A mid-year mini financial review

How much money I’ve made so far this year…

Photo credit: Unsplash

Some of my favourite type of content to read from fellow small business owners are really transparent behind the scenes about money in their business.

A big shout out to

Nic Antoinette

and her Tiny Biz Letters where she shares a transparent behind the scenes look every single month of her business finances, experiments, and discoveries too - I look forward to these so much!

I love feeling less alone hearing about the highs and lows of other small business owners financial journey in their work and I love how much we can learn from reading specifics about each other’s money journeys too.

And for me it always goes so much deeper than just the numbers on my spreadsheet too: it’s how I feel about the money, the story I’m telling myself in my head, and the ways I support myself to root into trust and calm and surrender to the unknown in my business too.

Before I get into the numbers for the first half of 2024 here is some context I want to share:

I’ve been running my business for a decade now

That’s ten years of experimentation and building my word of mouth and to this place where I’m able to make a stable income for myself working very part time hours in my business. A few years ago I made a similar amount to what I do now but working double the amount of hours I did, a few years before that I earned less than I do now working close to four times the amount I do now.

All of that to say: it can take time to build to where we want to be in our business and that’s okay, especially if we want to go at a pace that honours our humanness.

I usually earn between £80-£90K a year (around $100K-$115K)

I stay below the VAT limit here in the UK so that I don’t have to charge an additional 20% on my products and services to pay to the tax man. Because I’m B2B and a lot of my client and customer base is American I do have some wiggle room around the VAT limit (which is 90K) as those sales don’t count towards the limit but for simplicity in my accounting I aim to not earn much above 90K each year.

I’m sharing these numbers transparently because I appreciate when other small business owners do too but I think it’s important to remember that it’s rarely helpful to compare our numbers to anyone else’s. My enough number may be a whole lot more or a whole lot less than yours and that’s okay - all that matters is knowing what numbers feel aligned and true to us in our work.

I’m in a season of maintaining, not growing my income

As I shared in this recent post: I don’t want a bigger business than this in this season.

I make enough money to sustain my life and I’m so grateful to be able to do so in a very simple and spacious way. I have no desire to pursue more growth in my business right now and my goal is to maintain the business I’ve already built and find joy and ease and delight as much as I can along the way.

Now let’s get to the numbers.

How many sales in 2024 so far: 60K (around $75K)

Here’s how those sales break down:

Clients: 28K (this includes 1:1 and Steady)

YS&SB: 30K

Misc: 2K (smaller programs & digital products)

How much in cash so far in 2024: 45K (around $57K)

As the majority of my offers include payment plans I don’t always earn in that season what I actually sold in that season. Some of the cash that’s flowed into my business this year so far is from payment plans from sales I made last year and a big chunk of the cashflow that will come into my business the second half of this year will be payment plans from sales made this year already.

My financial goal for the rest of 2024: bring in 35-45K in cash

This will take me to my financial goal of 80-90K this year. Around 27K is due to come in from existing payment plans which feels really good heading into the second half of the year. I give myself that 10K wiggle room in my enough number because I like having that breathing room in my goals - if I earn the higher end of my income goals that extra 10K is usually put towards additional savings and some joyful disposable spending like travel (and of course the additional tax too!)

Some reflections:

What I’m most proud of and grateful for this year so far is that I’m able to make my enough number working very part time hours each week

I usually work around 8-10 hours a week - as a chronically ill working parent this is what’s sustainable for me so that I have enough capacity left for my 3 year old, for my own rest and recovery around my symptoms, and for joy and reading lots of books and spending time with my husband and friends too. I’m so damn grateful every day that I’m able to provide for my family, doing work I love, in a very sustainable way alongside my health.

Marketing has felt really easeful, human, and flow-y and that feels great too

My entire marketing approach all comes back to my 100 hell yes people philosophy, where I prioritise making it easy for my hell yes people to discover and dive deeper into my work instead of believing the lie that it’s my job to get my work in front of as many people as possible so that I can persuade them to buy from me.

Marketing, for me, looks like gently creating content through my newsletters, my podcasts, even this Substack, and free resources I make throughout the year too. It looks like showing up and sowing seeds and then just gently putting my lights on throughout the year so that my hell yes people can say yes to my offers when the time is right for them and this approach has sustained my business for a decade now.

Marketing feels so simple and human for me in my business - yes it takes focus and devotion to create the content I create and sow the seeds I sow but it also feels energetically sustainable and aligned with my values too and for that I am so grateful.

I also walk you through my approach to marketing in more depth in my free toolkit 100 Hell Yes People if that can be supportive for you.

Around 60% of my 1:1 bookings have been returning clients over the past year

I feel like I’ve put my lights on for 1:1 clients less than ever before this past year as many of my bookings have either been current clients asking to continue to working together or past clients reaching back out to work together again.

And honestly this has felt so delightful - to be able to continue these relationships, reconnect with clients I haven’t worked with in a few years, and then to also have some new awesome humans to support in their business too.

My health has kicked my ass a lot this first half of the year but my business has continued to gently thrive

Q1 was pretty brutal with back to back sickness in our home and I’ve also consistently been flaring pretty badly with the chronic neurological condition I live with in 2024 so far too. I’ve taken this year very slowly and very gently and I’m so grateful that my business has continued to gently thrive alongside me. I’ve built my business in a way that expects me to have needs and to leave breathing room in my schedule for those needs and that is without a doubt why I’m still able to be here, gently steering the ship that is my business, even alongside some very challenging health at times.

I’ve navigated some money mindset wobbles at times this year so far

This is the really interesting reflection for me: although my business is gently thriving and reaching my goals and it’s felt steady and easeful to steer the ship that is my business, my money mindset has been a little all over the place at times this year.

I’ve found myself stuck in some spirals of scarcity thinking and obsessive anxious thoughts and overthinking worse case scenarios that when I voice them out loud to others seem wildly far away from my reality.

Why is this happening? I think it all comes back to my health. Because these spirals tend to happen whilst I’m in a bad flare, when my health is feeling extra challenging and it leaves me feeling so vulnerable to the realities of living in a chronically ill body. Over and over again I’ve been reminding myself that my business is built for me to need to take things slowly and gently and that I’ve already proven to myself that I’m capable of steering the ship alongside all of the challenges my health throws my way.

But I can’t deny that it’s felt a lot at times this year so far to navigate the emotional and mental toll my health takes on me and that I regularly need to root back into steadiness in my work.

Interestingly, writing this post in and of itself has been very helpful as seeing the numbers very clearly in front of me helps me bear witness to the fact that my anxiety has nothing to do with my business but is instead born out of the challenges of living life in a chronically ill body.

I share all of this to say: if you ever find yourself stuck in an anxiety spiral about money too, get clear on your numbers. They’ll tell you the facts instead of spiralling too deep into the story you’re telling yourself. Over and over again I remind myself: fears aren’t facts, fears aren’t facts.

My intentions for the rest of 2024:

1: The number one priority in my business is always to pour into my clients and containers

My clients, the awesome humans inside YS&SB, and any other containers I host for the rest of the year: pouring my energy into those is always my biggest priority in my work.

2: And my number one personal priority is to take damn good care of myself and find joy and delight in the journey

Like I said, my health has really kicked my ass at times this year so far and it’s taken a toll on my mental health at times too. Taking damn good care of myself is my biggest priority - resting, being kind to myself in my own head, prioritising the things that bring me joy like reading and time with friends and re-watching my favourite TV shows and going for walks every day with my husband and son.

3: I’ll continue to put my lights on for the next month for the remaining spots for Steady

As of writing this I have 2 spots left for the five month gentle mastermind I’ll be hosting from August so I want to gently put my lights on between now and then for any other awesome humans who want to join us.

3: I want to have fun with the autumn enrolment of YS&SB

This will be my biggest marketing task for the second half of the year: the autumn enrolment of my group program YS&SB. I have an idea I’m really exciting about for something really fun and valuable I want to offer my community in the lead up to this launch - this will be the 8th time I open the doors up to this program so my biggest intention is to have fun with it, experiment a little, and most of all welcome some wonderful new humans inside to join us too.

4: I’ll put my lights on in Q4 for hell yes clients for 2025

I’m fully booked for 1:1 clients for the rest of the year now and will have a few spaces for new clients for January 2024 so I’ll put my lights on in Q4 for anyone who would love to work together next year.

5: I want to experiment with some live mini workshop ideas

This is an idea I’m really excited to hopefully experiment with in the second half of this year. The majority of my offerings are delivered asynchronously and I’ve been really curious about experimenting with some smaller, one-off containers with a live workshop element and I’m just following my curiosity with these and excited to hopefully see how they flow later this year.

6: I want to feel really gentle, fun, and aligned in my marketing for the rest of the year

I’m giving myself permission to be a little more flexible with my newsletter and take the pressure off to always send one every week in this season which feels really good. I’m excited to continue to gently pour into LFAHC when energy allows and I’m curious about exploring what I want to do with my solo podcast in this next season too - I also have another potential podcast coming with a close business friend later this year which I’m excited for!

Most of all when it comes to marketing I just want to keep showing up with my hell yes people philosophy and opt-out of the noise that encourages us to pursue more, more, more growth by creating more, more, more content because that approach just doesn’t feel sustainable or joyful to me.

7: And I want to continue to root into steadiness, trust, and delight in my business

More than anything I just want to feel as good as I can for the rest of this year. I want to continue to choose simple joys for myself each day, to find delight in my business, in the awesome humans I get to work with, and the spaciousness and ease I have available to me each day too.

And I want to spiral less into anxiety for the rest of the year too - my health has really knocked me at times this year and clouded my perspective from time to time and it’s exhausting to be in my own brain when that happens.

I want to keep reminding myself that I’ve earned the right to trust myself, that even my biggest fears would be figureoutable, and that it’s up to me to be present each day and find joy and delight along the way.

I’m so grateful for this tiny business of mine, for the life it supports me to live, for the small business owners who welcome me into their journey to support them in their work, and my biggest hope for this season of my business is just to be able to keep doing this and in a way that honours my humanness every step of the way too.

Okay. Big deep breath. That was A LOT to share with you but I hope it was some interesting behind the scenes of not just the numbers but the mindset, choices, and day to day experience behind those numbers too.

If reading this sparked any reflections in your own business I’d love to connect with you more in the comments 🌿

Until next time,

Jen