I often get asked how I make money. Not always in those words, but when you boil it down, that's what people mean when they ask much more polite-sounding questions like, "What else do you do?" or "What do you do when you're not teaching yoga?"
I also know that a lot of you, my readers--some of whom have been with me since I started this journey (Wow! Thank you!)--have watched my sources of income + revenue streams change over the past 5 years, but haven't gotten much of a glimpse into exactly what those sources or streams may be... So today, in an attempt to show you how this solopreneur pays her mortgage, I thought I'd share the primary ways that I make money. My hope is that by sharing this info, you'll understand that often, in order to "live the dream" (If going out on your own is in fact your dream), you've got to hustle, diversify, keep learning, growing + trying new things, and be willing to wear many different hats along the way. As you all know by now, the "do what you love" journey looks TOTALLY different for everyone, but if there's one thing that I've learned from working with many different solopreneurs over the years, it's that we've all got lots of irons in the fire at one time, and that's just how it works. Throughout the course of a year, different irons get hot + ready for use at different times, so it's best to keep lots going so that you're always covered. So, here's how I make money. I've put my income sources into "buckets," because I think that's the easiest ways to categorize all of the different things I do: Yoga Teaching Bucket
Painting Bucket
Consulting Bucket
Design Bucket
Blog Bucket:
Phew! I think that's it {for now}. So do you see what I mean? That's a lot of different hats. I actually think it's WAY too many, so am working on figuring out which buckets I should stop offering (or limit quite a bit!) in order to create more time + energy for the other buckets. But overall, I would say that this is a pretty normal number of income streams for a solopreneur. As you can probably gather, it takes constant tweaking to make this life manageable, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Fellow solopreneurs: Have you taken the time to break down your income streams recently? If not, I recommend you do it, as it'a great exercise in finding out why you might be feeling so overextended AND in figuring out where you might want to cut back or amp things up a bit. Aspiring solopreneurs: Please don't let this list scare you + have no fear! When I first quit my full-time job, I wasn't making money in any of these ways except teaching yoga and the occasional painting commission. All of these offerings have grown organically since I took the leap and created more time and space in my life. So be patient. Hope you enjoyed that glimpse into how I make money! Maybe someday I'll get my act together enough to become totally transparent + share my monthly income reports, a la Pat Flynn ;)
Mary Catherine
6/23/2015 03:43:08 am
Thanks for reading, Ingrid! Glad you found it interesting :) xoxo
Mary Catherine
6/23/2015 11:34:17 am
Yay! I'm SO glad it was helpful, Caroline! Now I need to create a separate list of the buckets I want for the future... {Good idea!} xoxo Comments are closed.
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HELLO!I'm Mary Catherine, a Cape Cod-based yoga teacher, painter, designer, writer, mom, and list-maker extraordinaire. My goal is to inspire you to start living a more creative, simple, joyful, + purposeful life.
{Learn more + read my story}
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