April:
| Month | 2018 Profit | 2019 Profit | 2019 Running Total Profit | No. of Kindle books | No. of Paperback books | No. of Audiobooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | £232.25 | £250.45 | £250.45 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| February | £138.00 | £245.27 | £495.72 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| March | £102.45 | £353.80 | £849.52 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| April | £212.62 | £225.24 | £1,074.76 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| May | £162.75 | |||||
| June | £253.06 | |||||
| July | £189.94 | |||||
| August | £340.45 | |||||
| September | £465.18 | |||||
| October | £597.95 | |||||
| November | £367.19 | |||||
| December | £104.31 |
March saw my best profit month for the year at £353.80. Profit in April was down a bit at £225.24. I think this can be put down to 2 reasons. First, this money was generated in February (as I mentioned I get paid 2 months in arrears), and with February being a shorter month there was less time to make money! Second, I dropped the ball with marketing as I already explained.
It’s nice to see my profits running consistently at over £200 for the year. I’m also very happy to see that I’ve beaten my 2018 monthly profit totals every month so far.
My average profit per month in 2018 was £263.85. I’ve only beaten that once so far this year, but my average monthly profit for 2019 is nearly £5 up at £268.69.
Here’s my bar chart tracking how my profit is faring month on month compared to previous years:
That’s it for my catch-up income and profit report for February through to April. What do you think? It would be nice to see my profit improving a bit more, but there’s still time.
How have your side hustles gone for the first few months of 2019?
Leave me a comment to let me know, I love hearing from you.
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My PREVIOUS post offered an opportunity to enter an Easter prize giveaway (now closed).
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You can find all my previous income and profit reports here.
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