Isn't it fun to track your income streams and play them one against the other for top rank each quarter? Or is that just me geeking out about numbers again? Whether that makes you smile into your spreadsheet or not, knowing your numbers is KEY to improving them, and ultimately to your future success.
Third Quarter Income:
Our top 3 income streams again this quarter were
- Private coaching and events 63.6%
- Commissions earned from affiliate promotions 20.1%
- Amazon ads and ad networks 8.3%
Once again we see that our own services, trainings and products ranked top of the list, bringing in 64% of the total quarterly income. Ads and other things definitely played a part in the total, but not as large a part.
This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure.
Other Happenings of Note:
Conferences:
We ended second quarter on the road to several homeschool events in Mexico with our Lemonhass® curriculum and started out July with another event.
In September, we hosted our 4th blogging retreat, but the first one under the #BlogWellRetreats name, in Harrisburg, PA. A smaller, cozier retreat than our previous ones, our “small crowd” made huge strides in their businesses. Proving again that you're #NeverTooSmall to have make an impact, follow your dreams or build a successful online business.
- Homeschool Pachuca, Mexico (July, speaker)
- Blog Well Retreat (Sept)
Courses:
Not only do we create courses for our people, but we take them as well. I don't believe in growing stagnant, but in continuing to learn. During the 3rd quarter I learned from these courses:
- 21 Days of Prayer for Your Business course and book by Monique McLean
- The Pivot Course with Mike Kim
- Building an Effective Email List course by Heather Bowen
- What Your Audience Wants Training by Story Brand
Business Books I read in Q3:
Continuing on the quest for knowledge, and with the goal of reading a TON of books this year, between July and September, I read:
- The Freedom Journal by John Lee Dumas
- Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break Through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less by Joe Pulizzi
- Content Chemistry: Illustrated Handbook by Andy Crestodina
- GamePlan by Sara Harnish
- Build Your Young Living Business on Facebook: A Handbook by Carol Murphy
- The Four Year Career by Richard B. Brooke
- The 5 Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell – (Note: John's voice is very easy to listen to. Highly recommend his audio books!)
- The Four Color Personalities for MLM: The Secret Language for Network Marketing by Tom Big Al Schreiter
Other Books:
- The Noticer: Sometimes All a Person Needs is a Little Perspective by Andy Andrews – HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone high school and beyond. Great story, almost allegory about the importance each of us plays in the lives of others. Side note: Any Andrews will be sponsoring our January 2018 #BlogWell retreat!
- Becoming MomStrong by Heidi St. John – I was privileged to participate on the launch team for this book. It's really good. A very needed message for the modern mom.
- One More Mountain to Climb by W.Paul and Dorothy L. Smith
Masterminds I participated in:
Iron sharpens iron. You become like those you hang out with…. Whichever of these phrases is the philosophy you follow, they're true. I am so thankful for the mastermind members who have become friends and trusted advisors.
I was also privileged to participate in the book launch of Becoming MomStrong by Heidi St. John. A great experience both in going through the book with Heidi and learning from her team and the community.
- The Blog Connection
- Positive Progress Mastermind
- Abundant Mastermind
- Memberships Mastermind
- YL Secret Sauce Mastermind
- Mom Strong Launch Team
5 Key Tools:
Evaluation is good for the soul, and we do it at the end of each week, month and quarter. In Q4, we'll be downsizing quite a bit in the things we are hiring out and the tools we are using, including taking a break from our podcast (after episode 41).
However, there are 6 things I will not go without:
Google docs and spreadsheets – I use this for everything from planning social media posts and bulk uploading them to tracking, time, inventory orders, due dates, income and expenses.
Hootsuite – which I use to bulk upload and pre-schedule a months worth of social media posts in just a few minutes. HUGE time saver.
Audible – Most of the books I've consumed this year have been audible books. It's easier to multi-task. I think I'm a platinum member now! Totally worth it for ongoing business and personal development!
ConvertKit – This is still the best email service out there, in my opinion.
Canva – I would go nuts creating each and every image we use from scratch. Having templates and logos saved here is amazing and the $12/mo it costs is very much worth saving my sanity.
Tailwind and scheduling help – I get the most of my traffic to one of my sites from Pinterest, but I'm “boss-enough” to admit that I cannot handle Pinterest without getting lost in wonderland and wasting precious business time, so I am continuing to hire this out.
How do you Butter your Bread?
The point of sharing all of this is to both encourage you to continue educating yourself and to show you that there is more than one way to “butter your bread”. And there should be.
When you are running an online business, your goal SHOULD be multiple streams of income, many of which YOU control (i.e. your own products and services). And you should regularly be evaluating your numbers, understanding what's working and adjusting the things that are not working toward your goals.
So, now it's your turn. What is one stream of income you are going to build in the next quarter? If you need more ideas check out the free download guide to extra income, in this post.
