Freelance Income & Traffic Report: October 2018

You guys. October was EXCELLENT. I went to Hong Kong & Bali for two weeks to travel and (most importantly) TAKE A REAL VACATION!!! This was a trip I had looked forward to for months. I had it booked since February if that is any indication of my excitement lol.

BUT I also kind of dreaded it….

I read a quote somewhere that was saying how if you can’t take an actual vacation without working, then you’re just self-employed, not a business owner.

This just struck a freakin’ cord with me!!!

That meant I was self-employed and I was pissed lol.

Being a freelancer this past year has been great. I’ve had SO much flexibility with my work. I get to call the shots. I make more money. I get to travel more.

BUT I don’t get to just take two weeks paid vacation by submitting a request to HR. If I don’t work, I don’t make money lol.

I really wanted to be able to take a least a few days of that time in Bali off work (like… everyday if I could). My mind was literally CRAVING a break.

So while I couldn’t take two weeks off cold-turkey…. I made a major effort to delegate more tasks to my team while I was gone. I also made a significant effort to notify my clients of my trip well in advance and coordinated almost everything that needed to be done before I left.

I had this anxiety that my clients would be mad that I would need to leave and that everything would fall apart while I was gone or a client would have an emergency while I was on a 15 hour flight without wifi!!!!!!! Who does this?! I’m crazy.

Anxiety is fun isn’t it?! Haha

Side note: I actually hired a business coach and now friend, Stacy, to help me with this mentality and with a couple other roadblocks I’ve been facing with business (and personal) growth. If you need a coach I highly recommend her!! Just shoot me an email or comment below if you would like her contact info. All of her coaching can be done remotely. 🙂

So, you know what happened?!

I thrived! I drank strawberry daiquiris on the beach! I read 3 books! I got a tan (sunburn)!!! I swam with turtles! I did yoga! Meditated! Ate & drank!!! And I came back recharged and ready to make big changes in my biz that I had been putting off.

All of this was possible because:

1. I instilled more trust in my assistant Haley who checked in on me and kept me updated on everything. My interns were a huge help too!
2. I planned ahead and helped my clients to help me prepare.
3. I checked email only in the mornings just a few days while I was gone. Usually I didn’t have too much to handle, but some things came up for Dames Collective & Bumble, but then I was free to relax the rest of the day. This was great because my 8-5 in HK/Bali was the Phoenix 11pm-8am, so no one would reply to my emails while I was still awake lol.

As you can see from this month’s report, my business survived too!

I’ve *officially* been doing these reports for a year now, and want to put together a report for “a year in biz” recap. Let me know what you’d like to see!

Enjoy  🙂

My Story

New here? Catch up with a little background on my journey to becoming a full-time freelancer here!

Why Do I Do Freelance Income Reports?

Starting in November, I started doing income reports basically because Melissa Griffyn does them and I look up to her in each and every way haha. I noticed I would ALWAYS read her income reports and they always fascinated me and motivated me to improve my business, sooo here we are.

I pride myself that I am a very transparent person, and I like to think my blog & business reflects that same feeling of trust. With these reports, I can show you guys what worked, what didn’t, and how I re-strategize from month to month. I hope these inspire you to better your own freelance or social media biz – and please let me know if you see areas where I can improve! lol

Expenses

• Healthcare – $201.23/month
• G-Suite for Email – $10.63/month
• Adobe Suite – $21.58/month
• Quickbooks – $10.80/month
• Dropbox – $10.69/month
• Canva – $12.95/month
• Go Daddy – $123.05/year
• Phone – $39.50
• Food & Entertainment (business) – $9
• Contract Work – $523
• Travel – $6
• Other – $44.99
• Reimbursed expenses – $623.66

Total Investment: $1,646.08

Other Tools I Use:

• Trello – IG/Blog brainstorm
• Asana – Task Management
• Hootsuite – FB/Twitter Scheduling
• Tailwind – Pinterest Scheduling
• Later – IG Scheduling
• Wave – Invoicing
• Dubsado – CRM

Big Wins:

• WENT ON A TWO-WEEK VACAY!!
• Second Bumble event with 73 attendees!
• Blog & Biz Stats:
  • Leads: 4
  • Blog posts: 2
  • Pageviews – 5,726
  • Posts With The Highest Views –
    • 10 Products To Help With Dry Skin On Accutane
    • Why I Bought 300 Instagram Followers, Then Blocked 2,060+

    • How Much It Costs To Go To NYFW With 14k Instagram Followers

• Affiliate Income – $20.84
• Email Subscribers – 336
• Collaborated With:
  • Absolut Vodka
  • Amped&co
  • FRE Skincare (use code “bboks”, with one o, at checkout for a discount!)
    • Collab Income – $0
• Download Income: $130.17
• Social Media Services Income: $6,753.24

Total Income: $6,904.25

If you have any questions about any of this or are interested in any of my social media services, fill out my form here and I’ll be in touch. Happy to help!

xx – bbooks

*I was really skeptical about sharing my income publicly. Would my clients think differently of me? Would they think I’m charging too little or too much? Would my friends judge me? I have chosen to not disclose or itemize my client income. I also don’t disclose if it is pre- or post-tax income. And you guys don’t know my life!! Everyone has different expenses.