It’s been a while since I last posted an Income and Profit update. December was a crazy busy month with Christmas prep and my parent’s Wedding Anniversary to plan for. Now that it’s January it’s time for a good catch up, so today I’m updating you on both November and December’s progress.
First for a few words about what I got up to in November and December.
One of my favourite things to do is wine tasting. I’ve been lucky to have quite a few opportunities to go wine tasting in the past, and in November I went on one of the best tasting events so far. We were invited to a private wine tasting in the cellars at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. I enjoyed tasting a selection of delicious red and white wines, followed by a trip to the amazing gift shop. Bottles of wine were bought!
Later in November I travelled to London to attend the Show Me The Money UK Money Blogger event (or Shomos for short). I love the Shomos because it offers a rare opportunity to meet my fellow bloggers and vloggers in person, even if I do get a bit tongue-tied in front of my favourites!
If you read my reverse advent calendar post, you’ll know all about my plan to support the local foodbank. At the end of November I dropped off my advent calendar box at a Tesco collection point.
As December arrived, Christmas preparations were in full swing, and I got busy with lots of events to go to as well. I helped at my niece’s school fete, running one of the games stalls alongside my parents. Then a week later I was asked if I could help out with the Christmas activity day at the school. I mysteriously got transformed by North Pole magic dust into Santa’s helpful elf “Elvina”. It was great fun seeing all the kids come in to meet Father Christmas, and I helped by finding each of them a gift from the present sack.
Sadly, my time as an elf was short lived, and soon after it was back to my own Christmas present wrapping. A few days before Christmas my parents celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary, otherwise known as the Sapphire anniversary. My sister and I got our organising hats on and arranged for a delicious cake and beautiful flower arrangement to present to them at dinner on the day. A very kind friend created the amazing flower display and button holes for us all to wear. On the day, we went to see the matinee performance of our local Pantomime Sleeping Beauty (an annual tradition for our family), then went on to new restaurant The Botanist to enjoy dinner. Mum and Dad were delighted with their surprises and a fun evening was had by all.
The last event of 2018 was attending a wonderful dinner at my Aunt & Uncle’s house on New Year’s Eve. We ate a delicious home cooked meal, played games and watched the amazing London fireworks as Big Ben struck midnight. Happy New Year everyone!
I ticked off 2 more items from my Autumn Bucket List in November & December. I think given that it’s January now we’re really into Winter Bucket List territory, but I haven’t created one of those. I may still sit down in front of a fire to read a book at some point, but I left it too late to create a seasonal t-shirt design! Here’s the 2 things I did manage to do:
- I ate toffee while enjoying fireworks at Bonfire Night at my parents’ house
- Not only did I go to my niece’s Christmas Fete, I helped at it!
It’s been great fun doing an Autumn Bucket List - I may try something similar for Spring, Summer or next Autumn.
This is a recurring monthly post to track my goal of earning at least £4,000 profit from my Income Hustle ventures in 2018.
My goal broke down across the months and weeks of the year as follows:
£4,000 per year or
£333.33 per month or
£76.92 per week
This meant that my target profit for each month was ideally in the region of £333.33.
From August through to October I’ve been successful in making over £333 profit per month. For my overall 2018 target of making £4,000 profit for the year, my running total was sitting at £2,694.65 at the end of October. Hitting my annual target was looking tricky to say the least.
So the big question is, how did I get on in November and December? Read on to find out…
INCOME REPORT
Here’s my income position at the end of the year:
| Month | Income | Running Total |
|---|---|---|
| January | £377.45 | £377.45 |
| February | £156.62 | £534.07 |
| March | £120.29 | £654.36 |
| April | £305.67 | £960.03 |
| May | £217.61 | £1,099.51 |
| June | £281.89 | £1,381.40 |
| July | £311.20 | £1,770.73 |
| August | £496.84 | £2,267.57 |
| September | £762.16 | £3,029.73 |
| October | £732.34 | £3,762.07 |
| November | £529.77 | £4,291.84 |
| December | £297.16 | £4,589.00 |
November’s £529.77 income allows potential wiggle room to be able to hit the monthly £333 profit target, but December’s £297.16 falls dismally short.
My total income for the year was £4,589.00. That doesn’t leave much room for expenses to be taken into consideration when calculating my final profit for the year, if I’m to hit my £4,000 target.
Here’s a break-down of where my income came from in November & December:
Surveys and blogging brought in some income during November, but by December both of these income streams had completely dried up. I didn’t have time during December to put into completing surveys which meant that I didn’t make enough to hit the fee-free £20 withdrawal threshold. For some reason (perhaps again due to the Christmas period) I didn’t get asked to publish any sponsored posts in December, so my blogging income was down. A third income stream was also missing in December because Audible sales were too low to meet the Amazon payment threshold. In the case of my survey and Audible earnings, these will be rolled forward to January.
During both November and December Kindle book sale income was the clear winner, with royalties from paperback book sales coming second.
I continued to make a small amount of money from selling my unwanted items on eBay, and from cashback sites Quidco (affiliate link) and TopCashback (affiliate link).
EXPENSE REPORT
Here’s how my Side Hustle expenses finished up for the year:
| Month | Expenses | Running Total Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| January | £145.20 | £145.20 |
| February | £18.62 | £163.82 |
| March | £17.84 | £181.66 |
| April | £93.05 | £274.71 |
| May | £54.86 | £329.57 |
| June | £28.83 | £358.40 |
| July | £121.26 | £479.66 |
| August | £156.39 | £636.05 |
| September | £296.98 | £933.03 |
| October | £134.39 | £1,067.42 |
| November | £162.58 | £1,230.00 |
| December | £192.85 | £1,422.85 |
In November my only expenses were paid promotions for Kindle books. Then in December there were more book promotions and eBay related costs (eBay, Paypal and postage). I ended up the year having spent £1,422.85 total expenses.
PROFIT PROGRESS
Here it comes - my final profit figure for 2018!
| Month | Target Profit | Actual Profit | Difference | Running Total Profit | Running Total Over / Under Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | £333.33 | £232.25 | -£101.08 | £232.25 | -£101.08 |
| February | £333.33 | £138.00 | -£195.33 | £370.25 | -£296.41 |
| March | £333.33 | £102.45 | -£230.88 | £472.70 | -£527.29 |
| April | £333.33 | £212.62 | -£120.71 | £685.32 | -£648.00 |
| May | £333.33 | £162.75 | -£170.58 | £848.07 | -£818.58 |
| June | £333.33 | £253.06 | -£80.27 | £1,101.13 | -£898.85 |
| July | £333.33 | £189.94 | -£143.39 | £1,291.07 | -£1,042.24 |
| August | £333.33 | £340.45 | +£7.12 | £1,631.52 | -£1,035.12 |
| September | £333.33 | £465.18 | +£131.85 | £2,096.70 | -£903.27 |
| October | £333.33 | £597.95 | +£264.62 | £2,694.65 | -£638.65 |
| November | £333.33 | £367.19 | +£33.86 | £3,061.84 | -£604.79 |
| December | £333.33 | £104.31 | -£229.02 | £3,166.15 | -£833.81 |
I made a reasonable November profit of £367.19, but much less than my monthly target in December with a profit of just £104.31 .
Unfortunately this means that I didn’t manage to hit my profit goal for the year. I had been aiming for £4,000 profit in 2018 so I missed this by £833.81. Having said that £3,166.15 profit isn’t bad when just 2 years earlier I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly make money from anything other than my day job or eBay!
I am optimistic for improving my profits in 2019. Importantly I want to focus on methods which will allow me to increase my passive income.
What Actions Worked/Didn’t Work From October’s Plan
In October’s income and profit report I listed the things I would do in November to help improve my profit.
Here’s a run down of how I got on with these actions in November and December:
Book Publishing
Purchase book promotions for the month of December. Now that I’ve got a month ahead with booking promotions, I’d like to stay at least a month ahead
- DONE I didn’t have many promotions to set-up in December so this was relatively easy to get done. I also set-up promotions to run in January
Finish the editing of my latest book, I’ve done about 50% of this already
- DONE I finished the editing in November
Work on the formatting of my latest book to prepare it for publication
- DONE I actually finished the formatting of the paperback book, as well as creating a cover. I began work on the formatting of the Kindle version but didn’t get this finished in December. The paperback version of the book was made available for sale in December
Blogging
Carry out any sponsored blog post opportunities which I receive during November
- DONE I had about 4 sponsored posts in November, none in December
Publish at least 4 new blog posts of my own
- DONE I completed 6 posts across November and December:
Get ahead with my publishing content calendar so that I have either 5 blog posts done in advance, or an emergency collection of 5 posts for any weeks when I am at risk of missing a blog post deadline
- NOT DONE I did manage to get some post drafts prepared but some of these I have used. I think I only have about 1 post pre-written now so this is an area I can improve in next year
Grow my Life Designers email list from 11 to 12 subscribers
- DONE At the end of November I had 12 subscribers to my email list. By the end of December I had 15 subscribers
Increase the domain authority for inspiringlifedesign.com from 17 to 18
- DONE The DA increased to 18 near the end of December
Courses
Gather half-way feedback from the participants of my Publishin8 program
- PART DONE I got valuable feedback from one of the participants, but should get more
Complete the week 5 Publishin8 call preparation, run the call itself and upload supporting materials to Facebook Group afterward
- DONE This was the last Publishin8 training call to be held in 2018, the remaining 3 have been rescheduled for the early part of 2019
Reschedule remaining 3 Publishin8 classess for the new year (after requests from participants to take time-out for busy Christmas period)
- DONE As per previous comment, these classes were moved to late January/February at the participants’ request
YouTube
Create, edit and publish at least 1 new video on YouTube
- DONE I published two YouTube videos in November and December
Social Media Growth
Grow Instagram following from 1,625 to 1,700 (I’ve made this an easier goal this month because the rapid rate of instagram follower growth has slowed down a bit)
- DONE By the end of November I had 1,727 followers and by the end of the year I had 1,777
Grow Twitter following from 853 to 1K
- DONE At the end of November I had 1,108 followers and by the end of the year I had 1,156
Grow my Facebook Page follows from 29 to 30
- DONE I was actually down to 28 at the end of November, but by the end of the year I was up to 30
Grow my Facebook Group (open to anyone subscribed to my email list) from 7 to 8 members (given past experience this may be optimistic, but I will put it here so that I can try)
- NOT DONE This figure has been at 7 for as long as I can remember! I will need to have a rethink about whether I plan to continue with having a Facebook Group in the new year, and if I do, how to encourage more members
Grow my YouTube Channel subscribers from 12 to 15
- DONE At the end of November I was at 14 subscribers, but then in December this increased to 17
Grow my Pinterest followers from 34 to 44
- DONE My November tally was 59 and December was 69
Grow my Pinterest monthly unique views from 1.2K back to 3K
- DONE At the end of December this was at 6.9K. I’m not convinced there’s much value in tracking this figure in the future, so I will probably drop this statistic in 2019
Future month’s goals
Seeing as it’s now the new year, I have set myself some new goals which I will write about in a post coming soon! For this reason I’m not setting any monthly targets for January here.
So that’s my round-up income and profit report for 2018! Overall I’m pleased with my progress last year. It was a year of great learning and understanding how to put into practice the things I learned. I also discovered that I have a tendency to diversify my attention a bit too much, which means I made slower progress in areas such as publishing. Next year I plan to get better at focussing on the most important things.
I’d love to hear how your 2018 went. Did you achieve some or all of your goals? Leave me a comment to let me know, I love hearing from you.
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Previous & Next Posts
In my PREVIOUS post I wrote about how I saved £1,000 in a year as part of my #challenge2018.
In my NEXT post I share my 8 goals for 2019.
You can find all my previous 2018 income and profit reports here.
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