At three quarters of the way through the year, the end of September is a good time to take stock of my progress, and of course review my September income and profit.
But first a few words on what I got up to in September. While the summer was still in full flow, I enjoyed going to the free Coventry Godiva Festival. We also went on a lovely boat trip on the Ashby de la Zouch canal with my sister, brother-in-law and niece, as well as a camping trip where we visited the marvellous Kop Hill Climb event.
As the season started to shift to cooler weather and shorter days, I published my Autumn Bucket List. I’m pleased to say that I’ve already completed 4 out of 10 items from the list:
- I’ve tried my first pumpkin spiced latte. Verdict - it was nice, but very sweet
- I checked around the house and we had a lovely Polo Ralph Lauren autumnal candle in one of our cupboards, I got this out and have enjoyed lighting it the last few evenings
- I made hot chocolate (affiliate link) with whipped cream, marshmallows and a mini flake! It was delicious
- I watched The Holiday (affiliate link) the day after publishing my Autumn Bucket List. I’d got the idea of it into my head and couldn’t wait to watch it!
Here’s some pictures snapped during September…
along the waterway!
(with both sides of the tent open so that you can see straight through to the other side!)
in the Soapbox Challenge
my Autumn Bucket List
This is a recurring monthly post to track my goal of earning at least £4,000 profit from my Income Hustle ventures this year.
My goal breaks 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 means that my target profit for each month would ideally be in the region of £333.33.
In August I finally hit my monthly profit target (of £333.33), with a total profit of £340.45. This was a cause for celebration, even though I’m still a long way off achieving my overall 2018 goal of making £4,000 profit. So how has September compared? Read more of my September income and profit report to find out…
INCOME REPORT
Here’s how my income is doing:
| 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 | ||
| November | ||
| December |
September’s income has smashed August’s income out of the park! At £762.16 I brought in £265 more than in August (which was £496.84). Happy days. Long may this continue (she hopes!)
This level of income is over double my target profit for the month, which means I’m very hopeful of hitting my monthly goal, assuming my expenses weren’t too high.
Here’s a break-down of where my income came from in September:
It’s clear to see that the runaway winner for income production in September was Kindle book sales at £579.83. I continued to make money from blogging (£90) thanks to the things I’ve learned from the Turn Your Dreams Into Money (affiliate link) and How To Smash Affiliate Marketing (affiliate link) courses I’ve taken. I also made consistent money from paperback (£38.32) and audiobook (£50.65) sales, with the latter being boosted by another bounty from audible. I received a tiny amount from Quidco (affiliate link) and TopCashback (affiliate link) this month too.
I didn’t have any payout from surveys during September because I like to hit the £20 payout threshold (to avoid any withdrawal fees) and I didn’t quite manage that during September, which means the money I made will roll over to be paid in October.
EXPENSE REPORT
Here’s how my Side Hustle expenses panned out for September:
| 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 | ||
| November | ||
| December |
My expenses for September came in at £296.98, bringing my total annual expenses to just under £1k. Unsurprisingly with my highest ever income month, my expenses have jumped up too, coming in at the priciest month of the year so far. Expenses included the usual book promotion costs and the blogging subscription service I’ve been using. A couple of new expenses this month, were for:
- A Zoom Pro account, so that I can hold group video calls that last longer than 40 minutes. I need this for the trial run of my Publishin8 program which is about 25% of the way through. If you’d like to receive notifications when I start officially running this program, you can pop your name on the Publishin8 waitlist. There is no obligation to participate, this is just for you to get more information when I’m planning to launch. It’s a hands-on, real-time training course delivered via live video sessions with me, which will see you publish your first online book in just 8 weeks!
- A top-up for my pay as you go business PO Box address service provider. I use a PO Box as my business address because I work from home and prefer not to give my personal address out
PROFIT PROGRESS
Here’s how my profit is looking at the end of September:
| 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 | ||||
| November | £333.33 | ||||
| December | £333.33 |
I’m very pleased to say that I hit my monthly profit goal again in September. Better yet, I made £131.85 more than the £333.33 target, which means I’m slowly starting to make-up for the months where I was nowhere near my target.
I’ve also been tracking my average monthly profit over a rolling 12 month period. With September’s profit taken into consideration, my avergage monthly profit is standing at £200.63. This is an improvement on last month, when the average was £166.17. I like to track the average profit because this gives me an indication of what I can consistently expect to earn from my income hustles, and allows me to plan for the future.
My overall profit for the year now stands at £2,096.70. Looking at what I need to achieve to have a chance of making my £4,000 goal for the year, with 3 months left it looks something like this:
- Profit target (per month): £333.33
- Total profit deficit to make up: £903.27
- Total profit deficit amount to make up per month: £301.09
- PROFIT I NEED TO MAKE PER MONTH: £635
It’s not impossible to achieve £635 per month especially with the busy Christmas period coming up, but if I manage it at all it will be very close - perhaps with a little bit of luck I might just do it!
What Actions Worked/Didn’t Work From Last Month’s Plan
In last month’s income and profit report I listed the things I would do in September to help improve my profit.
Here’s a run down of how I got on:
Book Publishing
- Purchase book promotions to run during September
- DONE I ran 2 paid promotions in September
- Conclude the contract with my illustrator, once they have provided all the images for my latest book
- DONE I was pleased with the speed and quality of the work
- Purchase stock images for my latest book (these are stock images I need to buy that are in addition to the illustrations I’ve had done)
- NOT DONE Ok so I’ve officially been procrastinating with my latest kindle book project. I think the problem is that the book topic doesn’t excite me that much, so I’m always prioritising other more fun tasks before this one. I really need to just get this book published asap!
- Complete the editing of my latest book so that it’s ready for formatting
- NOT DONE As per my comment above - I just need to get on with this and stop putting it off!
- Migrate my existing paperback books to KDP since Createspace (where I currently have them listed) is closing
- NOT DONE I didn’t find time to look at this during September. I’m not too worried because they will get migrated across automatically at some point, and I can check that it’s gone ok then
Blogging
- Carry out any sponsored blog post opportunities which I receive during September
- DONE I completed several opportunities during September
- Publish at least 4 new blog posts
- Grow my Life Designers email list from 9 to 10 subscribers
- DONE I had 10 email subscribers by the end of September
- Increase the domain authority for inspiringlifedesign.com from 13 to 14
- DONE A big win for this one - I actually had reached a DA of 15 by the end of September
Courses
- Book the remaining 7 weeks of training calls for the participants of the PublishIn8 program. I need to get these into our calendars and with Zoom conference call details booked.
- DONE I got all Zoom calls booked in and set-up events in our #Publishin8 Facebook Group
Social Media
- Grow Instagram following from 1,509 to 1,700
- NOT DONE My Instagram growth slowed a little bit during September. I didn’t have quite as much time to engage with other people which I think had an impact. I was at 1,617 followers by the end of September
- Grow Twitter following from 695 to 800
- NOT DONE (but close) Same story as for Instagram, my growth was not quite as fast as I would have liked during September. I was at 780 followers by the end of the month
- Grow my Facebook Page follows from 23 to 24
- DONE I just hit the 24 follower target on the last day of the month!
- Grow my Facebook Group (open to anyone subscribed to my email list) from 7 to 8 members
- NOT DONE I remain at 7 group members. This seems to be a channel that I find it difficult to grow at this time. I will have a think about whether to continue to focus on growing this, and if yes, how I can best do that
- Grow my YouTube Channel subscribers from 9 to 10
- DONE By the end of the month I was at 10 subscribers - it felt nice to hit double digits, even if this is a bit of a pathetic follower count at the moment. I know it’s because I haven’t been consistent with uploading content, and this is an area I’d really like to focus on moving forward
- Grow my Pinterest followers from 25 to 35
- NOT DONE By the end of September I had 32 followers
- Grow my Pinterest monthly unique views from 383 to 800
- DONE So something must have happened on Pinterest during September and I’m not exactly sure what! My monthly unique views shot up to 3.2K!
Things I Will Try This Month To Help Improve Future Months’ Income And Profit
Book Publishing
- Purchase book promotions to run during October and November. With Black Friday in November I want to get ahead and pre-book my November promotions during October so that I can secure my preferred dates
- Set a launch date for my latest book and complete the necessary work to stick to this date! Including:
- Purchase stock images for my latest book (these are stock images I need to buy that are in addition to the illustrations I’ve had done)
- Complete the editing of my latest book so that it’s ready for formatting
- Work on the formatting of my latest book to prepare it for publication in both Kindle and Paperback formats
Blogging
- Carry out any sponsored blog post opportunities which I receive during October
- Publish at least 4 new blog posts
- Grow my Life Designers email list from 10 to 12 subscribers
- Increase the domain authority for inspiringlifedesign.com from 15 to 17
Courses
- The trial run of the Publishin8 programme recommences in October after a short break. I will prepare and run 3 video classes as well as offering support to the participants for any questions they have
YouTube
- Create, edit and publish 1 new video on YouTube
Social Media Growth
- Grow Instagram following from 1,617 to 1,750
- Grow Twitter following from 780 to 850
- Grow my Facebook Page follows from 24 to 25
- Grow my Facebook Group (open to anyone subscribed to my email list) from 7 to 8 members
- Grow my YouTube Channel subscribers from 10 to 11
- Grow my Pinterest followers from 32 to 37
- Grow my Pinterest monthly unique views from 3.2K to 3.3K. I’m not very confident in setting a target for this one because I have no idea how easy it will be to gain more unique views over the coming months
And there goes another month! As always, if you have any thoughts on my progress, sugggestions for new things I can try to make money, or questions on anything in this post, then please leave a comment below.
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